Heavy duty tie rods

Kerry

Member
Joined
Jun 27, 2019
Messages
75
Location
New Zealand
Morning folks,
I have seen a couple of stock tie rods bend now, and to my surprise found that they are hollow. Left me wondering if theres any reason a solid steel rod could not be inserted to strengthen them up a bit?
The HD tie rods on ebay/amazon sure seem expensive for what they are.
 
Morning folks,
I have seen a couple of stock tie rods bend now, and to my surprise found that they are hollow. Left me wondering if theres any reason a solid steel rod could not be inserted to strengthen them up a bit?
The HD tie rods on ebay/amazon sure seem expensive for what they are.
Any meaningful strength increase comes from making the tube/bar diameter larger. Look up any discussion about internal sleeving of the axles. It's the same idea for why it is a lot of work for little benefit. Plus, filling in the tube doesn't do anything to strengthen the tie rod ends.

Spend your time and money on the ZJ steering upgrade.
 
Last edited:
If you search for the generic parts on ebay you can probably do the upgrade for well under $50. There are only three pieces from what I remember to do the upgrade. I found a DS1312 for under $30 shipped and that's the most expensive part. There is no reason to get Moog, the other brands are all solid as well if they are ZJ parts.
 
  • Like
Reactions: TheBoogieman
The Rock Jock (aka Currie) Heavy Duty Currectlync Steering Kit includes a solid tie rod and drag link plus heavy duty tie rod ends. Both have a larger diameter which is what makes them stronger. They are BEEFY and are all you'll need. They're also an easy bolt-on installation.
 
  • Like
Reactions: MeanGreen86
I get my terms confused, but I think I read a thread about this last week. There was an extream duty set made - and it all but came with a warning "don't call us when you break something else because of this product". Sometimes it is good to have a designated (and inexpensive) weak link to bend. Bending a tie rod is not the end of the world, breaking off a steering arm on the trail is much more annoying.
 
  • Like
Reactions: pagrey
So true. No need to go overboard. Even Blaine said his high strength parts are stupid, you just break more expensive stuff. Just make the small steps and replace when you get tired of fixing the bent stuff.
That's true for some pieces and not others. A more flexible tie rod that retains its shape isn't one of them. If it was rigid it likely would be. The elasticity (for lack of a better term) keeps the shock from going upstream.
 
  • Like
Reactions: psrivats
Morning folks,
I have seen a couple of stock tie rods bend now, and to my surprise found that they are hollow. Left me wondering if theres any reason a solid steel rod could not be inserted to strengthen them up a bit?
The HD tie rods on ebay/amazon sure seem expensive for what they are.
It will increase the bending resistance and the bigger benefit will be to slow down how fast a tube fails once bent even a little. The problem will be low return on the effort since the smallish diameter won't be much of an increase in strength.
I get my terms confused, but I think I read a thread about this last week. There was an extream duty set made - and it all but came with a warning "don't call us when you break something else because of this product". Sometimes it is good to have a designated (and inexpensive) weak link to bend. Bending a tie rod is not the end of the world, breaking off a steering arm on the trail is much more annoying.
No one to date has broken a steering arm off on the trail.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Kerry
Here's a link to the stupid high strength tie rods that are too good to not be out there.

Thread 'Toughness personified' https://wranglertjforum.com/threads/toughness-personified.58781/
I've been running that tie rod for at least ten years without a problem. I replaced my original Currie tie rod with it after bending it 2-3 times which took a 20 ton press to straighten. I didn't mind it bending that much since I too thought it might have saved breakage somewhere but as said, I've had no problems or steering system breakages since installing Savvy's 4340 version. Best of all, it hasn't bent either.

Edit: I just noticed the date on the above thread, I'm not sure what I installed ten years ago is the same 4340 tie rod mentioned in that thread.
 
You should be able to just flip the whole drag link/tie rod assembly over.
How do you invert the bend in the draglink? Or, did you mean you can take the draglink for a left hand drive, retaper the hole in the steering arm and flip it that way for a right hand drive? That can be done but it will induce some bumpsteer if the trackbar relationship isn't adjusted to follow.
 
That's true for some pieces and not others. A more flexible tie rod that retains its shape isn't one of them. If it was rigid it likely would be. The elasticity (for lack of a better term) keeps the shock from going upstream.
Resilience or ability to return back to straight after being severely flexed. But, this isn't something our buddy from NZ needs. He should be able to snag a ZJ tie rod, bolt it up to his current draglink and be just fine.
 
Moog across the board for the ZJ upgrade cost $174.43 and an alignment from the mechanic. Don't forget to paint the parts.
 
Mrblaine, I have the highest respect for you and your products. I am currently planning on replacing my steering linkage and may very well purchase your product-as I have very much faith in what you design and build. I am sorry if I paraphrased something I had read last week poorly. I am not sure if this was the post or not, but it is essentially what I was trying to paraphrase.


To be very clear, this product was only ever designed and built due to all the detractors that said the Currie failed when they landed on their tie rod or bashed it into a rock and bent it. If you drove it home or back to camp, that isn't a failure. John did a great job with his product, it is designed to bend and absorb the punishment without transferring too much of that load upstream to other components that are harder to repair.

Think of it like a crumple zone on a car in a frontal impact that protects the driver.

I got tired and weary from explaining it over and over and finally said "fine, you want one that you can't bend, here you go, now don't call me if you break something else". Fortunately, the very high level of toughness and resilience mitigates some of the upstream transfer, but I would never promise that is enough to be wholly smart. To date, I only know of a single incident where something else failed and given what I know of what happened, I suspect the same failure would have occurred with any tie rod. You can't drop from a good distance, land on the tie rod right next to where it attaches to the steering arm and not expect something bad to happen.
As for my becoming annoying (reply in a different thread from of one of my posts yesterday), I am sorry - apparently it is one of my personality traits that I have been reminded of amply by many, many people over the last week,
 
Last edited:
Mrblaine, I have the highest respect for you and your products. I am currently planning on replacing my steering linkage and may very well purchase your product-as I have very much faith in what you design and build. I am sorry if I paraphrased something I had read last week poorly. I am not sure if this was the post or not, but it is essentially what I was trying to paraphrase.
To be very clear, this product was only ever designed and built due to all the detractors that said the Currie failed when they landed on their tie rod or bashed it into a rock and bent it. If you drove it home or back to camp, that isn't a failure. John did a great job with his product, it is designed to bend and absorb the punishment without transferring too much of that load upstream to other components that are harder to repair.

Think of it like a crumple zone on a car in a frontal impact that protects the driver.

I got tired and weary from explaining it over and over and finally said "fine, you want one that you can't bend, here you go, now don't call me if you break something else". Fortunately, the very high level of toughness and resilience mitigates some of the upstream transfer, but I would never promise that is enough to be wholly smart. To date, I only know of a single incident where something else failed and given what I know of what happened, I suspect the same failure would have occurred with any tie rod. You can't drop from a good distance, land on the tie rod right next to where it attaches to the steering arm and not expect something bad to happen.

There are a few things you can take away from that. First, I won't ever guarantee something that depends on driver intelligence and luck. Second, if I say it is unbendable, I know lots of folks who will take that as license to drive with total disregard for their ENTIRE steering set up. That is never a good thing and they will eventually break something other than the tie rod.

The last thing you can take away from this is if I thought it was stupid or an unwarranted product, then why would I just dump 10 grand into putting them back out there for the folks that need them?
 
  • Love
Reactions: Jerry Bransford
That's true for some pieces and not others. A more flexible tie rod that retains its shape isn't one of them. If it was rigid it likely would be. The elasticity (for lack of a better term) keeps the shock from going upstream.
I don't know about that level of stuff, Blaine said it at some point. It's probably here somewhere if you search. His comment at the time was something about the cost of the tie rod versus the next thing down the line and the repair on the trail required if one or the other things broke.