Thor Forums

[16ACE27]

The difference between a steering dampener and the Safe-T-Plus/Roadmaster Reflex has been explained many times to you in this thread (See the quoted posts below).

You either don't get it or refuse to understand it or just ignore the stated differences so you can ask the same question over and over to be argumentative. Regardless, if you don't know what the difference is by now you never well. Since you refuse to learn anything from the manufacturer's websites maybe you just need to buy one and install it to physically see what the difference.

It's like saying a shock absorber and a coil-over shock absorber do and are the same thing. They are not the same and the coil-over shock adds more to the function.

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Actually, they don't do the same thing. Stabilizers return the steering to center. Dampeners just dampen the movement from side-to-side.

Originally Posted by HarryS

Sigh. The dampener just does that. It dampens road vibrations and sudden movements. The steering stabilizer has springs built in, either under the metal cover, or in the open, and has a dampener, and it helps return the steering to the neutral position.

Originally Posted by 16ACE27

Google is your friend. Just one of MANY results that answers your multitude of questions.

And the Roadmaster Reflex:

Originally Posted by Long & Winding road

Big difference in the Safty Plus and just a steering dampner IMO. I have one on my Axis and love it. Easy to install yourself.

The Saftey plus provides about 500# of pressure to the left and right off of center. It will try Keep the wheels perfectly straight. Once you let go of the wheel (while driving) it will quickly return to center (much qucker than without one installed).

So When in a parking lot / Camp grounds at slow speeds you have to muscle the steering wheel around (not bad but some effort). But once on the road its not as bad.... Feels like a sports car = firmer steering.

But my HD dampner on my old Jeep YJ you dont feel at all when making turn and it dont try to straighen out the wheel automatically. It just takes some of the jolts out of the steering wheel while driving.

Originally Posted by Long & Winding road

Duck, These Saftey Plus / Road master are NOT like a steering dampner or an ordinary shock (even though they look like one - Except for RM has a spring around it).

They give you a full steering range lock to lock but if you turn left it will give you resistants and immediatly return to center (neutral), and if you turn right it will go to immediately back to center.

They try to keep the wheels pointed straight at all times but do so in a confortable and controlled way.

Kinda like when you have a FWD car, turn a corner then gun it.... the wheel snaps back to center much faster than any RWD car that I have even driven.

I dont know how to explain it... It just works. and it is NOT like a damper on the OEM chassis or like on my modified Jeep Wrangler.

But IMO any aftermarket name brand shock/Dampner will be an improvment over what you have currently. The factory puts on the cheapest part they can get away with and they are produced by the lowest bidder.

So if your budget dictates $80 .... the Dampner will still be an improment esp on rough roads.

Originally Posted by ducksface

This is mine.
What doesn't it do that a $500 one does?

How does yours not add added battle in a wind?
We'll do an experiment at the fall meet up.
We'll go into a slow 15mph sweep, let go of the wheel midway and count time until the wheel centers. And I'll bring a micrograms to 220kilo digital scale to check resistance.
There's an absolutely huge, absolute empty parking lot at the casino overflow.
Head to head, with and without.

People always like the stereo knobs with resistance. Same reason. You just do.

I'll participate my rv as a feature, but my front end is different than anyone else's. I'm interested to see if my turning circle is really 3ft tighter now....

Can we overpressure our power steering pump and get the same affect without the resistance?
Or
I think one of the old power assist rams would wye into the power steering line, hookup backwards and give you adjustable resistance that's maybe exponential to the wheel turn.

That budget 80 dollar remark is what I'm looking for. It says the cheaper does the same thing, does the expensive do better, and how does it?