Can anyone offer 1st hand experience on using one of these boxes?Curious how well they hold up,I'm sure some of the pros here have installed them. http://www.wizardsteerclear.com/
I saw and felt them at the SEMA show, and they seemed really well made. No slop, nice finish, well made "billet" part. Super pricey, but when your life's on the line, there is no "too much" to spend. On the other hand; Jason at Bear metal Kustoms built his own using two SBC crank sprockets and timing chain, worked out bitchin! I've driven the touring "T" that it's in, and it has no slop. http://www.bearmetalkustoms.com/Photo%20Home/Car%20Picture%20Links/Touring%20T/TouringTPhoto02_FullSize.html I'm the machinist at BMK and we could build you one for less. PM Jason/ Bear Metal Kustoms to inquire about cost, prob. only charge time and materials, but don't quote me on that, I just make the parts I told to, I don't have anything to do with the billing.
Hey, glad to see I'm no the only one who did that! I thought the Wizard's concept was great, but way too pricey for such a simple design. I did the same as BMK did, but enclosed in an aluminum box and with Ford parts. If I can dig up pics from my old computer I'll post them. Basically, it's 2 sprockets, timing chain, roller guides, and flaming river u-joints. Simple.
I've installed several steer clear units in my own cars and customers cars and I can tell you this, they work very well and most importantly they are a proven design. I've had people say they built one years ago, but I'd say it was mostly talk or some unrefined piece of ----- It earned the covented SEMA award for best engineered new product. That is an almost impossible award to get. I saw the bare metal kustoms version and ( no offense) but I would never use a product that poorly designed. Anything gets in that mechanism and you're out of control. Like any product, someone can produce some sort of copy for less and by pass alot of design details, it is actually a complicated simple product if it is throughly designed. Wizard, who is an accomplished fabricator took over 2 years to perfect a design that could be sold with confidense./ As for your average machinists who might have the ability to make one, ask if he has any product liability insurance for manufacturing a steering product. After he buys that see if he still thinks Steer Clear is to expensive. People using the product include, Kugel, Pinky's rod shop, Steve's auto restorations, and One is on the car Chip Foose drove to high school (34 ford sedan) By the way, before someone starts whipping you up one Steer Clear is patent pending. The idea is obvious get more foot room, more clearance for steering/headers and be a safer car to drive..
I feel like I just got done watching a Ronco infamercial from a guy who appears out of nowhere with 1 post.
no shit! the one bear customs made looks great to me. it does need to go a step further and be enclosed, simple sheetmetal enclosure would work.
Someone in Australia developed a product like that to convert left hand drive cars imported from the US to Oz right hand drive. Same sort of thing, an enclosed box with sprockets, chains, tensioners, but about four foot long! It was claimed to retain the original car's steering geometry, but I don't know how safe I'd feel driving a car with it installed under the dash. (but having seen a 60's Dodge 426 hemi charger converted to RHD using an early Falcon sedan steering box, I'd probably feel better than in that!) Cheers, Glen.
How much would you pay for something of this quality? Wait, don't answer, because if you order in the next 15 minutes......... Operators are standing by.
That was a shot of the car DURING the build, before it was complete. I thought it should have a cover of some kind, but once the interior was in, there was no way for anything to get inside the chain and gears, so no cover was needed. First of all, I'm not your AVERAGE production machinist, I'm a plastic injection mold maker, which means I have to hold a tolerance of +/- .0001 on all parts of the molding surface. I've also designed molds that were FAR more complex than this simple little gear box, and those molds had to run a minimum of 1.5 MILLION parts before needing ANY servicing, and they ran 2.3 from the first, and after some minor changes, they got 3.1 million from the next 3 molds I built for them. Do you know how much tension it takes to break a SBC timing chain? What about the crank gears, do you know how strong those are? Think about the job there designed to do, and the force excerted on them, this little gear box will NEVER see those kind of forces, even if something got in there. And, fuck-you for calling this"some kind of un-refined piece of shit!" Your statment makes you look like a salesman for wizard, or someone who makes money off of goldchainers with more money that brains or skill. I don't think your in the right garage, bubba. Go back to Boyds and suck it, you'll get more attention there.
Sorryfor upsetting you, but I call it like I see it. I do know how strong timing chains are, and how much force is used while steering a car but the real issue is jamming and possible shock. Parts can be bullet proof, but when you've been building and driving hot rods for 40 years you know if it can go wrong it will. One of my customers told me of this question on the HAMB so I replyed. So take your salesman bullshit and stick it. I've seen my share of really crappy cars in the last few years and I've seen alot of really great cars built by young guys who really get it, I don't know any of you and I don't give a shit how you build anything. I just offered info from my experience, as far as I can tell none of you really had any experience with the product. As a professional builder I look at something long and hard before I use it or before I make my own version of it. For your info the NSRA rejected a give away 32 ford roadster built by Progessive about 20 years ago, because it had a unit almost identical to BMC They were the first to call it a piece of shit. After that they made a safety rule outlawing any device of this nature. I've spoken with NSRA and while they like the steer clear product, they won't make an exception for it because they said what will we do when someone builds a piece of shit So, if all you want is praise for your stuff and no negatives............You''re right I'm in the wrong garage
Wow.. You are a jackass...To answer all your quetions and negative comments...... I designed that thing off of an article I saw in an old rod mag. It was built for one car to solve a problem.( not mass produced and I only needed 8 inches of drop, something that steer clear still does not offer) I left some of the mechanics exposed because i liked the mechanical look of it. It wasn't some mystery chunk of aluminum. By the way, it was built before Steer Clear won his coveted I don't give a fuck award.... As a FNG rod builder of mystery.. Put your name out there, Mine is. For your info, I do have experience with the steer clear unit. I talked to him in length at SEMA last year.He is on the HAMB and had seen my post about building it. I think the steer clear idea is great and he makes a great product..BUT... He didn't think of it. He just spent all the time refining and getting the patent on it. Are you selling these for him? Yes, I do have crazy high liability insurance and all the other crap to go with having a shop including fabrication of parts and installation.. Yes, the NSRA does not allow them to run. So what.. They don't allow a lot of other things that have lots of proven road miles. I am no salesman for my stuff... If someone wants it, they wait till I do it for them. The friend/part time empoyee of mine that posted about the unit did so without me knowing about it. He is a trained expert machinist. To call my unit a POS without having any experience with it is pretty chicken shit. There is an old saying about lots of ways to skin a cat.. This is my way. Jason.
Either the Steer Clear or the BMK versions look really interesting to me, and look as if they'd solve a potential problem for me (down the road) when it comes to needing all of the legroom I can possibly squeeze out of my rides. Personally, I like the 'industrial look' of the BMK version better, and for the price, there's no question. As for the strength of a SBC timing chain, that looks like a double sprocket chain, which is just that much stronger. Learning new ideas and sharing experiences are both why I'm here on the HAMB. This is just another neat idea I can add to the old filing drawer of the toolbox.
Just for the record.... I do not sell my steering drop set up. I was just showing in the original thread how I solved a problem on a model T the shop built so we could have 3 pedals in the car and still have some foot room. One more thing, His price at $595 isn't far out of line. Most hot rod shops charge at least $65 an hour for fab work. That is only 9 hours of fab time. I know I had more than 9 hours of design and build time in the unit I made. I know guys that spend more than that having louvers punched or adding chrome or polished trinkets. Jason.
A friend of mine ordered a Steer Clear unit for a Model A project over a year and a half ago. He just got it last month. I believe he ordered it thru Speedway and after calling the factory was told they were not producing until they got a set amount of orders. He is impressed with the unit but put him way behind on his build.
This is nothing new, circle track cars have had them since the 70's that I know of. I have built them out of timing chain sets, and they have never broken. The Steer Clear is not anything new.
Thats how they do movie scenes when the actual actor has to be behind the wheel. the pro driver steers from the passenger side.
Old thread but a interesting read for sure, you know, all the internet drama! Ha! I'm installing a 10" version, and I bought it direct and it arrived a week after I ordered it.
Looks like a solid product, but damn is it ugly. I might consider it if it could be reasonably tucked under the dash, maybe upholstered over... If I opened the hood, or worse yet ran a car with no hood, and saw that thing stuck to the firewall, I'd fix the situation once and for all by putting a for sale sign in the window.
stay tuned as the drama continues admit it joe if it had a polished look you would be in line for one
The Jalopy Journal
