Should curl cylinders bleed off with tractor running?

[iptman]

I was helping a buddy of mine install a front bumper on his 4Runner the other day and with the tractor on and idling the forks would bleed off slowly causing the forks to start pointing down. I know this will happen if the tractor is off but I was surprised it was doing it with the tractor running. Is this normal? Here's the setup. Bumper and winch weighed maybe 130 pounds.

 

[Deere Dude]

I don't know of any that don't leak down, running or not.

 

[p0diabl0]

Mine definitely does, for example carrying a bucket of material from one side of the property to the other, I usually "choke up" once or twice on the way to avoid losing material.

 

[John_Mc]

About the only thing on my tractor that does not leak down when the tractor is running is the 3 Pt Hitch height adjustment - I believe there is a position sensor on that, and it auto-corrects.

 

[TerryR]

Running makes no difference. There is no control to automatically correct for leak-down in the FEL, unlike on the 3-point hitch.

 

[Stan B]

the forks would bleed off slowly causing the forks to start pointing down

I had the same thing, and like many others in this thread, though it was pretty normal. Just internal seals doing what they do. That was until I installed a directional inline flow control valve to "resist" the dump action of the loader. I originally did it to stop the floppy bucket when back dragging, but discovered the leak down I previously thought was normal was in fact happening through the joystick control valve. The valve wasn't making a perfect seal on the rod-end circuit, so it would leak down through the valve. Air would enter the other end of the cylinder, presumably through the valve.

Now, when I park the tractor, days later I can come back and step on the tip of the forks or bucket and its still rock solid.

 

[PILOON]

I recently needed to service my front C/S driven hydraulic pump installation.
While doing so I decided to replace the pump seals.
When I work up front I always have a keeper bar to hold the FEL in the raised position and once I finished that was removed.

Well 2 days later and my FEL remained elevated.

While I always thought my selector valves were leaking it turned out that It was a simple $20.00 oil seal at the pump.

Dirt and a bit of corrosion on the pump shaft had gradually worn the sea's fine edge.
(won't happen again as I devised a deflector)

 

[SmallChange]

My current tractor has very low hours on it, and I haven't observed the cylinders drifting yet. A couple of times I've parked it (in the closed barn for safety) with the bucket up, and it looked the same a couple days later.

I know, I should enjoy it while it lasts....