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1.5 vs 1.75 hydro assist ram

454Sub

454Sub

5/8 ton status
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Which one do y'all run and/or prefer?

I did some searching and while I can find several topics of which brand, the ram size itself never pops up. 2in is way overkill for me, so it comes down to 1.5 vs 1.75. I haven't modified my pump with the WTO thing but I'm find with doing it.

I already have a large cooler for the pump, and the astrovan fluid reservoir.

I'm turning 39.5s, with 7000+ lbs of weight give or take who knows on a 60. I may soon trade up to 42s but that's a hit and miss deal. All I know for sure is with the welded front it's not the best thing out there.
 
I have 39.5 boggers with a welded 60 and run a 2.0 cylinder, i wouldn't run any smaller since the 2.0 seems perfect for wheeling. It is slow for on the road but not terrible.
 
Do you have a stock pump? I did drive it on the street occasionally, and a little slow isn't a huge deal as it's not freeway spinning or anything.
 
454Sub said:
Do you have a stock pump? I did drive it on the street occasionally, and a little slow isn't a huge deal as it's not freeway spinning or anything.
Click to expand...

Stock modded pump with cooler and it works good.
 
And did you just drill the fitting out to the correct size or did you shim the spring to raise the pressure?

I have heard that it's really the volume that's the problem, and shimming the spring opens up a whole can o worms worth of problems. Stretching the spring seems like a temporary thing, as it would eventually shrink back to it's original size.
 
I used to have a 1.75 on mine before I went full hydro. With a stock pump only issue I ever had was when I had to turn fast from lock to lock and then back the other way (think drifting on a sandwash)
It would slow the steering down too much for me.
 
ChrisPerry said:
I used to have a 1.75 on mine before I went full hydro. With a stock pump only issue I ever had was when I had to turn fast from lock to lock and then back the other way (think drifting on a sandwash)
It would slow the steering down too much for me.
Click to expand...

Same ^^^ It's plenty strong, but at times likes a bit more RPM than idle, and as Chris said I have had it slow down quick steering inputs. The stock pump just doesn't flow enough for the larger RAMs IMO. Also it never bothered me enough to change it.
 
Do you have a stock pump? That's alot of volume to try to pump through the box quickly. Probably can be done, but you may need to use larger fittings and up the pressure.
 
ChrisPerry said:
Do you have a stock pump? That's alot of volume to try to pump through the box quickly. Probably can be done, but you may need to use larger fittings and up the pressure.
Click to expand...

Yeah I have a stock pump for now. I haven't driven my truck yet with it in there because a few other things are being fixed at the moment.
My whole engine is getting changed so I will upgrade everything then. The ram came with the axles when I bought them so it was one less thing for me to buy.
 
I have a 1.5" ram on my 6.2L hydroboost equipped K5 with 39.5's and a Lockright front. The pump and hydroboost are all stock components. It still has the same basic "feel" when driving on the road but I now never have trouble turning the tires (well, unless severely jammed in between rocks or something) with one hand. Prior to the hydro assist steering I had lots of issues not being able to turn the wheels off-road and the pump/belt was always squealing. I did make sure to go with the smaller 1.5" ram because of the hydroboost and fear of running out of fluid volume when using the brakes. The only time I've ever noticed loosing any steering power is during certain situations driving on the road and being moderate to heavy on the brakes and trying to make a fairly sharp turn onto another road the steering gets a little slow....no real issue but enough it gets your attention and makes you put your other hand on the wheel to crank the wheel a little faster.
 
So I may just run a 2in if it's not terrible.

Anyone know how thick the shim is supposed to be for the pump?
 
You know, I don't really have a dog in this hunt, my stock system does what I need with my setup.
But I read similar discussions here all the time. And one thing has always struck me. I don't think you are taking the mods quite far enough.

As some of you may know, I'm running a pretty big hydraulic winch on my truck. It uses a big pump running off the PTO on my 205. For reasons too long to go into here, I have often wished I could run the winch off a belt driven pump.
Briefly considered the power steering pump.
Looked up the specs, realized there was no way. My winch needs about 20GPM@1500psi. And, due to how much its geared down, its slow at that GPM.
Most steering pumps won't push more than 3.5GPM, and some low as 2.
But, they sell aftermarket belt drive pumps for winch, dump bed, that sort of thing that easily pump 20GPM. The problem with them, is that they are RPM limited, and have a clutch that you engage when you need hydraulics.
Since you pretty much need hydraulics for steering whenever you are driving, the clutch seems a bad idea. And having the pump come apart at high RPMs seems bad too.
However, I also see concrete trucks running up and down the road with the hydraulics in constant use. Most of them seem to have a pump mounted in front of the engine being driven by a shaft hooked directly to the crank. Those pumps look much too large for this use, but if they can survive direct engine speed, surely there are other smaller ones that can also.

Of course, with a belt drive pump, the pulley ratio will determine what speed the pump sees. So, it might be possible to run a regular one. Looks like most top out at 3000 RPM.

This company makes complete kits for mounting hydraulic pumps on engines.
https://deweze.com/
But, they are expensive.
For more do it yourself, just the pumps are out there.
https://www.northerntool.com/shop/tools/product_200329778_200329778
http://www.surpluscenter.com/Brands...p-w-8-Groove-Serpentine-Clutch-9-1737-S-8.axd

Also, I hear questions about fittings, what happened when, maybe this will help.
http://www.alangrovecomponents.com/images/Instructions/pspsheet.pdf

And, although I know you already know this, remember, when figuring cylinder size, the larger the cylinder, the less pressure it takes to do a given task, but the more flow to move it at a given speed.
So, if you have a nice high flow pump, go larger with the cylinder to keep the line pressures low. But if your pump is low flow, high pressure, then go down in size.

This article is about Dodge, but the top section about pumps is helpful.
http://dodgeram.org/tech/specs/00_steer_specs.html

And here, a claim is made that the older Saginaw pumps were much higher flow than modern ones. No specs, models, or hard evidence is offered though.
http://www.hotrod.com/articles/ccrp-1304-gm-power-steering-secrets/
 
Oops, just found these. No high flow in the bunch, but at least it shows which ones to avoid. P pumps 1.jpg P pumps 2.jpg P pumps 3.jpg P pumps 4.jpg
 
1.5" is too small with a 40" tire and offroad use, regardless of what you do with the pump. 1.75 is pretty good all around. 2.0" is good for heavy trucks in the rocks but you'll fight it for speed more. With a good pump and res. system the 1.75 is a good all around choice.

One tip is that you can actually measure your steering throw without the stops an maybe get more turn angle by setting things just right. Steering stops, ujoint clearances, tire clearances, steering linkage geometry and probably some more come into this but at the end of the process you can pick up a few degrees of turning angle and then custom spec a cylinder over the normal 8.0" throw to take advantage of it. Our convertible K30 uses 8.875" of cylinder and turns really nice for example.

I ran my full hydro winch (long time ago now) with a belt driven clutched pump on the engine and it was a good system. Could speed up and slow down with engine speed and the spool valve setting and use the torque convertor slip to manage road speed all at the same time. The thing would pull 50 ft/min at full load. And do it pull after pull without resting. Pretty awesome performance and would never happen with a power steer pump like Mile Marker intended.
 
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