Steering stabilizer

[Hunner]

Yeah that rock crawling the guys over here it is epic...my 35's have perform great to this point but once my rancho goes on I feel like I would want bigger rubber so I can have more clearance and what not...and I agree with Ya 900 for those bullet proof things is out of control. Specially since the end bolt that screws into the rack it is the same size as the one tie rods...I remember talking about the bullet proof tie rods while on the trail, and they told me it was easier to change a tie rod than a broken steering rack. Anyways I think Around this time, some time next year I'd be up for tires maybe. And might be the first one running 37/8's in the stock set up with a rancho lift and a steering rack clamp. And test to see how long that hold out in the trails. However I'm more concern the differential breaking before a tie rod or a steering rack lol. Luckily I have a complete set of all front components now to replace them all if it came to that.


Torres

The part that threads in the rack of course has to be that size to fit the rack.
It's that tiny end of the tie rod that is the same on the 14mm and 16mm that I was concerned about.

That is not all there is to it. Those wanting to justify not paying for these and I agree they ended up rather high, forget that the OEM articulate 23 degrees down when that tiny end is leveraging against the rack.



The BulletProof go 30 degrees and are limited by the H3 suspension. So they do not leverage at the end of the rack thus they have less impact on the rack.
I broke a rack with stock tie rods.

I have seen pictures when both OEM break at the same time then you only have a few more bolts for the whole thing.

I have had some practice of course but changing the rack is not that big a deal. In fact they come with tie rods attached.
I do carry a spare but in over 100,000 miles have not pulled it out. (knock on rock)



And I went to several places carrying a 3500 tie rod but nobody would touch the mod, liability of steering components.

 

[Panzer07]

The part that threads in the rack of course has to be that size to fit the rack.
It's that tiny end of the tie rod that is the same on the 14mm and 16mm that I was concerned about.

That is not all there is to it. Those wanting to justify not paying for these and I agree they ended up rather high, forget that the OEM articulate 23 degrees down when that tiny end is leveraging against the rack.



The BulletProof go 30 degrees and are limited by the H3 suspension. So they do not leverage at the end of the rack thus they have less impact on the rack.
I broke a rack with stock tie rods.

I have seen pictures when both OEM break at the same time then you only have a few more bolts for the whole thing.

I have had some practice of course but changing the rack is not that big a deal. In fact they come with tie rods attached.
I do carry a spare but in over 100,000 miles have not pulled it out. (knock on rock)



And I went to several places carrying a 3500 tie rod but nobody would touch the mod, liability of steering components.

You have brought a really Good point here Hunner, and thank you for elaborating, the tie road angle thing is something I didn't had in mind, once I install the rancho lift the angle of the tie rod is gonna be limited to 23 degrees which might not be too much left at all when combined with the rancho, since the kit only drops the different but the steering rack stays in the same position. In other words I guess I just gonna have to save my lunch money, an wheel with caution, until I can afford these bullet proofs.


Torres

 

[amrg]

You have brought a really Good point here Hunner, and thank you for elaborating, the tie road angle thing is something I didn't had in mind, once I install the rancho lift the angle of the tie rod is gonna be limited to 23 degrees which might not be too much left at all when combined with the rancho, since the kit only drops the different but the steering rack stays in the same position. In other words I guess I just gonna have to save my lunch money, an wheel with caution, until I can afford these bullet proofs.


Torres

Group buy possible on those tie rods? (If the price is right)

 

[derian06]

Group buy possible on those tie rods? (If the price is right)

I'm in

 

[Panzer07]

I'd be in too if the price was a little better.


Torres

 

[Hunner]

I don't get anything from these I just was interested in a one off. At that time in 06 people were trying to learn how to drive an H3 without breaking tie rods.
Inventory dried up. I drove to Dallas to get a set from Lynch Hummer that were found in the body shop.
It was several months before 16mm started showing up.

I was desperate because my Excellent Adventure was coming up and though I had not broken any I wanted spares 2000 miles from home in the middle of Mojave!

I was as shocked as most people were when he posted the retail price.
Maybe it was more trouble than he thought it would be when we started the project.

He mentioned the bend in the end was tricky to do and not damage the threads. I don't know about the engineering tech but that was one thing I asked if he could do so the spherical rod ends would be flat at rest and would have full travel from there.

We also did a tricky fitting at the rack end that fits some slots in the rack arm to prevent them from turning and allow tightening.

The only change to the prototype was the bolt heads and threads on the rack end, rod end mounting bolt touched the frame.
He told me to grind to fit, then send those to him and he had special grade 8 or 10 bolts made so they had a finished head on them.
This was after he shortened the bolt so it was flush at the nut and the head cleared after milling.

I did all the measuring of the H3 suspension and shot scaled digital images of clearances and such.



Another fallacy that got started was when I was on Steel Bender in Moab and got hung up on a rock shelf my tires turned inward and people thought I had broken tie rods.

I said they were made to flex. I should have never said it that way!

The rods really can't flex being that size, but I guess anything has a flex point, but the spherical rod ends at both ends allow the wheels to turn in more but limiting the force on the rack more so than stock.


Just jack up the whole front end sometime and watch the wheels get pigeon toed as it goes up on any H3.

What does flex is the stock one which gets the front end bouncing which is part of the issue with them breaking.
Look at the posts of broken tie rods and see how many bent before breaking.


Not sure if by now he would do a group buy but I think it would have to be 10 or more. He said he was not going to stock the specific parts for the H3 thinking there may not be much of a market when OEM are so cheap.

I would be glad to pass that on if you guy think there would be interest. In the meantime carry spares.

Here are a few I pulled off the internet, you can see my concern when all this H3 stuff was new.
http://www.hummer4x4offroad.com/forum/showthread.php?1948-Tie-rods-broken&highlight=broken+tie+rods

Also in my lengthy threads I show at that time I put the half inch nut to extend the shock and longer anti-sway bar links. Curries builders model that could be cut and adjusted from a place here that had some building a buggy.
My original replacement did not have the larger mounting bolts neither did the top one here, so when I found the heavier ones I upgraded.

 

[amrg]

I emailed bulletproofsteering a week ago to see about a group buy, but so far Im still waiting for a reply. If someone has a contact that I can directly talk to someone in charge that would be good!

 

[Hunner]

Yea, ask for Randy he owns the place and normally answers the phone.

I think he is going to say it takes the same amount of time and money to make 1 or more but you can try.
It was my understanding that on a small scale even 10 or so would probably not reduce the price but things change so try him again.

 

[humvee]

bump..

 

[mjferencak]

Last time I called Bullet Proof, 6/7/16, he quoted me $1299.00

 

[USMC_315]

Doesn't rubber-duck make a reinforced tie rod for the H3? Anybody have those? I've run through more tie rods than I could count on 3 fingers haha