who likes what hydro steering kit ? NEED MORE INFO LOOK

[sweetk30]

o.k. i need more info . i got lots of info from rob h thanks man.

my only thing is i have read here and pirate. seems these rams are like this .

1.5" = great street handling.
1.75" = good of both worlds.
2.0" = most power to turn.

then if running stock tie rod 8" stroke is best.
or if running ord high steering option its around 5" or so stroke. so 6" stroke ram is best. and if possible limit it a little bit.

i will be using dedenbear knuckles and yukon shafts and 300m joints . so anyone know just what stroke ram i will need for sure ?




i have my project almost ready to finish. and now with the 2 arb air lockers i am reading and now thinking i need hydro steering.

so i have 8" lift and all 1tons with ord crossover / highsteer.
plus i run hydro boost brakes.

if i have to i might fab a mount for a second p/s pump to keep brakes seperate from steering.
and i run the full serp belt drive system.

what kit do you recomend to work with my setup ? thanks.

did some searchin over on pirate. seems most with hydro boost / and assist like psc . looking at this kit. what do you think ? http://www.pscmotorsports.com/sk320-8087-gm-w-crossover-steering-p-496.html

 

[rob h]

The psc stuff is real nice and alot use it, I didnt have the cash to do it that way. I bought the trail gear 2.0 ram, 3/8 hoses, fittings and mounts as a kit for under 200.00. I also bought a new pump months before so i just did the mod, for the box i bought the ems off road cap and they tapped the other one. As a whole it works good and turns my locked 60 with 39s...thats with crossover.

I needed a small power steering cooler, the derale cooler works good and comes with the rubber hose and hose clamps. The whole thing cost me around 260 with the new pump and good fluid.

 

[Hogback Fabrication]

The PSC pump isn't really too special, everything else is standard hydro assist stuff.

I'd look into adding a regular PS pump for steering only and then buying a ram and reservoir, even from PSC if you wanted. As for tapping the box, there are aftermarket end caps for the box that are already tapped and I believe the other port can easily be drilled/tapped into the top cover (mine is drilled/tapped in different places on the box, I didn't do it, the way I previously said seems the easiest to me). You'd be hard pressed to spend 1/3 of the cost of that PSC kit doing it the way I described and get the same results.

One other word of caution is to plate your knuckles or buy aftermarket ones. High steer puts lots of extra leverage onto the weakest part of the knuckle and hydro assist amplifies that, trust me getting a truck off the trail with a broken knuckle is not fun.

 

[rob h]

pics you asked for...

if you need more ill take more.

1st pic is the 1980 2wd box with both caps and a 90 degree on each hose, warn bumper bracket is notched so the cap doesnt hit.

2nd is the ram mounted as close to the center section as i could, both fittings mounted up and the hose has the 90 degree on that end.

3rd Ems offroad.com end cap, you can turn the cap any direction you need.

4th The tubing i added for extra capacity and can use your stock cap. I used a newer cap since they have a thicker seal rubber.

5th 2x8 Ram with the mounts, lock nuts and bolts. Seems to be a real solid ram

I have a combo of skys and shakerbuilt for my crossover steering, I seen somewhere you can move the steering stops to get more steering distance from lock to lock.

 

[rob h]

The whole thing is nothing fancy but works perfect, the usual pump mod works real good. I chose to buy a new pump, use the old reservoir and add the tubing. The ram, hoses, mounts and fitting was a good little kit for the price.

 

[sweetk30]

only 2 question i have is

how is street driving . ? guys on pirate say 2"x8" is slow turnning than 1.5"x8" .

and you running hydro boost brakes or not ?

 

[sweetk30]

you get me a direct top down shot of the top cap were its tapped ?

 

[4X4HIGH]

only 2 question i have is

how is street driving . ? guys on pirate say 2"x8" is slow turnning than 1.5"x8" .

and you running hydro boost brakes or not ?

First off, the smaller bore diameter is better for quicker steering response (street driving) but at the expense of less force versus a larger bore which will have slower response but more force.

Second, you want an 8" cylinder if you run the tie rod in the factory location and a 6"-7" cylinder if you run high steer. You can always use the 8" cylinder with high steer then make some stops to limit the travel so you don't break the steering box.

 

[kgblazerfive]

I bought the end cap that was tapped similat to the above picture then drilled my top plate. Rather easy and no big deal I will see if I have a picture. bought a ram from Redneck with ends and stuff. Looked into the hydro store place but didn't like where the hydro lines went into the ram.

I ended up building my own lines to the ram. Went to my local hose supply place and they sell hydro hose that you can cut to fit and put the ends on. No one sells built lines for mine so getting them built was my only option and it was alot cheaper.



pics are all on work computer, but they are on my build
http://coloradok5.com/forums/showthread.php?t=213172

post #182 has a pic of the steering box

 

[rob h]

The 2x8 seems ok on road just real sensative, no i dont have hydro boost just the regular system with one tons. Here is a pic of the cap.

 

[redbird00]

i run a wto steering box and a 1.75x8" ram, i think the 1.75 is good for multipurpose use, gain a little more power without the sacrifice of slow turning.

 

[6.2Blazer]

I run a 1.5" Rocklogic setup. Went with the smaller 1.5" based on concerns with overloading the hydroboost setup. The p/s pump is just stock with minor flow and pressure mods (again, was very conservative with pressure mods because of the hydroboost). My stock pump setup already has the extra reservoir for more fluid volume.

Drilled and tapped the top plate on the box. This is real easy and if you look at the bottom of the cap you will see there really only one place you can do it.

I also drilled and tapped the factory end cap. I know, I know....it will explode and kill a bus full of nuns and babies if you read the internet, but I always try to read between the lines and only found one of the hundreds of naysayers that had actually tried it, and I wasn't convinced the drilling and tapping itself was the cause of the failure. I did JB Weld a large fender washer (middle hole still smaller than the drill bit) on the end of the cap to give me a flat surface and then drilled and tapped it. Figured the steel washer would hold part of the threads, plus there is a pretty thick layer of JB Weld along the outer ends of the washer to disperse the load. So far, so good running 39.5" Swampers and a front locker and quite a few trail rides.

The only issue I had was the belt slipping on the pump (has the factory v-belts), but part of the problem existed prior to the hydro assist. Finallly set it up with dual belts and it's been working good.

 

[sweetk30]

to the top need more info read the update in the orignal post please.

 

[oldtoyboyd]

I have a psc 1.5" on my crewcab. I also have the psc box. Even with the 1.5" ram, it has slower steering than I wish.