Pitman arm length - How crucial ?

[4x4rookie]

hi
We've bought the heavy duty steering boxes for our SWB Safari's
The pitman arms on the HD boxes are around 20mm longer than the standard arms on standard boxes in GQ SWB
The longer arms hav'nt caused any problems yet but are they likely to be a problem ? i.e should we be adjusting bump stops etc ?
Also, do all HD boxes have the longer pitman arms than those found on standard steering boxes found in GQ SWB ?
Any info greatly appreciated
cheers

[sirLachlan]

Without knowing the specifics all other things being equal the only thing that would change would be less steering wheel turns from lock to lock . However the box may have a different internal ratio and the longer arm cancels it out .
Bump stops dont really change as the amount you can steer the wheels hasnt changed . Unless the box runs out of travel but I highly doubt that

[churchill]

I wouldn't worry about it as long as there is no binding. It'll reduce the number of turns lock to lock.

[lax2wlg]

I imagine that so long as the draglink and panhard are still parallel (as with any other live axle front coil setup), it would be fine.
If the pitman arm drops a bit and puts them out of parallel, you might get some weird steering input in certain situations (bump steer).

Yeah I was reading about that GU steering box upgrade, looks like a very cool mod. The standard GQ box seems to be about the same size as the later WD21 box, so seems a bit small for the size of the vehicle and the amount of unsprung weight its dragging around.

If it was me, I'd chuck stronger draglink/tie rod in there while I was at it.

[mudlva]

The 082 box uses the same lenght drag link and hubs as the std set up so there will be no differance in wheel travel
It has a differant lower steering ratio so will be slightly more turns lock to lock