# Home made recumbent steering



## glb37 (20 Sep 2011)

*Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone can advise me, and possibly send me links to ideas and products so that we can make my friend's recumbent steering safe and efficient?

Presently he has put a bolt through each side and two lock nuts underneath (see photo) each side. And that is it - it pivots with this bolt.
I would like to see him with a stronger safer solution. I just don't want the steering to go twang at 35 mph..

Is there a kind of sheath fitting that takes a high tensile m10 or similar sized bolt through the track rod arm ends so that it pivots strongly and smoothly? Any other suggestions - like with special washers etc?


Any help is greatly appreciated, as it could save a life. Thanks.

*


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## Night Train (20 Sep 2011)

I would suggest a rose joint





or a ball joint





You can find them on Ebay or at engineering supplies in a range of metric sizes.

My trike has M8 rose joints on threaded track rods and secured with button headed SS bolts.

For a strength comparison, I am using M10 ball joints on my electric compact tractor with no problems but soon to upgrade to M12 just because I can.


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## Little yellow Brompton (20 Sep 2011)

glb37 said:


> *Hi,
> 
> I'm wondering if anyone can advise me, and possibly send me links to ideas and products so that we can make my friend's recumbent steering safe and efficient?
> 
> ...



Rose joint!

http://www.merlinmotorsport.co.uk/ROD-ENDS/c184/index.html


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## glb37 (21 Sep 2011)

Thanks very much, I'll suggest these.


He may try the fixed solution with high tesnsile bolts and lock nuts, but much better with adjustability.


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## Night Train (21 Sep 2011)

Having tried this I would recommend against just using a bolt. It puts the bolt in single shear and so the bolt will wear very quickly causing slop in the joint. It is almost immposible to get a smooth action, single shear bolt joint without using some sort of bushing and thrust bearing. The action of tightening the bolt enough to stop slop will render the joint rigid.

It is much easier to just use a rose joint.

I made the track rods on my tractor with an M10 threaded rod. It was placed inside a steel tube and a nylock nut tightened on both ends to pre stress the rod by compressing the tube. The joints were then screwed onto each end and secured with a lock nut.
I bought the threaded rod and steel tube from B&Q and the joints from Ebay.

This method is cheap and simple and used right handed threads only. The only drawback is needing to disconnect a joint from the steering arm for adjustment, but that is a minor thing.


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