Well this was a little difficult to watch

[Roky]

No, the video ends before you go down that last ledge. Trust me, he's not stuck.

In fact, you can see the tire tread in the red dirt on the right side of the screen where the spotter's car went down.

Sean.. does your buggy( car ) have rear steering?

Sponsored

 

[Roky]

No, it does not. Neither does the new one, though I did design it so that rear steer would clear the frame with 43's in back if that was something we wanted at a later date.

I'm not sure how I feel about rear steer to be honest. The number one thing you break when wheeling these types of trails is front axles...and that's because of the steering joint up front...even with RCVs or another type of 300M shafts/joints. By adding rear steer, you've just doubled your breakage points.

The problem in a rear application is weight transfer when climbing obstacles....steering the rear with a majority of the weight on that axle and generally a sticky 39-43" tire is a recipe for disaster...one that gets worse the heavier your car is. Works great on super light, sub 3K lb single seaters....on 2 seaters that are over 3200...you're much more likely to start breaking.....AND, you really need to upgrade the rear axle to at least a custom 14 bolt with at least D70 knuckle Cs (assuming you're building kingpins)...or something like a sheetmetal custom housing and third coupled with proprietary knuckles like Spidertrax's. I'd wager the buggy in this video is 3000 to as much as 3500 lbs.

Another issue is the price tag. Building a boneyard steering axle with hydro is a minimum of $10K with all the necessary knuckle/steering arm upgrades to handle full hydro; whereas a very simple 14B regular rear can be $2K or less with discs, so minimum $8K more.

The other thing is high speed driving with a rear steer can be tricky to get right. Most are steered via a joystick and AFAIK, the best (and maybe only) center lock system to keep you tracking straight is from Stazworks and isn't cheap either. Not to mention you need enough room in the engine bay to put another reservoir and hydro pump to run the second balanced cylinder (obviously you can also do a single ended one....). That, or you've got to add extensive weight/complexity by going to an electric pump to run the rear steer cylinder. They are heavy though...huge weight penalty; like 125 lbs.

All that said, the obstacles you can run with rear steer are INSANE compared to non-rear steer. They make things look easy that non-rear steer struggle with or worse, simply can't do. The level of trails are progressing to a point where I believe it's going to be a necessity for some obstacles....the one in the video would be exceedingly difficult if you didn't have rear steer on the offcamber portion. Front dig and turning brakes in that situation aren't really plausible as they don't give the necessary control on the edge of a precipice like that.

There's also a seriously steep learning curve to rear steer....but it makes you a better driver too, so it kind of balances out....provided your 'learning curve mistakes' aren't catastrophic, lol.

Basically, it boils down to cost/complexity versus simplicity/durability. All things being equal, 4 wheels steer is going to be a more capable vehicle.

Thanks for the details... I love learning new shit......

 

[cosine]

no thanks. the day i have to wear a crash helmet, i will wheel on the fire road or slosh around in the mud. it's safer.

 

[Chris2183]

That's odd, I have uBlock origin enabled and I could watch it just fine.

(I'm a tech professional that understands what Facebook does, and uBlock stops a crap-ton of traffic from going out (mostly Google stuff). However, it looks like Facebook is whitelisted for some reason... maybe I can block a couple more things.)

I got the same error running Firefox with Social Media tracking blocked in the privacy settings, Ublock Origins, and Privacy Badger add ons.

I’m assuming that Firefox is what blocked It for me.

 

[Chemy350]

impressive but no thank you

 

[Centurion07]

This is where we get comments like, "Jeeps aren't safe. I heard they tip over."

 

[blnewt]

 

[word302]

I find myself pondering this question...... Why?

I mean, why do anything off-road? The more you wheel the more you challenge yourself, just like most things.

 

[h20boy1965]

 

[Quetzal]

Aside from the obvious, (and I don't want to sound sexist) but I was surprised at how calm the ladies in the background sounded, like it was nothing. My wife would have been hysterical, as would I! This guy not only isn't worries about damaging his Jeep, he's not worried about death.

 

[Toycrusher]

I would have to assume he's running some water in those tires. No way even sticky rubber can hang on at those angles

 

[jrt623]

Makes my palms sweaty watching it. That said, I'd try it with some heavy cable tethers attached.

It looked like the spotter was even having trouble keeping his footing on that terrain.

 

[G.D.S. 4x4]

In 2001 I drove across the big Gemini bridge in Moab....white knuckles but not quite that sketchy! I know no pics it didn't happen! Too manyy moons ago to look for prints.

 

[rkwfxd]

As Ive gain experience (gotten older) I have decide that if the penalty for a mistake is death, Im a hard pass/no. I dont think this quite rose to that level but it was close enough for me to easily say NOPE.

 

[RoadiJeff]

I was more concerned for the spotter than the Jeep. He was focusing on giving directions instead of watching where he was stepping and he was right on the edge of slipping over the side.

Sponsored