Had my JK in getting some much needed love. Had a laundry list of maintenance and new goodies done. Some of the work was that with now 130K miles my JK was starting to handle very sloppy. So now the suspension has been gone over, any loose or worn items replaced, shocks rebuilt, new tires, etc. JK rides and drives beautifully!!....except for a lot of wandering in the steering wheel. It looks as though my steering box is finally shot....110K miles of running 37s....I guess I can't complain.
I looked at going the PSC assist route but don't feel I need that big of jump. They sell only OEM boxes unless they mod them for the hydro assist.

I then looked at Redhead steering gear. I know them from using their boxes in full size trucks and they are excellent. I spoke to them over the phone and they explained the rebuild process and what they do to the JK steering boxes to build them beefier and stronger than stock. I think this is the way I'm going to go. The box is $495.00 after the core charge and it is a direct bolt in.

Anyone ever use one of their boxes? Anyone have any experience with them and their JK steering boxes?

 

for a couple hundred more you can get the redneck ram hydro kit. works great with 37s on and off road

 

Are you running their kit? How difficult was the install? I like the idea of their complete kit. I can order it and then send them my core once the swap is complete. I had heard that hydro steering can be a bit.....twitchy on the highway so I was a little leary. I'm planning on upgrading my front axle soon to a PR44 unlimited and was going to get the housing mods which includes mounts for a hydro ram.

 

For the most part yeah. I sent my box to them to be tapped and rebuilt. I would have tapped it myself but I wanted all new seals thats what the rebuild basically is on the chinese boxes. They sent me back my box, a ram, fittings, tabs and hoses. I made my own hoses using the aeroquip field serviceable lines and steel pressure fittings. I use WTOs hoses as trail spares. I also got a derale 17" single pass cooler. The cooler not only cools the fluid but it also adds more fluid to the system. I had the tabs welded to a tie rod clamp I picked up from poly performance and tabs welded to my artec tracbar bracklet. You want to go double shear on both the clamp and the tracbar bracket. You will want a ram with a 1.5" bore. You can use either a 6" or 7" length depending on your stroke. The 1.5" bore works great with the stock pump except for a little low speed lag from quick turning in both directions like in parking lots but I dont even notice it now. It drives unreal on the highway literal one finger steering. The twitchyness can be a result of having the wrong pump matched with the wrong size ram. Offroad especially on the rocks your steering box will thank you having this ram help out. All the strain your steering box normally receives will now be transfered to the ram. This was my second best mod only to gearing but not far behind. I am basically echoing info from a thread on JKO that was an awesome tuitorial on how these sytems work (google DIY hydro assist). I learned everything there. The WTO guys Matt and Mark are awesome to work with btw just dont piss off Billy she dont take no shit . Nothing against PSC but its not needed for everybody

 

Thanks for the info and the heads up. Just got off the phone with Mark. Great guy, answered all my questions , including explaining the reason for bad highway behavior, and offered some suggestions. I'm going to send them my box and have them rebuild it and port and tap it for hydro. Then it will be plugged for now. I plan on swapping in a PR44 unlimited in the next few months so Mark suggested just doing the box for now and once I get the axle in then get accurate steering measurements and add the ram then. That is what I'm going to do. I asked about the pump and he said if yours is healthy....not making noise or seeping then it should be fine but if it is then just swap in a new one.

Thanks again for the info!!

 

Sounds like a plan