Product Reviews
West Texas Off
Road Hydro Assist Steering System
So you have big tires and you like the rocks, both are great but together they can be a nightmare when it comes to navigating
your ride, upgrading to a hydro assist setup is almost a must. After
many frustrating trips on Colorado and Utah trails without the ability to
turn a tire that was wedged against a rock it was time to call Matt at
West Texas Off Road.
One of the two reasons we chose the West Texas system was price, right
around half the cost of the other setups available and the other was
service, Matt was always available to answer any questions we had and is
very knowledgeable about steering systems. We shipped a 2x4 GM steering
box (2x4 box needed for cross-over steering) that we pulled from a local salvage yard and shipped it to Matt who
had it rebuilt and tapped along with a hydraulic ram, lines and mounting
tabs in about a week.
Hydraulic assist steering systems often deliver between 100-150% more hydraulic turning
force (depending on the application) over a stock setup. Something that we
should mention is that hydraulic assist steering is just that, it assists
the mechanical steering system, it does not replace it like a full
hydraulic system would, thus hydraulic assist steering is street legal.
The West Texas Off Road Stage II kit is a complete system which starts
with your existing steering box. The box is disassembled cleaned,
rebuilt, modified with hydraulic fittings and includes the mounting
hardware kit and rod ends. The reason this kit is so affordable is because
it reutilizes much of the existing steering system and can save 50% or
more over an an aftermarket setup. For the budget
minded, West Texas Off Road offers the Stage 1 kit, they modify your
existing steering box for hydraulic fittings then you supply the hydraulic
fittings, hoses and ram (Porting and Tapping only).
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Stage II kit
(Chevy 2" Ram)
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Stage II kit
(Jeep 1.5" Ram)
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The best part about this kit is the service, let's face it what works
well for one application may not always work well for another, that's why
the kit can be tailored to meet your needs. West Texas Off Road can supply
the hydraulic lines in any length you need or create the fittings with a
45 degree angle instead of a 90 etc., what ever your unique needs are they
can help. They can also explain how to modify your existing power steering
pump to increase pressure/flow or they will do it for free with the
purchase of the Stage II kit.
After the steering box is installed, the included hydraulic ram brackets
will have to be welded to the axle and tie rod, it's up to you to decide
the location where they will work the best for your application. In most
cases the ram can be mounted where the old steering stabilizer lived, but
in our case we have hi-steer which puts the tie rod above the axle so that
situation would not work for us.
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| Old box removed |
Rebuilt box installed |
We ended up mounting custom brackets to our Avalanche
Rock Ring differential protection, and of course the other brackets were
welded to the tie rod. This was about the only spot available with enough
room to allow full range of motion and still have the ram on the same
plain as the tie rod (parallel). At the time we received our kit WTO only
had the large 2" ram available, so we went with a smaller Howe
1.5" ram due to clearance problems, the good news is that, now WTO
offers the 1.5" and 1.75 ram as well. Whether you mount the hydraulic
ram closer to the stock steering stabilizer location or have a custom
application like ours be sure that the ram has full range of motion from
left to right and under droop and compression.
We opted to install a new stock power steering pump
while we had everything apart, in a 1990 model this was probably that
hardest part of the whole install. After the ram is mounted the hydraulic
lines will need to be installed, be sure to route them as to allow plenty of
movement as the suspension articulates. We used are friends the zip ties
to make sure the lines stayed where we wanted them.
Next the system is filled with a quality synthetic power
steering fluid, synthetic fluid will have less foam buildup over non-synthetic
fluid, we chose Pyroil by Valvoline and it has worked great. One thing to
note here, depending on which way the ram is mounted and also how the box
is taped will determine which line connects to which port on the steering
box. The best thing to do is just hook them up to see if they are correct,
on our first shot the steering wheel shook back and forth while trying to
turn the wheel, so we just switched the lines at the box and then the
turning was smooth.
Place your vehicle on jack
stands and cycle the steering by turning the steering wheel to
the left and right, you will need to do this several times to get all the
air out of the system. As we were bleeding the system it became evident
that we now needed extra fluid capacity, as the wheel was turned one way
it would overflow as the ram pushed the fluid out and then drain our reservoir
as it pulled fluid in. We still had the old power steering pump laying
around so we cut the neck off of the old reservoir and attached it to our
new reservoir using radiator hose and clamps to give us an increase in
fluid capacity. After the steering system is cycled through several times
we started the engine and cycled it again. The entire steering system has to be free of any
air bubbles to work properly or it could overheat so this is a crucial step.
Conclusion
After the install we got the opportunity to trek out to
Moab to test the Redneck Ram where we met up with Matt Hodges the owner of
West Texas Off Road for a weekend of wheeling. We found that we could
actually turn the tires with ease while they were crossed up for the first
time, what a difference, no more backing up several times on an obstacle
just to maneuver the tires. The system worked flawless on any terrain that
we ran, we started to wonder how we ever wheeled without it. - Steve Fox CK5
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West Texas Off Road
6305 U.S. Hwy 277 South
San Angelo, Texas 76905
Voice 915-651-5010
Fax 915-651-1073
www.westtexasoffroad.com
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