Borgsen Steering Shaft can kill you

[rootmanslim]

I have put on my steel shorts as I know lots of you love them BUT one almost killed me and a friend. 2001 4X4, auto, Rixon wheels and 19.5" tires. Lots of driving on USFS roads hauling a horse trailer. Driving back from Jackson WY to Pinedale WY on rt 191 (paved). After all the twisty turners thru the Hoback canyon (no guard rails and a river to fall into after a 10-50 ft drop), we climbed the rim and were cruising along at 65 on the dead level in one of the few areas with wide flat shoulders. I went to make a minor steering correction and the wheel just turned in my hands... NO STEERING! Thanks to the road crown and gentle braking we slowly drifted off into the sagebrush and got stopped 15 feet from a large steel tower housing a weather station in front of a 4 strand barbed wire fence. The Borgsen shaft had been installed 8000 miles before and as well as the jam nuts all the allen heads were locktited. What happened is that the allen head on the upper end vibrated loose and the shaft collapsed (accident slip joint) and was disconnected from the wheel. IMO it is a poor design as the total connection reliability is based on those allen heads and jam nuts. May be fine for the 2WD that never goes off pavement but Wyoming washboard will shake anything loose. I went back to the OEM shaft that has a slide on collet with a big bolt & nut to tighten the collet on the shaft. BTW the lauded Borgsen made no difference in my steering unlike the Luke's link and Solid Steel Industries steering box locater.
I sent it back and they sent me a check. No comments from them at all on my enclosed note. Almost anywhere else on that 77 mile drive and we would have been statistics. A big ad in TDR does not a good product make and they won't buy your tombstone either. Rates right up there as a near death experience with the Otter crash in Ontario, but that's another story.