Hydro Assist Threads

[mr jits]

Welded up the mount for the ram today. I still need to plumb the box, but should have it all wrapped up in a week or two.

 

[Wrench]

I see you used the same mount as me. Nice.

 

[mr jits]

I did, thanks for posting the link in the other thread.
Welded up the tie rod mount yesterday along with cutting some plates for my new rear bumper (thanks to bhicks for the design).

 

[mr jits]

http://board.marlincrawler.com/index.php?topic=10579.msg107365#msg107365

This is a link to the porting done by a couple of people on the marlin boards. A little better than the one on mud, IMO.
And a video how-to on tapping the box:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RjBleDihU4

 

[mr jits]

Finally wrapping up the assist tonight. A huge thanks to tonsofun for his help. The marlin board write up made things very straight forward. For those doing this: it is very simple, but a lot of work. Be prepared to dig in and get dirty.

 

[Wrench]

Finally wrapping up the assist tonight. A huge thanks to tonsofun for his help. The marlin board write up made things very straight forward. For those doing this: it is very simple, but a lot of work. Be prepared to dig in and get dirty.

That's great. How well is it working? Did you add a cooler? Are you using ATF?

 

[mr jits]

Not quite working yet. I had to re-route some lines. I'm running a pretty large cooler and ATF.
I'll post some pics and possibly a video in a bit.

 

[Wrench]

Pics and video would be great.

 

[chappysfj40]

Nice write up. I will need to try this for sure.

Cheers

 

[mr jits]

Here are some pics and video in action. I may need a smaller ram, but will wait to see how this one works first.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHVu93c8_4w&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[Wrench]

Looks nice. Why do you think you need a smaller ram?

 

[mr jits]

Now that I've driven it a little I think the ram is fine. I'm in need of a larger reservoir, but that's about it.

 

[Wrench]

Yeah it looks fine.

 

[Wrench]

I see you tapped the end of the box instead of on the top. I thought there would be no room.

 

[mr jits]

It was a tight fit but I had some high pressure hoses made with a 90* fitting and as you can see looks almost meant for the space.

 

[Wrench]

Yeah looks great and you have the full flow 90's.

 

[Wrench]

Did you get all the air out?

 

[mr jits]

Yes. It took a little while, but got it done.

 

[mr jits]

So after a great day of wheeling I can't even begin to describe how great the assist is when in the rocks.
An example is an obstacle we have here called waterfall. My biggest hang up prior to the assist was the ability to make a necessary left turn after jamming the ps tire into a rock face. I just couldn't do it before. If I made the ascent previously it was all momentum and bouncing off rocks. Now its drive the tire into the face, turn, and go. Awesome!
The only downside to the assist is that at idle the pump struggles to maintain enough pressure to turn the tires without struggling, any bit of gas takes care of that no problem.

 

[Wrench]

I noticed that to at idle. I wish there was a way to correct that.