Bent bucket roll cylinders

[Shenandoah MF1760]

I have a Massey E 2860 with a FLX 2815 loader. Has anyone heard of the role bucket roll cylinders bending? I have a 40 year old John Deere and have had to replace the bucket because of the pressures I put on it and I’ve never bent a cylinder. This seems unbelievable that the cylinder rod could be so soft they would bend.

Yes. I have a 1760 with the 2814 FEL and I bent the same side you did.

I believe mine happened when a branch came through my grapple and undid one of the QA levers resulting in the grapple falling off the FEL on one side while it was lifted.

When I went to replace the cylinder I discovered that Massey had two different ones for the same FEL. One had a larger diameter rod and was obviously the replacement for the one that bent frequently. (insert inappropriate inflammatory language).

Being cheap I wasn't about to replace both cylinders although I wanted to. So, I gambled that all I needed was the rod assembly and not the entire cylinder. it's not too difficult to replace, but you won't find that construction type if cylinder on youtube so don't bother looking. That was two years ago and the repair has been working just fine.

 

[BCLoco]

Don't listen to the person making asinine comments about abusing your loader. He has no idea what happened and he obviously doesn't know that these loaders did have a sort of recall on the curl cylinders.

Many, many people have had this happen in situations where it really shouldn't have. Here's one example on YouTube:

The rods have been upsized since November 2021. See screenshot below. Dealers and their local AGCO rep will consider the replacement of these cylinders on a case-by-case basis. The new rods are 4mm larger in diameter. That may not sound like much, but that works out to almost 27% more cross section. Huge upgrade, and the only reason they do that is because they screwed up the first design.

I did that to mine with the grapple open wide, bushing down into a pile of brush with the curl cylinders almost fully extended . One of the big limbs near the top lip of the grapple caught on something hard and stopped dead. The leverage was too much for the extended rods and they both bent a fair bit.

To fix mine I just put a towel-wrapped 2x4 (on the flat) between the cylinder rod and the loader frame at the point where they were the most bent, and extended the curl cylinders again until the rod started to bend back. Kept doing this slowly and carefully, and checking with an accurate straight edge until they were within a couple thousandths of straight. Worked really well actually. Mine were a simple bend in the middle of the rod, so it made sense to try it as I had nothing to lose. 1 year and many, many loads of material later, and the curl cylinders are doing just fine. Still straight, and no sign of leakage or scuffing on the cylinder rod.

If you're going to try this, keep in mind that you have to force the rod to slightly overbend in the opposite direction because the steel will just spring back to the bent position if you don't. Safest bet is take it to a professional. Most hydraulic shops or machine shops can do the repair for you, or refer you to someone who can.

EDIT: I just looked at your pics. You could try the wrapped 2x4 repair on the right one, the left one I wouldn't bother even trying it. Bend is in a bad place. You can undo the rod-side pin on that rod and turn the rod 180 to orient the rod for straightening, but it's too close to the cylinder and I don't think there's much chance of fixing that one.

 

[JRH02]

Its certainly not impossible to tweak cylinder rams. I was using a 8hp 26 ton splitter (two stage pump) to mash some smoking wood. The pieces were in 4" lengths and I slit them down to 3/4 to 1" squares 4" long. I started mashing perpendicular to the grain and several times the pump went to the second stage with the ram (1 1/2" dia) most of the way out. I was watching the wood not the ram. Gee wiz, guess what happened? It took on a slight bow but still works fine if I use it for what it was designed to do ever since.

 

[5030]

Don't listen to the person making asinine comments about abusing your loader. He has no idea what happened and he obviously doesn't know that these loaders did have a sort of recall on the curl cylinders.

Many, many people have had this happen in situations where it really shouldn't have. Here's one example on YouTube:

The rods have been upsized since November 2021. See screenshot below. Dealers and their local AGCO rep will consider the replacement of these cylinders on a case-by-case basis. The new rods are 4mm larger in diameter. That may not sound like much, but that works out to almost 27% more cross section. Huge upgrade, and the only reason they do that is because they screwed up the first design.

I did that to mine with the grapple open wide, bushing down into a pile of brush with the curl cylinders almost fully extended . One of the big limbs near the top lip of the grapple caught on something hard and stopped dead. The leverage was too much for the extended rods and they both bent a fair bit.

To fix mine I just put a towel-wrapped 2x4 (on the flat) between the cylinder rod and the loader frame at the point where they were the most bent, and extended the curl cylinders again until the rod started to bend back. Kept doing this slowly and carefully, and checking with an accurate straight edge until they were within a couple thousandths of straight. Worked really well actually. Mine were a simple bend in the middle of the rod, so it made sense to try it as I had nothing to lose. 1 year and many, many loads of material later, and the curl cylinders are doing just fine. Still straight, and no sign of leakage or scuffing on the cylinder rod.

If you're going to try this, keep in mind that you have to force the rod to slightly overbend in the opposite direction because the steel will just spring back to the bent position if you don't. Safest bet is take it to a professional. Most hydraulic shops or machine shops can do the repair for you, or refer you to someone who can.

EDIT: I just looked at your pics. You could try the wrapped 2x4 repair on the right one, the left one I wouldn't bother even trying it. Bend is in a bad place. You can undo the rod-side pin on that rod and turn the rod 180 to orient the rod for straightening, but it's too close to the cylinder and I don't think there's much chance of fixing that one.

My only comment to you is.... The tooth fairy didn't bend the rod, the operator did, by abusing it beyond it's design limits.

 

[JRH02]

Safest bet is take it to a professional. Most hydraulic shops or machine shops can do the repair for you, or refer you to someone who can.

Make sure they are competent because if they mar or make an indentation on the ram it will leak from then on - they destroyed the ram.

 

[5030]

That depends entirely on how deep the 'mar' is and how flexible the packing seals are. Most all hydraulic rams are hard chromed to begin with to combat corrosion.

Finally it's the curl cylinders not roll cylinders, haven't a clue what a roll cylinder is.