Beam steering question

[1newbie]

Buddy of mine just bought this baja as his first offroad car.  I advised him to buy it. Seems very well built from the pics. I will see it first time on friday. Needs minor things like CV greased, new battery, valves adjusted, shifter adjusted, etc. I've never owned a beam car, but he says it is impossible to turn and the steering radius is horrible.  Thoughts?

 

[Bobalos]

IMO, all VW's have a bad turning radius.  my PSD was WAY better than my VW rail.  Ive always thought it was due to the amount of caster built into them, you can almost watch the wheels flop once they go past the middle.  I would guess them big tires make it harder to steer @ low/no speed (does he have a small steering wheel on it too?). 

How does it drive though?

 

[Phil Brown]

Actually, I think VW bugs in stock form have a very good turning radius, its when the so-called experts start changing things for there race suspension. Driven some that drive and turn great and far more that dont. But remember a car with a wide beam in it is probably not going to do a U-turn without being up on the curbs

 

[WheresHotBoat]

Those look like 33's on the front from the pictures on RDC, they also look like 12.50" wide. Without some sort of assist in the steering, it's going to be a major PIA to steer. I'd guess, he probably can't steer it all sitting still, and rolling, it's still going to be pretty rough. Also looking at the pictures, it's hard to tell, but it appears as though it's 100% manual with nothing assisting the steering.

Those wide wheels and tires will also be very hard on whatever spindle those are mounted to. I'd assume they're not stock spindles, but even if they are a combo spindle, it's going to be hard on them, and the link pins.

If it were my car, first thing I'd be doing is putting some 4" wide front wheels, or whatever the skinniest wheel that Raceline makes in that model, then adding a smaller lighter tire. A 33" Mikey Thompson Baja Pro would do the trick. There's also some nice 32-33" UTV tires now, and I've seen them in around a 9" wide version.

Changing to a smaller wheel/tire would be a massive improvement over those front tires, but will still be hard if he keeps them 33's.

I'd also be changing that little steering wheel ASAP as well if he's going to keep the steering manual.

 

[Rockwood]

Steering radius is probably horrible because Ackerman is FUBAR. With center mount steering on most “long travel” beams you get to choose between Ackerman and bumpsteer, one almost always screws the other. 

 

[WheresHotBoat]

I'd also add, with the offset and width of those tires, and the what looks like a 6" beam, that the tires hit the body at full lock, so there could be stops added to the steering to keep it from hitting. If so, again skinnier front tires/wheels will help.

 

[JWHracing]

Definitely need to go to a skinnier wheel and tire package up front. The arms and spindles aren't going to last very long with the current setup. I looked at the pictures on the RDC ad and they look like stock link pin spindles to me with stock link pin arms. If that's the case the driver side spindle snout will be the first part to go since its hollow for the speedometer cable. Not really a good close up picture available in the ad.

The other issue I see is the angle of steering shaft going to the rack. It looks like it has quite a bit of angle on it which will make it stiff to steer if the joints are binding or angled past their limit. The rack could also be setup wrong and could have bump steer causing an issue. It doesn't look like it has a lot cut out of the stock frame head to clear the rack, and usually this has to happen to get the rack as low as possible to set the bump steer correctly. 

The weight of the spare tire on the front might not help either, I'd take that out and see if that makes any sort of difference in how the car drives and handles. 

 

[1newbie]

Thanks guys for all the insight.  I'll post back after I see the thing.  I'm guessing we can add electric power steering which will at least help the steering effort part.