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Full Hydro or hydraulic assist?!

mrdrinksalil

mrdrinksalil

1/2 ton status
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Ok, lets forget the whole full hydro isn't street legal BS for a moment and anyone whos upgraded to full hydro I want your input. I dont even have Hydro Assist yet but after welding up the front 60 this weekend more steering is in order... Someone I trust who's been wheeling for a long time told me not to waste my time with hydro assist and go full hydro. He said everyone he knew has pump issues with hydro assist. I've kind of givin up on my truck as having any streetablitly and figure if a cop pulls me over hes not going to have a clue that full hydo is illegal or even what that means in the first place.

what do yall think?
 
Full hydro isn't illegal as far as I know. It is, however, very squirrely on the road. Full hydro generally has a very vague and uncontrolled feeling compared to mechanical steering.

I've been running my hydro assist for 3 years now, no problems and plenty of power.



I would, however, trade my crossover/hydro assist for full hydro because:

Fully hydro isn't affected by suspension movement, I've got enough suspension travel in the front that I still lose some steering control even with crossover

Clearance, I'm not really running enough lift for crossover

Power, more would be nice.




If you're going to drive this truck to the trails I would go with hydro assist.
 
i think alot of it depends on HOW you want to do your full hydro...i know alot of people running assist and the only problem they have is fluid getting hot late in the day and preventing them to turn left.easy fix cooler...i know you can do full hydro cheap or expensive and ive heard if you want it right expensive it the way to go...

i also know that it is extreemly dangerous (i guess hydro assist is in this way also)

example-formud just put full hydro on his rig about 2 months ago..well last month we all went to take it for a shke down run.we got about 3 miles away from camp a and he blew a hose and the truck went up in flames,we got it out but not before it burnt up ALOT of wiring...also ive been told full hydro has enough pressure behind it to cut your finger off.idk how true that is but i did have a buddy get his cut off with a wrecker and hydralics...

i say if you already have crossover just do hydro assist its a lot cheaper..

oh here is a pic of what happened
formud.jpg
 
twoslo4five0 said:
i..also ive been told full hydro has enough pressure behind it to cut your finger off.
Click to expand...

Anything with hydraulics can hurt you. the stock high pressure line on the original steering setup is running at the same pressure as the lines in a full hydro system until you modify your pump. ~1200psi. If that line gets a hole in it its just as dangerous. Besides danger is a relative term. If I was 3 more feet forward when I flopped my truck this weekend Id prolly have a broken rib instead of a dented fender.

when I need the steering is when the trucks suspension is twisted up like pretzel. I'm sure hydo assist will help when I'm on flat ground and thats it (** I am assuming baised on what ive read and been told**). Ive also heard that even with a cooler the fluid gets too hot and ruins pumps
 
38377k5 said:
Mine is pretty close to stock height (52's with 3 leaves), I can only have ~1.5" of uptravel without the spring hitting the draglink end.
Click to expand...

thats low. Howd you get such low lift with 52's? If I'm going to run full hydro I'd like to run it to the high steer arms instead of the tierod holes on the knuckles. Im not sure If I can do that or not.
 
mrdrinksalil said:
when I need the steering is when the trucks suspension is twisted up like pretzel. I'm sure hydo assist will help when I'm on flat ground and thats it (** I am assuming baised on what ive read and been told**). Ive also heard that even with a cooler the fluid gets too hot and ruins pumps
Click to expand...


Hydro assist helps all the time just like anything else.

I run 42's with a Detroit in the front, everything I run is rocks.

My ram is 1.5" bore with a 1" rod, it turns my tires with ease almost all the time. The only time my steering doesn't have enough power is when the tires are REALLY bound up and even then I wonder if more steering power would result in broken steering knuckles.

I run a trans cooler from a Saturn for my steering cooler; fluid temps are usually between 150-180, its never been over 200.


I don't know why your friend is telling you all these bad things about hydro-assist, its worked well for a lot of us :dunno:
 
mrdrinksalil said:
thats low. Howd you get such low lift with 52's? If I'm going to run full hydro I'd like to run it to the high steer arms instead of the tierod holes on the knuckles. Im not sure If I can do that or not.
Click to expand...

I'm only running 3 leaves out of the 7 or 8 that were there when I got them. Plus they're used.

The springs sit flat on the overload at ride height.

As for fitting full hydro with high steer, that's very doable. Lots of people run that setup with low ride heights, you could probably have a lower ride height than mine.

Full hydro is much easier to fit than mechanical steering linkages.
 
well, he's one of the hardcore guys. For example he's on rocks with overson shafts, 47's, 4wheel steering, and a frame that extends and can change his wheelbase on the move by 3 feet. When you are trying to follow rigs like that you need to be able to steer. haha. But anyhow he was tellin me that it was going to burn pumps up. And I'd just go full hydo in the long run anyhow.
 
mrdrinksalil said:
well, he's one of the hardcore guys. For example he's on rocks with overson shafts, 47's, 4wheel steering, and a frame that extends and can change his wheelbase on the move by 3 feet. When you are trying to follow rigs like that you need to be able to steer. haha. But anyhow he was tellin me that it was going to burn pumps up. And I'd just go full hydo in the long run anyhow.
Click to expand...

You should ask him why hydro assist burns up pumps but full hydro would not burn up the same pump?


You need more fluid capacity and a cooler, then the pump will live a long and happy life.
 
Go full hydro
My springs are not very flexy but my steering always do what I want
and it is very exact (:crazy:spellcheck)
654356_351_full.jpg
 
I like the full hydro on my trail rig. Only complaint I have about it is, the few times I drove it on the road, I was constantly adjusting left to compensate road crown. Open center rig drifts right so constantly turning left to keep in centered in the lane. Not sure if anybody else has noticed this. Never read it anywhere either.
 
That is kinda funny to think about. On a long enough drive you could prolly do several full turns of the steering wheel just to keep going straight. :D

Small tangent:

What is the consensus on the max PS fluid temps you should shoot for? 150-180 degrees like 38377k5 said? I am going with an aux trans cooler, would it make sense to run the PS fluid through the unused tranny cooler in the rad and then through the stock PS cooler to keep temps down??? Does PS fluid get enough hotter than coolant for it to work? I plan to eventually run hydro assist and hydroboost.
 
BGKYK5 said:
Small tangent:

What is the consensus on the max PS fluid temps you should shoot for? 150-180 degrees like 38377k5 said? I am going with an aux trans cooler, would it make sense to run the PS fluid through the unused tranny cooler in the rad and then through the stock PS cooler to keep temps down??? Does PS fluid get enough hotter than coolant for it to work? I plan to eventually run hydro assist and hydroboost.
Click to expand...

From what I've heard, the steering fluid should stay in the same temp. range as auto trans temps; 200 deg. at max. Above 200F the fluid and component lives are decreased drastically.

The steering and steering pump are capable of making a LOT of heat, I would use a stand alone transmission cooler rather than the stock in-radiator cooler.
 
BGKYK5 said:
That is kinda funny to think about. On a long enough drive you could prolly do several full turns of the steering wheel just to keep going straight. :D
Click to expand...


15 miles = approx. 5 revolutions!

I'm using a light hydraulic fluid. Not power steering fluid. Just a bit heavier than that, supposed to deal with heat better.
 
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