Triton Turning Circle

Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Location: Brisbane

As we all know the Triton's have a lousy turning circle. An unfortunate failing. Anyone out there have any solutions or suggestions?

Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Location: Adelaide

Induce oversteer?

Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2004 2:13 pm

My suggestion, avoid carparks and u-turns and get good at 6 point turns Wink

I love my triton but wish it had the turning circle of my old toyota starlet Embarassed

Joined: 09 Jun 2004 Location: South Brisbane

Know the feeling as we use them at work... my solution push that throttle all the way down through corners, overcomes any lack of turning circle everytime Wink

Joined: 01 Jan 2003 Location: Sydney

Adjust the steering stops so that the wheels can get closer to the chassis rails, works especially well if you've got relatively narrow tyres. there usually is a little extra available available.

might mean that you will get a little rubbing in extremes with hard lock on offroad, but u get that.

Rob.

Joined: 21 Feb 2003 Location: Sydney

yep, know this well...
32" MTR's don't help me either.. If i go 33's it will be even better...

Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Location: Brisbane

Thanks for all the comments to date. I like the pedal to the metal into corners proposition, although it can get a bit hairy in car parks Laughing

I have heard that the steering stops can be adjusted. I was speaking to a Mitsubishi sales guy who reckoned that they should be adjusted already - supposed to happen before the Tritons leave the showroom. But some dealers get lazy and don't make the adjustment. So I have to work out whether mine have been adjusted or not. It's hard to know just how bad is bad when talking of a Tritons turning circle.
I am not sure what the definition of a narrow tyre is. I am running BFG AT's 31 x 10.5 X 15's on CSA 15 x 7 rims. I certainly wouldn't want any narrower!!! At full lock I still have some clearance, but not much.

Anyway thanks again.

Cheers

Steve

Joined: 11 Jan 2004 Location: Adelaide

fishtail wrote:

But some dealers get lazy and don't make the adjustment.

You're Joking!

Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Location: Brisbane

Nope, not joking. But this is only what I had been told by a sales guy. I posted here in the hope of finding out more from people who actually owned Tritons and had maybe done something about the problem.
I guess the most logical thing to do is to go and talk to some mechanics - see what they offer up as a solution. Just wanted to see what background info I could get so I am a bit more knowledgeable when discussing the problem

Joined: 31 Oct 2004 Location: Brisbane

After looking round the net for other posts regarding this problem, I have found the Mitsubishi L200 owners club in the UK, which is a 700 plus strong club/forum for owners of Mitsubishi L200 and similar (the UK version of the Triton). This is an excellent site and well worth a look for Triton owners.
http://www.l200.org.uk
Anyway, they had some extensive info on there re fixing Tritons turning circle, by adjusting the steering bump stops.
Armed with that info I adjusted my bump stops yesterday, and as a result have a much improved turning circle. I still have more adjustment possible before the tyres begin to rub on full lock, but will see how this first adjustment goes. So far so good.
Its a very simple adjustment. After putting steering onto full lock, look in front of the wheel thats sticking out, and you can see the steering arms. At the point where the steering arm would touch the chassis, is a bolt, with a locking nut, attached to the chassis. This what gets adjusted. Loosen the locking nut and hold it, then tighten the the bolt to the required height, and then re-tighten the lock nut. Do the same for the other side.

You must test your steering lock first with the vehicle stationery, to make sure you still have plenty of tolerance between the tyre and the chassis of the truck.

Don't forget to check on both left and right hand lock, the front and back of tyres for clearance to chassis

On the L200 site there were a few posts suggesting that you should check the steering fluid levels, and that this potentially may have caused some lockups on full lock acceleration. Have not had any such problems yet, and fluid levels remained same.

Its awesome having a reasonable turning circle. Now doing a U turn is only a 3 point turn, not 4 or 5 Cool

The pic below was taken after I made the adjustment. It is taken from the drivers side, looking in over the wheel. I had to clean off a fair bit of grease and crap before I recognised it.

Hope this helps any Triton driver that hasn't had the adjustment done. Its well worth it. And thanks to the guys on the UK L200 site. (a bit of stolen text along the way Wink

)

Cheers

Steve K

Joined: 11 Aug 2004 Location: Brisbane

Just did adjusted my stops!!! wound them in as far as they went and still not anywhere near touching on my 98 gls. the turning circle is almost as good as my dads bravo now and i can get out my driveway without a 3 point turn Smile

Joined: 18 Jul 2005 Location: Country NSW

thought this was worth bumping. Its amazing what you find while trawling old posts.
Turning circle is one of the few things that I find annoying about my triton

Joined: 11 Aug 2004 Location: Brisbane

i adjusted mine all the way in a while back. made a huge improvement
just put 31x1o.5 mtr's on (sunrasia rims with "navara offset") and still doesnt touch anywheres. only think im worried about is breaking a cv if when 4wding i give it to much at full lock.................. doubt it tho, not with only 31's atleast

Joined: 18 Jul 2005 Location: Country NSW

I have 265/75/16 BFG A/Ts on my '03 MK and the tyres touch the rubber sheet that stops the mud hosing into the engine bay Confused

. I dunno how much adjustment I'll be able to get out of it

Cheers
Blake

Joined: 29 Mar 2005 Location: Newcastle

I adjusted my steering stoppers a while back and got 2m tighter turn when driving on full lock for 8m (i think, was a while ago).

I heard something interesting yeasterday though... a friend who has 03 td triton said his insurance would be void if he adjusted his! Confused

Joined: 29 Mar 2005 Location: Newcastle

Just to follow on from my above post:

I informed my insurance company of the adjustments made to the steering stoppers and they said it was fine. armsup

Just thought i'd share Wink

Joined: 01 Aug 2008 Location: Brisbane

Yeah, I know this is ressurecting an old post but i didn't wan't to start a new post (keep all the info together....)

Anyway -

I often see people bagging the turning circle of the Dual Cab MK series Triton which is listed as 12.8m - so i though a bit of research was in order.

Al selection of dual cabs shows -

MK Triton 12.8m
D40 Navara 13.3m
D22 Navara 12.0m
Rodeo 12.6m
Hilux 12.6m
BT50 12.6m
Bravo 12.6m
ML Triton 11.8m

So there you go. The MK is large but not the largest.
The conclusion is that they are ALL huge (except maybe the new ML Triton) - especially the D40 Navara.

In regards to adjusting the bump stops, i think the GLX models with the thinner tyres will benefit from this. The GLS & GLX-R models have little adjustment due to the wider alloys and tyres fitted to these models.

DW