Bending hydraulic ram.

[Mick Oz]

I have had to change the twin hydraulic ram system on the crowd function for the bucket to a single ram. I see that at full extention for dumping the ram flexes or bends slightly it is a 1 inch thick chrome shaft and it bends about a half inch over it's full length. Is this too much movement??

[kennyd]

Welcome to TBN

IMHO, any bending is a bad thing. I 1" rod on a backhoe seems pretty small to me. Maybe if you posted some pictures of your setup we could give some better technical answers to our specific questions.

[Wayne County Hose]

What is the rod's length? I have seen 2" rods bend over 4". These rods were also about 9' long.

[Mick Oz]

The ram is on a front end loader which I have put on my old Ferguson TED20. It is about 12 to 14 inches long. Also can anyone suggest how to get more angle on the dump. I have seen some buckets with a right angle piece of steel adding length to the dump ram. But I am unsure how to go about making one to suit my needs. Thanks for your help Mick OZ

[Wayne County Hose]

Mick,

Try posting a pic of your set-up. There are many good fabricators here that can help you with extending your dump angle.

As for your rod flex, .5" for a 12" stroke is probably too much. You should install a stroke limiter inside the cylinder so that the cylinder comes to full extension rather than the bucket's linkage stopping the cylinder. Extend the cylinder until the bucket stops, then back it up a little. Make a mark on the rod where it goes into the cylinder with a magic marker. This is where your cylinder should stop. Take apart your cylinder and install a stroke control so it stops there. This will prevent cylinder proiblems later.

Good luck, Andy.

[Mick Oz]

This is the only photo I have on hand. All the pieces were sourced from diffrent places over the last 18 months. [ATTACH] [/ATTACH]

[aczlan]

looking at your photo I would say that your ram is mounted too high on your bucket, when you have the bucket dumped all they day the top of the bucket will hit the ram and cause it to bend, it would be better off mounted lower (where the arrow is pointing in the attached photo).



Aaron Z

[3RRL]

Bending the rod on a hydraulic cylinder is not good.
They're not designed for that. It's all linear load. If you're bending the rod then there's a bind somewhere that causes the rod to bend. In other words, if your cylinder is bending at full dump, then the pivot must be hitting something to change the load from linear (directly pulling or pushing in line with the cylinder) to a side load onto the rod. Another example would be like the cylinder wants to extend more but can't because the pivot is binding or hitting something before it gets fully extended, so it wants to bend.
Check to see if that's not the case.

[Iron Horse]

The ram bar is fouling on the top of the bucket . You must make a new clevis eye and weld it to the back of the bucket (on a plate to transfer the load) if the ram is not now bent . This will give you all the dump you will need.

[Mick Oz]

Ok I think I understand what I need to do. I will put a plate onto the back of the bucket and re fix the ram to that. Thankyou for the advice I will let you know how it works out.