I am in the process of trying to figure out what setup I want/need for my P/S. I currently have a Saco rack, Torque generator, Howe pump, reservoir, and the brackets for it. I am thinking about buying one of these power ram racks that they make that prices around $1200-$1500 range. Has anybody used this setup before and how well does it holdup? I am trying to eliminate the extra weight that will be gained from the generator and also clean up the extra brackets that will be needed to mount the generator. This will be going on my new buggy. Thanks.

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"Loud pipes saves lives"

Unless you are gonna be crawling thru rocky creek beds all the time, you wont need the power steering on a conventional single seater at all. Especially if you use a kingpin, and keep it light, which is the whole point in a single seater, IMO. Save time, trouble, money AND save the weight. A new TRW steering box, steering knob,new tie rod ends, spindles in good shape, no crazy drops, stock vw wheels (stock offset important!), 5.00 thru 5.50 tires and you should be able to turn it EASILY with the knob. No excessive feedback either. WAY LESS than $1200!

Or even run the rack w/o power and Roy can show you how to set it up to where it wont rip your hand off.

You wont need the ground clearance out of them high dollar, high rise front end setups that you NEED power steering to turn, you will wheelie over stuff now!!

Not knocking those power setups, they are really cool and I'm sure they drive awesome, and are 'the ticket' on the right application, but you are now building a sports car, not a sedan.

Larry

If your still interested in a power steering setup i would go with the servo/ram setup. Thats what i went with after talking to many people and weighing many options. For your setup similar to mine i would go with this set up.. I can not tell you how good it is because mine is not all the way done. Basically you mount a servo in your steering shaft and as you turn the wheel it pumps fluid to the right or left side of a hydraulic ram that is mounted to your frame and attached to the bottom of a saco or any other rack moving the ram in and out turniing your wheels for you. Also i dont think you can use a power ram rack like you mention they are all endload racks and unless you have a a-arm setup up front the bumpsteer will be out of control. I thought about going that route myself and was quickly talked out of by many desert racers..heres some pics of my setup that is not complete yet.. I have not mounted my ram yet and i also need to connect my servo to my rack. You can see underneath my inner tie rods where the ram mounts on the rack thats why thiers the odd shape with a hole drilled in it..

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Bye Bye Buggy, I'll always miss you and never forget you, your going to a better place now.

Ok I understand this wont help you now but, I have seen the tourqe generator mounted directly to the steering bar and used with the steerin wheel mounted directly to it. This makes forr a cleaner install but with your "tilt" woud not work It also shortens the hoses up some as well. I run the elcheapo rack that I clearenced for full travel and dont have any complaints at all feed back is no problem turning effort no problem and it is simple just works?

I already got a set of Combo 3" drop spindles and Tweed 2.25"x1" front trailing arms, I am wanting to get a little more ground clearance than I currently have with the old Packrat. That is also why I am running aftermarket torsion housing and coil-over shocks as well on new one, just something a little more different and extreme.

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"Loud pipes saves lives"

Different strokes for different folks!
Thats part of what makes buggy-ing fun.

Good luck with your new build!
Larry

Hey Larry out of curiousity have you ever driven a buggy with really good suspension? My last Buggy was similar to the set up you describe and it is in no way a comparsion to the supension on my new Buggy. Food for thought.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

Yes I have . Every time I go riding . Mine, my sons, my buddy Yankee's, Darrel's, Bruce's, Willie's etc... All of them have the setup I described plus 1x2 modified stock front arms and suspension seats (except my boy's)and ride as well as any of us needs them to. You can go down a trail as fast as you dare in any of them and never loose steering contact with the ground (unless you want to by clutching and gooseing one of them). If I needed a softer ride than that, it would mean I was on the trail too much and not on a hill, carrying the front wheels!!

I've ridden in two different tall shock tower, high dollar coil over bugggies and neither rode better than mine, seriously. Maybe they were set up wrong, I dont know. There is no wrong set up on the suspension I described. No tuning or guesswork required. Bolt it together , turn the top beam a 1/4" and float. I couldnt grab the front bumper of either of them with one hand and move the suspension. You can do that on any of the buggies I named.

Did you have extended front arms with stock leaf springs on yours? The arms made all the difference on mine. A heavier buggy will squat the stock leafs in no time with the long arms, though. Then you try to compensate by twisting the beam more, or adding stiffer aftmkt leafs and it doesnt work right.

I aint saying there's anything wrong with that high dollar stuff, its very cool looking, it just aint worth the weight, complexity or money to me. Maybe on a multipurpose or mainly trail buggy it would be, but on a purpose built conventional single seat climber, no. Maybe if I was planning on blasting thru washboarded logging roads for hours at a time or a baja race course, it would be different.

Larry

larry, i must say i agree!

Longer than stock travel is better, you admit to that when you say you use modified front arms. But the high dollar front spring system is overrated in my opinion. I'm not knocking any bodies stuff, its just hard for me to justify. I know yall jelly boys like to be able to lift the front end with one arm and I'm proud for you but that is what slowed yall down a little on the 4th of July climb at D&K. By all means keep it that way. I am not really totally happy with my front springs but some day when I get the bags on I will be. With large air bags you can raise the front and still be soft. And in most cases soft is good.

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

Me too! But they do look cool.

Damn,, That question started a firestorm.. If these tall coil-over front ends and power steering aint no good why do they run so many in baja 1000 and other desert races where they go through more abuse, wear, and adversity than you could ever go through trail riding or hill climbing. Just my thoughts. If i hit a stump i can still control my steering wheel with one finger..

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Bye Bye Buggy, I'll always miss you and never forget you, your going to a better place now.

not trying to argue but you are comparing apples to oranges. you said it exactly the are racing in the desert where beef is necessary. they have double the weight of our buggys and are going twice the speed. by all means i think they look awesome but why add the weight to a hillclimber buggy when its not necessary is all they are saying i think

i run all stock expect for the tweeds combos i just picked up today. i need the ground clearance around here.

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2332cc Air Cooled Screaming Meanie. Predator Singleseat.

"Lets go get stupid"

Well i dont want people to get me wrong either. I really dont care what anybody runs. I like it all. I thought this post was about powersteering suggestions so i gave mine, then next thing you know its all about front suspension lol..
And whats better than this or that.. Also i think you can add the extra weight if you add the extra horses to push it. Also wouldnt extra weight keep the front end down better..

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Bye Bye Buggy, I'll always miss you and never forget you, your going to a better place now.

Granted we have vered off topic here however its turned into a good one. I dont disagree with Larry for having the lightest and simplest front end for a Hill climbing Buggy only. And as it has been said we are comparing apples to oranges. I suppose my case is different. I used stock parts on my last buggy and they just did not hold up to Wellsville. I went tru 5 TRW/VW steering boxes and rebuilt the stock spindels 3 times and snapped off a spindle in less that 4 years. Suspension was modified to allow for a little longer travel and additional bracing for strength and it still did not hold up. I am a fast and agressive trail rider and I need equipment to last. Thats were the Combo spindels, disk brakes, coil overs power steering, 930 cvs etc came in to play building my new Buggy. Food for thought.

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Water cooled Dry Sumped Subaru Powered Turbo Charged Fuel Injected 2500CC Tank. Oh Rah! He who dies with the most Toys not only wins, He also wears them out!

I dont think any of the buggies I mentioned are lacking for horsepower, they are all either high compression 2387's or 2500's, or 1461's w/ drilled valves.

If a motor has "the extra horses to push" the weight, imagine how much more pushing it can do w/o the weight!

The weight may help to keep the front end down, but it also helps to flip it backwards once its set in motion in that direction. The "point of no return" comes quicker because once you sling all that weight up in the air, it has more of a tendency to continue in that same direction, over on your lid. Whereas with a lighter front end, you can control it better. Set it down or stand it up with a lighter touch. The heavier the front end, the less you can control it with the throttle and clutch.

Its really hard to explain the value of the set ups we run by typing or talking about it. Come see how they act on the hills at D&K, watch a master at it like Darrel or Charlie, then you'll understand what I'm trying to say!



I have heard several people from other areas complain that they break steering boxes like nothing. I got a Cheapo on mine, and tho it is a little rough now, its been workin for ten rides or so just fine. And its had its fair share of licks in that time. More weight on the buggy and taller tires will help to bust 'em quick , I do know that, both put way more stress on it. We do break 'em some, but not that often. Its pretty easy to change one if you leave easy access to it when building the buggy, so no big deal.

Whatever works for an indivdual , and if they are saitsfied, then thats all that matters. I can only advise on what works good on our cookie-cutter KYbuggies, in our riding areas. But , boy does it ever work good!!!

Larry

I never said any of the buggies you guys run lack horsepower?? And i also dont think this post had anything to do with hillclimbing?? He is in Ohio so i dont think he's worried about KYbuggies. Weve definately got way off track and robbed this guys post. Lets all kiss and make up lol. Sorry buddy for ruining your post start another and we'll try not ruin it..

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Bye Bye Buggy, I'll always miss you and never forget you, your going to a better place now.

I don't have any problems with what you guys are doing on here, It tells me more what's going on here, that is very informative for me. I understand that some people have their own opinions on what they run on their buggies, if they are happy with their setup, that is good. Some people may have bad luck running the same parts that are breaking on them, but not on others as well. You just never know what will happen until it happens, I just want to run good parts and not have to worry about them breaking on me in the woods, it just helps make me feel better, safer, and more reliable, I may have some bad luck on some things, but usually it is simple if it is like breaking off the piece off of the rear trailing arm this past weekend that my caliper bracket is welded onto , that part of the arm was very thin about 1/8" thick, it was supposed to be heavy-duty arms, but there was a weak link there . I am hoping that everything that I planned on the new frame will work out great and I will be posting more pictures on the "Predator frame" post soon as I go. Thanks guys! P.S. keep the ball rollin' on what you guys are talking about on here, remember the more the better it is for me

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"Loud pipes saves lives"

Nick, regardless of where he lives, I think he is interested in doing some BIG hill climbing. At least he seemed like it at D&K, he had Darrell take him around to see some of the good ones. I was just trying to put out an option for him to not spend tons of money on stuff that will NOT help him climb. And tell him what dozens of people with lighter buggies run with great success, since he is getting his first single seater.

When he replied that he already had some of the components for his P/S setup, and was dead set on using it, I was finished because I dont know a thing about where to get that stuff or how to set it up. See this post?


Then the thread did kinda go haywire. But I thought it went into a good discussion of the pros and cons of different front end set ups. I thought this was a forum for discussing woodsbuggies?? Didnt know we had a specific outline to follow and couldnt veer off subject a little, even though the subject was similiar and COULD HELP SOMEONE.

I didnt tell anybody to worry about no KYbuggy, I just said thats all I can do is tell BadW what works on them.
WTH???

BadVW, I apologize if I contributed your thread being stolen.
Again, Good Luck on your new buggy. I know it will be sharp, because your two seater is killer!
Bring the new one down and ride with us again ASAP!

Larry

I'm sorry for getting off track, ,,back on track,,,when you upgrade I will be interested in your old stuff if you decide to let it go. My buggy is heavy and the power steering will be an improvement.

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If your clutch ain't slippin,, you probably got it adjusted right!!!!!

the thing I get when ever some one talks about hill climbing every one wants to talk about the ky buggys as if you can't hill climb with out this set up.Like i have said before some of us ride other places than D&K a stock front end won't last a ride at the places we ride at. Like ODE said some times you just get tired of stuff falling off like your spindles I have 7.50 16 on the front of my buggy and I run out of ground clearence all the time. we don't start climbing a hill and when we get to the rough stuff just turn and go in to the woods around the P trail we like the rough stuff