Alright, I got the Hummer running and on the road. The pros, it will run down the highway at 70 mph and not kill anyone. The cons, it does have the shakes at slow speeds/sitting still. This steering setup (depowered box/remote servo) has been known to give the steering wheel the shakes if the mechanical side of things don't match up perfectly with the hydraulic side of things.
A lot has happened since the original post, not all on this thread and ill kind of start from the beginning. When I did a solid axle swap to my H3 back in 2014, I did not consider what I would be doing in 2026. Rightfully so, in 2014 I was blowing up ifs diffs, and I needed to stop blowing up diffs, so steering was an overlooked part. I saw someone use an Xterra box, it fit the frame rail well and I ran with it.
Pros, its outside frame rail to give you a longer drag link. Cons, its rearward facing pitman arm, which causes fitment constraints. While I love the SAS, and think its 1000x better than the factory stuff, if there is one thing I would say is better on the ifs, is the steering angle it pulls.
Over the years I went from coil springs to coilovers, longer track bar, added a sway bar, added air bumps, etc. I added a ton of things that just fit around the box, and to start over with a different box would have had me redoing a **** ton of things. To the point that I probably should cut the front frame off to maximize everything more. At this point I have a 100% stock frame, it isn't even notched in places, and with the restraints of the stock frame it is pretty much maximized.
My last iteration before this one, I ended up with a redhead xterra box that felt tight, and had ram assist for a 1.5in ram. I needed offset heims to not hit the diff cover, which added a dead spot in the steering as it would like to "flop." I could bend a 1.5in .25wall tie rod like a pretzel and probably went through 6-7 of them over the years, I would usually get a year or two out of them but really, I'd get a fresh one, bend it the first trip out and limp it along for a year or two before it was almost unusable and I would have to build another. Finally, I got tired of those tie rods and had one made out of stressproof material because I needed a better material, going up in size would cause fitment issues at full bump. I ran an aluminum tie rod and with the offset ends it actually would deflect driving down the road and cause death wobble! Anyways, so stressproof....I must say that held up SUBSTAINALLY better, in the end it had a slight bow in it but that would last for many many years compared to the regular old DOM one. The cons, it isnt weldable so the ram clamp had to be bolt on and would sometimes want to spin and just be a pain in the ass. Steering effort was never an issue. Just steering angle and steering speed. When I went to 43's I lost even more angle due to the width. Around that time I started to value steering angle and speed more and more. As I ran harder trails, I started to value things I didnt used to care about. While those tires were kickass, at 18in wide, they didnt like to turn far before hitting links, body parts, etc. Going back to a normal width 42, I put an emphasis on steering angle and speed. The con was travel in the box with the OEM pitman arm length. It wasn't pulling much more angle than what I had with the 43s. To solve this, I could make a longer pitman arm, but I couldnt even get 1/2in more length out of the pitman arm before hitting the track bar mount since it was rearward facing and the box is up against the body mount. From what I understand, a longer pitman arm gives more throw/angle and quicker steering. I know a shorter arm on the knuckle does the same. Another con to the xterra box was 3.75 turn steering lock to lock, the steering was slow. It wasnt an issue back in 2014, or on road but the faster I went on tight trails, I couldnt steer fast enough. I know for force, a shorter arm on the knuckle reduces the steering force being put into the tire, I believe the same goes for a longer pitman arm. So I had a long steering arm at the knuckle and a short pitman arm, with ram assist I had plenty of power but it was slow and it limited angle. So I moved the arm in on the knuckle. Speed did pick up but not enough...but I lost a ton of power, I would say more than the speed I picked up. The 1.5in ram wasnt sufficient anymore, and I barely could fit the 1.5in ram yet alone a bigger one, plus my other issues I was tired of. This went on for about 2 years. I was out wheeling a lot, having fun, but I will always remember the thing I struggled with, not what went great. I was just about over it when it came to lack of steering force and speed, then last August, I hurt my steering box just trying to manhandle it. That was the first time I had a catastrophic steering failure on the trail.
It was time for significant change. I was tired of the lack of power, the dead spot from the offset heims, and the ram spinning with the bracket. I need full hydro power, without full hydro. Can full hydro kick ass on road? Yes, it can. It seems most can't get it to work nice on road, but I know it is possible, I have talked to people who say it feels nice on the freeway at 70 but they are few and far between from what I have seen. There is one issue with full hydro you cant overcome, and that is keeping the clock spring happy, the steering wheel can float and drift, which would kill the clockspring and then I would lose the horn, cruise control and a centered wheel. I didnt want that.
So it was time to go down the 4500 steering rabbit hole. Depower the box so it is like a manual box, all it does is handle the mechanical side of steering, the remote mounted servo has less flow constraints of a regular box and handles the hydraulic side of things. I understand that there are a lot of variables and it was best to just follow the recipe known to work but a new box would cause a lot more work, and in the end the same box required a lot more work too, but I didnt find that out until later.
So the plan, sweet servo (not howe modified) because it has worked for trail rigs, an xterra box, with WJ 2.75 turn internals because they are both a part of the delphi 600 platform that can interchange parts, a 2.5in double ended ram like a full hydro setup.. (I ended up using JK 3 turn internals, mechanically advantaged to be 2.75 turn in a Xterra box which consumed a ton of time when the WJ parts didnt end up working out.)
Well the ram would hang down super low due to the drag link and pitman arm combo, if I could get rid of the drag link like full hydro Id have so much room but since I’m keeping it, the trade off I made was a new pitman arm to get the mount to be within a 1/4in of the old tie rod height, and I am a little farther out then the tie rod, the old tie rod was 7 7/8 off the axle tube, to the end of the flat plate I am 8in off the axle tube and the angled part, a tad more.
So, will it work better? I don’t know. Is the power better? I dont know....I assume a 2.5in DE ram with a 1750 psi pump has more power then a 1.5in SE ram, and a box.
Will the clearance be worse? Idk, I mean I hit the **** out of the tie rod for over a decade, now the 2 tie rods for the ram is higher, but the ram mount is ever so slightly lower and I’m not sure if it’s more slippery or not.
The 2.75ish turn box is much better and quicker.
The shakes suck, but I’ll work on that. The .220 bar is stiff as hell, but I can change that too.
Enough rambling...pics.
Driving into a lone rock, to make sure it doesnt fall off....or bend.
Driving down the highway...
The shakes when parked.
(the video wont load....I will link it to youtube later)
Lastly, here is the "sentimental part," is the steering where I want it to be right now? No....but it is safely running and driving and that matters more than ever. The last 15 years I have wheeled a lot, I have driven all the way to Maine to go wheeling when living in CA. I probably spent 20+ weeks of vacation for week long trips in the last 10 years. I have gone wheeling monthly or close to it for many years but the last 8 months have been rough. I broke 8 months ago and havent wheeled since. That is the longest time I have gone without wheeling since I started wheeling and it is my therapy and fun. Between our 2nd child being born in those 8 months, my wife dealing with some postpartum this time, new job, 2 vacation days since May, and much more random ****, this has been a challenging 8 months for me...Yes, there's always someone who has it worse, someone dealing with cancer and the foreclosure of their house, or some bad bad ****, and this wasnt bad, nor am I trying to make it sound bad, it was just a challenge, and when life is a challenge, bailing out for 1/2 day to go wheeling gets rid of those issues temporarily and I didnt have that. So driving home I was grinning ear to ear just to be driving my H3, listening to the same music I listened to road tripping to my first moab trip 15 years ago. It felt like life is getting back to normal.
Normally I would be asking myself, will this work? Will I have to cut it off and redo it all because it sucks? Now I am telling myself, if it sucks that bad, I have a cut off wheel, I can start over....begrudgingly.
So I plan to just wheel for a while, while dialing in the steering. It does need adjusting but it is wheelable. Then it will be time to do some coilover mount changes, because that was a project I would have done differently in hindsight. I didnt want to go through the floor but the ground clearance has pissed me off enough, I am now willing to do that.
