THE PORTAL HUB - Pinzgauers, Haflingers, Volvo 303s and more!

When I first installed my Rancho 9000s about 5 years ago, I was told that they would work fine installed upside down (yahoo news groups). This is not true. I could see how someone might break a limiting strap if installed upside down, they do not dampen the downward movement of the axle. Also they have much harder ride as you're fighting spring compression and abnormal shock compression. I ran them upside down for about a week before putting them on right.

I drive fast over rough roads and my 710K is like a hovercraft when it gets up to speed. These are the kind of roads that at 5-10 mph are miserable, bouncing harshly up and down. At 25 they smooth right out.

same thing with my 710M. At speeds even at the outback challenge I broke nothing, including the straps. The last outing in the 712 we ran the roads at 40-50 mph, just washboards, and that caused some bolt failures along with a strap. It should be noted I also broke one of the complete spring stacks on my flatbed trailer on these roads, got to remember to take the pinz off the trailer before doing long drives on those roads.
.

I have burned through ten (stock) limit straps in the past three years! It's silly to keep buying the $160 factory straps since they are essentially disposable! ($160X10=$1,600!) I bought The 17.5" webbing straps from OK Off-Road ($30 each) and have already started doing the conversion. HINT: Press the bushings out with a gear puller instead of cutting them out of the stock straps. I bet that the webbing will do better than the stock limit straps and they are soooo much cheaper than stock! Look cooler too!

712 would break more straps.

4 of the 5 straps I have broken on my 712 over the years have been on the front wheels! .... My new "heavier duty/thicker cable" woven design has so far (after about 2 years) proved to be strong enough

Profpinz wrote: 4 of the 5 straps I have broken on my 712 over the years have been on the front wheels! .... My new "heavier duty/thicker cable" woven design has so far (after about 2 years) proved to be strong enough

Care to post some closeup pics of those beefed up straps of yours. Please

Miles

Shall do Miles, I've just got to find the originals again!
Over the years I've posted the pics of the straps a few times on various forums etc, (including, I thought this one) but I'm stuffed if I can find them now despite using the search facility etc.

They were most likely lost with the great crash of 2007.

Miles

Miles, here are a few pics of the strap.
I can't find the pics I had of the "almost completed" strap....(I'm in the process of making a die to cast the end in a rubber compound as per the factory straps) but below are two I had of the "weaving stage".

The first is the basic jig, with a partially finished strap, and the second is a closeup of the finished weave!

Peter,

That strap looks as though it has been desighned to include a certain amount of give, which would help prevent shock loading. I suppose that an elastic nylon might also do the job.

ProfPinz...Nice job, and thanks for posting the pics. It's good to know it can be done. We'll have to see how the nylon straps hold up.

Miles

The thing with the factory straps is that they "nearly always" break on the cross-over of the weave near the bushes.



At first I tried to overcome this by using the same diameter cable and putting in a plastic rubbing surface, but that didn't work, so after numerous other designs I settled on heavier harder cable..... less "warp" but the same number of "wept" in weaving terms.

I haven't had a breakage of the new design yet!