[ShadowZuk]

How does full hydro work on the street? Can you flat tow with it?

The reason I ask is because--->

By the time I addapt my steering box to a saginaw pump, buy a high steer arm, machine the knuckles, buy heims etc I could have gone with full hydro.

Independence trail is only 15 miles from my house. I'd like to be able to drive my rig there, and there are a few other areas that I'd rather drive to..

And this will be speeds up to 55 mph.. which is my max speed with my gearing and the little sewing machine running at 5k.

Flat towing, well I don't have a flat bed quite yet

And of course I'll take spare lines, and fluid.

Thanks in advance,

MiNeRbItCh

 

[camo]

first off it is not legal.

that aside. it will probally be a hand full to drive. i was driving jason conovers rig out at the hammers on dirt roads at about 60 mph and with the full hydro i had to constantly be turning the wheel to correct the steering just to go straight.

i am in the process of installing a jeff howe setup. as you probally know jefff howe has been building hydro assist steering setups for the last 20 years for the off road race crowd.including the 140 mph throphy trucks. he did quite abit of testing on his setup and finally got his to work "OK" up to abut 60mph. even so i don't think i would want to drive it on any public roads that had oncoming traffic. they tend to let the vechile float around to much at speed for my liking.

hopfully station will chime in here and let us know what he thinks about people running his setup on the road.

 

[Keyster]

I am pretty sure you will have to add some additional valves to bleed the cylinder lines for flat towing.
A conventional steering gear can be moved by the tires.
Hydrostatic does not have that capability.
Where you leave them is where they stay.

hth
K.

 

[camo]

I am pretty sure you will have to add some additional valves to bleed the cylinder lines for flat towing.
A conventional steering gear can be moved by the tires.
Hydrostatic does not have that capability.
Where you leave them is where they stay.

hth
K.

i am having a hard time understanding this. the setups we are using do not behave like this at all. the orbit valve have the ability to pump fluid even when the motor is off. they are more like the helm on a boat then a back hoe. actually you can steer with the motor off easer than with a standard power steering box with the motor off.

just trying to grasp your concept

 

[Keyster]

The ones that I see on forkinglifts have a small pump built into the control valve.
With no pump pressure they will work llike a manual gear for a while.
They seem to get a little air in the system and quit working after a little use.

The ones I see do not have any sense of feel or feed back.
Lots of different varieties out there.


If flat towing I don't think the control valve will allow any fluid to move out of the cylinder. If the cylinder can't move, the wheels will not track when flat towed.


If the cylinder volume is equal on both sides the two lines can be tied together with a valve between them that can be opened for towing.

hth
K.

 

[CrazyHorse]

first off, full Hydro IS legal on the street, it is used in some of the OTR trucks, and is extremely common in garbage trucks.

If you run a load reacting valve (force on the ram from the tires trying to self center allows the steering to unwind like stock) the truck will track fine when flat towing, and will drive normally on the street. The probelem is most people don't run this style valve, and as a result with a non reacting valve you are constantly chasing the steering, and since you keep overcorrecting you have to keep trying to correct...

 

[ShadowZuk]

Thanks for you replys.. Thats what I need to know . I'll be better off going with my kick box and cross-over and later on converting to hydro-assist.

Thanks.

MiNeRbItCh

 

[Bigger Valves]

flat towing is CAKE if you're running a single cylinder attached to the axle and knuckle or tierod.. take the pin out of the cylinder at the tierod.. turn the wheel to pull the rod all the way in.. then tie the cylinder to the axle tube.. then go flat tow.. hook it back up when u get to the trail..