whats your steering ratio

[Damien]

we just got our buggy going and its a bear to steer. The scrub radius is .5". The tires are the 33" super digger III. the caster is about 5 degrees. All of the sphericals are new so they are tight but is still seems like it is difficult to steer.

What are buggys which are easy to steer using for a steering ratio? I believe its defined as steering wheel degrees/ degrees that the wheels steer. I think my car's steering may be too quick.

[plkracer]

Most racks have a value for center to lock. Mine is 3/4 from center to lock, so 1 1/2 lock to lock. Which rack do you have?

[yoshi]

How far from the spindle does the control rod heim mount?

[bdkw1]

Get a bigger steering wheel.......

[K-fab]

Originally Posted by bdkw1

Get a bigger steering wheel.......

And power steering!

Damien,
I have a bit of painful first hand knowledge on this one.

My last car used 29" tall BFG tires, the new one uses the same 33" Super Digger III's your using.

The scrub radius actually decreased a bit between the two (which gives less feedback on the latest car), but otherwise the two front ends were the same.

Same steering rack (Howe & Gear One Howe copy), same spindles (Fodrill) same hubs (Gear One), same wheel offset and pretty much the same camber/caster settings and a 15" steering wheel in both. The only real difference is the tire diameter and type. I did have a pair of small motorcycle style steering dampers on my first car and did not have any damping on the new one.

The difference between the two vehicles, steering wise, is impressive. The amount of fight and feedback in my current setup is amazing compared to the old car. I had thousands of miles under my belt in the old car and never had any issues with it fighting back in an overpowering manner except for that occasional hard hit. Even then it didn't tend to rip the wheel out of my hands.

The larger tires on the new car are at the point of being steering unmanageable. The fight the front end puts back into the steering wheel is intense and overwhelming. I'd have to move up to an 18" wheel to have enough leverage to make it manageable, maybe.

I tried laying the caster back to about 7 degrees and I don't have the strength to turn the wheels for long. The steering is very heavy, especially at slow speeds and in tight corners.

By going to about 4 degrees of caster I had lighter feeling steering, but the feedback and the quickness of the front end was dangerous and overpowers the steering wheel.

It would appear that once you get to a certain tire diameter, there's a point of no return. Unfortunately power steering has become my answer to the fight from the front.

[Damien]

I measured some specs last night. the steering arm is 3" from the steering axis. for a half turn of the steering wheel I get about 30 degrees of steering on the groung so it seems that I have a 180/30= 6:1 steering ratio. The rack is a latest rage rack.

I was thinking of extending the steering arms on the spindle and maybe puting two more holes, one at 4.5 " and one at 6" to see if that helps.

As far as power steering thats what I was affraid of.

Does anyone else have success running 33in. tires in a mini buggy without power steering?

[plkracer]

That is pretty quick. I think my tires are turning around 32-35 degrees with 3/4 turn. I have 25 inch fronts.

[bdkw1]

Originally Posted by Damien

I measured some specs last night. the steering arm is 3" from the steering axis. for a half turn of the steering wheel I get about 30 degrees of steering on the groung so it seems that I have a 180/30= 6:1 steering ratio. The rack is a latest rage rack.

I was thinking of extending the steering arms on the spindle and maybe puting two more holes, one at 4.5 " and one at 6" to see if that helps.

As far as power steering thats what I was affraid of.

Does anyone else have success running 33in. tires in a mini buggy without power steering?

Are you using all the travel on your rack now? If so, any amount you make the steering arms longer will cut down on your turning radius. Maybe a steering quickener put in reverse so it slows it down some?

[Damien]

bdkw1-- I'm not using all of the rack travel but I am using most of it. I undestand that it will reduce the amout of steering I have but I dont think I have much of a choice to make it so I can steer it.

[Damien]

kfab- so are you going to do electric or hydaulic power steering?

I'm going to make some test steering arms for my spindles which tack weld and bolt to the existing which will have two more tie rod holes in them which will multiply my steering ratio by 1.5X and 2.0X It will screw up my bump steer but I want to see if I can get it to steer then make the correct arms for it. We'll see what it does?