Hydraulic assist steering question

[pjohnson]

Has anyone mounted the ram so that it attaches to the pitman arm?

Using a custom flat pitman arm, it would be possible to attach through a hole in the arm.

Has anyone done it or something like it?

Thanks,
Phil

 

[Mark W]

Some old school heavy trucks used an approach like this. My '65 IH Loadstar uses a ram to the pitman arm. I've seen Chevy stuff like this too.

Probably not the ideal approach for an off road rig used for playing.


Mark...

 

[Mace]

it works fine, but one of the nice things about hydro assist is that it relieves stress on DL and TR. By mounting it to the Pittman, you would be increasing those stresses.. Get a strong TR/DL and you should be fine.

 

[pjohnson]

it works fine, but one of the nice things about hydro assist is that it relieves stress on DL and TR. By mounting it to the Pittman, you would be increasing those stresses.. Get a strong TR/DL and you should be fine.

Hmmm.... I can see how it releives stress on the DL when the ram is mounted to the TR. Is the stress on the TR spread to both ends? It would seem like it should be...

With the ram mounted to the pitman, the DL is probably getting the bulkof the stress, correct?

Phil

 

[bustanutley]

It’s a better setup to have the ram mounted on the axle. Having the ram on the axle isolates steering forces to the axle. With leaf springs pre-hydro the front axle would walk back and forth, now all input force goes to turning the knuckles. Another related benefit is that the ram acts as a steering dampener and you will not get death wobble unless something is very wrong.

 

[Mace]

consider the PS arm. All of the forces have to be transmitted through this arm from the DL right.

If you put a ram on the DL itself, you have another "load" point that will aleviate the stresses on the PS knuckle and TR end.

With the ram mopunted to the pittman, you increase the forces everywhere...

 

[pjohnson]

Thanks for the replies. I think the answer is pretty clear, mounting the ram to move the pitman arm will put excessive stress on the drag link and passenger side steering arm.

Phil