Rusty's tie rod conversion - Bad experience!

[Yucca-Man]

These threads come up with regularity, here on on JF. Obviously, the negative publicity on the forums has little to no effect on sales. There will always be people looking for the dirt-cheap price with no regard for quality, or the ambition to do the research necessary to actually know what they should buy in the first place.

Ever heard of a little company called "Steel Horse" ? Ten years ago, they were THE source for just about every add-on and replacement part for Jeeps. The problem was, they were also the CRAPPIEST source out there for parts. The joke was that everything they made, rusted. People would post that they bought new towhooks, but they were rusty, etc. I am pretty certain that even their cloth soft-tops were rusted, but fortunately I never shelled out more than $15 to support them. Even that purchase was unknowingly their product as I ordered it from a different company.

Long story short - Steel Horse stayed around for YEARS because they had an advertising dpartment. They had the big glossie ads throughout all the big mags, and they had their crap in the bling section of the auto parts chains.

my rustys tie rod conversion fit perfect no clearence issues what so ever and i love it. strage

That's one of the big problems I have with Rusty's - if the fit was universally good or bad, that would be one thing. However, some stuff fits and works, other stuff he makes will rub or break.

When I hear enough reliable folks tell me critical steering components like the trackbar fail frequenly, that's time to consider other options. When the stories have been going on for years like this and he hasn't changed the design to fix it, that's negligent.

What good is a lifetime free replacement policy if failure of that part can kill you or cause severe damage to the vehicle??

 

[alteredxj]

i have run Rusty's products for over seven years and have had some miner problems but he has always worked with me to fix problems. i have one of the first over the knuckle steering setups he sold and toghether we changed some of the design to make it work. and as the owner of a small fab shop i know custmer service is key so maybe im just lucky or its becuse i have meet him a few times but if you treat him the way you want to be treated im shure he would help you

 

[PsychoBoyHappy]

Altered: I never got upset or even raised my voice with them.

All I ever asked was for them to accept it as a store return for another item. I couldn't even get that far, the guy cut me off mid sentence and said he won't take it back. If anything, they should be heeding your advise, not me. I treated the man like a professional, he treated me like an idiot.

Now I want my cash back.

And again: I don't feel that it's acceptable for a steering component to "hit" or "rub" at all. Rusty's is the only place that I've heard anyone say otherwise.

 

[MountainRhino]

the first thing i bought from rustys was a pair of leaf mounts and a pair of shock mounts. Granted these are cheap parts. but....you would think that a company that does jeep parts would have sent me two shock mounts that mount on opposing sides of the axle.....like a JEEP!!! instead they sent me two mounts that are designed to be on the same side of the axle. so i still had to "make " the one work by modifying it. now i have no prob with custom fabrication, but if i just paid someone to do the custom fabrication for me, it was because i didnt want to have to tackle that perticular part of the install equation. seems as if rustys only wants to give you half the quality that you pay for. and i knew that if i ever had to make a return that they would use the "offroad use" as a cop out. its like "no shit it was used off road, thats why your in bussiness right?" sorry for the loss buddy, i feel ya. if your looking for a buyer i might try to score that thing and see if i can modify something and make it work.

 

[MountainRhino]

That's one of the big problems I have with Rusty's - if the fit was universally good or bad, that would be one thing. However, some stuff fits and works, other stuff he makes will rub or break.

When I hear enough reliable folks tell me critical steering components like the trackbar fail frequenly, that's time to consider other options. When the stories have been going on for years like this and he hasn't changed the design to fix it, that's negligent.

What good is a lifetime free replacement policy if failure of that part can kill you or cause severe damage to the vehicle??

some one please tell me how i can put this in my signature!!!

 

[shelbyluvv]

become a paying member!

 

[PsychoBoyHappy]

I have to keep this stuff for now, as this is under review by the Better Business Bureau. If it doesn't work out, I'll sell it off. -Again, thanks for the support.
Shelby: I'm in. I just paid up for the year. I couldn't afford a two or three year because of Rusty's. Ok, ok, I'm done bitching.

I get a sticker, right?

-Hap

 

[95ckee]

i had that same tie rod conversion on my xj. it came on i t when i bought it and was installed by the previous owner. it also hit the bolt on the tracbar yourtalkin about at full turn. the jeep is now in the shop gettin a whole new steering setup and im flipping the tierod on top of the knuckles and using 3/4" heims. and yes i have bought stuff from him and shipping is wayyyyy high there. sometimes you will get your order fast but sometimes its slow. from my experience with him and meeting him in person he seems like a nice guy and will treat you right and work with you. i have only meet him once and spoke with him several times over the telephone and this seems like the better way to deal with him is in person but i know alot of you cant do that. i decided to change my steering to alot better and stronger setup and yes i didnt like that block on the tie rod touchin the bolt either! if its not turned a certain way the tierod end will even hit the bolt. it needs to be looked into and fixed imo. if you have any questions pm me. thank you.

 

[XJCreeper]

Friend don't sell friends Rusty's. Nor do friends let friends buy Rusty's. He used to have good service years ago. But it turned into the poorest service in the world. His business has grown too big for him to be able to call you back anymore and really be helpful. Just my $.02. About 5 years ago I to bought the Rusty's tie rod conversion. I got the dual steering stabilizers option for it too.

I had issues with track bar bolt clearance too. Also the steering has a dead spot when going straight that is kinda annoying. I called Rusty and talked with him about this. He suggested to fix the bolt clearancing problem by adjusting the steering stop on the drivers side. So end result was I had to give up a some passenger side turning circle.

Other than these two major annoyances it it's been solid. I've smacked it into all kinds of rocks, log, and dirt and it's held up. You'd think in all these years Rusty would have improved upon his design to make his product better. So about a month ago I decided I'm done with this steering. This part going in the scrap heap with the broken Rusty's trackbar (another story).

I've now got a plan to rid myself of the Rusty's steering blues. I've got a Terflex knuckle. I'm going to get a JKS tie rod with WJ tie rod ends to tie it all together. The WJ tie rod end are offset which means no contact with the trackbar bolt. Next get a JKS draglink and some stock TRE's. I'll have to move both the swaybar links. Maybe the trackbar bracket, not sure yet. But then again anthing to shake the Rusty's off my XJ's steering.

The only thing Rusty's makes good is his skidplates. These fit well and have not failed yet. However, stay away from all temptation to purchase everything else.

 

[Cipey]

I've had my sc250 for over a year and have not had any probs with it. no clearence problems, turning fine, no wobbles, nothing cracked, nothing rubbing..everything properly greased. iv'e heard good stories and horror stories with rusty's..though i have no problems with the only product i have from 'em.i guess its hit or miss...mostly miss from what it sounds like here...i feel for your bad experience.

cipey

 

[styx]

I just finished installing the 8" Rusty's LA. All the parts are solid enough. One of the adj. coil spacers I ordered wasn't tapped, but I wrote an email to that effect and Rusty called me personally and promised to send me a replacement with return shipping. So all was good. But after openning all the boxes I discovered they had forgotten to ship one of the boxes, or at least forgot to include the brake lines and frame bracket for the track bar. I wrote them and let them know and they sent them, but it took three weeks to get all the rest of the parts.

 

[Ba-Riedo]

i ordered a rustys 4.5 inch lift for my jeep in may and ups lost one of the leafs, i called rustys up and they overnighted me a new leaf.

the guys there were nice and they didnt give me trouble over it

 

[xjbubba]

What I find interesting, is that other's experience seems to have little affect on the purchasing decisions of most (all?) people who are so advised. I've seldom, if ever, read a thread concerning Rusty's that the preponderance of posts were not anti Rusty's. So why would any one buy from them?

 

[eng mastiff]

I have the Rusty's adj track bar and frame stiffener. 1st i had to remove the frame stiffener because it was rubbing the track bar. 2nd the adj track bar came apart while i was driving down the road. the treads on the adjustable piece stripped right off. I having the bar welded back together rather than fighting with them over a new piece. One thing we could do is post a link to this thread on every offroad web site we can find.

 

[RyanM]

One thing we could do is post a link to this thread on every offroad web site we can find.

This, and the 30 other Anti-Rustysoffroad threads.