Inner tie rodwork around

[da_jokker]

Yeah Moog EV317 on Amazon < $25

They were so cheap, I bought one just to have even though I have the tie rod braces.

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[swooshdave]

So I saw the Icons today and have Icon suspension on order. What are your thoughts about the potential for pushing weakness to the steering rack with the Icons offering?

At the very least you should consider the BroncBuster bushing.

 

[Dusty at ICON]

So I saw the Icons today and have Icon suspension on order. What are your thoughts about the potential for pushing weakness to the steering rack with the Icons offering?

I like them a lot but I'm not sure what to think about the rack. I hope Icon tested it extensively and had no rack failures.

There has been zero testing at this point, other than for fitment. We have to keep our rigs pretty for SEMA but after that we'll be beating on these things thoroughly. Of course a stronger tie rod does nothing to address the strength of the steering rack. We had the resources to address the weak tie rod issue, but steering racks are out of our wheelhouse so we hope other options will come along for strengthening that link in the chain (Ford Performance, BroncBuster, whoever else might be working on something). In the meantime, if your strategy is to continue to use the weak factory tie rods as a fuse to protect the steering rack, you'll probably want to hold off on using ours or any of the other aftermarket tie rods or braces on the market. That said, we believe that the stock steering rack's "level of weakness" isn't quite as dismal as that of the stock tie rods, so there's some room for improving the strength of the tie rod without automatically grenading the steering rack under most conditions. Even with our tie rods you'll still need to be a smart driver and assume some risk of breakage when running big tires and doing gnarly stuff.

 

[swooshdave]

There has been zero testing at this point, other than for fitment. We have to keep our rigs pretty for SEMA but after that we'll be beating on these things thoroughly. Of course a stronger tie rod does nothing to address the strength of the steering rack. We had the resources to address the weak tie rod issue, but steering racks are out of our wheelhouse so we hope other options will come along for strengthening that link in the chain (Ford Performance, BroncBuster, whoever else might be working on something). In the meantime, if your strategy is to continue to use the weak factory tie rods as a fuse to protect the steering rack, you'll probably want to hold off on using ours or any of the other aftermarket tie rods or braces on the market. That said, we believe that the stock steering rack's "level of weakness" isn't quite as dismal as that of the stock tie rods, so there's some room for improving the strength of the tie rod without automatically grenading the steering rack under most conditions. Even with our tie rods you'll still need to be a smart driver and assume some risk of breakage when running big tires and doing gnarly stuff.

Sadly there are people who expect all off-road parts to have a guarantee against something breaking.

 

[DangerMTBBronco]

There has been zero testing at this point, other than for fitment. We have to keep our rigs pretty for SEMA but after that we'll be beating on these things thoroughly. Of course a stronger tie rod does nothing to address the strength of the steering rack. We had the resources to address the weak tie rod issue, but steering racks are out of our wheelhouse so we hope other options will come along for strengthening that link in the chain (Ford Performance, BroncBuster, whoever else might be working on something). In the meantime, if your strategy is to continue to use the weak factory tie rods as a fuse to protect the steering rack, you'll probably want to hold off on using ours or any of the other aftermarket tie rods or braces on the market. That said, we believe that the stock steering rack's "level of weakness" isn't quite as dismal as that of the stock tie rods, so there's some room for improving the strength of the tie rod without automatically grenading the steering rack under most conditions. Even with our tie rods you'll still need to be a smart driver and assume some risk of breakage when running big tires and doing gnarly stuff.

Thanks Dusty. Makes sense and appreciate you being transparent.

 

[cobro92]

Yeah I think the best bet for now is to just carry a set of trail spares. The aftermarket hasn't really had enough time to figure out the limits and come up with real, tested solutions. Aftermarket tie rods are probably part of the solution but we really don't know how they will affect the rest of the steering components.

 

[swooshdave]

Yeah I think the best bet for now is to just carry a set of trail spares. The aftermarket hasn't really had enough time to figure out the limits and come up with real, tested solutions. Aftermarket tie rods are probably part of the solution but we really don't know how they will affect the rest of the steering components.

Keep in mind that the aftermarket doesn't have the resources like Ford to properly test out their parts. Sure they can take it out and beat on it but that's nowhere near control conditions. They really have to rely on the users. If you're not willing to take that risk you should stay away from aftermarket parts.

Keep in mind the Jeep market has decades to develop a variety of solutions and they also have a massively larger market. Bronco owners will always have a disadvantage in this area.

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