Hydraulic Ram Assist Steering

by Michael Knorr

A while back, Matt Hodges from West Texas Off Road emailed me about some questions regarding my Dana 60 articles. He was building up some axles for his YJ so I gave Matt a few tips on what I had done. During the emails Matt mentioned that he had developed a hydraulic assist ram with a stock steering setup, an off the shelf ram, and some hydraulic lines. I had been contemplating the hydraulic assist set up but had been put off by its price. When Matt told me that his kit was significantly cheaper than the other products on the market, I was immediately interested. I sent a steering box to him for modification. Matt can also supply a core for additional money if you don't have one at your disposal.

I got the steering box back from Matt in about two weeks. Most of this was shipping time; Matt had sent out the steering box within two days of receiving it. Initially, I decided to run the box without the ram hooked up because my old box was worn out and I didn't have time to mount the whole set up before a big wheeling trip. The box didn't seemed to work right so I called Matt. He offered to fix it but I was in a time crunch so I had it fixed locally. It worked for the next wheeling trip but it never felt right. In hindsight I should have thrown my old one back on and sent the box back to Matt.

West Texas Offroad www.westtexasoffroad.com Email: matt@westtexasoffroad.com tel: (915)651-5010 fax: (915)651-1073   6305 U.S. Hwy 277 South San Angelo, Texas 76905

On the next wheeling trip I managed to grenade my front end hard enough to break both inner and outer axleshafts and separate the knuckle. After a long trail repair I decided that I needed a new front axle. A Dana 60 is decided upon and the hydraulic assist goes on the back burner. No sense in going to the work of mounting it to an axle that I'm ripping out. While building the Dana 60 I decide that the ram can fit on the back side of the axle if I have a custom built driver's side steering arm built. A quick call to Bob Roggy at Roggy Enterprises and a custom set of high steer arms are on their way. The Dana 60 gets installed but the ram doesn't make the cut as yet again I run short on time due to another trip.

This winter I decided that the hydraulic assist cylinder is going in. So we start mocking up how the ram will mount. At first, we decided that the ram wasn't going to work in stock form. But upon disassembly, we changed our minds and decided that it can be modified to work. It would require getting rid of the large stock mounting brackets and machining the cylinder to accept heim joints. That work was quickly done on the lathe and the cylinder was reassembled. Once this was done we could mount one end to the steering arm and mock up how it would mount to the pinion on the other end. We made cardboard templates of the brackets and transferred them to steel. The brackets were then tack welded and everything was checked. Once we confirmed that everything was correct and nothing was going to hit, everything was permanently welded in place.

Next, the steering pump was modified to generate more pressure. I won't go into that here as Matt has written an excellent article on upgrading your power steering pump.

Now this all may sound like it happened in one short wrenching session but in reality it was done over several weeks, whenever time could be squeezed in. We had already made plans to go to Montrose and Moab in March and that time was rapidly drawing near. So one last weekend was scheduled to finish up the install. The hoses needed to be run and the unit tested. Of course things did't go right and the box wasn't working. I called Matt (remember the time frame here: it's almost a year later from when I first got the box) and he had me check a few things and then decided that it was the steering box that was at fault. He asked me to send it to him. I told him about my trip and the shortage of time so he volunteered to send another modified steering box via second day air. He wouldn't even let me pay for shipping. Did I mention Matt's a stand up kind of guy? The new box arrived along with new lines because he has upgraded the size of the lines and he knew I had the old ones. Again no charge! The new box goes in and works great. In the shop and on the street I am really impressed by its power. I can't wait to get it on the trail.

I finally got on the trail with it at Calamity Canyon in Montrose, Colorado. To say the least, I was impressed with the unit. My days of fighting to turn the wheel are over. It still takes some effort to turn the wheel but no where near what you would call hard. Gone are the days of two-fisting the steering wheel only to get the tires to move two inches. If you can't move the wheel, your tires are all the way against the steering stops already or really bound up. This setup is the hot ticket for big tires.

One other note, I had for years been using my tranny cooler in the bottom of my radiator as my power steering cooler. I developed a problem with power steering getting low all the time but had no apparent leaks. Finally I had a radiator hose bust and it was apparent were the power steering fluid had been going. The coolant was very brownish red looking. The increased pressure of the pump must have been to much for my old radiator and had been forcing the power steering fluid into the coolant. I have now set up the system with its own cooler and haven't had any further problems.

The stock CJ steering box reworked to add ports for the hydraulic assist lines. A nice feature that Matt provides with his boxes is caps on the assist ports. If the lines were ever to fail simply remove them and put the caps back on. Bleed the air out of the system and you have your stock steering back. The ram could be unbolted and it will be like it was never there. Great if something were ever to fail on the trail.	A close up of the box showing the ports for the lines. One is the supply, the other the return. It is best to connect your lines with your ram disconnected on one end. This way if you have them backwards your assist cylinder won't be fighting your steering box, which could result in broken parts.
Here is a shot of the ram and mounting brackets that Matt supplies. Due to the fact that I had high clearance steering and a high pinion axle I had difficulty in getting it to work as supplied without mounting the ram in a vulnerable position.	A close up shot showing the tag on the Lion Manufacturing ram. It also gives you the safe working PSI for the ram. Notice the "Made in Canada."
The lines that Matt includes are plenty long for the application. They are specifically rated for the PSI these lines will see.	The cylinder is mounted and is being tested. Notice the drag link is off so that the ram isn't fighting the steering box. I managed to hook it up wrong twice. Don't skip this step or you'll be sorry.
This shows the reworking I did to the ram. I disassembled the ram and placed the cylinder in a lathe. I turned down the end to 3/4" diameter and threaded it to accept a short sleeve. The sleeve is threaded both right and left hand so as to allow adjustment for length. Then a 3/4" shank by 5/8" high-strength heim joint is used on the steering arm.	The custom steering arm Bob Roggy made up for my Dana 60 front end. This allowed the ram to be mounted behind the axle and tucked up high out of harm's way.
Another shot showing the ram in relation to the steering arm.	This shot shows the ram from behind the rear axle. You can see the bracket I welded to the differential housing on the Dana 60. This was first pre-heated, then welded, then post-heated to assure a good weld to the nodular iron of the housing. You can also see the work I did on the end of the cylinder. I did some machining and tapping to allow for the use of a 3/4" high strength heim joint.

Aside from the performance benefits of going with ram assist steering, there is a significant advantage with regards to street use. In most locations, a fully hydraulically actuated steering system is not legal where as a hydraulic assist system IS legal. For many of us, the Redneck Ram is the only option when it comes to handling huge tires in difficult terrain.

If you're considering a Redneck Ram, here's a list of the currently available bore/stroke combinations: 1.5" x 6", 1.5" x 8", 1.75" x 6", 1.75" x 8", 2" x 6" and 2" x 8".

Redneck Ram kit for Jeeps.

Redneck Ram kit for Toyotas.

I would like to thank Matt Hodges for all his help and for building a great product at a great price. And thanks to Steve Burt and Myron Hansen for their shop, tools, and of course, their labor.