Have you ever been wheeling, in a really tough spot and your spotter says, “Cut your wheels hard to the right” only to reply “I CAN’T”? When you run aggressive tires, and wedge them against rocks, in deep ruts, or various other tough spots, your stock steering system just isn’t designed to have enough force to move them. Having been in the situation of telling a spotter “I can’t turn anymore” and not being able to take the right line, I knew I needed to do something about my steering. The 15 year old steering components under the hood just weren’t designed for 35+in tires and full width axles. I knew I had to do something to improve my steering; so I made a call to West Texas Offroad. The guys (and girls) at West Texas knew what I needed right away, the solution to my problem was a Hydro-Assist setup, namely their Redneck Ram Hydraulic Steering Assist Setup. This setup adds a Hydraulic Ram to your steering setup, adding close to 2000psi of steering force to your system.

They sent me one of their Stage II Complete Systems, which starts with your existing steering box, which is disassembled cleaned, rebuilt, modified and hydraulic fittings added.  Also included is the Ram, the Hydraulic Lines, fittings, mounting brackets, and all the hardware needed. They also offer a Stage III kit which upgrades you to a new gear box and pump.

The install of this setup is very simple. The box bolts right where the old steering box was, and the stock lines bolt right up. The setup comes with great instructs on how to mount the ram. The mounting tabs will need to be welded onto. There are several ways to mount a hydraulic ram, I mounted mine to the custom track bar mount, and then to the tie-rod. Another modifical that can be made, is to increase the flow of your stock steering pump as described on the West Texas Website (http://westtexasoffroad.homestead.com/powersteering.html). I went ahead and did this modification while I had everything apart. Then you just hook up the lines to the ram and yours all set. The most time consuming part of the whole process is filling the system with fluid, and cyling the wheels back and forth to get all the air out of the system.

Once I got everything all bolted up and installed, I took it out for a test drive. The 2 things that are very noticeable right away are: that wheel is MUCH easier to turn, and that the wheels turn slower then before. The steering wheel has a lot less movement in it, due to the ram eliminating most all the sloop your steering may have had before. You have basically added a 2000psi steering stabilizer into the system.

Where the system is most noticeable is on the trails. You can turn the wheel easily with one hand, no matter how rough the trail was in most cases. I took my Jeep out to Rausch Creek Offroad Park to test it out. In the rocks where I would have had a problem steering before, I had no problems turning into rocks to climb up them. Even if the Jeep was right up against the rock I wanted to climb, if I turned into it, the wheel would actually push the Jeep off the rock so I can turn into it. The real test for the setup was "Rock Creek", Rausch's 1800 foot long, 50 foot wide rock garden. We ran the first 1000ft of it, and never once did I need more steering power. If I was wedged against a rock, all I had to do was steer into the rock, and it would climb right up! The only thing I had to look out for was if both tires were wedged, the steering setup does have the power to break weaker steering components and ball joints.

Overall I couldn’t be happier with the system. I completely trilled with the performance of this system. The first test went perfect and I was more then impressed with how well the system work.

The Redneck Ram setup works flawlessly, and the guys at West Texas were great to work with. From the first time I called them up to talk to them, I could tell they knew their stuff. They never needed to look up stuff to get me info; they knew what I needed, and what would work with my setup.

For more information on the Redneck Ram Hydraulic Steering Assist from West Texas Offroad click on the link below.