"Best" Heavy Duty Manual Rack & Pinion

[Jaden]

What are your opinions on who Makes the Strongest Manual Rack and Pinion? Is it the Diablo Manual Rack by Howe. My Brother In Law has an old Sand Car that he wants to Put a Manual Rack and Pinion with Electric Steering. What would you suggest? With this set up do you think it would work on a Car that weighs between 3000-4000 LBS? Last question; which do you prefer Center or End Load?

Thanks in advance for the input.

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[Jaden]

Any suggestions?

[mexracer10]

Howe diablo rack prolly the best then the saco magnum rack is a good unit, just stay away from the cheap latest rage racks.

[slvrbullet]

Isn't the Diablo rack for beam cars? I have seen the Howe H.D sand car rack used on numerous sand cars with the charlynn set-up. What company are you going with for the electric steering?

[Jaden]

As far as I know there are only two Aftermarket Kits available. (If you know of other options feel free to supply a link) Flaming River and Unisteer. We have not used or have feed back on either system. The Flaming river unit is used mostly in Classic cars and hot rods and is very pricey at almost $6,000. The Unisteer is a much more affordable option at $1,000. I just don't know how these two compare in strength and tuning (laptop) with a manual rack. He is looking at an A Arm set-up, that is why we were thinking of the Diablo Rack by Howe.

Ideas?

Which rack do you think is stronger, the Manual Diablo Rack or the Howe Sand Car Rack Wide Spread. I don't think we can use the Howe HD Sand Car Wide Rack as there is no input shaft. Unless I am mistaken. Any and all help is welcome.

Links:

Racks: http://offroadwarehouse.com/products.../810/sfID3/813

Unisteer: http://www.unisteer.com/search_by_pr...tra-steer.html

Flaming River: http://www.flamingriver.com/index.php/products/c0018/s0001/FR40105

[slvrbullet]

http://www.lindsay-engineering.com I found in the classifieds while browsing for parts looks promising. The other units I don't think will last in the desert environment or take the abuse. My biggest concern with all the units I have seen so far is if the motors themselves are sealed enough to withstand the elements such as water, silt, dirt, and sand. I know that electric motors can produce an amazing amount of torque which is good for power steering. EPS has been used by Honda for a while and have achieved great results with it and is one reason why the get such great gas mileage.

[Jaden]

Cool, thanks for the link. EPS is pretty cool, it would be nice if there was a system that could handle TT and Class 1 abuse. It would save weight, save HP, and be less complicated than all of the hoses brackets and Fab work for Hydraulic Systems. My Girlfriend has it on her RX-8, I didn't even know it was an EPS System till I got to talking to a guy at AutoZone when I was replacing her battery.

[EPS GUY]

Thought I'd share a typical story that speaks volumes about the Lindsay L-EPS and its success. This is the entire contents of an email from a very satisied customer who has a very nice class 5 unlimited.

"Jim, Just got back from Baja, put about 700 miles on my car the power steering unit is amazing thats all I can say. Mike"

http://www.lindsay-engineering.com/

[Odyknuck]

I have the Howe system with a Saco magnum rack on my 2500# Woodsbuggy. I have the Unisteer on my Can am Commander. There is absolutly no comparsion between the two. The Howe system is essentially a 2 finger steering setup were as the Unisteer requires 2 hands most of the time.