loader cylinders

lgehring

Member
Good afternoon. I know this is a tractor site,but here goes. Hydra mac skid steer left lift cylinder starts to move before the right one. Left one always completes it's movement first.
Right one eases along till left one reaches the end of travel, then speeds up. It is the same in or out. By the way these are the loader lift cylinders. The slow right one needed a seal
kit anyway,but did not make any difference. Even when connected to the loader the left one alway reacts first. I have bled both sides and cycled many times. What is going on
here?
 
Move the cylinders left to right and right to left and see if the problem goes with the cylinder or stays with the side. If it stays you may have a bad hose or some thing causing low flow to the right side. If it moves with the cylinder then you have either a bent cylinder that is the slow one or a stiff cylinder
 
Is the cylinder difference causing a problem?

Any time 2 or more cylinders are on the same hydraulic circuit, the applied pressure will take the path of least resistance and move the easiest cylinder first.

When attached to a common frame, the mechanical rigidity of the loader frame will keep the cylinders operating together, less any slack in the bushings. So once a real load is applied, both cylinders will equally share the load.

Unless there is some binding or slack in the loader frame, a broken weld, or a bent cylinder, it should not cause a problem.
 
Just a littile more info. This thing only wieghs 2500lbs and the p/o must have used it for a bull dozer. Therefore the loader frame is twisted a little. The fast cylinder is on the side that needs a little more suck to return to total against the frame position. Which is no big deal,but my bucket is not totally horizontal. If you raise the lift arms high enough to dump the bucket hard it will level the frame. Any up or down and it is crooked again. Given what you folks have already said, I think will switch sides in the morning. I sure thank you all for the info. Have a great evening!
 
I think the problem is more a tweeked loader frame than a cylinder/hydraulic problem.

If you take the cylinders off, try to support the loader in the center of the bucket, on level ground, preferably on a slab. Take some measurements from the ground to the bucket, side to side from the loader to the body, see if there are differences. You may be able to twist it back into shape with another loader or chaining one side down while lifting.

Be careful!
 

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