Steering
If you have too much play in the steering, excessive amounts of body roll, or even looking for better handling, notice our extensive selection of steering components available to get the job done. We offer steering braces and stabilization bars to decrease body roll and immediately improve handling of the vehicle, making it easier to drive and giving a more “controlled” feel of the vehicle. Get in control of your vehicle and give us a call today!
Chassis Bracing
Car guys know that an automotive chassis’ function is to hold the vehicle’s mechanisms together while the car is in motion, all while being loaded by forces that are transferred to it by the suspension, through the wheels. With standard OEM components like the tires, shocks, springs, bushings and a stock drivetrain, whatever loads are shifted to the chassis can be handled by the initial design. The challenge arises when you add tackier and wider tires, stiffer springs and shocks, stiffer bushings and more power. You then get undesirable chassis flex that affects the way your car handles. (NOT GOOD.)
The best solution for a stiff chassis would be a carbon fiber tub or a chassis that has been stitch-welded with a roll cage added. Highly impractical for a street car or family car (Yes, we build fun family cars, too.) Here lies the simple solution – chassis braces. Old-timers will at once be personally familiar with the simplest of these, the strut brace. This, even today, is one of the first add-ons you purchase when you put a chassis brace on your car. Lucky for you, we have an absolute ton of brands, braces, and configurations all ready to be installed onto YOUR car!
Steering Components
Altering a vehicle’s suspension will inevitably change the way that it drives and handles. For example, when lifting or lowering a vehicle, sometimes it can cause a little extra play in the steering and one may need to tweak the system to prevent future premature wear and tear (such as tie rods, control arms, steering stabilizers). The best way to control your steering is to modify how you drive to fit your modification whether it be lowering or lifting. Luckily, 4×4 & Outdoor is your one stop shop for ALL things steering. We have access to hundreds of brands for all makes and models, from lifted trucks to lowered cars, we have the setup that you need!
Stabilizer/Sway Bars
What is a sway bar? A sway bar actually tends to keep the car from swaying (or more specifically, from leaning to one side or the other). That is what a sway bar does: counteract body lean. The sway bar applies force to the suspension on each side, upward on one side and downward on the other, that tends to withstand the leaning.
Every sway bar is a torsion spring — a piece of metal that resists twisting force. The sway bar is attached at each end, one end to one wheel and at the other end to the opposite wheel (both fronts or both rears) so that in order for the wheel on one side to be higher than that on the other, the bar has to twist. The sway bar resists that twist, therefore forcing the vehicle’s suspension to remain level.
For one thing, it can be uncomfortable, disconcerting, or even dangerous for a vehicle to possess too much body roll in turns. More subtly, uncontrolled body roll tends to cause the wheels’ alignment, and in particular their camber to change, reducing how well they can grip the road; limiting body roll also tends to keep camber of the wheels under control, meaning more constant grip for braking and turning.