Getting turnt... hydraulicly

Hydraulic Steering 

This seems to be the line where you really commit to hardcore wheeling, you have the tires, lift, lockers... probably even some useless light bars... your rig is pretty damn capable, but the fact is, it steers like crap! Your steering stabilizer isn't cutting it on the street, and in the trails you are wrestling the steering wheel all day to get your rig to go where you want it to go. taking the leap to hydraulic steering will make all of that better, and make you wonder why you waited so long to do this?!

Options-

So what are your options? There are a few companies that can help you with your fluid power upgrade, I'm not going to go into the specifics of those but I will add some links to the end of this blog. Really there are two options, each with their own benefits and drawbacks.

1. Hydraulic Assist- This uses your power steering pump and steering box to supply hydraulic pressure to a ram that gets mounted to your axle, and the other end gets attached to your tie rod. There are LOTS of different ways to accomplish this, some guys swear by going the cheapest possible way and modifying their pump for more flow, drilling and taping their factory steering box, and adding a cheap hydraulic ram from the local farm supply store. This method will work, but isn't that reliable, so be prepared to have shit break.
   The best option is to replace the entire steering system with a complete kit that is designed for how you intend to use your rig. My hydraulic assist from PSC uses an upgraded pump, remote fluid reservoir, upgraded steering box with the ports already in it, and a purpose built ram with the correct amount of stroke. I have used this kit for the past 4 years with zero issues.
   
   
   
   
2. Full Hydraulic- This setup is more for the hardcore, trail only rigs, it eliminates all of the steering linkage from the steering box to the axle and relies solely on a ram (usually double ended) to move the tire side to side. There's no actual connection between your steering wheel and the tie rod, so there is no feedback. When it comes to shoving around 40"+ tires in the rocks it's fantastic, and packaging of your crazy suspension design is easier because you don't need to worry about steering connections beyond where to route the hoses. The drawback comes from the lack of connection itself, if you were to lose the pump, or blow a line your have ZERO steering! It's for this reason that this setup is not street legal, and isn't allowed in some racing classes.
   

The costs of either of these options can be a bit of a deterrent, an ultra cheap setup as I described above using a farm ram will probably run you less than $500, going to a complete kit from PSC is closer to $1,500-2,000 and the full hydraulic setup is closer to $3,000. But having the ability to have a rig that can go down the street with good manners, and still be able to make a turn while you are in a tight spot on the trail with big tires is pretty great. It's not for everyone, but if you are running 35" tires or larger you should definitely consider adding it to your build budget!

 PSC Steering

AGR Steering

Trail Gear

4 Link Suspensions

This blog has been on my to do list for a while, I had great intentions of doing a full photo shoot and maybe a short video or two from the garage to show examples. The reality of that is much less exciting, as usual time is limited, and I'm stretched pretty thin. So I am going to need to share some resources in this one to give you good solid information and keep it interesting.

Four Wheeler Magazine did a great write up

Here is some info on front suspensions

There are tons of different ways to set up your own custom suspension, sure you can wing it, it might work, but chances are it won't work the way you had in mind. There's also the chance that in an attempt to make your rig ultra cool, and the baddest thing on the trails ends up with bad behavior, it could be set up in such a way that you can't actually put the power to the ground, or worse, be so unstable that it rolls over rather than crawls the obstacles. And then there's the safety factor, we are talking about welding and bolting the pieces that are holding your entire rig together here, be honest about your welding skills, if you can't put down top quality welds you should find someone that can.

Luckily there are now lots of companies making tabs, brackets, and all of the other parts to build your own suspension. But there are always guys that feel they can "do it better" in an attempt to save a few bucks they make all of their own parts, this is not a great plan for a beginner. The pieces available are well thought out, laser cut, and CNC bent pieces that have been proven on some of the hardest trails out there. And the price of these parts isn't that expensive when you take into account the material costs, your time, and the tools needed to make them. For me I would rather be able to open a box and immediately start fitting and mocking up pieces rather than spend my day trying to make a basic link mount.

Ruff Stuff Specialties

Artec Industries

I am by no means an expert on suspension design, and tuning. But there are a few places I did my research in order to feel confident enough to start building custom suspension, rather than repeat all of the info here i will just supply you with the best links I have used to figure out the different terms and what they all mean. There are lots of "rules" people use to build there suspensions, but once you understand what each piece does it will all make sense.

Excel suspension calculator

It's pretty amazing how 4 little links can have so many functions, but they are all important and must be addressed in order to have a properly functioning rig. The other factor that will limit you is the available space under your vehicle, there isn't much room under a Jeep once you start putting all of these pieces in there so you will probably need to either compromise on proper suspension angles or cutting away parts of your vehicle or moving things like fuel tanks and exhaust.