hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes?

   / hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes? #1  

Gavman

Bronze Member
Joined
Nov 11, 2005
Messages
79
Location
Dallas
Tractor
Montana 4940
I bought a top n tilt set up the other day. The hyd. cylinder that causes the blade to angle, say for cutting a ditch or something, is too long. However it is the shortest one made. The part of the cylinder that attaches to the lower 3pt arm( I am not sure of the name of this "part", so I took a picture), has plenty of room to drill some holes to make it the right length. My question is this. Should I drill the hole so that the 3pt arms are level when the cylinder is at its shortest stroke length, or drill it where the 3pt arms are level when the cylinder is at the exact middle of its stroke length.

The way I see it, if I drill the hole where the 3pt arms are level at the cylinders shortest stoke length, I will only be able to angle the blade one way, but I will be able to angle it twice as far as I could if I drill the hole where the 3pt arms are level in the middle of the cylinders stroke length, which would give me the ability to angle the blade both ways.
 

Attachments

  • 805763-cylinder.JPG
    805763-cylinder.JPG
    74.4 KB · Views: 607
   / hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes? #2  
I would put them in the middle, but there are owners that have it both ways.
 
   / hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes? #4  
SnoFalls,
Good answer...
Gavman, that way you have the ability to angle both ways and holes for adjustment....maybe on another implement or contraption.
 
   / hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes?
  • Thread Starter
#5  
Yeah, that is what I will do. I just thought I would make sure that one of the two ideas wasn't a "bad idea". Thanks for the feedback!
 
   / hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes? #6  
I went thru the same process a few years ago. The ideal setup to get max tilt in both directions is to set the tilt cylinder at the half way point of the stroke and make sure both lift arms are level with each other. One problem you will now have is that the fixed link on the other side is too short to give the correct amount of tilt in both directions. The solution is to lengthen the fixed link to make sure both lift arms are level.

I discussed this and my solution in detail in THIS POST.
 
   / hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes? #7  
Gavman, I'd call the part you are drilling a "fork." When I got my Tisco cylinder, the fork was already drilled, but I had to drill more holes. I got one too close to the top "saddle" area. When the lift arm was at the top or bottom, it's angle caused the arm to bind in the saddle. That may have contributed to my fork breaking off the cylinder rod.

To fix my problem, I had 2" removed from the rod and the fork rewelded back on. Now I use a lower hole and have had no more problems with the weld. If you retract the cylinder all the way, you can determine just how much extra the rod sticks out of the cylinder. I think you could remove half that length if needed.
 
   / hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes?
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Thanks for the advice guys.

Mad Referee
To get my lift arms level as is, I had to get the manual adjustable tilt arm and put on the opposite side and crank it until it was about four or five inches longer/lower. This made the lift arms level when the cylinder was at its shortest stroke length. However when I put my mower on and mowed with it yesterday, I couldn't raise my mower any higher than the height I mow at. I could barely get my machine off the trailer. Unfortunately I don't think the solution that worked on your machine will work on mine, unless I am misunderstanding you. But thanks again for the feedback!

I think that I am going to go ahead and drill holes where it is level when the cylinder is at half stroke and fully retracted.
If that doesn't work I may go ahead and cut a little off of the rod and try that.
 
   / hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes? #9  
You are running into the same problem I had and I think I mentioned it in one of my posts from way back then but probably not the one I linked you to.

The problem you are seeing is one of the ones I saw too. The increased length of the tilt links has the undesirable side effect of reducing the lift height of the 3pt.

The bottom line is you can't have your cake and eat it too. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif If you lengthen the tilt links to make the arms level to get maximum tilt in each direction you loose lift height. It's simple geometry. You have to decide what works best for your implements, reduced lift height but max tilt or normal lift height and reduced tilt. It's like life, there is always a tradeoff. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
   / hyd. cylinder. Where to drill holes?
  • Thread Starter
#10  
After receiving valuable info from other TBN members,I did some measuring and head scratching and figured out that I can put the stiff or fixed tilt arm on the opposite side of the hydraulic cylinder, and drill holes in the fork of the cylinder at the right places to make it level at mid and fully retracted positions, while still giving me full range on the position control.
Fheeeewwwww!!!
There for a little bit I thought I had purchased unusable parts.

Thanks to all who gave me feedback
 
 
Top