Desert Rat posted these pics on the AC board:

The hill he was climbing:


The result:


The carnage:




For those with AC accounts,
here\'s the thread .

Brent

Increased tire size + offset = goodbye centerlink. Good to hear he had some spares. With that offset, I'd carry a lot spares with me. It's bound to happen again.

In the thread he tells the whole story, the centerlink went and when this happens the tie rod end can hit the frame which it did...factor in the power steering as he is turning with the tie rod against the frame and something has to break. For the price of one Nissan adjuster you get a pair of EOE HD tie rod adjusters that are much, much stronger so the upgrade is well worth it. Without swapping our tie rod ends there really is no way to make the adjusters stronger, the threaded portion needs to be a certain diameter. Brent do you actually think ANY aftermarket part is indestructible?

Stainless or Chromoly ?

Are those front fenders on his Frontier from an Xterra?

Yes, they are X fenders, covered in Line-X or such.

Todd, no, I never thought they were indestructable. I just thought folks would want to know that even EOE tie rod adjusters can actually snap instead of bending like the other.

Brent

Chromoly, I did some testing last week of various raw materials(thinner though so I could bend it by hand) and the new stainless and the old chromoly materials would bend almost at the same amount of pressure. I also threw a stock Nissan adjuster into the mix and let's just say it only took one hand and not much force to get it to bend. Maybe I should make a truss for the tie rod adjusters

Brent it did snap but not under any kind of normal circumstance, I am sure he is glad it did snap though since he could have damaged the steering box or ripped it from the frame.

I think we all know it wasn't a "normal" circumstance Todd, but I see why you need to spell it out since it's your product you're defending (rightfully so).
The fact that stronger tie rods will put increased stress on the rest of the steering system is also known. Apparently they're still the weak link, just not as weak as before.

Brent

Isn't the centerlink what broke first, causing the tie rod to snap after it contacted the frame?

I spent two full days in Moab with a broken Moog idler arm. The inboard tie-rod ends hit the frame constantly (leaving very deep cuts), and I didn't break a tie-rod. It all depends on how hard you hammer the truck.

View this video to see how bad it was.

According to the thread that's what happened, I think he was going up the hill when it all happened so he did not want to stop.

Brent I am not attacking you, your right I just want to make sure everyone knows the circumstances of the incident. BTW: He is ordering new EOE HD tie rod adjusters.

that's how my front end looked after this weekend at shamokin.

I know you weren't, but on the surface it almost read that way. No sweat. BTW, I hope mine are on the way, I want to put them in before I leave on Friday...

Brent

Are they all chromoly? We at SOXC have about 10 on oredr and would like to know what we are getting. BTW any word on our order? You would have spoken to a guy named Dan.

All of the new adjusters are made from Stainless. Part of your order left today and some will leave tomorrow, Dan should have all of it in just a few days...BTW thanks for your order!

Todd are you using 4140 or 4340 for the parts?

FWIW, you can break *anything* if you set your mind to it, or drive recklessly. Hell, even a random failure of the finest components can happen.

I for one wouldn't mind a set of these and an idler arm brace. The front-end is filled with lots of neat little parts that like to snap on the trail...