Hey guys. I'm thinking about pulling the trigger on a red head steering box for my truck. I've heard good things about the boxes, plus they are in the same state as me! Looking at their website, they offer a 15-1 and an 18-1 ratio box. I think the 15-1 is for gassers and the 18-1 is for diesels? What does everybody think? Anybody using one or the other for their gassers?

http://www.redheadsteeringgears.com/...-steering-gear

 

Several members have one. 99% of them were happy with it. One member had some issues, but, the company took care of it right away..... They are pricey, but, in this case, you most certainly get what you pay for. (I think there are a few threads laying about on this particular topic as well. )

 

I have one on my gasser, I'd recommend it. Much better than the stock one I had in my truck.

That's right, you want the 15-1.

 

I think the 18:1 takes an extra turn from lock to lock but you get more torque from it for turning bigger tires/slower speed off roading.

 

Ok yeah they are the same price but I thought 18-1 was maybe over kill for it. I certainly don't plan on putting any bigger tires than my 265's now. I'm also going to finally put in my rock solid ram steering upgrade this weekend too...3 years after I bought it

 

No point rushing in to anything.

 

I need to vent a bit. I tried to install the rock solid ram steering today and let me tell you that is the biggest headache to install. I fought that thing for 8 hours today and still don't have it right. My problem is, my bushing I got from them is just a hair too big circumference wise to fit into the steering tube. Well i got it in there a ways, no where near the min. 60% in they want, so I started actually texting the rock solid guy asking what to do. He said pull it back out and cut through one side of it with a hacksaw, that gap should allow it to shrink a bit when i go to put it in next. Well, it took me 3 hours to get it back off the shaft because that baby was on there tight (not even 1/4 of the way on there). And of course there's no room to get any tool in there to help hardly. Many curse words later got it off, double checked for burrs and found none. Now my bushing is pretty mangled on the outside of it from channel locks. So i took it to the vice and cut through one side of it. When i went to put it back on, i realized that cutting through one side doesn't do s*** other than make it worse because when that gap i cut squeezes tighter in the tube, it will squeeze tighter on the shaft, therefore not going in any further. If you guys who have it don't recall, they want it to be a minimum of 60% of the way into the steering tube. Being frustrated as hell, i got a marker, marked the halfway point and what i thought was the 60% point and tried to put it back in. This time it's probably about 40% of the way in there and i put a hose clam to act as the retainer for now and went to drive it. I can feel the difference right off the bat as far as clunking goes and feeling tighter. Except the steering wheel is now harder to turn and when shifting the gear selector, it turns the steering wheel a bit too. I've never been so frustrated installing anything in my life. I'm kind of thinking i'm going to have to pull the damn steering column to actually be able to see if there's a problem that i can't see from above. Can i leave it at about the 40% of the way in mark? Any suggestions? I'm pretty sure i have it on there good again and it'll be a pain to get off so I'm tempted just to say eff it and leave it.

 

Might be further ahead just pulling the column, and setting it someplace where you can actually work on it easily. If it is too tight on the steering shaft, roll some sandpaper, stick it in the hole, and sand out the inside some, to give a bit more clearance. A little grease on install probably wouldn't hurt either....

Good luck....

 

A couple weeks ago I broke the sector shaft on my Redhead box (~2 years old). To be clear, this has seen alot of wheeling in rocks and assorted trails, plus the daily street. There was nothing wrong with the box in how it performed up to the break point. The break point was due to hitting a bear on the way home from a trail ride. :/

I made a call to Redhead to inquire, even though warranty was up. 2 things I learned, it is a Delphi box (64 housing) and that they have modded the box at the sector shaft (iirc) to allow for 2 seals.

Reman boxes from Autoparts stores are typically 84 housing.