Thread: Steering linkages (drag links)

Probably to pay the product liability insurance premiums! Or at least to overengineer them so there can be no possibility of failure. And designing something and then producing it in very small numbers.

John

Product liability possibly, though I imagine most companies would have blanket coverage for everything they do with the premium based on turnover or number of staff, similar to a standard engineering business.

Over-engineering and design? The threads are the standard Rover size, and the pipe must be the same length as the Rover version. To make life easy the ID of the pipe must be slightly smaller than the tapping drill size for the thread Rover use. The OD doesn't really matter, as long as it's big enough to give a nice thick wall. Er, we could form a committee to conduct focus groups to ascertain whether our customer base prefers powder coating or zinc plating.......

And I would guess that the apprentice could knock a couple out in about 10 minutes.

Actually, that is probably the reason why the cost is so high. The apprentice doesn't make them, they are made on a CNC machine that cost $500,000 and takes a highly skilled operator 4 hours to program to make two cuts and drill/tap two holes! By the time he finished programming it, the apprentice could have made enough to fill the first 12months orders!

If we found an apprentice called Colin Norman Carter, we could knock these things out for next to nothing and still say they were made by CNC!!!

Hello from Brisbane.

My extended family bought its first Land Rover in 1950 and has had about 20 plus since.

From my memory - old as it is getting - and despite years of bashing around various farms in the Upper Hunter, none of the family has ever had a problem with steering arms that couldn't be straightened in a vice or over an anvil.

Times change, but the terrain really doesn't. To a few of us old timers the present belief that a 4wd has to be equipped like a Tiger tank to get across the countryside is pure bs.....

The present arms are just fine. Spend your scarce cash on something useful like a romantic dinner with the missus.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Warb

So what am I missing? Why is a length of tube with a thread in each end worth >$200??

Business seems to be about getting as much money as they can. And people are paying that much. I have made suspension links that are much much stronger for a lot less. 1050mm dia50xdia25 with Nissan bushes both ends cost about $100/link. It might be worth sussing out the cost of tooling, materials and parts to do it yourself, especially if you're able to do it yourself and you can take responsibility for it.

Originally Posted by S3ute

... none of the family has ever had a problem with steering arms that couldn't be straightened in a vice or over an anvil.

Times change, but the terrain really doesn't. To a few of us old timers the present belief that a 4wd has to be equipped like a Tiger tank to get across the countryside is pure bs.....

I've never actually had a problem with them either! The concept of replacement only came about because I had them in my hand and started wondering about their "exposed" location.

Whilst it's true they can be straightened, the steering geometry would be badly affected if they were seriously bent from hitting a rock and that would result in a vehicle that probably shouldn't be driven on the roads. Under those conditions, the knowledge that it could be easily fixed with a vice is little comfort! And whilst it could be removed and bent straight "al fresco", it would be preferable not to need to!

The danger of strengthening such components, of course, is that the energy that would previously have bent them is now transferred to the next weakest link, which could well be more expensive/dangerous/difficult to repair.......

Overall, whilst I agree that much of the equipment sold to "extreme" 4WD'ers is unnecessary given sensible driving, unexpected situations and driver errors can result in damage. To allow for those situations, I am quite happy to selectively "improve" certain aspects of a vehicle, especially if they appear to be particularly vulnerable.

Originally Posted by Slunnie

Business seems to be about getting as much money as they can. And people are paying that much.....

...It might be worth sussing out the cost of tooling, materials and parts to do it yourself, especially if you're able to do it yourself and you can take responsibility for it.

Already started looking! There was a guy on this forum that (judging from old posts) used to supply the relevant taps, but I got no response to a PM. I've found other places I can get the taps at reasonable cost, but then found there is some confusion over the thread. I've seen several definitive statements, but some are at odds with others so they can't all be true! Most people regard them as UNS, but some misquote that as UNF. There are also references to early ones being unspecified whitworth threads, and late Series III genuinely being UNF.

My plan, when I get around to it, is to source a decent (greaseable?) set of TRE's, and actually see what thread they have..... I might even look at Defender TRE's as some of the "extreme" linkages seem to use those rather than the originals.

Originally Posted by Warb

And I would guess that the apprentice could knock a couple out in about 10 minutes.

If we found an apprentice called Colin Norman Carter, we could knock these things out for next to nothing and still say they were made by CNC!!!

It seems like your best bet is to go hire Colin Norman Carter and set him to work making these things. By your estimate it will only cost you about $2 - $3 each to make plus materials. You would be making a killing.

Cheers,
Mick.

Originally Posted by Killer

It seems like your best bet is to go hire Colin Norman Carter and set him to work making these things. By your estimate it will only cost you about $2 - $3 each to make plus materials. You would be making a killing.

And then I'd have to decide whether to price them based on a reasonable profit margin for the item, or on what the market will stand..........