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hydro steering

Up to 35s is my experience. some use astro van boxes as well becasue their easy to find and cheap as dirt.keep your stock box for now hydro can be a pain.well worth it but big problems can arrise sometimes.
 
I love the assist. Iam running 33s and love being able to move the whole jeep with one finger. It is not a dd but I do drive it to the trails. I have had zero problems so far. The box is from west texas and the ram is from surplus center. The hoses are from a local heavy eq shop(35 bucks) big score.I like it and would say do it if you can.
 
jeep/bronco said:
with a mild jeep on 32's would you ever need a hydro assist setup or is the stock sufficient
Click to expand...

A. get the hydro assist
or
B. Reinforce the unibody as much as you can around the box (like C-ROK plates at the very least). and everywhere you can

I cracked the heck out of my unibody on 32's/33s. Too much force on the box over a period of time ripped the bolts and the box from the unibody and tore several cracks through it.

sbox1.jpg

sbox2.jpg

sbox3.jpg


And the kicker pick. This was UNDER the trackbar bracket, UNDER a factory sheet metal thin reinforcement plate. Never would have known it was there unless I cut out the stock stuff.
tracbar1.jpg
 
mikedashg said:
I cracked the heck out of my unibody on 32's/33s. Too much force on the box over a period of time ripped the bolts and the box from the unibody and tore several cracks through it.
Click to expand...


Its important to note that all ofo mikedashg's jeep is so hammered, that when his steering box broke loose of the frame and he pulled over, people assumed it had been a bad car accident and called the police for him.

=)
 
jeep/bronco said:
with a mild jeep on 32's would you ever need a hydro assist setup or is the stock sufficient
Click to expand...

It's not necessary, just brace the frame at the steering box as mentioned. Plus I have never seen a D30 with hydro assist, and IMO the D30 knuckles are too weak to handle it!
 
cal said:
Its important to note that all ofo mikedashg's jeep is so hammered, that when his steering box broke loose of the frame and he pulled over, people assumed it had been a bad car accident and called the police for him.

=)
Click to expand...

sooo hiiiiiilarriouss cal. It's happened to me, and others. But, yeah, true.

I was turning the corner on my way to work when the box broke off, I was pointed at the median, so I sorta parked half way on it to get out of the way. When the fire engine and ambulance came around the corner I was hoping they wouldn't hit my Jeep on their way to wherever they were going. But then they stopped... "oh damn, that's for me"

I also got a call from Kevin, he said "Are you alright? My wife just called me, she said there was a Jeep in the middle of the road and didn't look to good, the plate said W6M something, do you know him?"
 
TRAILREADYXJ said:
Plus I have never seen a D30 with hydro assist, and IMO the D30 knuckles are too weak to handle it!
Click to expand...


Goatman and I had a discussion about this a few weeks ago, in respect to WJ knuckles which arent much beefier than XJ d30 knuckles. It seems to be the mutual opinion that they will hold up to hydro assist fine - I intend to throw assist on my WJ'd d30 this spring. I've got an AGR box and a ram sitting in the garage, just need to dig up some plumbing.. And i may gusset the steering arms first, just because I believe anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
 
cal said:
Goatman and I had a discussion about this a few weeks ago, in respect to WJ knuckles which arent much beefier than XJ d30 knuckles. It seems to be the mutual opinion that they will hold up to hydro assist fine - I intend to throw assist on my WJ'd d30 this spring. I've got an AGR box and a ram sitting in the garage, just need to dig up some plumbing.. And i may gusset the steering arms first, just because I believe anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
Click to expand...

That's cool, I've just never seen it done, but the whole idea makes more sence with the WJ stuff, especially since it's a true crossover. Are you going to use TREs or Heims?

I just don't know about the regular 30 knuckles, but I'm mainly thinking of it after you drilled and/or reamed them for a stronger end. (I would hope no one would try this with the stock XJ steering :laugh3: )
 
TRAILREADYXJ said:
That's cool, I've just never seen it done, but the whole idea makes more sence with the WJ stuff, especially since it's a true crossover. Are you going to use TREs or Heims?

I just don't know about the regular 30 knuckles, but I'm mainly thinking of it after you drilled and/or reamed them for a stronger end. (I would hope no one would try this with the stock XJ steering :laugh3: )
Click to expand...

I'm running the WJ ends with 1.25x.375" DOM between them. I carry a spare set of ends and have the lifetime warantee at autozone. We'll see how it goes.
 
cal said:
Goatman and I had a discussion about this a few weeks ago, in respect to WJ knuckles which arent much beefier than XJ d30 knuckles. It seems to be the mutual opinion that they will hold up to hydro assist fine - I intend to throw assist on my WJ'd d30 this spring. I've got an AGR box and a ram sitting in the garage, just need to dig up some plumbing.. And i may gusset the steering arms first, just because I believe anything worth doing is worth overdoing.
Click to expand...

Which ram did you use? I'm interested in doing this now! Tho mine is extremely easy to turn now but I figure why not?
 
lowrange2 said:
Which ram did you use? I'm interested in doing this now! Tho mine is extremely easy to turn now but I figure why not?
Click to expand...


I dunno what the ram is, I had it sitting around from another project (it was on a power assist setup from a low pinion 60 on an early 70's f350).

Its 8" travel, I dont recall the bore off the top of my head.
 
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