Can-Am’s Maverick X3 is one of the best UTVs on the market, but they’re not without their faults. Like most high performance machines, they have a few weak links that need to be addressed. Two issues we’ve experienced have been blown out OEM steering racks and excessive bump steer. We’ve solved these issues with the Shock Therapy Billet X3 Race Steering Rack & BSD Tie-Rod Kit.
We installed the Shock Therapy Billet X3 Race Steering Rack with Bump Steer Delete (BSD) Tie-Rod Kit on our Can-Am Maverick X3 Pre-Runner which is primarily driven on incredibly abusive Baja terrain. Over the course of these 10,000+ miles, we’ve replaced multiple worn out OEM steering racks and have had difficulties eliminating bump steer. The stock rack has a ton of play, which causes feedback in the steering wheel and significantly hurts the longevity of the rack. Bump steer is basically when your car’s front alignment moves in or out as the suspension moves through the travel. This makes the steering wheel feedback even worse especially through cornering and over whoops. You want your alignment to stay as close as possible throughout the stroke. Shock Therapy has a great breakdown of bump steer in the video below.
WHAT IS BUMP STEER?
Not every Maverick X3 has excessive bump steer and not everyone will want to spend the money on the billet rack, but Shock Therapy offers different configurations. If you only want to focus on your bump steer issue, which also helps with steering feedback substantially, you can purchase the BSD kit separately for $195.95. You’ll have to update these tie-rods if you decide to install a Billet Race Rack later on, but you’re only buying a couple new inner heims. The Shock Therapy Billet X3 Race Steering Rack runs for $1995.95 without tie-rods and $2250.20 for the full kit.
The Shock Therapy Billet X3 Race Steering Rack is expensive for the casual trail rider, but you will be blown away with the difference. Our X3 Pre-Runner is a whole new machine! You can literally drive the car with one hand now. The rack eliminated nearly all of the play in the steering wheel and the Electronic Power Steering module appreciated the upgrade as well. We also love that it eliminated the weak inner tie rod points and replaced them with a heavy duty and adjustable flag. The inner tie-rods now utilize ⅝” heims and bolt right into the flag for easy maintenance. The Shock Therapy BSD Tie-Rods allows you to move the outer rod end into 3 different positions within the spindle using adjustable misalignment spacers. After a couple adjustments, we were able to take our X3’s one-inch of bump steer down to ⅛”. This combination is amazing. Our new smooth and consistent steering matched with almost zero bump steer is going to save us a lot of time and money on replacing worn out racks, heims and uni-balls and has greatly improved the comfort in the car. Here’s everything else you need to know about the rack:
THE SHOCK THERAPY BILLET RACE RACK EXPLAINED…
The Shock Therapy Billet X3 Race Steering Rack with BSD Tie-Rod Kit was simple to install thanks to easy to follow instructions through the videos below.
HOW TO INSTALL:
Customer Reviews (Provided by Shock Therapy)
Great product!
Posted by Caleb Rupp on Jan 10th 2022
This steering rack is an absolutely awesome upgrade! It’s definitely an expensive investment, but the improvement is absolutely worth it. No more bump steer, no more constantly fighting the wheel to keep the car on the intended path, less driver fatigue. Stoked to put it to use during race season this year!
Steering Rack
Posted by Douglas Robbins on Nov 22nd 2021
I ordered the billet steering rack for my 2021 Can Am X3 and the install was pretty easy. Thanks Justin Smith for the awesome install video.
Beautiful!
Posted by Chris Hoover on Mar 8th 2021
Everything about this piece is worthy! The steering is faster and smooth as glass! Workmanship is stellar, A+++++
Steering Rack Can Am
Posted by Kristopher Audette on Aug 11th 2020
Best upgrade so far. Drive one handed now
