The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area General Truck Talk How bout a steering damper??

Has anyone here used a Steering Damper on his or her straight axle stock AD?
I’m not sure if it’s entirely the fault of the new Power Master bias ply tires or if there may be a little resonant oscillation at road speeds when I hit bumps in the road. This is not uncommon with solid beam axles with a long tie rod that can flex.

The complete front end was rebuilt with all new parts less than 1k miles ago and the steering has absolutely no play in it. Every thing that could be possibly wear was replaced. After mounting radials on the rear there was a noticeable difference on the ride. I’m looking forward to getting the radials on the front in the next week or two and hope the will further smooth out the ride.

Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I used one from a jeep and it seems to work well.
It has been on the truck for about a year and a half or I would give you the numbers of the one I used. Can't remember now. But then again I have radials on all 4 corners and that could have an effect on how it steers.
Tom

I tried a steering damper on one & it was horrible. Downright dangerous. I,ve used them several times before with power steering & they woek great.

I'm a firm believer in the dampeners. Picked up a Universal kit at NAPA... had to fabricate my own bracket to mount it on the straight axle.

Have used them on all of my trucks and off-road vehicles and feel they are worth the money and install time. My front end is fairly tight and with the proper toe-in she runs straight as a bullet at a 70 mph cruise. I've got some pics in my Shoebox album that show the mount. Basically used a chunk of 3x3 angle iron and whittled it down to span the axle. No interference problems. Hope this helps.

Dave

VW dampeners work well

Thanks Dave, I'll keep NAPA in mind.

Boyd that's what my nephew put on his street legal Silver Crown car. It has a tube axle with a long tie rod and drag link just a little longer than the AD. The setup is very similar to our trucks. He had a shimmy problem after he put the car together and added a damper which stopped it. Said that one of the racers that he hangs around with gave it to him and that it was off of a VW bus, possably in the 80's sometime.
Do you have any idea what year's will work?
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

Hello all. Grant here. I recently switched rims with a more positive offset than stock, and came up with noticeable "bump steer" and wander. let me know how the stabilizer works. My alignment guy recommends using a dampener. Thanks, Grant.

I don't know about a VW damper, but I used a Moog SSD12 Trail Boss on mine, and it works very well.

Would that be a universal damper or for a specific application Bill? Tried looking at your webshots to see if you had a picture but my dialup is simply to slow and had to bail. I'll take that back, I found a few pics on page three, tks.
Back in the days when I worked in as a counter man, most parts stores carried Moog products, I don't see the line at any of the flaps any more.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
ps. By the way, what is that humongous 1" thick Aluminum plate that the truck is sitting on in the picture???

That VW idea sounds good. It won't be as stout as the universal ones. Carquest handles Moog under there own label.

Denny, I have been using a 'generic' steering damper on my truck for around 8 years. Running bias tires need all the help they can get. I feel that although a stabilizer is not intended to cure major underlying problems in steering, and I have done as much as I can to get the steering as correct as possible, the damper has made a positive difference in the stability of my truck.

Stabilizer

The SSD12 is a universal kit, mainly for older 4x4s, but will work on I beams, too. I'm lucky enough to have a flaps that carrys exlusevly Moog parts.
I beleive that you're talking about my catch pan? in the pic, it's kind of misleading, because you can only really see the turned up edge. It's a home made pan, 1/8" thick aluminum.