From The Boss

Overview

Running bigger tires, a hydraulic winch, or just need more steering power? If so, you need to talk to the folks at PSC, Inc. Tom Allen and crew offer several products to improve your steering setup in almost any vehicle. From high pressure and high volume pumps to custom steering boxes, remote reserviors, hydraulic assist or full hydraulic steering system components to all the hoses and fittings, PSC, Inc can cover your needs.

In fact, since I am running a full size truck with big tires and a front locker, there is a lot of force required to make turns in certain situations, especially in high traction, low speed moments. I decided I needed to go to a hydraulic assist system. These systems use your existing steering setup, except tap off of the steering gear box to power a hydraulic ram mounted to the axle and tierod. Turn the wheel, and extend or contract the ram, moving most of the steering load to the ram itself and reducing loads on the draglink, sector shaft and steering box.

So I talked to Tom at PSC, Inc and he recommended his high pressure/flow steering pump, remote reservior and modified steering gear.

The model SR100 3.5" x 6" Remote Reservior is an aluminum canister filter with large #10 fitting for superb flow to the pump and a #6 fitting in the bottom for the return line from the steering gear. All of PSC's SR series reserviors include a servicable built-in filter to protect your system.

This remote reservior includes a CNC machined aluminum mounting bracket and positive latching cap.

For simplicity, I went with the pump with the smaller remote fill can. The smaller can holds enough fluid to keep the pump cool, but allows the use of the remote reservior for greater fluid capacity for even cooler running. It is a direct bolt-in application. Model 1405 is the P-style unit I am using. This pump has been manufactured for greater pressure and flow characteristics, upgrades essential for the best performace of hydraulic steering and winch use.

While expect that remote fluid system will help with cooling, I do not expect it to be the most efficient when used with a cylinder assist system regularly turning big tires in high traction or pinned tire situations. I decided to add a rmeote cooler to provide the additional cooling I wanted. The Hayden cooler pictured here is what I installed. Its an inexpensive unit that I recommend to anyone running a cylinder assist setup.

PSC, Inc also sells steering gears with and without ports for cylinder assist. All steering gears get full machine shop attention from honing to flow balancing. They even magna flux reconditioned parts to verify integrity. PSC, Inc also replaces the weaker sector shaft cap with a CNC machined peice to improve strength and better maintain adjustments over time. They even install a custom CNC machined end cap with the PSC logo. In the Dodge Ram applications, the Saginaw type steering gears are variable ratio 16-13:1 units. My unit is the 841MR.

The hose and fittings PSC, Inc can provide are high quality and you can get push-on fittings that don't need host clamps. here you can see the #10 fittings and hose for the resverior to pump line compared to a permanant marker for size reference. Obviously there is not going to be any flow isues from the reservior to the pump, keeping things humming along nicely.

Installation Notes

While the pump and steering gear are direct bolt-in applications, the remote reservior is not and inteh Dodge Ram, a mount ing location needs to be determined within the length of the return line supplied by PSC, Inc. I found the space between the battery and the wiper fluid bottle to be perfect for the reservior I am using. However, the universal mount from PSC, Inc does not fit the location so nicely. I had to build an "adapter" to move the mounting lcoation downa nd a small bit further into the engine compartment. The drop was required so the mount was not clmaping the reservior right at the top of the unit and allowed the cap to not make contact with the hood. Its a simple bracket I made using some flat plate and a 1" x 1" square tube, bolted to the inner fender.

The return line hose fits perfectly between the battery and washer bottle and has enough slack to allow for engine movement without damaging anything.

The pump uses the stock pulley and mounting bracket. It also uses the stock pressure line fiting to the steering gear. The return line from the steering gear enters either the bottom of the reservior or can be routed into a cooler first. I opted for the cooler, mounted on the a/c condensor.

It is highly recommended that fluid always flows bottom to top. This way, as any air in the lines is easily pushed by the fluid in the same direction it wants to go, up.

Performance Review

I am currently running a remanufactured steering gear for a Ram 3500 from the local parts house. This is a fixed ratio box I had sent out to West Texas Offroad to be tapped for cylinder assist. I was asked by Tom at PSC, Inc to provide a bit of comparison to the "RedNeckRam" box modifications from West Texas Offroad (WTO). Matt from WTO is great guy to deal with and very nice in letting me have the box shipped from the supplier directly to him for modification and then he shipped it to me. He provided quality lines and fittings to connect to the ram he supplied. WTO's box modification is simply tapping of the box and adding hose ports to control the ram, without any internal mods. This setup works, but I believe it is not as efficient as the internal mods done by PSC, Inc.

The new PSC, Inc pump and remote reservior and cooler with the WTO box and no ram installed makes a fairly noticable difference in the steering. Its it easier to turn the wheel at low RPM and at low speeds. So far, there is little performace loss from heat as the fluid is running much cooler now.

After installing the ram and using the WTO box and PSC, Inc pump I will update this review. I'll take the truck out to the local OHV park and crawl some rocks and stick the tires in some ruts. I'll provide notes on performance on and off road as this is my daily driver. After a few runs with the WTO gear, I'll swap in the PSC, Inc steering gear, remove the ram and test it, then reinstall the ram and give the comparisons of all the setups.

PSC, Inc
901 Finney Drive
Weatherford, TX 76085
817-270-0102
E-mail