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

TV Magic

In recent years the off road world has finally seen in increase in the amount and quality of shows to give us our Sunday morning fix, there have been some great ones with a lot of good info, product reviews, and trail highlights... There have also been a few that just suck. 

Xtreme Off-Road

This show has been around for 15 years or so and has inspired countless offroaders to start their build, given some great info on "how to" and has shown a great variety of vehicles. Yup, for 15 years that was the go to for most of us on our Sunday mornings while drinking coffee and planning our builds in our heads... And then Ian left... And now the faithful followers of the show feel like they just got the rug pulled out from under them. The new hosts are just terrible, they don't appear to have any real knowledge, or confidence in what they are doing. And the couple of builds they have started are complete jokes! They decided to completely paint one project BEFORE starting any of the fab work, which anyone how has ever built anything will tell you should be the LAST step. I'll finish out this season with them simply because I'm hopeful that they will improve, and because there aren't many other options on a Sunday morning... Maybe I'll just start watching Spongebob instead.

Truck U

This one has been a hit or miss for me, I don't go out of my way to watch it, but if it's on I'll watch it depending on what they are doing. They tend to focus on the bolt on stuff, and newer trucks, essentially they are an infomercial that features trucks. 

Truck Night in America

Ok here it is, the new show that was supposed to be awesome, I mean, they built up the hype for months ahead of the first episode, certainly it's good right... not so much. I want to like it, but they just make it so easy to hate it. The thing I do like about it is that they feature real trucks instead of super high dollar builds, but honestly that is part of what I dislike too. If I wanted to watch some clapped out XJ with no lockers and no winch attempt obstacles that they have no business attempting I'd just go to the local park. They need to make some minimum requirements, lockers in both axles, winch, and an actual pre inspection to make sure guys are ready to compete. As for the competitions themselves... Well, that is the other place they fell short on this one. They claim it to be "The hardest course ever built" but it's really just a bunch of obstacles that don't test any real aspect of a vehicle beyond how fast you can go over big bumps, or how far you can launch a toilet... that has never happened on any trail I've been on... I would think that anyone that has competed in 4 Wheeler Magazines Top Truck Challenge would be extremely insulted by the claim of being the hardest course ever built, that course truly is the hardest, and they test ALL aspects of a rig, not just it's ability to push an ice cream truck off a cliff. I mean, they don't have one single rock on the whole course! I'll keep watching just to boost the numbers in hopes that they get a second season and improve some things, but I don't have much confidence in that.