Im mocking up my double ended hydro ram behind the axle and i cant get the angles quite right. After doing some measuring I appears that my highsteer arms are a bit short, causing the tierods to angle forward. I measured somewhere around 6.5" from the center of the kingpin spring to the TRE hole on the hs arm. Anyone else got any measurments so i can compare? Looking at wfo's site I see that there arms are about 7.5". Ballistic has a few different lenghts but none are the same as Wfo's. I was trying to avoid buying new ones but..... sorta wondering if the angle will even matter that much on a trail rig?
-Ed
Dana 60 Highsteer arm length
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Im mocking up my double ended hydro ram behind the axle and i cant get the angles quite right. After doing some measuring I appears that my highsteer arms are a bit short, causing the tierods to angle forward. I measured somewhere around 6.5" from the center of the kingpin spring to the TRE hole on the hs arm. Anyone else got any measurments so i can compare? Looking at wfo's site I see that there arms are about 7.5". Ballistic has a few different lenghts but none are the same as Wfo's. I was trying to avoid buying new ones but..... sorta wondering if the angle will even matter that much on a trail rig?
-EdWould it help if l measure my WFO arm for ya when I get home? Sounds like you may already know all the pertinent dimensions. We did end up removing it as I also couldn't get the angles and clearance just right. Went with the Currie geometry (inverted Y) and reamed out the stock holes for 3/4 ton TRE's.
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Ackerman...now you're opening a can of worms about scrub radius, etc. As you well know I went through all this when redoing my front suspension last year and did a bunch of reading on suspension and steering design. The length of the arm is more about the throw of the box (or ram in your case) then it is about anything else. 'Standard' length most offer is 6.5" +/- which will afford you full steering with a '1-ton' length pitman. The companies offering 7.5" ones are gearing them towards full hydro setups that typically use 8" travel rams.
FWIW the Ackerman angle is determined by the offset of the tierod mounting point in relation to the center of the kingpin. For 'perfect' ackerman if you were to draw a line through the center of those two points where it intersects at the rear of the vehicle should be the centerline of the rear axle. This would achieve little to no tire scrub when turning. From my research very few vendors take this into account and honestly it's difficult with wheel offset, suspension clearance, etc to have a 'perfect' setup in this respect. Get it close and call it good.
--Ian
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