full hydro steering for street use

[hotrod]

Is it legal? Does it still generally act the same as regular power steering?

[sarge]

not legal , and a hand full on the street at speed.

[hotrod]

thanks Sarge!

[boomhauer]

mine handles great at speed

[kentuckytwostep]

I believe a lot of how well it handles depends on the set up.

I've never seen any evidence that hydrostatic steering is illegal, at least not in KY.

check out the first link... here, let me google that for you

[yellowjacket]

X2 on what k2s said. Debated many, many times.. have yet to see proof that's it not legal...

But I wouldent want to drive at hw speeds. I've had 2 psc matched sytems that were great at high trail speeds..45 max. If your on road its not uncomman to reach70+ without realizing it... Iwouldent be able to live w myself if I hurt someone else or their child due to something questionable like that failing though..

I think koh guys go pretty fast in the desert, and that would be a argument for it being ok. But there was also quite a few steering failures at that race too so I keep my viewpoint.

[twiztedzuki]

cant see at all how it could be legal do to if line faild ud be in deep**** in hurry! if line fails on gearbox u can strongarm it! i drove my rearstear zuk buggy on road all time with matchd parts from psc didnt drive bad but like yellowjacket i would keep speeds down. dont think a trooper would ever look at sumthing like that anyways. Ky law like law in mexico anyways!

[Flxratd]

i always thought(which means nothing )that it was stated you had to have a mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the front wheels for street use. with that said i have to say that our sue happy society would have a field day with something like that if it failed. like they say its all legal untill you get caught

p.s i did not have sexual relations with that women.....

[itbrokeagain]

I was thinking this the other day. I was looking at a large concrete mixer and I was wondering about steering setup. Also what about those big ass cranes? Something with 8 wheel drive and fourwheel steering? I find it hard to believe its all mechanical.

[flatlander757]

Originally Posted by yellowjacket

X2 on what k2s said. Debated many, many times.. have yet to see proof that's it not legal...

But I wouldent want to drive at hw speeds. I've had 2 psc matched sytems that were great at high trail speeds..45 max. If your on road its not uncomman to reach70+ without realizing it... Iwouldent be able to live w myself if I hurt someone else or their child due to something questionable like that failing though..

I think koh guys go pretty fast in the desert, and that would be a argument for it being ok. But there was also quite a few steering failures at that race too so I keep my viewpoint.

I've heard the KOH argument before... Talking with I think it was Dustin Webster(may be wrong about that), he commented that off-road it is great when you have a 15ft wide "lane" to stay in... but going down the highway it will grab every imperfection in the road but the steering will feel "numb" and you'll constantly be over-correcting because with very small corrections, it will actually be "notchy" in a way and will be very hard to keep going straight.


That's not to say that with the right orbital/ram/pump matched to each other, with a steering linkage that has NO play in it, with the correct caster setting, and a suspension that doesn't have any play or quirks in it... yeah it could possibly drive pretty well at speed.

But the idea of having a fluid leak and not being able to steer scares the hell out of me... I would do full hydro and drive it on the street... but only VERY minimally... like never on the actual highway, maybe 45mph tops.

[hotrod]

You guys are right, i never really thought about the risk of a wreck, i was thinking more control issues. I wouldnt be able to live with myself either if i hit a family and even hurt them much less kill them. I do plan on driving this on the street so i would like a mechanical connection i suppose.

Originally Posted by itbrokeagain

I was thinking this the other day. I was looking at a large concrete mixer and I was wondering about steering setup. Also what about those big ass cranes? Something with 8 wheel drive and fourwheel steering? I find it hard to believe its all mechanical.

Most mixers, dump trucks or other heavy front axle load trucks have 2 steering boxes, one on each side. the driver side is run mechanicaly (with power steering of coarse) and the other runs off of the fluid going through the first box so they work together. some even have 2 boxes and a hydro assist ram.

[blazerbrad]

I'm not disagreeing with any of the comments stating that full hydro is not the best setup for highway use.......but I do not agree with the reason being it would be more prone to failure. I've spent a lot of time running farm and construction equipment and have never had a catastrophic hydraulic line failure where you instantly loss control. A leak and slow degradation of performance sure, but it was always obvious that something was going wrong well before you completely loss the hydraulics. It was also pretty rare that something failed. Started riding in tractors when I was a little kid and then started running them, and spent many 60 hour weeks running dozers and other construction equipment during the summer when I was in school and only saw a couple of hydraulic issues.

Nobody here has seen a failure on a trailrig that had the potential to cause an accident if they were running down the road at the time? I know I have. Ever seen a front wheel bearing seize on a Jeep while driving 55 mph down the highway? How about a tierod end fall apart? Or maybe the tire, wheel, brake, and axleshaft leave the rear axle on a D44........made a good spark show but fortunately none of the above caused any issues. That doesn't even count the number of failures that happened on the trail towards the end of the day that could of easily of held off for another 30 minutes and happened on the road back to the campground.

Again, not saying you should use full hydro on the street by any means. But also that a quality hydraulic system is no more likely to fail and cause an accident as a mechanical system.

[kentuckytwostep]

Everyone seems to forget that damn near all of the "start, steer, stop" systems on ALL vehicles could fail due to one link in those systems. Whether it's a hydraulic hose, steel line or a bolt, anything can fail.

[Flxratd]

Originally Posted by kentuckytwostep

Everyone seems to forget that damn near all of the "start, steer, stop" systems on ALL vehicles could fail due to one link in those systems. Whether it's a hydraulic hose, steel line or a bolt, anything can fail.

not forgeting anything because i have seen it all when it comes to poorly maintained peices of s@#t running down the road in my 22 years as a professional technician just saying an arguement could be alot easier supported when a failure has accured if the "factory" system is still in place. i personally dont care what someone does as long as they are not pointed at me when something happens.