Steering dampers - OEM or aftermarket and why - std type or RTC and why (1 Viewer)

[sunrk]

I currently have a Dobinsons (Australian brand) standard (non-RTC) steering damper. It's been on the vehicle for almost 8 yrs.

Some time back a person said to get a RTC type damper (one of those ones with an external spring) but 'dial' the spring control back to zero. I don't fully understand that so I've kept with a standard type damper.

Checking through Toyodiy's parts listings, there are four different p/n's for the dampers at least for Aus market 80's - 45700-60050 + -60051 + -60052 and 45700-60120 - but I've never investigated them further.

All the numbers in the parts table say 'MARK' for each of them. I don't know if that's meant to be an OEM brand.

For anyone who's fitted a new OEM steering damper, what made you choose that over one of the many aftermarket brands available? if you picked aftermarket, why did you go that way instead of OEM?

At the time I got mine, the OEM was life-expired and I got a good deal on the Dobinsons one through a contact. At that time I'd never looked at OEM pricing or parts catalogs.

Thanks, Craig.

 

[nukegoat]

I dont think steering dampers do anything of significance. Remove it and be happy

 

[mudgudgeon]

Some time back a person said to get a RTC type damper (one of those ones with an external spring) but 'dial' the spring control back to zero

Whoever told you that is clueless, and not to be fed!

RTC dampers are worse than useless.
With the steering centred, there is no spring pressure left or right. The spring is at rest.

When you steer, the spring loads up the steering system unnecessarily, you have to compress or stretch the spring to steer. When you want to straighten up, the closer to straight ahead the steering is, the less the spring is doing as it returns to rest.

It is barely capable if doing what it is supposed to do, and possibly increases wear on steering components.
They are a bandaid for poor caster geometry on a lifted rig.

They are a gimmick, marketed to the clueless who must have them because their favorite 4x4 advertorial magazine says they are a good thing, and they come with a free sticker for the back window that starts with "T", and ends with "_oughdog"


Harsh, but fair.

 

[mudgudgeon]

I dont think steering dampers do anything of significance. Remove it and be happy

100% agreed. If caster is correct, damper is not necessary.

 

[RFB]

ok maybe this will help my truck had an OME when I got it, it was old and worn, replaced it with a coilover RTC directly from tough dog in Aus. that woked many times better than OME but when I got new kings they also sent me a king stabilizer which i have on now. the RTC handled the 37s much better than ome and king bth,

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

I dont think steering dampers do anything of significance. Remove it and be happy

Agree over rated

 

[LC4LIFE]

I dont think steering dampers do anything of significance. Remove it and be happy

I pretty much agree with this. If everything related is in good working order spending the money on an expensive damper is not worth it, IMO. That is why I sport the Monroe cheap OEM replacement with a lifetime warranty from O'Reilly's.

 

[NateMob]

Damperless over here.

 

[greentruck]

Gotta remember that Toyota didn't build the Land Cruiser for the likes of us, a bunch of OCD enthusiasts. They were buikt to use and abuse in the wild. True enough that if everything is lined up perfect there is little for a damper to do. But away from our nice garages (umm, maybe everyone else's nice garage? mine has a cracked floor and poor light and, worst of all, no in-ground lift ) the damper serves the purposes of keeping less than perfect trucks headed down the trail with a little less drama.

That said, in the aftermarket, I suspect that promotion of a new steering stabilizer with a set of shocks is driven lsrgely by the fact this allows a shock factory to increase its units produced count. Through in one with every four shocks and you've suddenly found your factory producing 25% more shocks, given that a stabilizer is typically a shock with a few extra brackets thrown in.

 

[Box Rocket]

:hiding: I still have the original dampener on my truck. I have no doubt that it is completely blown and useless and doing nothing to dampen steering. I plan to replace it when 4xOverlandUSA releases theirs just to see what the difference is.

 

[Qball]

My understanding is the damper isn’t there to help steering, it’s there to soften the steering wheel jerk when you hit a rock.

The spring type “damper” like many said isn’t needed is your rig is well mainrptained however a regular stronger damper is needed for bigger tires to reduce the steering wheel jerk. I replaced stock damnper that had no damping left (moves with no resistance) to OME damper which noticeably helped with smoothness of steering. Then I replaced OME with King’s damper and it is even smoother and also very little steering jerk when off-roading. Almost feels like I have hydro assist....almost.

 

[LandCruiserPhil]

:hiding: I still have the original dampener on my truck. I have no doubt that it is completely blown and useless and doing nothing to dampen steering. I plan to replace it when 4xOverlandUSA releases theirs just to see what the difference is.

After mine was blown for a while it started sticking creating a weird/uncomfortable feeling while traveling on the freeway.

 

[NateMob]

I plan to replace it when 4xOverlandUSA releases theirs just to see what the difference is.

This has seemingly been in development a while now, any progress to report?

 

[Box Rocket]

This has seemingly been in development a while now, any progress to report?

I don't have any, but I haven't checked on it in a while either. I'll see what I can find out.

 

[mudgudgeon]

Almost feels like I have hydro assist....almost.

You are correct that a damper is meant to absorb our dampen the feed back through the steering when tyres hit bumps etc.
That is all it does.

You thinking it's assisting steering is just your imagination.
It's basically a shock that dampens equally in either direction. There should be resistance when you steer either left or right, there's no mechanism to assist movement of the steering.

 

[mudgudgeon]

To qualify my comments above, I gave nothing against an OEM style damper.

I installed a RTC spring over style on my first 80, didn't like it, it had a negative effect on the steering feel.

I've also run a couple of my trucks with no damper short term when the original damper crapped it's dacks (several months), and found no noticeable difference before or after installing a new damper.

@greentruck nailed it. Marketing a damper is extra dollars four manufactures and retailers. Add a POS $5 spring and a choir of clamps and you can charge more.

 

[crikeymike]

5 minutes with a wrench, and the OP can find out how much that 8 year old damper is really doing. They're 50/50 valving, so it should be easy to test by hand if you're getting the same resistance in both directions.

I've seen some Venezuelan 80's with 2 steering dampers. I'd love someone to chime in if they've ever done that before!!

 

[Blade 80LC]

I replaced the steering stabilizer that was on my truck when I bought it, with a generic one off Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000C59SOC/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 The valving felt about twice as stiff as the unit I removed. (Based on trying to extend and compress each by hand.) On road manners improved as far as wander when I encountered imperfections in the road. I picked it based on price, since I was not convinced it is a needed component. For under $40 (currently $29 on the link above) it seemed worth having a new one.

 

[sunrk]

Pulled my front steering rod off the other day to replace it and the tie-rod ends with new bits. As part of that I took off the Dobinsons damper. I found it was moving too easily one way then really tight the other way. After about 5 full strokes holding one end on the ground with my foot and pulling/pushing the other end it went back to being smooth even movement both ways. A fair bit of crud/dross/rusty stuff fell out from between where the two halves slide pass over one another.

Who can say anything about the quality of the genuine Toyota ones compared to aftermarket ones? I don't know what the 'mark' means that's shown in all the toyota p/n listings for steering dampers. Is that meant to be a brand that toyota gets it's dampers OEM'd by?