RTC steering damper

Rtc, return to centre. They are a damper usually with a strong spring on the outside of the body and over the rod that forces the damper to its centre point to aid steering in either direction. Kinda like a coil over but force is applied in both directions.

Ah, so it would be like an upgrade to the stock damper? So it is an assisted damper, I could see that being useful if big wide tyres are fitted, but maybe not so much on a standard Jimny?

lightning wrote: On the Defender, fitting an RTC steering damper to a standard vehicle improves steering feel, makes it more positive in the straight ahead position. and improves the self centering.

l wondered if you can get one of these for the Gen 4 Jimny, and if it might improve it for road use.
lt looks like you can buy them
for the earlier Jimny, and it gets rave reviews on Jimnybits.

Not convinced on these, even in the Land Rover community. Steering should self centre though caster and the rest of the front end geometry. Fitting a sprung device is only going to make the steering heavier as you have to over come the springs resistance.

Ive got one meant for a defender on Ulysses (gen3). It is a help compared to the plain damper style one I had before for the self center thing, although I agree that it should do so by itself. My radius arms are castor corrected, but not enough I suspect. The huge 31x10.5" tyres on a relativley light car probably dont help either :laugh:





It does have an unnerving effect of self centering the steering wheel even when not moving, fine once your used to it, but really odd the first time it happens! A welcome bonus is it smooths out the steering shaking when on rough surfaces at speed and feels controlled now.

Surprisingly it doesn't make the steering feel any heavier on a Defender, even when manoeuvring at low speed.

What it does is, makes it more car like on corners and also makes it more positive at motorway speeds. So no need to keep adjusting the steering slightly.