It's Hydro Man!

The hydraulic brake system has been installed and though I have yet to test it I've heard it will lock up a set of 44" mudders at freeway speeds! If that's the case then this must be one of the sweetest braking upgrades around! These brake systems are usually found on 1 ton Ford trucks but I purchased mine as a kit from VanCo. With a system like this you will probably want to upgrade your power steering pump with something like the AGR Super pump and a cooler to keep the temperatures down. The kit came with everything I needed including all the pre-bent lines. So why go with hydraulic brakes over vacuum booster brakes? Vacuum brakes only put out about 1000lbs of pressure and continuously bleed down until you allow them to build pressure back up, while hydraulic brake systems put out up to 2500lbs of constant pressure. That's why I went with em! Originally my jeep had stock brakes with rear drums and no power assist in anyway and I never ever came close to locking up the 33" Swampers at any speed. If you wanted to stop you would have to plan days in advance and hope no one pulls in front of you or someone would be eating bumper for lunch! With this new hydro system, rear disc brake conversion, steel braided brake lines, and also changing out the proportioning valve I'm hoping this rig will stop on a dime and give change back!

 

To help keep the temps down I've relocated the power steering cooler from under the front bumper (where it was worthless) to the top of the bumper where there is more air and fewer rocks! Started by welding up some mounting brackets for the oil cooler to mount to. Then bent out some aluminum tubing to finish it up. Only thing left is to find where I left that last bolt?

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