A steering damper in it’s simplest form is a tube that has a hole in either end. It has a shaft that runs through it. The shaft has a baffle attached to it. The baffle has small holes in it to allow fluid to pass through it as it slides along the inside of the outer tube.
Moving slow, the fluid passes thru fairly easy (allowing you to turn with no resistance)
But with fast movement the fluid can’t get thru the holes fast enough to allow the baffle to move at that speed (dampening the movement)
So, If you have a moment of quick movement that could turn into a series of worse movements, the dampening properties of fluid will prevail.
Thanks for the info, so if I understand correctly, the main difference between a steering damper, and the dampening of normal mountainboard trucks is the resistance is constant throughout as opposed to being proportioned to steering angle.
Wouldn’t we still refer to the level of resistance as being tight or loose though?
No. Because dampening is being confused in this thread (a few times) with turn radius. Your turn radius is affected only by your choice of trucks and the degree of their baseplate. You will turn whatever radius the trucks will turn whether you have a steering dampener or not. The dampener only affects how fast your your lean angle can change. Not how sharp you can turn.
The level of resistance is dictated by the type of bushings you are using and how tight you set the nut on your kingpin.
Channel trucks, with springs and eggs, are just different altogether…They either turn super sharp and loose or hardly turn at all if you have eggs in the springs. They aren’t made for street. Never were.
For a dampening system to actuallybe able to work well on channel trucks you would need to ride without eggs.
Aargh, confusing lol. I’ll have to read up more on this when I have the headspace for it. When saying tight or loose though, I was referring to the trucks resistance to turn, not necessarily the turning angle.
Great YT Video - we should combine our Trampa Trucks with motor bike steering dampers controlled by arduinos.
If our speed is getting higher, the arduino hardens the dampers. If we ride low speed, the arduino weill loosen the dampers.
How about taking the steering dampers for a Honda Monkey for front and back Trampa Trucks and trying to design a servo motor to adjust these - while driving.
Of cause we would then remove the original trampa rubber dampers .
You cant remove rubber dumpers, this whole thing is just for slowing down the turning speed of truck. Rubber dampers and springs are for suspension not turning. You can’t use servos for turn manual dampers because its 4-5x 360º turns
My personal experience with running a damper on the rear truck is it soaks up and softens my mistakes and road anomalies for recovery and control. RAF recovery after Fuckup…
I would be with @MoeStooge in this point… im not sure what cat reflexes are needed but someone should try hitting obstacles at speed… be it branches, bumps, cracks whatever… and see how it feels, especially if trucks are a bit loose.
So yeh, I guess im also on the ‘Technical’ side, supporting the dampener to avoid such drastic shifts in movement after bumps or other irregularities on road.
I had a video with longborder hitting a bump/crack and afterwards wobbling and crashing, too bad I lost it.
@Flexboardz Thanks for bringing up the pictures, on a side note I think GnarBoards had somewhat good design / technology, too bad they couldnt handle it or the price was too steep or what not that they disappeared.
adding 21th century technology (electronic control) to correct the defaults of a 19th century technology (skate trucks) seems a bit overengineered to me…
I hit rocks, branches, road turds, squirrels, snakes. I’m still saying its all ankles and a proper bushing setup
You see you need strong enough ankles to hold pressure on the rail so that the truck and wheel move around the object and the board stays at the same deflection. The board staying at the same angle will return the trucks to the previous tracking after hitting an object
Over 35 mph is where the damper makes a noticable difference. I cant give you any objectional comparison as my setup is unique. Sorry about your road rash @Deckoz chicks do dig scars👍.
Tis but a fleshwound, all healed. I just know RKP are made for me…and Trampa and TKP are not my cup o tea. There’s a good reason all the guys going 50+ downhill are mostly RKP…just feels right.
Received today dampers, removed all unnecessary parts in the end left with pretty decent looking stuff. Then applied full 12V I was not able to turn with a small wrench.
