oh and as a starter for 10 with regards to hydraulics, your basic components being a pump, a reservoir, a ram, control solenoid and hydraulic lines. For a basic machine to get going you could start out with a pump / reservoir unit used on a tipping trailer (generally found on ebay used for £50 plus). If you want to go higher performance then you will need to start looking into companies that specialise in pumps and hooking them up to high powered motors.