Hydro Steering

[Madgyver]

Who's running them?

Where did you get them from? A kit or system?

Post pics please of your set-up........

How is it on the street?
Does it self center?

 

[texashcane]

Wild Horses cylinder. Wild Horses trac bar riser. F100 Box ported by me. Stock Ford pump. I have a Saginaw ready to go on, but the ford pumps have held up and O'reilly's has a lifetime warranty on them, so I just trade them out about once a year when they go out.

http://classicbroncos.com/photos/showphoto.php/photo/7716/ppuser/13151

 

[FFMDX]

West Texas Offroad....Matt is the man to talk to...GRET CS! Sent in my '79 box, they converted and ported it. I hot todded my Saginaw pump. Definitely dampens the road "noise" / offroad it is B*tchin'!! Worth every penny.

www.westtexasoffroad.com

 

[Broncobowsher]

Are you looking at fully hydro or ram asist?
I have driven tractors and forklifts that are full hydro, can't imagine them being very road friendly. The tractor box had a better, more car like feel to it. The forklift was more of a video game feel.

 

[la77]

I'm looking into putting ram assist on mine. I'm probably going with www.pscmotorsports.com or www.westtexasoffroad.homestead.com system. both have a great rep and having my box rebuilt, ported and tapped, ram and hoses about the same prices between the two. I have heard extensive positive remarks about the west texas offroad service. most likely I will go with them they're in texas, I like people from texas, I'm 1/2 texan so they will probably get my $$$ too. 8" stoke 1.5" cylinder

 

[SaddleUp]

Full hydro or assist? Due to the earilier post on pushing the frontend forward I assume your talking about full hydro since the assist doesn't allow the frontend to be pushed forward as far as the full hydro does. If so then somewhere in the past there is a thread I started on the same subject. From the research I did on it I came to the conclusion that as long as the right ram and control valve were used then it would handle no different than the mechanical steering except that it would be much easier to steer when it was in a bind (In rocks etc.). It appeared that the cost would run approx. $1200 for the right setup that would work for both offroad and street use. (So it will self center and so that it travels the same distance in both directions) At that point I settled on PSC Motorsports for the parts and I think I found a tech. article on pirate that gave details on how to figure out which parts I needed.

Ha, I found the thread where we discussed this earlier. It has some links to other sites with more in depth reading on it.
http://classicbroncos.com/forums/showthread.php?t=70696

Note: I still plan to do this some day. Funds were just too limited at that time (And still are now) so I put my steering gear back on the frame until I have the extra funds for it.

 

[welndmn]

I run a Howe Resv.
Only run a howe or PSC res. everything thing else is crap, trust me, I tried it.
Then I have a Standard PS pump from 78 1 ton C3500 pickup - with hydroboost, (really all it does is gives you the non-res pump, and dual return lines) I added an Affco racing valve to it (to get to -6 AN fittings) and did a flow mod.

Everything else cam from rockstomper and I could not be more happy.
Its a DE ram that load reacting (self centers).
Everyone that has driving the truck loved the steering on it too.

 

[357Bronco]

I would check the legality of street driving first. Last i knew all street driven vehicles had to have mechanical linkage for steering systems. Hate to see you convert, only to see it be non drivable on road.

 

[PsYcHoBrOnCo]

I would check the legality of street driving first. Last i knew all street driven vehicles had to have mechanical linkage for steering systems. Hate to see you convert, only to see it be non drivable on road.

SHHHHHHHHHH, I won't tell anyone.....%)

 

[welndmn]

My full hydro was the best handling system I have ever had as well.
ZERO bump steer, high quality parts and lines.
Sure its $$, mine was about 1k.

 

[godsotherson]

I would check the legality of street driving first. Last i knew all street driven vehicles had to have mechanical linkage for steering systems. Hate to see you convert, only to see it be non drivable on road.

There is NO law in any state that supports your claim, same as beadlocks.

 

[357Bronco]

There is NO law in any state that supports your claim, same as beadlocks.

You must be wicked smart, to know all DMV laws in all 50 states. I'll forward this to the NH DMV and tell them they are wrong and you are right. Thanks for clearing this up, I've had conversations about this before with them....I believe it was when I was getting my inspection license. Signed, Always Learning.

 

[evil69]

You must be wicked smart, to know all DMV laws in all 50 states. I'll forward this to the NH DMV and tell them they are wrong and you are right. Thanks for clearing this up, I've had conversations about this before with them....I believe it was when I was getting my inspection license. Signed, Always Learning.

It will kill you on the street;D I would think as long as you didn't need an inspection on the truck, you would need to royally piss a well informed pig in order to get a ticket. But, I think Mad has in the past (something about your headlights). Other than that, I can offer nothing more than I drove a full hydro about four years ago that cobbled together combine, forklift, tractor ram monster. Scarey on the road and no self center. I do know that that you can get decent, but thats as far as my knowledge goes on that subject.

 

[Steve]

I would check the legality of street driving first. Last i knew all street driven vehicles had to have mechanical linkage for steering systems.

Wrong! There are some heavy trucks with full hydro steering, along with some of the newer high-end cars that are "fly by wire," and have no mechanical linkage for the steering. They are perfectly legal to drive on the street in all 50 states.

I've driven a couple of well-built full hyrdo rigs on the street, they were great and did self center. And, contrary to some opinions, you DO still have steering if the engine quits.

 

[evil69]

Wrong! There are some heavy trucks with full hydro steering, along with some of the newer high-end cars that are "fly by wire," and have no mechanical linkage for the steering. They are perfectly legal to drive on the street in all 50 states.

I've driven a couple of well-built full hyrdo rigs on the street, they were great and did self center. And, contrary to some opinions, you DO still have steering if the engine quits.

If you use the correct orbital valve.

 

[76Broncofromhell]

X3, you might have some states with stringent requirements regarding lift size and such, but I had trouble finding anything dealing with steering systems in CA vehicle code book.

In the 1000 or so pages I did not see very much mentioned demanding that something have tie-rods, a mechanical linkage or anything else. Maybe I'm blind.

P.S. you can drive farm impliment on the roads here in CA, and very few of those have mechanical steering.


Read to your heart's content:
http://www.dmv.ca.gov/pubs/vctop/vc/vc.htm

 

[Steve]

If you use the correct orbital valve.

True, which is why I said "well built" systems.

 

[reynard101]

PSC is also in Texas. Azle to be exact. But if you're still stuck on the Texas thing then West Texas Off-Road has "Texas" in their name.

Sorry to get off topic. PSC does great work too! Had them rebuild a steering box for me, works great!!! Hard to go wrong with either of these companies.

I'm looking into putting ram assist on mine. I'm probably going with www.pscmotorsports.com or www.westtexasoffroad.homestead.com system. both have a great rep and having my box rebuilt, ported and tapped, ram and hoses about the same prices between the two. I have heard extensive positive remarks about the west texas offroad service. most likely I will go with them they're in texas, I like people from texas, I'm 1/2 texan so they will probably get my $$$ too. 8" stoke 1.5" cylinder

 

[SaddleUp]

I would check the legality of street driving first. Last i knew all street driven vehicles had to have mechanical linkage for steering systems. Hate to see you convert, only to see it be non drivable on road.

As several have mentoned above you will likely have a hard time finding anything that specifically makes full hydro steering illegal. If it is built properly then it will be just as safe or perhaps even safer than mechanical linkage. (The statutes I found in the 3 or 4 states I looked at specified that the steering must be safe and in my state it has a specific limit on how much slop there is in the steering) It's already been mentioned that large equipment that is street legal is often hydrostatic and there are new cars coming out that are also similar designs with no mechanical linkage.

This does not mean that there are no states where it would be illegal. I believe that in some states they have blanket laws that could cover it. (In these states it may even be considered illegal to put a roll cage in an EB)

 

[357Bronco]

Geeez guys, all I was saying was there could be an issue, I don't like surprises like that to come back and bite me in the ass. Five years ago, it was brought up in an inspection class and the guy from DMV said it was a no no. The issue is this, some living brain donor goes to a tractor supply store and builds his "system" . You put an inspection sticker on it, he plows through a crowd at the flee market, guess who's responsible? Little different than an engineered system from a manufacturer who holds liability for it's design and function. So, a little back ground for ya, I've grown up around log trucks, backhoes, plow trucks, ect. ect. I'm familiar with the use of hydrolics. I've also built a full hydro steering system on a mud truck. Using basically the stuff you see on a modern monster truck, worked awesome, even driving down dirt roads. Return to center, and never failed. And further more, as Evil pointed out, hydro steering will only kill me!, so you guys are safe.