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heims vs TRE's

muddybuddy

muddybuddy

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anyone running Heims on their rigs instead of TRE's? a friend who used to have a ZJ on fullwidths said that he stripped the threads off his 1 ton TRE's while wheeln and said i should look into running Heims for my steering instead. what are ur guys opinions on that?
 
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Heims wear much faster and without the tapered connection in the steering arm the single shear heim setup will quickly make your steering arm worthless (it will make an oval out of the round hole you started with). Unless its trail only, heims are out of the question IMO.
 
I ran the tractor link ends on my Toyota. They were cheap and wore out in about 9 months. But at less than $20 for 2 of them, they were cheap enough to replace. The steering felt very firm and responsive with them. I would run them again, but would use good ones. I would also set them up in double shear if I could just for the added piece of mind. I didn't have problems with them in single shear.
 
You pretty much have to run a double shear mounting and don't get cheap heims get nice ones there is a huge range of quality you can get. Personally haveing had both I would do TREs over heims. TRE you grease em and forget em I took my heims off twice a year at least to clean them out.
 
somehow at tellico my friend running 1ton tre's fullwidths on a zj on 36's was able to sheer the threads out and left him stranded on the trail, cuz he thought the 1ton tre's had no worries. anybody else experience anything like this? might have been a defective tre, i dont know.

i want my steering to be as close to perfect as possible as well as strong as possible. so you think TRE's would be stronger? im at the point where im going to be getting new steering arms and using bigger tubing for the tierod and draglink so nows the time to make changes if i want.

keep the opinions coming! opinions are like a-holes, everybodys got one:D
 
ive always heard 1 ton TRE's are the way to go unless you have double sheer. if you were running trail only id say get some bling heims in double sheer
 
the truck is going to hopefully be "daily driven" eventually. ive got time, so ill figure things out, was trying to get some opinions on the setup.
 
I'm running 3/4 inch hiems from summit racing, with cold rolled steel bar steering arms, and grade 9 areospace 3/4 diameter bolts holding the whole setup together and been this way for 2 years, I clean them everytime I get them dirty and there is no play or wear on any part.

different guys here will say different things but my stuff has not broken or worn out. Nuff said.
 
BoondocK5 said:
I'm running 3/4 inch hiems from summit racing, with cold rolled steel bar steering arms, and grade 9 areospace 3/4 diameter bolts holding the whole setup together and been this way for 2 years, I clean them everytime I get them dirty and there is no play or wear on any part.

different guys here will say different things but my stuff has not broken or worn out. Nuff said.
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how would you feel bout driving it on the street?
 
It's tighter than any TRE setup I've ever driven it goes straight down the road with no wondering
 
tre's have a greater working angle and when i was building the willy's steering i was talked out of heims. Well on my cherokee i went to tre's as they are $12 each and every parts store will have one in stock (happens to be a 36 to 86 cj series end) when ya break a heim you better have spares.

I do however have a heim where my tie rod and draglink come together as i couldn't get the taper in the right way.
 
muddybuddy said:
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the truck is going to hopefully be "daily driven" eventually.
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TRE's!

The TRE that stripped the threads, was the jam nut loose? Did it strip the threads on the TRE or in the link? What says an SRE wouldn't have stripped in that exact situation?
 
ntsqd said:
TRE's!

The TRE that stripped the threads, was the jam nut loose? Did it strip the threads on the TRE or in the link? What says an SRE wouldn't have stripped in that exact situation?
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the threads stripped in the tie-rod and both wheels pointed outwards opposite ways:doah: unforuntaely i dont know the exact scenario bout the jam nut. i was just talking to him that i was going hi-steer and he felt very strongly that heims were the way to go. i had heard talk bout heims on steering setups, but wanted some updated info:D

if i was going to do heims, i would get nice big ones, not cheap ones. but depending on how much those big bling heims are it might be cheaper to just get 2 spare TRE's.
 
muddybuddy said:
the threads stripped in the tie-rod and both wheels pointed outwards opposite ways:doah: unforuntaely i dont know the exact scenario bout the jam nut. i was just talking to him that i was going hi-steer and he felt very strongly that heims were the way to go. i had heard talk bout heims on steering setups, but wanted some updated info:D

if i was going to do heims, i would get nice big ones, not cheap ones. but depending on how much those big bling heims are it might be cheaper to just get 2 spare TRE's.
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Carry tres. Heims are not the way to go for the average person...

Also he stripped the threds in the rod itself? in that case a heim would done the same thing...
 
79k20350 said:
Also he stripped the threds in the rod itself? in that case a heim would done the same thing...
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My thinking as well.

SRE's are far, far more work to keep in good shape and still have a shorter service life than a properly maintained TRE.
TRE's are designed for the application. SRE's, while they happen to work, are not.
 
I like my heims!!! I am not afraid of running down the road at the posted speed limit or above. It handles better than any other set up I have had. Heims are expensive and yes you need spares. I buy my heims from the machine shop that builds them.

I have wheeled my junk fairly hard and the heims has proven to not be a weak point. Steering is very responsive, I do have hydro stter, hight steer, and crossover. I am only single sheer. I did have a problem with a steering arm that was welded on but that was corrected.

Now just to get the new motor fired and go beat on it some more.

I now have new steering arms and both are threaded into the knuckles.

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