Hydraulic Steering

[70LCruiser]

I was reading trough one of my 4X4 magz today and it had an article about hydraulic steering. I am thinking about adding this to my cruiser. as it is right now my 40 has manual steering and I am wondering if this will be a preoblem if i decide to put in hyd. steering, since I dont have a pump or anything. Any info on where I cnan go to get a kit or something for my truck. It also said you can do HYD. assist steering. Is it worth it to convert to hydraulic or should i just put in a powersteering conversion?
Thanks

 

[Poser]

If you do not see yourself running tires larger than 36", there is no reason to spend the monies on full hydro, or assist...


60 series p/s conversion in your 40, or a saginaw set up will work fine...


Good luck!


-Steve

 

[Mark W]

I'd go so far as to say no need for hydro assist 'til about 40 inch tires and no need for full hydro until 44+ .

and you could bump both of those up depending on circumstances.

 

[70LCruiser]

how much will it cost, roughly to put in a 60's steering set up or a saginaw setup.

 

[Poser]

How much can you do yourself? This will greatly effect the end cost...

 

[70LCruiser]

all of it

 

[Poser]

Then whatever you can score the parts for...

Some have come accross everything for less than 200.00us....Others have paid a lot more....


If you are not in a hurry, you could probably score your needed parts somewhat cheap...


Have any bone yards around your area?

Any 60 series box and pump will work, and yes, you can run a GM/Sag pump and Toyota gear if need be.


Good luck!



(I have asked Mark W. about posting up a link to his fantastic write up on this topic that was in the trails a year ago or so. Mark is working on a site to host some of his tech writeups and other info, he hopes to have it up in the next few months. I have also asked Brian to scan it and post it up out here. As Mark pointed out, not sure if the powers that be with TT will mind the whole posting up copies of the trails...copyrite issue...)


-Steve

 

[70LCruiser]

Thanks, Im not looking to do it anytime soon. probably get to it before summer though. i have a swapmeat coming up in april, and I got a few junkyards around here that i can find a doner in. How hard is it to convert to this setup, and what parts do i need. I am guessing pump, reservior, pump bracket (holds it near the fanbelt), fanbelt, steering box, anything else that I missed? ill probably have to do something with the column since there is no ragjoint.

 

[LC_Hamma]

Side of the frame Scout box or through the front frame Saginaw style. Don't bother with that little 60 LC box. You can get the Scout boxes usually from someone on www.binderbulletinboard.com for relatively cheap, I did. See the tech section here for writeups on both. I'd run a small p.s. cooler also. Good luck!

 

[lowenbrau]

I'd go so far as to say no need for hydro assist 'til about 40 inch tires and no need for full hydro until 44+ .

and you could bump both of those up depending on circumstances.

Oooh I hardly ever get to contradict Mark but I couldn't disagree more. For about twice the price of an OME stabilizer you can go to my local farm implement place and pick up a ram. An afternoon with a drill and tap, a handful of fittings, and two tabs welded to your rig and you have the best improvement per dollar that you can do. If nothing else it is a really good stabilizer and fluid cooler. I've seen guys hopelessly stuck with 60 series on the rocks with as small as 33" tires where a ram would have let them turn the way they wanted and keep moving. The ram would have done so with far less stress on the linkages as well. Effectively the ram pushes one wheel while the box pushes the other. Reduces stress on the frame (significant with a 60 box on a 40) and on all the rod ends in the system.

This is a mod that I just love.

 

[Mark W]

I'm not sure how much we are disagreeing. You're right about the cost and lack of difficulty of installing a ram. I love this mod. To be honest I like dual rams (smaller diameter) mounted in opposition to each other so that the power and speed is the same both ways. This also takes ALL of the stress off of the box and pretty much renders it just a control valve for the steering. But to some degree this is just me being obsessive about it.

But our exerience differs. I haven't encountered any problems turning the tires with the '60 series box. But it may just be because of the different environment we wheel in. We've got rocks, but it is not a major part of our trails. Heck you didn't see any rock to speak of when you came up IIRC.

But I'll stand fast on not needing full hydro over rams untilyou get really big inthe tire department.

 

[70LCruiser]

I really dont have to many rocks around in Jersey soo i shouldnt have to worry about that stuff, but wat we do have is mud and trails. Mark, Poser told me to ask you information on comverting over to power steering. I need to know the components I should find, and that sort of thing. Thanks.

 

[lowenbrau]

Heck you didn't see any rock to speak of when you came up IIRC.

Maybe just enough to do a little posing on...

http://www.xplorn.com/xplorn/permanente/pages/Permanente5.html

 

[Mark W]

Oh yeah,I didn't say *No* rock. I've got the calender shot of your rig right by the computer

I have actually been looking as some amazing rock gardens on the slopes of some of the mountains that we routinely drive past on our trails to where we want to get to. If we were to take the attitude more often found in the 48 of tackling these spots just for the challenge of doing them we could boast of some great rock crawling.

Might get around to it someday.

Mark...