Thread: Source of used hydraulic cylinders?

Originally Posted by Dave J

Yeah don't know what it's called, but it keeps the Rams out of the dirt.
Maybe a little mechanical advantage, but I think the main reason for that system on machines is to keep the Rams away from harm.

Your right. Well that's what I was told. Keeps the rod out of the crap and if rocks and other stuff comes over the top of the bucket (or shovel) it doesn't damage the rod.
This position certainly made it a lot easier to remove the ram for repair.
When quick hitches with various tool attachments became popular the rear of the tilt ram was mounted on a lever system. With this you could raise the loader arms while keeping the bucket, forks or whatever in a fixed position. ie the forks stayed horizontal as the load was raised or lowered.

Tony

I'm going to have to differ a little here; not sure about excavator and backhoe setups but the advantage of the type of linkage system on this loader is that it increases the rotation of the bucket, the extra link and pivot enables the rams to push / pull 'over the horizon' if you like. With the original setup, the bucket would not curl back enough to keep something like a big round of firewood from rolling out unless it was lifted fairly high; then at the top of the lift it would not roll forward enough to cleanly empty a bucket of soil. This linkage system addresses that. I'm pretty sure it was an Australian who invented it.
The other type of setup where the tilt ram operates through a lever under the frame is so that the ram pushes, rather than pulls, to curl the bucket in- increasing breakout force as the ram has much more power when pushing.
The system that keeps the bucket / forks etc in the same plane as the arms are lifted is a 'level-lift' system, which uses some kind of parallelogram arrangement.
I'm trying to talk myself out of attempting to add a level-lift to this old beast, would be fun but it's a big enough job for the moment as it is.

Originally Posted by BaronJ

Hi Guys,

Not necessarily ! I've recently being playing with some that have a bore bigger than the shaft / ram.

Well if it is the other way around that would be a TARDIS hydraulic ram.

Originally Posted by Pete O

I'm trying to talk myself out of attempting to add a level-lift to this old beast, would be fun but it's a big enough job for the moment as it is.

You may not be aware, but there are hydraulic valves that achieve self levelling without the use of extra linkages. Toyota Huski Skid Steers use them and I suspect other skid steers may well use them as well. No idea on pricing, but given that the word hydraulic is used, they are most likely pricey.
Another option to muddy the waters further.
In all seriousness though, self levelling makes life a lot more pleasant. In thinking about your proposed grab, I'm not a fan of the one piece top clamp that the pictured units have. A grab with the top clamp split in two but still controlled by a common hydraulic circuit will grab more effectively and will not stress the top clamp by twisting it constantly.

Pete - I reckon that some hydraulic tail-lift cylinders are around that size and in pairs.
Not suggesting you liberate a couple while on night shift, but you might get lucky with a wrecked truck that's been hit up the back. I'm guessing that being a lifting device, repairing an damaged tail lift could easily become uneconomic.

Steve

Originally Posted by OxxAndBert

Pete - I reckon that some hydraulic tail-lift cylinders are around that size and in pairs.
Not suggesting you liberate a couple while on night shift, but you might get lucky with a wrecked truck that's been hit up the back. I'm guessing that being a lifting device, repairing an damaged tail lift could easily become uneconomic.

Steve

Just beware that many tailgate loaders use single acting cylinders and quite often their rod diameter is quite large.
I would have thought that 70mm cylinders were a bit excessive for tilt cylinders particularly given that there will be two of them. A Ford 4100 is only quite a small machine and the weight of a decent hay bale will be more than enough for it to handle.

I was looking at a clip of Matthias Wandel where he's bought an old tractor and the loader has a hydraulic level-lift system, an extra ram under the frame that acts as a kind of variable reservoir. Interesting arrangement but I think I'd need to have a stockpile of cylinders and a year of trial and error to get the right combination of cylinder sizes and geometry.
I agree about the single-jaw grapple, there's a two-jaw version shown in some if the pics in that link. I haven't found an Aus supplier who does anything like as good an item so I'll probably build it myself, there are a few designs with open-source CAD available.
I've got a fair bit of grinding and welding ahead of me before I'll be able to work out the size of the rams for this thing, this is where it's at presently.
arm ends welded.jpgright arm end welded.jpg

I cut the ends off the frame arms so I could set them up in the mill to bore for the new pivot points, got to grind all the welds flush so I can add fishplates, then line-bore. Not going to be a quick rebuild.

Originally Posted by Pete O

I was looking at a clip of Matthias Wandel where he's bought an old tractor and the loader has a hydraulic level-lift system, an extra ram under the frame that acts as a kind of variable reservoir. Interesting arrangement but I think I'd need to have a stockpile of cylinders and a year of trial and error to get the right combination of cylinder sizes and geometry.

That's an interesting solution which would most probably work, but as you say, there would be a lot of trial and error.
The valving that the Toyota Huskys use is one that allows a certain amount of oil to flow into the tilt circuit as the arms are raised, thus offsetting to effect of the bucket increasing its rearward crowding as the arms raise. The amount of oil that flows into the tilt system is adjustable for fine tuning of the ratio.