well i know have both axles mounts made and i am in the process of shortening the rear axle. i started to mock up the steering cylinder but cannot figure out were to put it due to the articulation of the frame any ideas on how or were i could mount it.

What is the stroke of the cylinder?

If you can provide a dimensioned sketch of the frame it would help.

Also need the collapsed length of the cylinder, and the angle of articulation that you want to achieve.

Does the joint pivot similar to mine (art FEl from scratch) or is the wheel travel going to be from one axle?

All this info is needed to get the geometry right.

andre,I sure didnt have a plan or blueprint when I started building my loader.I used a 14"stroke,2.5"bore cylinder for my steer ram.It's 8"off center from the main pivot centerline.I'm using just one cylinder as opposed to many folks that use two..only real disadvantage is it steers faster on retract than on extend.I'd say any cylinder longer than 8"stroke is probably OK,the longer the stroke,the farther out away from the center pivot you can anchor it;the father out the more leverage power.Start with your loader frame full straight ahead..anchor the steer ram end on the front frame where you want it,then put the ram at half stroke..wherever the other end of the ram ends up is where you need to mount it.Tack weld it up and pivot it thru it's range of motion and see what it does..look for interferences and stuff that will hit and cause problems.It's all fun and an education in itself.Hit us back up with some pics and tell us how you did.Happy to help ya.

well i have a limited choice of cylinders either a 4 inch bore 8 inch stroke or a 2 inch bore 16inch stroke i really need those for the loader though. i wanted to mount the cylinder like on a cadtrac with two ball joints but after finding out those ball joint will cost me $40 each i am trying to find a better way to mount the cylinder as my articulation joint moves in two ways. also should i make my loader out of 1/2 plate of square/ rectangular tubing. thanks guys for all the help i wouldn't be here without it.

That looks like more than a tach weld..

thats not mine its from camdigger3 and his cadtrac on the old site but thats how i want to mount my ram also what do those weld in ball joint cost in the USA

On mine I just bought a cylinder with ball joint ends. I think that cylinder was $126. On the i found that mounting one end parallel to the pivot worked best. My suggestion would be to pick ball joint cylinder from a local supplier and design around that. I will make a drawing of the attachment points on mine. I can also post the cylinder specs.

I wouldn't want to use the 4" cylinder. It would be slow and might rip the machine in half if something gets hung.

Here is the straight view. Moment arm is 7" long torque avaliable at 1500 psi = 1675 ft-lbs in retract direction and 2800 ft-lbs in extend.



Full 45 degree retracted. Moment arm is 4.35". Torque is 1041 in-lbs.




Full 45 degree Extended. Monent arm is 5.42". Torque is 2128 ft-fbs.



Look at the dimensions on the first pic. This is a 10" cylinder from surplus center with ball joints. It has a retracted length of 17.5". Item# 9-7259-10.

The connection points are 7" off of center line and 22-5/8 apart. If you use a longer cylinder it will need to be moved further from the center line. If it's going to pivot, I don't know how you would do it without a ball joint cylinder. Obvioulsy if the cylinder you get has a different collapsed length you will need to adjust the straight line distance accordingly.

Sometimes it is better to go ahead and get what you need at more cost than to compromise and have to fight it for the life of the machine.

Gator what do you use for the drawings?

Thanks
Lincoln

Solid works 2007. I have it through work.

Andre you will need to make sure your flange shown in the pics doesn't stick out from centerline farther than the dims shown above.

For those without the luck of having solid works or autocad, you can use solid works free 2d software(can't think of the name at the moment) it will do everything that autocad will do but for free. Go to solidworks.com and download it from there. I use it and an old version of cad on my home cpu. The solid works guy says it is their way of sticking it to autocad.

I can spend all day standing in front of a lathe or mill but 1/2 hour with auto cad is all I can take.

okay i have made some progress. although i still can't figure out how to mount the steering ram.

Post a dimensioned sketch with your axle to pivot distances, cylinder retracted length, stroke, and any other dims you can. Ill see if I can help you out.

andre,I mounted the my steer cylinder(ram)on a bracket about 4"off the inside of the rear frame section..it's a 2.5"bore cyl.-about 8"stroke.The other end is pinned about 5" from the centerline of the front section.No challenge steering my loader under all conditions,winter or summer,flat or uneven land.I'm using a 1500psi steer valve pressure relief setting.It really doesn't take that much pressure to steer,especially if the vehicle is moving.I have a locker differential in my rear axle,the steer force easily drags one rear tire forward/backward no problem depending on which way I steer.

yeah i will try to find a shorter ram because the 16 inch stroke one is two long and hits on the frame.

yeah i will try to find a shorter ram because the 16 inch stroke one is two long and hits on the frame.

well tomorrow i fire her up i plumbed the valves in parallel but i am going to re install the flow divided as i remember if i don't have it the steering is to fast.

it lives i had a few plumbing problems but she works so well i drove it around for about 3 hours the drive is hard as i used a cylinder valve to control the motor so i nearly fell out of my seat a few times but it works great.

Pics Andre, We need pics!