Turning radius in town

[DEL03]

:boxer: Is there a way to increase in town turning radius
we live in a small Town with small streets and real sharp turns I thought we were going to get luckyy with a 4 lane next year but they just deemed our roads historical pathways (or some other thing) either way no 4 lane

i really want to know how to make my 67 kaiser/jeep 2.5 reach the bump stops so that we can get those tight turns



del03

 

[Opie]

From what I've garnered from the Forum you have three options:

1) a Selectro locking hub on one of the rearmost wheels (best, but $$)

2) disconnecting your intraaxle driveshaft between the second and third axles (ok - you lose the ability to use 4x6 and 6x6 drive)

3) use a blowtorch to cut the axle between the third axle differential and one of the rearmost wheels (well - if you REALLY have to...)

Did I miss anything, Gang?

 

[cranetruck]

I think you want to decrease not increase your turning radius. Well, this has been stated many times before, but here goes, first remove the stub axle (between the rear tandem axles) and next install singles. This will reduce the turning radius to about 33 feet (curb to curb) if you have the 154 wheelbase.
Changing the stops will probably not do much by itself. You will still have a lot of tire "scrubbing" because of the coupled rear axles.

 

[Red Neck]

Something cheap and easy ( you get what you pay for) :
Try to fill the rear most axle's tires to the max pressure (or more), and run all the rest a litte on the lower side, this will let the rear axle slide easier due to the tires runing up on the their centers.

 

[cranetruck]

Increasing the tire pressure will only increase the tire/ground contact pressure and not reduce the resistance to turning at all. As a matter of fact, reducing the front tire pressure is not a good idea, it will increase the tire wear and increase your turning effort.
For best tire wear, increase the rear tire contact area by keeping the pressure at 50 psi and increase front tire pressure to 60 to match the load, especially with a winch equipped vehicle.
A more complicated method to reduce the turning radius is to separate the brake lines to the rear and brake the "inside" wheels when turning, like a skid steer (Bobcat).
I started doing this several years ago and the brake lines are separated on my deuce to this day. Installed one brake lock on one side, but never actually did much testing. Locking one side did reduce the turning radius, though.
I'v got to get a hobby....

 

[Monster Man]

3) use a blowtorch to cut the axle between the third axle differential and one of the rearmost wheels (well - if you REALLY have to...)

Did I miss anything, Gang?



[/quote]
just going to clarify- there's no need to cut the axle. YOu undo the 8 bolts holding it in, slide it all the way out, and cap off the end with either a home made flange or a flange from the front differential (what I have done). THis is 10 times faster than removing the interaxle driveshaft, though some question the extra wear that will be transmitted to the other axle. I read once the spider gears in the differential would "fall out" when the axle was removed. That's not the case, and I have experienced no negative side effects

 

[DEL03]

monster man

This' all great but when I have the front tires in the air I cannot make either bumpstop and turning right in our neighborhood is impossible I might agree with removing a rear shaft but then that eliminates my 6x6 options I did look at a gmc sidekick dump it has nalmost the same steering and tires but its power and of course makes the bumpstops I would like to think that with the tires in the air I should be able to make the bumpstops at the current moment i have 1&1/8 turns on the steering wheel in either direction is there a possible adjustment to the box maybe from highway to offroad

please help
del03

 

[Recovry4x4]

You can adjust the play in the steering box but there's now way to increase the travel in either direction. Removing that axle shaft will help your truck turn tighter but the only way to get it to stter sharper is rewrking the steering geometry.

 

[cranetruck]

The steering angle on my deuce is only about 24 degrees. I have checked the spec on commercial trucks and its more like 30 degrees for this wheelbase (154 inch).
The theoretical turning radius for 24 degrees is about 31-32 feet. I now have 33 feet with previously stated mods.
I think the deuce's stops were set at this angle since an angle of, say, 30 deg wouldn't help much with the rear axles locked together. It would just produce more scrubbing in the front.

Now, with the mods, it seems to me that the (welded) stops could be adjusted for a tighter turning radius. One day I'll try to adjust that to see what effect it will have. I'm sure it won't do any good without the mod's, though.

 

[cranetruck]

BTW, I have about 7 turns on the steering wheel stop-to-stop.
For more info/details on this, see MVM article in issue 105 (Dec, 2004).

 

[DEL03]

7 turns is excellent i only have three from stop to stop i would love to have seven i will find that article since my manuals are not here yet
thank you
del03

 

[DEL03]

Please Please help

I now have a little over 15,000 pages of information on everything except why my steering wheel does not have the full capabilities of most of yours tomorrow i plan on setting the drag but minus some miracle I would have to beleive that it's something in the box please help
del03

 

[Recovry4x4]

It sure sounds like a box problem. 3 turns isn't much.

 

[rdixiemiller]

Pull the box apart and have a look see. Jack up the front end and see how tight the box feels. If it is moving freely in the middle (wheels straight ahead), but gets really tight as you go to one side or the other, you have an internal problem.
If someone has tried to take out the slack with the adjusting screw, and gone way too far on a well worn box, you can have this issue. The old Jeep trucks and many of the old dump trucks I have worked on have had this kind of problem. I have also found damaged bearings, bent sectors and sector shafts, etc.
Joe Young
Any suggestions? Steering boxes seem to not have too many issues that I have seen posted.

 

[DEL03]

Three guesses what it was and all of them count remember there was no noise and my truck drove fine

If you loose the center ball in your half shaft and all the others fall out just in line on only the left side of the shaft they will rotate freely around in the grease welcome to my nightmare

my quick fix I have lots of metal laying around so I found a piece of round stock pressed drilled and reinstalled all the balls and replaced the shim that holds it all together
thank you all for all of your help and if someone could tell me how to paste and copy to here I have all the books and images on dvd

del03

 

[MVtrucker]

Rob,
I just now read your post. I haven't had any steering problems. Other than replacing some tie rod ends, adjusting toe and adjusting the slack in the steering box, I have no other experience on front ends. I don't even know how many turns the steering wheels in my trucks make stop-to-stop.
I fully agree with your input, I overtightened one when I was a kid working on my first car.