Drift w/ Manual Steering Setup?

[Boostsfed]

who drift w/ manual steering setup? man, you must have quick hands pulling the steering wheel hard through each turns.

[ramtookrazy]

i dont have power steering. im practicing drifting with it as is, all stock. its it safe to even try this? im very curious about the possibilities and if there are any consequences of anything. not that i dont believe i can do it, just that i dont know all of whats really recommended that you have for drifting. i do get sideways a bit whenever its completely safe and i can. its hard but is it safe at all? ive heard of people loosing thumbs without power steering

[Parry]

Are you serious? You're not going to loose your fkn thumbs. Without power assistance, it's just a little harder to turn the whel.

This board totally lacks common sense. Around here it's freakin UNCOMMON sense.

[Boostsfed]

Originally posted by Parry
Are you serious? You're not going to loose your fkn thumbs. Without power assistance, it's just a little harder to turn the whel.

This board totally lacks common sense. Around here it's freakin UNCOMMON sense.

hahah exactly...

my arms are actually getting buff from it lol

[SidewaysGts]

Bottom line; Power steering makes it easier to get the wheel where you want. Manual gives you a little more "Feed back". its as simple as that.

[ramtookrazy]

Originally posted by Parry
Are you serious? You're not going to loose your fkn thumbs. Without power assistance, it's just a little harder to turn the whel.

This board totally lacks common sense. Around here it's freakin UNCOMMON sense.

thanks for the UNCOMMON answer parry.

thanks sideways.

[Parry]

You asked for it.

[Drift For Food]

Generally, a manual steering setup will be geared lower to make steering a little easier. What you'll get is steering potentially similar to powersteering and you'll gain some extra turns of the wheel. A normal power steering car will have somewhere between 2 and 3 turns of the wheel lock to lock usually. A non-power steering car will usually be more along the lines of 4 to 6 turns of the wheel lock to lock. My old Ranger actually had 8 full revolutions lock to lock. As well, some powered cars may have even 4 full revolutions. Every car is different, both in turns, feel, feedback, and effort - powered or unpowered steering.

The quick hands thing is something, yes. My truck was tough to drift. To be as quick as needed, I found myself needing to let go of the steering wheel at times to just let the wheel spin some. A night, this was very bad. I never did get used to night driving with that thing. I needed to know where the steering wheel was facing to even know if the steering was straight or turned. It wasn't a vehicle of "feel" There was a lot of vibration, looseness, swaying, jostling, etc... but not much for feel. Everything felt heavy and sloppy too. I say this because feedback isn't guaratied just by not having power steering. My old Lesabre had great feedback. It had enough pull to tell you where it wanted to go. Little bumps and texture transmitted though the steering nicely albiet weakly. All at the same time, you could toss the car like a rag doll and turn the wheel from lock to lock with just a single finger on the wheel. It was that easy to turn.

If I had a choice, I'd pick power steering any day. I prefer the easy and quicker steering over any "feel" you think you may gain. Yes, there may be some, but what you get through the wheel is very car dependent, not really a matter of power or non-powered steering.

[ramtookrazy]

i didnt really think the feeling of the road helped much. i also didnt know that you get more revolutions without power steering. i havent really gotten the chance to turn that much yet. ill see how that feels. great info btw

[Boostsfed]

i removed the power steering during my swap (just shorcuts)--so it's practically a power-steering rack just without the hydrolic pump working for you. as far as full turning of the steering wheel is the same, just it need extra arm work...i might put back power steering one day--or maybe i'll get better drifting with the manual steering...lol.

[SidewaysGts]

Just get a trucker knob Its a ball on the steering wheel that rotates.. so you can just hold onto it and spin the wheel (buddy of mine says theyre illegal though)

[Boostsfed]

Originally posted by SidewaysGts
Just get a trucker knob Its a ball on the steering wheel that rotates.. so you can just hold onto it and spin the wheel (buddy of mine says theyre illegal though)

hahha, that's funny

[Drift For Food]

Haha, yeah, I've heard the same. I wouldn't know why though. Maybe too many people didn't know how to attach them correctly and they loosed or fell off on them causing an accident. I don't really know. Other than that, there could be issues with injuring yourself from it if the wheel gets a pretty good spin going, bruised hand or jammed finger maybe.

I personally would say don't worry about power steering or not. If you have a choice of either on the same car, then go with what works better for you:
Powered - quicker steering rate, faster changes, easier movement
Unpowered - slower steering rate, some increased effort usually only at slow speeds, more precision from larger travel range

For feel, work on other aspects of the car, suspension stuff. Springs, swaybars, bushings, geometry changes like caster, camber, toe, physical repositioning of arms, etc. These will change both car behavior and feedback. Caster is a big one. Add some caster to increase the tracking force of the wheel. It will want to turn where the car is moving more. It will steer itself into the skid more easily. However, there will be more resistance if you are trying to turn it away from that direction.

Now I just made myself curious if there is some useful geometry info online somewhere, something that explains all this stuff, what it does, and how it affects handling and feel. If anybody can find some sites or have come across some sites in the past, it may be useful. It would be nice to have a sticky of useful technicle sites for suspension tuning, alignment, articles on geometry and such.

[Parry]

Those are called "suicide knobs".

If I remember correctly, they're illegal because you crash, fly forward, hit the knob, and impale yourself on it.

Wicked fun.

[Ris4drift]

werd, why would you want an object sticking out at you that probably will kil you in a frontal impact.

also how the hell would you use the thing? unless your sitting in the backseat your arm doesnt haev enough room to move it, or at least mine wouldnt.

ive personaly drifted with/without power steering. while without it can be done nicely the extra ease of working the wheel offered by power steering is nice. and i highly prefer it.