Why not 05+ so you can fit bigger joints?
I was already using a 99-04 axle. I ripped the cast off my stock knuckle with the Artec high steer and this was about the same cost as buying aftermarket knuckles. My neighbor has a 05+ and other people have asked if I'll do that so I suspect it'll be in the near future since I have a knuckle I can easily scan, I'll just need people to test it.
Did he make a few or just one test set
One set. I originally didn't have plans to sell them. As said above, it was about the same price as aftermarket knuckles plus high steer as just getting these machined, so why not try it. I've had quite a bit of interest so once I test them i might try to sell them. I'll be doing ~5 races this year on them so if they live then we'll go from there, and assuming I can keep them cheap enough where people would actually want them. Ideally that'd be $3k or less for the pair, so within a couple hundred bucks of other options on the market once you include steering arms.
That is some serious bling bling, only question i have is why run the upper ball joint and not an eliminator
I looked at eliminators, but I didn't already have them. Since eliminators appeared to be fairly plug and play with stock knuckles I didn't want to bite off more than I can chew (and risk have two useless knuckles if I screwed up) so stuck with what I knew and could verify which was the stock knuckle dimensions. If the eliminator doesn't weld to the knuckle (again, minimal research there) then they should work with these. Down the line I may do my own eliminator, but these ones were meant to replace the exact thing I had on the axles already.
Tell Toby to get his ass registered on RME!
Hi Bryson 🤗 been a minute!
Agreed.
I’ve fought the Artec arms way more than they’re worth… I’ve got good steering now (after heavy modifications and a 10” ram) but probably would’ve been money ahead to start fresh with new knuckles…. There’s still the American iron off-road option.
Couple options to solve this, since it's been brought up already. The first is that a production knuckle could have a larger slot where the heim mounts so you could space the tie rod up and down, maybe +/- 1" from where the Artec mounting plane is (maybe more if needed) so that the majority of setups out there would work with it. Not quite as sexy and elegant but would work fine.
The second option, which if I sell these I plan to have as an upgrade, is to be able to customize aspects of the knuckle if desired. It's not hard to reconfigure the CAD and reanalyze it, if someone is fine waiting for a one off set to be built and the additional engineering time then the steering arm can be moved where ever, as well as other features like brake caliper mounts, unit bearing type, etc.
And the third option is if people tell me there's a common mounting point for the tie rod, I can either incorporate that into the same knuckle or just offer different knuckles depending on what is being replaced. Maybe there's three common high steer locations, so I have three slightly tweaked knuckles. Though I suspect they're all relatively similar which is where the first option to be able to overlap them all would be nice.
And some concluding comments and thoughts. First, I appreciate the interest, if it wasn't for comments there'd be zero plan or even idea to ever sell these. There are lots of potential avenues for these, 05+ knuckles, kingpin, spidertrax replacement, etc. I've also thought an option for a lightweight crawler hogged out version versus a racing version would be cool. Right now I save about 20 lbs per side, combine that with a Wilwood brake setup and that could possibly be pushed to saving 50 lbs per side! I think having lots of options, and being able at a fair price to offer completely custom one off changes if someone is willing, would be really cool. The reason I did this was because of the lack of options, so I'd like to enable as many modifications as people need.
And a quick list of the features (maybe reiterating above):
-7075-T6
-Integrated high steer with multiple tie rod mounting holes
-All fasteners in shear have steel sleeves which are from McMaster so are off the shelf and easy to replace
-All fastener interfaces have shouldered sleeves or washers to avoid marring the aluminum
-The unit bearing bore is oversized so a RCV can be installed fully assembled so no messing with the boot
-A stock type unit bearing is used and a stainless sleeve is pressed onto it which upsizes the unit bearing to the new bore of the knuckle
-Brake caliper mounts are rotated upwards slightly for clearance
-Knuckle is ~14 lbs compared to ~32 for a cast one with high steer
-One piece design so no welds or bolts to come loose on the high steer arm
-Steering stop is a 1/2" bolt so can be adjusted and replaced as needed
-Analyzed with finite element and long hand to exceed load capability of a mild steel based high steer arm and other suspension loadings
I MAY have the buggy at the salt lake off-road expo, or maybe bring a knuckle up to show off at my friend (RLT) booth. It's absolutely insane the weight difference, a stock knuckle needs a bit of muscle to move around, and you can pick these things up with a finger it feels like.
Appreciate the comments and suggestions, I don't know how often I'll check this. Usually I'm on irate4x4 or race dezert, I don't know if I can handle another forum hahaha
