Who's using steering reinforcement plates or braces?

[88MJay]

I was curious to hear individuals impressions of the C-Rok plates or the ORGS plates. Also, is anyone running a box brace like the Rusty's or MORE's?

 

I just ordered a set of C-Rok plates off their website.

 

http://www.c-rok.com/sb.html

[JeepcoMJ]

duct tape works pretty good...

 

j/k. IDK anything about them but would like to learn :D

[pingpong]

Casper has the C-rok plates, no cracks, so I gues it does what it is suppose to :dunno:

 

 

Pong has a Rigidco bumper that has the box plates and no cracks, so I guess it works :dunno:

 

 

But.... I have never had a XJ or MJ develop cracks either :hmm:

[88MJay]

I've only seen a couple pics of steering boxes ripped off an XJ frame. It really would be a bad thing if you were a few miles from a trailer. I suppose it's good insurance.

[Pete M]

A good front bumper is pretty much mandatory for me and I used 1/4" plate for the brackets and they also work as a frame brace.

 

[DirtyComanche]

Mine started to pull the bolts - not crack. You could visibly see where the washers were.

 

 

 

I made my own. There's no rocket science - you just need thicker metal to spread the load.

 

 

Oh, and I went to hydro assist too. That helps!

[88MJay]

I will probably upgrade to hydro assist at some point. Will make a good winter project next year.

[DirtyComanche]

I will probably upgrade to hydro assist at some point. Will make a good winter project next year.

 

 

I did mine in about 3 days of actual work. And I work killer slow (see my DD thread...).

 

 

It is a little more complicated if you're working with a D30 though.

[88MJay]

I work slow too on stuff like that when I can. I'm sure it will be one of several winter "to-do's". Did you go the cheapo "NAXJA" described route?

[DirtyComanche]

No, because the blokes at NAXJA don't know what they're talking about :roll: . Actually, I think BrettM's route on there works fine. But I don't remember as I looked at it a long time ago. You NEED at least an 8" ram unless you have VERY short steering arms (IIRC, he called for that in his cheap thread). And you should NOT put any washers, blocks, limiters, etc in them. I don't care what they say, that is wrong. You do NOT do that to hydraulic rams. The steering box has its own pressure cutoffs which should be LONG before you break a knuckle.

 

 

I went to a local tractor supply and had my hoses made and bought the ram. Drill and tapped a spare box. Then made the brackets. Nothing else to it. Well, I pulled the front axle and steering for welding. The only other kicker is I used a 10"x2" (IIRC) ram because it was on sale.

[offroader461]

would those c-rock plates work with my protofab front bumper?? Its hard to tell if they would work with the mounting brackets on my bumper?

[holeski]

We design all of our bumpers with similar reinforcing plates. It makes a differing in how steering responds on most XJ/MJ