</font><font color="blue" class="small">( The other thing you could do is add an orifice to limit the flow of oil in the lines. That should reduce the speed at which the cylinders would go down.
Of course, the downside is that it would be SLOW as sin to lower it when you wanted to come down.
I guess you could insert a manual shut off in the lines, so that neither the curl nor loader would leak down. You still run the risk of a line rupturing (ok, it is remotely possible), but it would guard against leak down.
A manual stop on the cylinder ram would be another option. If you look at tractor shows or fairs, any FEL in the air will have a safety stop in place.
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Ron, your solutions all work, but they aren't completely safe and I don't think the manlift I rented last year was completely safe either. There's always some risk. If I was going to do this, I'd want something like the double piloted check valves many of us have on our toplinks/sidelinks from CCM. That is rock solid and is mounted in rigid piping. If a hose bursts, the cylinder holds rock steady. You have to apply pressure to one of the hoses to overcome the pilot pressure and then the cylinder will move at normal speed.
Of course, by the time you get something built with all the safety and functionality you need, you might as well go out and buy a used manlift for about $3k to $4k and be happy. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
