Currie or Rock Krawler steering system?? - Page 2

**Flatbroke** · 08-30-2008, 11:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grinwa

I might have to be one of the first to be not totally happy with the currie. I have had it less than a year and have had to change out the end on the pitman arm once and it is poose again. I called them about it and they said it is designed for a 4" lift. I have about 3 1/2" but I guess that is not enough. I'm not too happy about spending the money for the upgraded system and then needing it spend $100 a year on new ends.

Not sure what that means, I understand changing the end not sure what Poose again means

grinwa · 08-30-2008, 11:44 PM

Oops. I ment loose.

**mrblaine** · 08-31-2008, 12:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by grinwa

I might have to be one of the first to be not totally happy with the currie. I have had it less than a year and have had to change out the end on the pitman arm once and it is poose again. I called them about it and they said it is designed for a 4" lift. I have about 3 1/2" but I guess that is not enough. I'm not too happy about spending the money for the upgraded system and then needing it spend $100 a year on new ends.

How are you greasing the TRE at the pitman?

odwaud · 09-01-2008, 09:55 PM

How much better is the currie steering system than say the rugged ridge steering system?

Roknut · 09-01-2008, 11:35 PM

I was curious about the Currie system as opposed to other systems as well. I was looking on our local forum and more than half of the guys running the Currie setup said that they were not very happy with it. I've heard nothing but good things about the ORO setup though. More pricey I think.

**mrblaine** · 09-01-2008, 11:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by azsCOOBY

I was curious about the Currie system as opposed to other systems as well. I was looking on our local forum and more than half of the guys running the Currie setup said that they were not very happy with it. I've heard nothing but good things about the ORO setup though. More pricey I think.

What specifically were they unhappy with?

In our immediate group of about 10 or so rigs, all of them run the Currie and couldn't be happier.

KKiowaTJ · 09-02-2008, 12:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by azsCOOBY

I was curious about the Currie system as opposed to other systems as well. I was looking on our local forum and more than half of the guys running the Currie setup said that they were not very happy with it. I've heard nothing but good things about the ORO setup though. More pricey I think.

I have had nothing but great results with the Currie, Very well built, Easy install, Best mod for the money. Many water/mud/sand baths and cleans up and is like new every time.

Big Red 95 · 09-02-2008, 01:19 PM

I have the Rock Krawler X-Factory steering on my ZJ. It is very heavey duty. i have had it almost a year and have not had any major issues.

1st thing that attraced me to the RK kit was the price.

2nd thing that attracted me is the ease of the install. other kits i was looking at you had to ream the hole on the spindles. Reamers cost a bit so that added to the over all price. and when you use a reamer you have to ream a little and test the fit, ream a little and test the fit, ream a little and test the fit. The RK kit is a simple drilling of 5/8" straight through.

I have heard that hiem joints don't last as long too but they are less than half the cost of tie rod ends too.

the only problem i have is not really with the steering kit. I love it. i have been struggleing with some horriblly bad death wobble. swithing to this kit has decreased it. i am still using the stock track bar with almost 5" of lift and believe that to be the main cause of the death wobble now. i have order Rock krawlers track bar kit and plan to add a steering stablizer as well.

i have talked and emailed back and forth with the KR tech guys and they have been great in helping me. they think the the bolts tolding the joints to the spindles may have bent or steched but i thing the problem i am having is the 5/8" holes are now out of round from the vibrations of the wobble causing the steering to be loose. i plan on drilling them out more and sleeving them back to a true 5/8".

**Jerry Bransford** · 09-02-2008, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Red 95

2nd thing that attracted me is the ease of the install. other kits i was looking at you had to ream the hole on the spindles.

Not with Currie's kit.

Big Red 95 · 09-02-2008, 02:58 PM

yes the currie kit is even esier to install but it cost 400 bucks. the RK kit is almost 100.00 cheaper. Plus like i also said the heim joints are cheaper to replace further down the line. I don't thinkg they are any less heavy duty than tie rod ends. the RK kit has a 1.5" tie rod and 1.25" draglink. that would lead me to believe the RK kit has a stronger tie rod because it is a 1/4" bigger. the RK kit also conferts to a high steer set up with the tie rod on top of the spindles. I believe the Currie kit still mounts below the spindles.

**Jerry Bransford** · 09-02-2008, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Red 95

the RK kit has a 1.5" tie rod and 1.25" draglink. that would lead me to believe the RK kit has a stronger tie rod because it is a 1/4" bigger.

As has been talked about in many threads, Currie's tie rod was purposely made very beefy... but its strength was set to a point via its hardening process where it will bend before something crucial will break. John Currie personally told me they had to make it bend a little quicker to insure something else wouldn't break first.... so it easily could have been made stronger but that would have been a very short-sighted mistake.

The couple times I have managed to get a small bend in my Currie tie rod were both due to extremely hard hits that surprised me that I had only slightly bent the tie rod. Sometimes making something too strong just causes more serious problems further upstream... kind of like replacing a 10 amp fuse with a 30 amp fuse... you made the fuse less likely to blow but at the increased possibility of more serious damage elsewhere.

**mrblaine** · 09-02-2008, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Red 95

I have the Rock Krawler X-Factory steering on my ZJ. It is very heavey duty. i have had it almost a year and have not had any major issues.

1st thing that attraced me to the RK kit was the price.

Price is relative to value. If RK used solid heat treated chrome moly and larger high quality TRE's, they wouldn't be a cent cheaper.

Quote:

2nd thing that attracted me is the ease of the install. other kits i was looking at you had to ream the hole on the spindles. Reamers cost a bit so that added to the over all price. and when you use a reamer you have to ream a little and test the fit, ream a little and test the fit, ream a little and test the fit. The RK kit is a simple drilling of 5/8" straight through.

You don't need to drill anything to install the Currie kit. BTW, there is a reason you used tapered holes.

Quote:

I have heard that hiem joints don't last as long too but they are less than half the cost of tie rod ends too.

1/2 or 1/5 the cost matters little. A quality TRE from Moog is about 40 bucks and I've yet to wear one out in 1/10 of the time I went through 500 dollars worth of rod ends.

Quote:

the only problem i have is not really with the steering kit. I love it. i have been struggleing with some horriblly bad death wobble. swithing to this kit has decreased it. i am still using the stock track bar with almost 5" of lift and believe that to be the main cause of the death wobble now. i have order Rock krawlers track bar kit and plan to add a steering stablizer as well.

i have talked and emailed back and forth with the KR tech guys and they have been great in helping me. they think the the bolts tolding the joints to the spindles may have bent or steched but i thing the problem i am having is the 5/8" holes are now out of round from the vibrations of the wobble causing the steering to be loose. i plan on drilling them out more and sleeving them back to a true 5/8".

Death wobble will be the bane of your attachment to any system that uses straight through holes. The problem is the soft iron in the knuckles. As you tighten the bolts, it only take a bit of wobble to loosen them because the small flat edge on the ball in the rod end sinks into the iron. That lets the bolts loosen and then the holes get wallowed out because the bolts are loose. It's a never ending circle.

Big Red 95 · 09-02-2008, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrblaine

Death wobble will be the bane of your attachment to any system that uses straight through holes. The problem is the soft iron in the knuckles. As you tighten the bolts, it only take a bit of wobble to loosen them because the small flat edge on the ball in the rod end sinks into the iron. That lets the bolts loosen and then the holes get wallowed out because the bolts are loose. It's a never ending circle.

So even if drill them out and put a nice steel sleeve in there your saying they will loosen up again?

**mrblaine** · 09-02-2008, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Big Red 95

So even if drill them out and put a nice steel sleeve in there your saying they will loosen up again?

The problem you have is one of space. I drill them out to 7/8" very often to repair straight holes from folks using rod ends and convert them back to Tapered holes. The chrome moly tubing I use is 7/8" OD and 1/2" ID which is good for most tapered holes. I chamfer top and bottom and then tig weld them into the knuckles after I taper them.

You might be able to pull it off with some 1" tubing and a good tig weld. That will leave you with a 3/16's wall thickness which is as thin as I would be comfortable with.

The other thing you need is a slight press fit into the hole you drill so the sleeve is well supported by the knuckle, but not so much that you blow up the hole pressing the sleeve in.

The biggest issue is drilling the hole. If you could find a 31/32's drill bit and a 1" reamer, you'd be better off.

Big Red 95 · 09-02-2008, 07:44 PM

sorry don't mean to highjack the thread but I have more questions.
The original set up used grade 8 bolts and lock nuts and i coated the nut treads pretty well with red locktite. the longer bolt is i believe is bent because when i went to get the alignment they could get the bolt off my nothing else would budge or even slide off the bolt. if the death wobble was bad enough to bend that bolt i can see where it would make the hole out of round.
I already got the sleeves at Lowes. they are 7/8 OD and 5/8 ID I got new grade bolts and lock nuts too. My father-in-law is a machinist so i should be able to get a bit to allow the sleeve to fit snugly. I can't afford anything else at this point. what would think the expectations of that would be? i will take off the spindles on my spare D30 before i scrap it just incase i need to convert back to a tapered set up.