bartmanS4
06/17/2013, 11:09 AM
So I installed a set of the HD tie rods from Indy4X4 which went smoothly and these really are much beefier than the stock ones. Then I went to Firestone and got me a lifetime alignment.
I had a free day yesterday and decided to head down to the Great Sand Dunes by way of Medano Pass. While driving down the highway from Denver to Pueblo I noticed that although the VX was driving fine the steering wheel was off center and getting ever so slowly worse appearing to be turning left. I stopped for gas and took at the tie rods to see if I could see a problem. Well the locking nuts, all four of them were completely loose. I used a couple of big crescent wrenches to lock them down and decided to continue on. The rest of the trip the VX did fine although it is a little squirrely on the highway, not bad though. I am pretty pissed off though at Firestone. That is a very dangerous mistake to make. Imagine if one of the tie rods let go at highway speed. I'm heading back to their shop now to give them a piece of my mind. I don't want to get anyone fired but I do want to stress to them the implications of this error.
P.S. Medano Pass was a lot of fun, I teamed up with a Jeeper at the air down stop and he was pretty impressed with the VX's capabilities. Not that the trail was very tough. I wanted to scout it out for a friend that has a stock LR Discovery. He should be fine doing this trail. I did see a bear too!
I had a free day yesterday and decided to head down to the Great Sand Dunes by way of Medano Pass. While driving down the highway from Denver to Pueblo I noticed that although the VX was driving fine the steering wheel was off center and getting ever so slowly worse appearing to be turning left. I stopped for gas and took at the tie rods to see if I could see a problem. Well the locking nuts, all four of them were completely loose. I used a couple of big crescent wrenches to lock them down and decided to continue on. The rest of the trip the VX did fine although it is a little squirrely on the highway, not bad though. I am pretty pissed off though at Firestone. That is a very dangerous mistake to make. Imagine if one of the tie rods let go at highway speed. I'm heading back to their shop now to give them a piece of my mind. I don't want to get anyone fired but I do want to stress to them the implications of this error.
P.S. Medano Pass was a lot of fun, I teamed up with a Jeeper at the air down stop and he was pretty impressed with the VX's capabilities. Not that the trail was very tough. I wanted to scout it out for a friend that has a stock LR Discovery. He should be fine doing this trail. I did see a bear too!