all of those are fine products from reputable vendors.
I am preferential to Synergy and my whole front clip is their linkages with artec bracketry and armor. It is tough and dependable .
My opinion aside, I think a few guys on here will tell you the Yeti stuff is as advertised and it is some beefy goodness.
Fusion4x4 is massive and also seemingly able to take serious weight and abuse.
[edit: I really do not know much about the Metal Cloak so cannot speak to their steering links as much as I do the other three. They are zinc gold, I can tell you that. ]
There. Now you have no more info than you had before i typed this. Glad to help,
heh.

:jeep2:

 

I only have experience with the Synergy part, but I will give my technical analysis of each product. They are all very different in fairly major ways.


Drag link doesn't really matter unless you somehow manage to crash it into rocks which is pretty unlikely. Get something low-cost that lets you run your flip. All that really matters here is having quality ends, and most quality name brand aftermarket parts are using good tie rod ends.

The tie rod really matters to get right as you bash it into rocks. If this would be for street use, it truly doesn't matter what you buy, just save money and get the cheapest option.

That Yeti part looks like a really bad idea to me. I don't know that it will for sure fail, but it has a fairly weak style of clamp at 25% and 75% distances along the tie rod. This means if you bash the center of the tie rod into a rock, you have that clamp right in the middle of the side-loaded beam on each side. This is not good. You really want the adjustments at the very ends with a strong rod taking up the entire length of the tie rod.

I have the Synergy tie rod, it's good and the tie rod ends are cheap to replace, small in size for carrying spares, and high quality (I wheel my Jeep a lot and have 2.5+ years of almost weekly trail use on those rod ends and they're as tight as new). What I really don't like about it is the offset is in the tie rod's shape and the ends are straight. When you have a not-straight tie rod bar, if you hit it on a rock it generates enormous torques on the rod ends and no matter how tight your jam nut is it will loosen guaranteed, and the adjuster-side will slip too for really hard landings on the tie rod. I've probably re-tightened and re-adjusted my tie rod 2 dozen times on the trail by now. It gets old.

The only solution to that is a straight tie rod bar between the two threaded ends so no torque is created on the threads when landing on a rock. You don't need a straight tie rod to achieve this if the rod ends are offset like Metalcloak's. It's still worse than a fully straight tie rod because you put huge loads on the tie rod end housing as it acts as a load-bearing limiter on tie rod travel which it would not with a truly straight tie rod (which is not really possible on a stock JK axle without custom knuckles that nobody makes). At least your jam nuts won't be loosening up on the Metalcloak design.


In conclusion, I would not buy the Yeti. That looks like a bad design to me, I wouldn't want to have anything to do with that rock crawling. I have the Synergy and it's very strong and takes serious abuse but the jam nut and clamp are basically impossible to keep tight enough to take hard rock hits. You can take some moderate abuse but when you start landing the jeep on the tie rod it's guaranteed to loosen. If I were buying a new tie rod, I'd try out the Metal Cloak because I'm so sick of tightening jam nuts on the trail (which is a pain for me because I have a super-tight-clearance hydro assist setup so it must be adjusted perfectly to not hit stuff). I'd dream of having a truly straight tie rod.

 

I have my jam nuts so tight on my Synergy tierod ( and ever other jamnut on everything from the CAs to the DL) I cant hardly begin to undo them. and the pitman side is the same. you usin one of these along with the adjustable wrench you're tightening them with man?

:jeep2:

 

I have my jam nuts so tight on my Synergy tierod ( and ever other jamnut on everything from the CAs to the DL) I cant hardly begin to undo them. and the pitman side is the same. you usin one of these along with the adjustable wrench you're tightening them with man?

:jeep2:

I don't know why you'd need a strap wrench, at least on my Synergy tie rod there is a hex portion on the tie rod itself to put a wrench on. I use two big adjustable crescent wrenches and put 3-foot cheater bars on each and tighten as hard as I possibly can. It still loosens the first time I drop the jeep on it.

 

I have the Yeti. So far, I have never had to adjust it or tighten it. I have bounced it off rocks, multiple times, and have had no bad results from that. Their early attenuators would fail on the trail. I worked with them, and they got it sorted out, at no cost to me. I don’t know that the claim of absolutely no steering stabilizer is needed is accurate. I ran that way for a while, and for the most ppart it worked, but I added a high quality stabilizer, and it worked better.

Over all, I am super satisfied with the Yeti flipped drag link and tie rod. Easy to adjust once installed, it doesn’t seem to slip, and has taken some abuse along the way.

 

I would go synergy or metal cloak as they are both good companies with good products. I don't like the yeti design with the clamp as it can create clearance with the bolts sticking out if you don't have it just right. Those big rare parts ends do wear out and are expensive to replace and add a lot of weight vs other ends. If you can do it yourself the ruff stuff is very cheap when you get it on one of their many sales.

 

Interesting to hear this @thedirtman I thought you'd say get a custom fully straight kit from fusion (with no bends in it)

 

So it comes down to where you'd like your offset? Bar or ends....

I do like the yeti pieces, however, like @thedirtman mentioned, I too am concerned about the alignment of all those clamps. I'm sure steersmarts considered that in their design. For 90% of what I do they'd be fine, a stock replacement would be fine. I'm going to look at synergy, MC, & steersmarts a bit more before pulling the trigger. (The fusion/rareparts pieces are overkill for the action my junk sees)

Thank you all for the discussion. I appreciate the input.

 

This is my first visit here, just registered.
I'm truly surprised that the staff allows y'all to call each other names.
Have some of the same questions as OP, and leaning towards MC. I've ordered but not received or installed thier 3.5 game changer. I assumed thier steering components would be the same quality as the suspension parts.
Glad to see a few are recommending MC.. I'm not a fan of the gold color but I didn't go with MC for the looks. Guess if my other stuff is that ugly gold, my steering should match.

I appreciate your technical opinions, name calling not so much.
Thanks guys.

 

The staff 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

You should go to wayalife.com and ask them about Metal Cloak.

 

I've been doing as much research as I can since I bought my Jeep back in May. The only thing I've really been able to determine is, it's a Ford vs Chevy type argument.
It doesn't matter one bit what stuff you ask about, there's going to people that like, and people that don't. I narrowed down to 3 companies RK,TF, and MC based on my research, and asking opinions.
I ultimately made phone calls to each company, and made my choice was based on the level of support and customer service. MC was hands down the best in that regard for me. In fact, just this AM, I noticed an email from them in my junk folder. They ran a flash sale for "free shipping " 2 days after I placed my order, I called and asked if they could credit me. Took about 30 seconds on hold, "yes sir" we can credit the shipping cost to your account.
Having said all that, the quality of products in my case is yet to be determined but I couldn't make the choice based on opinions because there are simply too many. You've been around the block enough to know, it doesn't matter what you ask, some will say yea, some will say nay.
I've read many of your post, here and on other boards, I respect your opinion and appreciate the help you offer others. I know this stuff can be very time consuming.

Thanks

 

Above comments were to Dirtman, I missed the quote button.

My bad.

 

I have worked with lots of brands of lifts, MC, RK, TF RC,EVO,Clayton,JKS,Rubicon Express, Currie,Rusty's, synergy and can tell you MC is one of the top if not the top lift to by for most people. Low maintenance, great ride, great customer support that you likely will never need. TF and RK are hyped on the forums and they spend a lot of time trying to convince people they are the best when in fact there is a lot to be desired from both RK and TF. I would put TF in a mid level kit and RK at the bottom on par with Rough Country.

 

I sure did not intend to hijack this tread.
My point was that I still need to look into steering components. That's why I came to this thread.
I've, already bought a MC suspension system based on my research, so it seemed a no brainier to go with them for "steering" parts.
I was happy to read that a couple guys mentioned MC as a good option.
Time will tell but I spent my money with confidence.

Thanks again Friend.

 

Sorry guys, seems I've got to have 10 posts to view images.
I'm off to another thread to work on my count.
This post is just a +1

Cheers
:{)

 

I Run the RpmFab Aluminum Tierod and Draglink. solid 1.5" 7075 T6 Aluminum.

I've run into that front tierod more times than I can remember. I can be an idiot while driving a lot. So far so good!

I'm not sure if they are a vendor here though.

 

I personally love the Roughstuff engineering one- however if your not into the whole DIY thing: Synergy.

 

I went full Retard and decided that Fusion 4X4 2.5 ton and Howe needed to be added .

Hopefully I will never have to consider another steering upgrade in the near or distant future .

Before taking this path I did like the Steersmart product , looks really stout and is something that those that have it are quite happy with .

 

Fusion is what I use

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

for drag link flip, i just bought a Crown RHD drag link and Synergy Bushing. Used 7/8 step drill bit on the knuckle. It was surprisingly simple.

For tie rod, Synergy, MC, Fusion, WFO. all good take your pick.

 

I am running the Synergy Drag Link and the Ruff Stuff 1-ton Tie Rod. I love my setup, the drag link has held up and not bent (my reason for switching), and the tie rod has been bashed into many rocks without permanently bending as well. The Ruff Stuff TR is a straight bar rod (1.5" .25" wall DOM) and the ends are offset 1 ton GM ends. Jam nuts have stayed tight, and its a relatively inexpensive option when compared to the others. I would highly recommend the Synergy steering components too, I love mine and I have many wheeling buddies who beat their TR and DL Flip up every week on the trail.

 

Nice Job , looks good .

 

My 4 door runs a hopped up version of the Stage III Synergy Mfg suspension. I've used all the old & new Synergy Mfg joints & TREs & linkages , et.al..

I've probably mentioned it around here , on some other steering related thread, but maybe worth dropping a brief outline of something I did about hard use case , Synergy Tie Rod Ends(TRE) behavior. By that I refer to properly greased , TREs at the end of the Synergy Mfg drag link & 1.5" tietod.
These are stout pieces of nice chromoly steel. They will do their job.



The TREs are the preferred wear item & taking into consideration the amount of torsion & weight that the pieces work under , it's logical to understand that these will loosen, by nature of design
All rod ends with cintered ball joints do.

You can mitigate this in several ways , as we know ; clocking one TRE a little past the other in thier plane will help ... initially.
You can ensure their in plane & try different steering stabilizer (SS) bracket position, but
&pretty-much the stress of harder wheeling , over time will see these TREs loosened and they can tend to still flop. ( the draglink is a little different function wise, but talking about that parts knuckle side TRE along with the 2 tietod TREs)

i since run hydraulic assist = a whole other subject of tietod setup .
This is, as @snout pointed out specific to those two Synergy Mfg steering links .
( 1 & 2 below pic)

that little pitman arm TRE , under the yellow dot in picture doesn't really move from that position thru out my steering range. It used to wear out & start to pop off at very extreme droop.

I found that using an additional dust boot cap sort of preloads these joints plus it captures the default , spring clip ring secured boot ( old version clear , updated current version = black) they come with , preventing them from popping off and getting grease everywhere.
you can see my draglink still has old, clear Synergy boot on Pitman-arm side.

Heres the normal TRE from Synergy Mfg :

if you get yourself a Currie Enterprises Replacement Urethane Dust Boot or a Energy Suspension / ProThane TRE boot like these ...

...you can double-cap the TRE & it completely removed any flop of TieRod with a Steering Stabilizer and that draglink TRE at knuckle side.

You'll wind up with something like this:

which , installed to proper torque AND exact amount of grease the Synergy guide tells you to use , looks like this:

. That draglink TRE pictured , has the clear boot under it.

The additional load of the properly torqued castle nut together with that boot being under that aftermarket dust boot cover , is just enough to not tear either of the boots but to also prevent the rods from flopping. When I had a SS , on TieRod it stopped that flopping , too.

boy thats a complicated thing to try to explain seeing how it's just a cap on top of a tie rod end.


( note: Currie doesn't sell the boot I show. The Energy Suspension one works exactly the same . I use one of that brand on my XJs draglink.



(EDIT: @J. Dub ,
the synergy TR is angled outward at each side to clear their trackbar & it's diff clearance bend ...where it's uniquely bent to not contact steering thru out the range of motion

think of what they named the company= Synergy . The parts are all designed to interoperate together to be optimally functioning )

 

the synergy TR is angled outward at each side to clear their trackbar & it's diff clearance bend ...where it's uniquely bent to not contact steering thru out the range of motion

Aside from going alum or not:

This is my trouble. Which steering kit to purchase. Because, imo, a straight tube steering kit, I'd assume translates into stronger steering rather than incorporating bends in the tube. How is barnes, RPM, CavFab, etc... steering kits getting away with using straight bars and ever so slightly offset TRE's and not contacting anything throughout the suspension travel?

Or are you saying it's best to NOT have offset TRE's but rather put bends in the bar IE: Synergy using straight TRE's.

I see generic fusion steering kits have a very big offset bend at the TRE (straight bar) however, the guys running custom knuckles & 42" tires all run straight bars w/ straight TRE's.

As a beginner, this is confusing on choosing a kit.