Pat Mcardle: Hey, Pat McCardle back for another episode of Shop Talk and today we're going deep on Sportsman and we're going to talk all about how steering systems actually work on ATVs. We're going to show you the difference between a frog, what a pro steer looks like and we're going to drag in a rack and pinion so we can even explain the difference on how side by sides work. Stay tuned for more.
All right, so diving in, we're going to start with this entry model, the Sportsman 450 H.O. and this this has got kind of classic ATV steering on it. So you've got a set of handlebars connected to a steering post with a frog at the bottom going out tie rods the wheels. This is what I like to call steering by Armstrong, so when you're rolling you better have some decent upper body strength if you're going to wheel this thing all day. Um, it does wear you out over time. Um, but, you know, if you're just cruising around doing a little bit of stuff, it's just fine and if you've never had power steering, you frankly you probably don't know any better. Um, but overall, you know, a very capable machine. It's kind of the most basic steering system we have and and all ATVs are set up so that they actually have steering stops because unlike a steering wheel, this thing can't keep going around multiple times. So that frog-based steering works really good because it kind of keeps the angle of the wheels, you know, aligned to the handlebars pretty nicely. Um, so it's really intuitive to use. The more I turn the bars, the more the wheels wheels turn, and if I'm, you know, pointed straight ahead, my handlebars are basically, you know, perpendicular to the front end of the machine. So it's really easy to know what direction are my wheels pointed based on where my handlebar position is. You can actually see the steering steering post coming down here. No power steering unit on this model, connects these steering frogs again with the tie rods coming out connecting to the wheels and if I go up and turn the bars, you'll actually see the whole steering mechanism working, uh, as I go lock to lock on the steering system. So you can see how that's moving both of those wheels off that center steering frog, uh, by connecting to those, uh, tire rods at the same time. So pretty simple, classic old school style of steering on the Sportsman 450.
All right, so now we're on the Sportsman 570. This one, same basic mechanical style of steering system. So we've got the bars, we've got a post, we've got a frog at the bottom connecting out to the tie rod. But the beauty is on the steering post between the handlebars and that that steering frog, we've actually got an electronic power steering unit. So as I key this thing on and I steer this, it is way easier. And the beauty you're going to find with that steering assist is twofold. Number one, it's going to give you a lot less upper body and shoulder fatigue throughout the day. So you're going to feel more refreshed at the end of a long day riding. The other cool thing is that it's actually got an anti-kickback system. So if you're going down the trail and you get one wheel that maybe hits a small obstacle where it's try going to tend to shove the steering back the other direction a little bit, it'll actually deaden that blow for you. So instead of sending all the force up into the handlebars where you have to react to it, the power steering will actually lighten that load for you. So it's got an anti-kickback feature built into the power steering that makes it really nice, uh, especially if you're on rougher, you know, maybe rockier or more debris ridden terrain. So again, as we look down at this system system, you see coming off the steering post, there's this giant aluminum box here, um, that's got a motor built in a controller, an input and an output shaft. The input and output shaft aren't actually directly coupled. There's a little torsion link between them. So as you start steering the input shaft side, it's going to twist up a little bit and then drive the output to try and always match the input. So when you look, it looks like the shaft goes all the way through, but it's actually three pieces between an input, an output, and a torsion link between them. So we can actually measure how much torque and how fast you're steering and what the angle is and be able to adjust that assist right inside this power steering unit. So it's a really slick feature, makes it really nice for not getting fatigue on a long day of riding.
All right, so I've jumped over the XP 1000 S and by far of the three ATVs in the shop, this one does have the best steering system on it. Uh, pretty much bar none. So the cool thing is this has actually got our Pro Steer package on it. And what that actually does is instead of having a post that goes down to the middle, this one actually goes down to the the left side or my what you'd think of as maybe the driver's side. From there, that actually goes to the tie rod that controls that left wheel, but instead of being a direct connection to the other side, there's actually a drag link bar that goes to another frog to adjust the out the, uh, right side wheel. And the beauty of that is that it virtually eliminates bump steer. So as the wheels are going up and down instead of fighting me back a little on the bars, it's going to absorb that bump steer and keep me rolling straight in the direction that I'm pointing with way less effort, uh, than you'd see certainly on the non-power steering or the other unit next to me. The other cool thing about both the 570 and this unit on these ATVs is that they actually have the ability to adjust the power steering assist. So if we can get you to come around with the camera, there's two different ways that we can actually do that and it's right through this gauge. So the first I usually tell people, you know, start on odometer and hold down the mode button and that's going to get you into the options menu. And if you start scrolling down with the up or down arrows, you'll see different things that you can configure. You know, you've got units, um, you've got clock settings, your backlight color level, um, you know, eventually you'll get to one that says EPS. If you tap the mode button, it'll start flashing the, uh, the value you're in and you can go up and down to get from low, medium, high and when you want to set it, tap that mode button, uh, get yourself back to the exit screen and you're back to where you started at the new level of assist.
The other way to get into that menu that a lot of people aren't aware of because it's a little bit of a trick feature, um, maybe like, you know, Easter egg styles, is if you hold down this yellow Speedo reverse override button on the left handlebar control, after a few few seconds, it'll do the same thing, it'll pop you into the options menu. And instead of using the up and down arrows, which you can if you tap on that button and release it'll actually scroll through these options for you. Uh, again, until you get to the one that says EPS, again, hold the yellow button down, it'll start flashing the, uh, mode. And as you toggle it again, you can adjust between low, medium, and high. And when you want to lock it in, you hold that yellow button down again and again toggle through the menu until you get back to the, uh, one that says Exit, uh, hold down that that menu button again and it'll pop you back to your, uh, normal gauge operation. So again, you can do it through the gauge, you can do it through the left handlebar control.
All right, so we've got a steering post coming down to this power steering unit here. You can see that directly couples on the output splines of the steering frog that actually connects to the tire rod coming out to this close wheel. Then you can see there's a drag link here that actually shuttles over to the other side to the other frog that connects to the tie rod going to the other wheel. So as I start steering this thing, you'll actually see that they move in unison with that center drag link connecting the two sides. And if the wheels were going up and down through travel, it basically is eliminating the bump steer or the amount that the wheels trying to move, uh, because of the suspension going up and down. So this Pro Steer really is awesome. It gives you a lot less fatigue throughout the day and a great feel of what that front end is doing.
All right, so on the table here, we've got some examples of what side-by-side power steering units look like and we'll talk about them real quick. So this first one is actually a rack mounted power steering unit. So this would kind of sit about like this, you know, the steering column would come in on the top, this bottom would go to a shaft out to a rack and pinion setup. Um, again, just like we talked on the ATV, these two parts, although they look like one shaft, there's actually an input here and output shaft here and there's a torsion bar that connects those two things in the middle so that they can flex a little to know which way you're trying to steer. On this end is actually where the motor is housed. So there's actually a worm gear in here so that we can have the motor be able to make multiple turns against the output shaft. So we can use a smaller motor coupled up to get big force multiplier through that gear set to be able to control the output. Now this this basically takes a similar, you know, powered rack or or power steering setup. You can see the motor's here again, goes down to the gear set here with an input shaft, but in this case, the output shaft is directly coupled into the pinion gear which fits right under here. And then there's a rack assembly that goes across. So when you turn your steering wheel in this input shaft, it's actually going to shuttle that whole rack assembly back and forth to be able to connect to these tie rods that go out to the wheels. So this particular setup would be similar to what you'd find on a Ranger XD 1500 or the new Polaris X Edition, um, or, uh, a RZR, uh, Pro R or Turbo R setup where we've got the integrated rack and and power steering assembly. Um, so overall, you know, this setup is, you know, kind of but most, uh, if you didn't have the power steering built right here, you'd have something that looks like this spaced a little further away with a shaft that connects this and the rack and pinion setup. The beauty of the rack and pinion compared to the ATV is that we can actually get a higher force out to the wheels with less steering effort because we can allow the steering wheel to go all the way around. So most of our side-by-sides are going to range anywhere from about a turn and a half lock to lock on our high-end RZRs, uh, up to about 2 and a half to three turns on some of our more utility focused Ranger models.
Hey, we covered off on a ton of steering system information. You know, how does a frog work? How does the pro link work? How does rack and pinion work? Talked about the differences in power steering, how to adjust them. You know, overall tons of information when it comes to steering systems on this episode of Shop Talk. Make sure you guys like and comment and subscribe and let us know what you want to see next time.
