Easy-Steer kits are all custom so the best we can do here is offer some general information.  One thing they all have in common is they can make your machine steer a LOT easier.  We say they “can” because we can set them up for varying degrees if steering improvement depending on your needs.

This kit consists of a pair of ½” thick solid aluminum plates and spacers specially cut and drilled to mount to the tie rod arm of each strut housing.  Essentially, these plates lengthen the tie rod arms, or in other words they provide an outer tie rod end mounting position further away from the strut housing.  Making this arm longer reduces steering effort, or in engineering terms it “trades motion for torque.”  The result is you get less steering turn for the same amount handlebar turn you have now but steering turn is achieved with much less effort.

The advantages are much easier and more confident steering at speed and in “normal” trail riding.  The disadvantage is an increased turning radius by around 20%.  This means if you get into a situation where you’re brush bustin’ through a thick woods tying to pick your way around tight trees you may find yourself backing up to make two tries at a turn when you could do it before in only one turn because with the kit installed you can’t turn as sharp.  I rode about 6500 miles with one of these kits on my last machine (’01 500HO) and loved it except for the trail “go-arounds” we sometimes need to do that require breaking trail through thick woods to get by a washed out section of main trail.  Midway through the 6500 miles I tried riding without the kit just to see what the difference would be.  The kit was reinstalled before the next ride.  During all those miles there were no problems with increased wear or stress on any parts due to the kit.

There were two reasons for developing this kit for myself and others, and most everyone who buys it does so for one of these reasons or both.  After installing a two inch lift on my machine I noticed a serious degradation in steering ease due to the increased angle of the axles and stress on the CVs / U-joints.  The heavy 27” mud tires I installed made steering even worse, and the inside walls of the wider tires came within about 1/16” of rubbing on the outer tie rod end boot, shredding the boot when the tire would pick up mud.  The Easy-Steer kit I designed for my machine cured both these problems because it was set up so the outer tie rod end not only mounted further away from the strut housing but it was also positioned to mount further “in” toward the center line of the machine and away from the tire sidewall.

Installation of the kit requires jacking up the front end, removing the tires, locking the brakes then measuring the distance between your front brake rotors from a mark you make on each one in the front, and another measurement you take at the rear (of the front rotor) by each brake caliper.  These are your front “toe” dimensions (alignment) that you’ll need to return to after installing the kit.  Once you have the dimensions written down it’s just a matter of removing the bolts that hold the outer tie rod ends on, fastening the plates in place with one bolt and two set screws each, bolting the outer tie rod ends to the plates and adjusting the toe back to the original dimensions by screwing the tie rods in or out.  Once adjustments have been made you tighten things up, put the tires back on and you’re done.  All needed hardware and detailed instructions are provided.

For those who want to run extreme tires on the front, like 28x12s we set this kit up with new shorter tie rods to replace stock because we have to position the hole for the outer tie rod end further toward the center line of the machine (away from the tire) and the shorter tie rod is needed to return the toe to proper specs.

We build this kit on a custom basis, to address your specific requirements.  The basic kit is $129 + shipping, which is usually about $10 for domestic delivery.  Kits that require new tie rods are more, unless you want to shorten your own.  We hope this answers your questions about our Easy-Steer kit, but feel free to contact us if there’s anything more you’d like to know.