Personally I think it's your choice..... High steering is nice because you no longer need to worry about the tierod "ENDS" being busted.... I would still go with a beefy tierod even if you lift it.... Bigger tires mean bigger stresses on stock parts and the tierod Chevy put on these isn't stout at all... The biggest week link in the rod is the material it's made out of, it's solid.... Once you bend a solid pice of material, it has little to know flex, therefor it will stay bent and not flex back to straight... That is why every aftermarket rod is made with tube and not solid material!
About highsteer and stock knuckles... I've also heared of the "Problomatic busted D60 knuckle" theory... I call it a theory because unless you are wheeling the dog snot out of it with larger than 40" tires and busting it against the rocks with a hydro ram.... I wouldn't worry about it! It takes alot of forces to sheer the top af a D60 knuckle off!
You can go the beefy tierod way and try and use it as a bumper for sharp rocks, but they're still going to find your cover one way or the other, so You need to beef it up anyways! Hydro is uneffected weather the tierod is in stock location or in the top location! Personally, my concern is the tirod ends more than the rod itself...
Here is what I have done, use it if you may, but It's what I've come up with the most beefy setup until I can bullet proof the knuckles...(Please keep in mind that I plan on beating on this truck pretty severely...)
First, I suggest Sky manufacturing for the arms... They are the only arms I've ever seen that are built beefy enough to take a severe load and won't put that load on my wallet!
I then ordered a beefy draglink from Rockstomper with the sleeved rod and the beefy ends..... I put a 2wd box on that will be tapped later for hydro and a Superlift drop pitman arm... I decided to make my own tirod since I felt I could build one for cheaper and beefier than I could buy one from Rockstomper! I simply took the dimensions from their site as to what interior size the tubing was and purchased some DOM 5/16th wall tubing and some 1/4 wall tubing to slide over the 5/16th... My rod is about 2.5" thick and sleeved to allow the material to flex.... I perposly put the thinner wall tubing around the thicker wall to increase strength but to also allow the thinner wall to stretch over the thicker wall! It has a very minumal deflection, but It sure as hell won't bend neather! I mounted this atop the steering arms and springs and out of harms way... I shouldn't have to worry about replacing these ends unless they just plain wear out! PLUS, all my ends are ES2334Rs... I only have to keep 1 type of spare in the truck and it covers all four ends!
Now that my rod is out of the way, I had to beef the only other weak section of the front of the axle, the cover! I'm having a set of diff covers made that have 5/16th steel welded over the front, 3/4s of the bottom diff like this...
This should make the cover beefier than the tubes and I know none of us are worried about bending or breaking an axle tube! From what I hear they make for some awsome protection for my 5:13 gears and Detriot! Eventually I might truss the axle, but that will be a ways out! If I do run into a knuckle issue, I will replace the ends with these:
But that's a long ways out.... If I break a stock one, I'm driving wrong!
This basically bullet proofs my front end! Once I go Hydro, My ram will be up and out of harms way! I won't have to worry about tearing anything up down there! Again, This is how I did mine and has no bearing on what other do to their's! /forums/images/graemlins/thumb.gif
