Im interested in finding out more information about Hydraulic steering being full or hydraulic assitance does anyone know where i can find more information about this?

im in the process of putting a dana 60 stright axel in my 1994 f-150 and thought it would be pretty neat to have Hydraulic steering so any further information would be great websites etc...

thanks boyz

 

first off full hydro steering is not street legal and can get to be very expensive! hydro assist on the other hand is a few pennies less and you can still drive it on the road without the pigs trailing you. i am doing a hydro assist setup now (if my parts would ever come in! ) and am learning quite abit about it! i am sure jopey will chime in here sometime but he built his hydro assist as well and knows a good deal about it.

it's actually pretty easy and not all that expensive. i didn't feel i needed to buy a $400 kit when I can get all the stuff and do it myself for less than $150. i got a Cheif 2500psi double acting tie rod cylinder that has a 2" bore and 8" stroke (8" is perfect for the D60). i ordered (and the only thing i am waiting on at this point or i would be done) is the 2 wire hydraulic hose that is 1/4". i also ordered the 1/4" NPT re-usable fittings so that i can make field repairs if necessary.

now the trickiest part is pulling you gear box apart and drilling/tapping (with an NPT tap that is) holes to power your ram. it is fairly easy just very tedious work. also you will need to add a reservoir somewhere to bump the fluid capacity up so you don't start sucking in air!

POR has a great deal of info over there so do a lot of searching and you will find a wealth of knowledge

good luck

-cutts-

 

Theres quite a few local places which might be able to help you, check your local phone book.

 

this is a very easy thing to do sound like theres a lot involved but once you do it ,it is very easy the longest part to do is drilling and tapping the box but its pertty simple and buying your own parts (res , cylinder, fitting ,hose and maybe pump is a lot cheaper than buying the kit from somewhere around 1000$ vs 150-200$

 

Where the hell is everyone getting this info from? Is it a specific state law where you live or what? I have yet to see anything in writing that states that a full hydro steering system is not allowed on the street.

 

you know Ivan I keep telling ppl that but now that I think about it I can't remember who said it or where i saw that at!!! so i apologize for putting that up there as I do not know for sure if there are laws agasint it. although if full hydro is anything like a tractor steering setup i wouldn't want to drive it on the road... too squirrely for my blood!

sorry for the miss information

-cutts-

EDIT: here is the closest thing i have found to suggest any laws against full hydro... this is from rock logic
"Your steering system will remain completely street-legal, since you retain your current mechanical linkage between the steering wheel and the tires--this is not a "full hydraulic" steering setup."

 

That means no full hydrolic steering without mechanical linkage...
I also read the same thing that Fishy said in Petersen's...

Under $150 Fishy? Where did you order your tie rod cylinder?

 

i bought my cylinder from Tractor Supply Company for like $70 (i coulda and prolly shoulda found a cheaper one but i didn't have to pay for shipping rates!) and I am buying my hoses, fittings, and an NPT tap all for a lil less than $60 at Fastenal (props to Jopey for that lead ). the fittings were like $6 a piece, the hose is about $1.88 a foot but i wanted extra for trail fixes so I bought 25' and the tap was $12 (cheapest i found one ANYWHERE!)

-cutts-

 

Perterson's is full of misinformation. According to them I can drive a monster truck in Washington state. I'm sure somewhere out there some individual state has laws stating in one way or another that full hydro is not legal but for the vast majority of states there is nothing written that says you can't run it on the streets. For instance, Washington State has laws governing how much play there can be in a steering wheel and in tie rod ends but says nothing about a mechanical linkage. This has been brought up dozens of times at Pirate and we have yet to see somone produce a law stating full hydro is not street legal. I'm not trying to be a dick here but I cringe everytime I hear someone say that. Fishy, FWIW the squirrley feeling you get in tractors is nothing like what a properly setup hydro system will feel like. Theresa says White Knight handles like a car with full hydro. A lot of this has to do with how it's set up and the kind of steering valve that's used. Plus the fact that tractors aren't designed to be run at higher speeds on the road.

I got my hydro ram off ebay, I think it was $30. There's a bunch more info here too: https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...hydro+steering

 

while on the subject.... what is the GPM (apprx.) of a stock saginaw steering pump? i need to know for modification reasons

-cutts-

 

I was talking to a guy the other day who had a very nice jeep with the AGR rockram hydraulic assist. He had taken his jeep on the rubicon trail last year and said that the rockram was great for offroading and on the highway. However, he is disconnecting it because he claimed that he could not steer his jeep when the engine stalled. He said if a person stalled a vehicle on a hill side and could not control the steering it could be life threatening. I guess it was like the steering wheel just locked up and no matter how hard you yanked the wheel it would not turn unless the pump was running. Have any of you guys heard of this problem? I was planning on doing the same thing to my truck but now I'm not so sure.

 

The reason why tractor and other such ag equipment from what i can tell, have so much play is because the smaller ones uses a steering box of sorts and not a ram, this type leads to play in the wheel and a wondering steering because the fluid is always moving, and also take into account the pump is running more than just the steering. However on equiment (majority of it) that use a hydraulic ram the steering is tighter because there isn't any fluid movement in the cyclinders when the steering wheel isn't moving, but again because of the long hoses and other draws on the hydraulic system of the tractor you will get a lose/wandering feel to the steering system, and then there will always be fluid bypasing the steering valve, or the valve will be slightly open one way and make it wonder.

As far as not being able to turn when the vehicle is turned off, well i don't really think this is true, you can still turn the tires when the vehicle is turned off (we have a couple grain trucks with hydro assist and you can still turn the wheel when its shutt off), but it is extrememly difficult, and normally the mechanical advantage that a steering wheel provides in a stock truck isn't large enough to be able to turn the wheels on a trail fast enough going down hill stalled (but then just pop er' into gear).

I remember a few years back the engine in my dads massey front end loader tractor blew up, and we had to get it home, and it was about a half hours drive in a truck on gravel roads, and this tractor was full hyrdo (as most are) as well. We ended up towing it home using a grain truck, we were going just above idle in second low gear, and this is about your typical granny gear and high in our trucks, my dad could barely keep it on the road as the hydro steering is this hard to steer when its not under power.

 

so far i have been driving around with the ram mounted but no hoses and it seems to steer fine without it! it actually acts more like a steering stabilizer when not powered. are you sure he wasn't talking about full hydro?

no leads on the GPM of a sag pump huh?

-cutts-

 

> I have yet to see anything in writing that states that a full hydro steering
> system is not allowed on the street.

The FMVSS. It basically states if a vehicle loses power you still have to be able to steer the vehicle to come to a halt. I posted a link a while back on trailers that linked to the whole FMVSS that you could download and read.

 

Ahh......I see that someone has edited my original response that was quite helpful to this thread and gave information on one of the TOP vendors of this product.

Please contact Tom at PSC. www.offroadsteering.com
His systems are on most of the competition rock buddies out there. He can help you with anything you need.