Litesteer power steering

Shhh. Don't tell them, they're never know

Dear Martin

We are glad you bought this to our attention, if there was ever a concern over our power steering kits then we would rather know about it so a solution can be initiated.

Danbury were right to bring the play in the wheel to your attention as this is one or the many checks that is carried out during a routine service.

The play was indeed investigated by The Old Dub Shop, the steering box was inspected and Martin and I were assured that a slight adjustment would remedy it. And as we can see from Martins response it did.

As for the litesteer putting extra strain on the box, the effort to turn the road wheels remains constant regardless of power steering (EPS), all the EPS does is simply make the turning of the wheel easier.

This will only cause stress during "static steering" and we explain to all our customers that just because you can turn the wheel at standstill it should be avoided at all costs with or without EPS

As for the steering box the internals are very similar in design to the Late bay box, the only difference is the pinion shaft bearings being taper roller rather than single ball race.

In comparison the early bay steering box is considered inferior to both the Late Bay and Brazilian Kombi, and we have vans on the road with litesteer kits on since 2007 with no problems.

We can understand the concern over this as this is a safety related component and if we had at any point felt the fitting of a EPS system would compromise the vehicle we would have not developed it.

Any argument regarding EPS causing the box to require adjustment is only valid if a Brazilian box has never needed adjusting with or without EPS.

If anyone has any further questions I am happy to answer them.

Regards

Neil

Thank you Neil for your quick response and clearing up any queries. I was always taught ( Herndon trained, Dizzy will understand) never to dry stear wether a vehicle has power steering assistance or not.

Hi Neil. Thanks for the response. As always I'm delighted with the way this has been handled. Good to know that there are excellent communication lines when an issue like this arises.

irishman wrote:

( Herndon trained, Dizzy will understand)

I know exactly what this means - it was repeatedly quoted whenever I was out in my best mate's XR2 with him until the day he smashed it into a ditch, whereupon it was systematically dropped from discussion henceforth. #plodspeak

irishman wrote:

I was always taught ( Herndon trained, Dizzy will understand) never to dry stear wether a vehicle has power steering assistance or not.

True story....... one day our garage decided to paint the floor with anti-grip paint so they could turn the wheels of the cars when stationary...........unfortunately the forgot to tell Traffic ...... my mate rides in on his Norton Commando, brakes............ends up sidewaways against the back wall.

Almost as funny as when a sprog mechanic decided to put copper grease on the new fangled disc brakes on the aforementioned bikes to stop them going rusty.

(BTW apologies if I am missing replying in other posts, computers on the blink and shuts off after 5 mins, waiting for a new one to arrive.)

Love it Dizzy, many such 'happy stories'.

Sorry guys but Ive asked Mat and yes it does affect the Danbury warranty. We believe that the original 'steering box' is simply not designed to be used with a modern power
steering system which we believe places more load on the steering box. When
Danbury fits its official power steering system we remove the steering box and replace it with a modern 'rack and pinion' steering system (which also gives far less 'play' in the steering) . This is also reinforced to take the additional stresses that power steering can create.

We originally considered the cheaper option of simply fitting power
assistance to the standard box but during evaluation of this type of system
we did not feel it was a well engineered long term safe solution.

We have seen a number of these steering boxes with large amounts of play, even
when we adjusted the steering box the play returned within a short period.
Given the fact that steering is fundamentally a safety critical component we
do not advocate trying to retro fit power steering to the original steering
box system. I can confirm that the warranty will not cover items that have
been modified or adapted and have failed as a result. The Danbury official supplied and fitted 'direct drive' (rack and pinion steering) and the Danbury power steering do not affect the Danbury warranty.

In that case Jason, I suppose I might as well avoid the long drive to Yate and have the servicing done locally.

Really looking forward to the Kombi Sleepover.

Its only that part if affects and we will always do our best to help out such a loyal customer as you :-) We cant however warranty other companies / people's equipment especially after evaluation.

Point taken, Jason.

We would like to add that all Oakley innovations products come with a 2 year warranty and have full Product liability insurance.

That's great Neil. Good to know.

Just dropped off my 'boy' with Neil for his new power steering. Very excited. Pick up tomorrow and then a long drive home to put it to the test. Must stop going to Anita's in future. The wish list is getting too long and expensive.

You will have such an amazing drive home, it will feel like a brand new bus!

According to my watch, my drive home from Litesteer took almost twice as long as driving there. Apparently there was some traffic but to be honest I didn't really notice as I was having so much fun!

Firebird - You've Got The Power   
Would be interested in your reaction
Roo b Roo
 

Reactions during the 2.5 hour journey home….

1. Blown away rather than Blown about.
2. 21st Century Driving in a 20th Century Camper.
3. Will have to find another away, to keep my Bingo Wings* at Bay. (*Upper Arms)
4. Life can now be classed as 'Before Power Steering' and 'After Power Steering'
5. No regrets at blowing the Housekeeping and feeding my children grass for the next 10 weeks.

This is just amazing. What have i been driving for the past 15 months?

Definitely a good decision, I'm sure grass must have some nutritional value & I find elbow length tops work wonders for the bingo wings! Love my power steering, in awe that you managed to drive it without!!

Welcome to the club, think it's generally well known by now, that I love my Litesteer, life changing.

From your reaction, a worthwhile investment then Firebird!  

Carlos wrote:

I've got Litesteer fitted to my bus with a german steering box and have recently fitted a narrowed beam, its excellent and has made a vast difference.

The van steering is greatly improved and have driven about 1500 miles of French autoroute, without worring about artics and cross winds or the previous feel of steering a tall ship.

I'm not sure whether Carlos is still on the forum, but does anyone have experience or knowledge of fitting a narrowed beam? I'm still looking for a way of improving the steering on my van, hopefully at a lower cost than rack and pinion, and the experience Carlos mentioned is exactly what I am looking for. My van already has lowered suspension by the way.

Hi Alderley,

Not convinced that a narrowed beam will improve tour steering, if anything it will be worse as the track width is reduced therefore changing the Roll centre.

Narrowed beams are usually fitted to "slammed" vans that have there tyres rubbing on the wheel tubs

neillitesteer wrote:

Hi Alderley,

Not convinced that a narrowed beam will improve tour steering, if anything it will be worse as the track width is reduced therefore changing the Roll centre.

Narrowed beams are usually fitted to "slammed" vans that have there tyres rubbing on the wheel tubs

Thanks Neil, worst case for me would be to pay for what I thought might be a lower cost solution and then find that there was no noticeable improvement. I recall that last time we talked you were working on putting rack and pinion onto a Brazilian bay. I would be very interested to know how that one turns out.

I had Litesteer fitted to Eddie today. Thank you Paul Brand for an excellent job. Paul even drove to Tunbridge Wells to pick up a part that was missing!
I have to say the drive home was such a different experience. It actually took a bit of getting used to but once I did.........WOW
It was a lovely warm evening so I wound the window down, turned the music up, stuck an elbow out, and cruised round each bend one handed. Happy Days.

It's great isn't it? Best mod we've had since we got Absinthe. Enjoy.