Are All Billet Steering Racks Created Equal?

[ScottJ24]

I am considering replacing my steering rack with a billet one. There are lots of options and very little info on them except from the Mfg. Any recommendations or real world experience?

 

[Admin]

 

[Adam490]

Raceco, RB3, or Hess are your options. The JSport is built by RB3. I’ve had the Hess for over a year now and have beaten the hell out of it without issue. I went with Hess because they use a larger rack gear and offered the stiffener plate for the mount. Once you see how thin that mounting plate is you’ll appreciate it. I think @Hometeam has the RB3 in a few of his machines so he might be able to chime in there. RB3 has been a long time site sponsor as well so you can’t go wrong there.

Any of them are a significant upgrade over the stock unit. Just make sure to buy the right one for your machine if you’ve got a live valve with a shaft mounted steering angle sensor (believe it’s ‘22 and down LV machines, but they may have moved it on the ‘22 models). There are splines and a mounting tab for those that you need to install the SAS.

 

[Hello_Darkness]

Don't waste your money on Hess, it's just stock guts inside a billet housing

 

[Hometeam]

Raceco, RB3, or Hess are your options. The JSport is built by RB3. I’ve had the Hess for over a year now and have beaten the hell out of it without issue. I went with Hess because they use a larger rack gear and offered the stiffener plate for the mount. Once you see how thin that mounting plate is you’ll appreciate it. I think @Hometeam has the RB3 in a few of his machines so he might be able to chime in there. RB3 has been a long time site sponsor as well so you can’t go wrong there.

Any of them are a significant upgrade over the stock unit. Just make sure to buy the right one for your machine if you’ve got a live valve with a shaft mounted steering angle sensor (believe it’s ‘22 and down LV machines, but they may have moved it on the ‘22 models). There are splines and a mounting tab for those that you need to install the SAS.

We got 2 Hess ones. They have been totally fine for us so far. Not a lot of miles on them yet. When I need the next one I was gonna get the RB3 to compare the 2. I was torn between the 2 and at the time of purchase, Hess had a better price so I went that route.

 

[JACKAL]

Don't waste your money on Hess, it's just stock guts inside a billet housing

All hat and no Cowboy eh? 🤣

 

[SuperATV]

Don't count out the Rackboss 2.0. We don't do the fancy billet casing, but I'm pretty sure ours is the only dual bushing rack out there...and, cycle for cycle, it should outlast every other one on the market because of that dual bushing design. Its the standard with all the Popo and Kawie guys. The X3 guys were praising the ST billet rack forever but now finding out a billet case doesn't mean the same stock design isn't going to last any longer.