Telehandler. What to look for?

[caveman]

Thanks.  That's kind of the ballpark I was thinking.  

[Walnut Beast]

You can do like my dozer friend. He's got stuff leaking on everything all the time. Just keep running and adding 😂

[Peter Drouin]

But that's $120.00 for 5 gal :D

[chevytaHOE5674]

All depends on the price of seals. Just did two of my own and for one cylinder the seals were about $118 bucks for the 2nd the seals alone were $286 dollars. Add in $100/hour labor.....

The $286 dollar seals only cost $112 3 years ago.....

[caveman]

I ordered seals and they arrived Thursday.  This morning, between dealing with customers and a few other diversions, we were able to get the cylinder out.  I was not able to work past noon today.  We were going to try to reseal it in place, but we could not access the gland (I think that is what it's called or the hydraulic line fittings).  The bottom pin came out relatively easily.  The top one required more tenacity.  We took turns swinging a 15-pound hammer overhead, using a rail spike hammer as the pin driver.  After 20 minutes or so, the pin was removed.  We chucked the pin up in the lathe, removed the rust and polished it a bit with sandpaper and then a scotch pad.  

John was able to disconnect the hydraulic lines.  We lifted the cylinder back up and John drove in the pin while I held it.  This was to provide a solid hold while we used a 3' pipe wrench and a piece of tubing for a lever to loosen the gland nut.  It came out.  We will get back on it on Monday morning.


 

 

 

 

[Resonator]

Ex- Sunbelt rental machine? Seeing that green paint makes me think so.

[Southside]

When you said tilt I thought you meant body tilt, was scratching my head trying to figure out how that worked from the photos.  :D

[Don P]

We redid the body tilt cylinder, egged out, pretty much totalled, that was around a grand IIRC.
I believe that is called a counterbalance valve someone is pointing to in the bottom pic, one of the lines is the pilot line that releases the hydraulic lock on the cylinder. 

[moodnacreek]

Repacking cylinders is all part of the fun and the fun never stops.

[caveman]

I'm sure it was an old Sunbelt machine.  This cylinder does not seem like it has been apart.  The nut had no scars from a pipe wrench and the top pin, as explained earlier, took a bit of effort to drive out.  I was a little confused about the "tilt" but that is what JCB calls it as do the folks who sell the seals.  The hydraulic line burst valves should be okay.  We just intend to repack the cylinder and reinstall it, put a little fluid in it and use it until something else needs attention.  If this goes well, I may order the seals to do the rear steering cylinders to have on hand for a slow day.

[Don P]

If you don't have them get a set of rod seal install tools, (the seal twister things) and a set of O ring picks.

[caveman]

Thanks, Don.  Between John and me, we should have an adequate supply of picks.  I'll have to look into the seal installer tool (s).

[Don P]

Here's a quick 1 minute video of the tool and how it works.
Seal Twister - YouTube

Boiling water can also be your friend with really stiff plastic parts. There's one seal on the dozer that we must have damaged installing, it's leaking again. Need to inspect the steel really well this time too. I think we've learned with that machine to buy oem seals, other machines don't seem to care as much.

[Resonator]

I've had good experience renting Sunbelt machines. Not knowing who operated it, but at least they are regular with their maintenance and repairs. When they buy them new they are built and painted to their spec's at the factory, and then I've seen them resold with relatively low hours.

[caveman]

Don, thanks for sharing the video of the tool.  I may make one to use when we do the steering rams.  Installing the seals was the easiest part of this whole ordeal.  Getting the cylinder back up and aligned to install the top pin was a challenge for us.  Eventually, we used a smaller pin as a drift, followed with a piece of round tube, then the pin.  After getting everything back together, it operated as it should without leaking.  I appreciate the advice and guidance y'all provided.  I won't look forward to doing another, but it was rewarding to get it back together.  Had we taken it to a shop to do, they would have done what turned out to be the easy part and we would have still had the hassle of installing the cylinder.


We had to bleed the hose burst protection valve to get the cylinder to extend.


We removed the old seals, cleaned everything and put in/on the new ones (one seal I was removing broke, and I got the bloody part of blood, sweat and tears when the pick entered my left thumb).


 
The shop is too full of other treasures to get the machine inside, so we brought out a plethora of tools to work with.


 
We cycled the hydraulics a few times and added a couple of gallons of fluid to bring the level back to full.  Thank you again for all of the advice and guidance on this project.  With the seals, rags, cleaner, and everything else, we came in at less than $100.  We probably spent seven or eight hours but if we do another it should go much quicker.

[Ljohnsaw]

When I did the fork tilt ram on mine (alone), I put some straps on it, removed the hoses and just pulled it out with the straps catching it and a bucket to catch the oil.  Then I put the rod back on the forks so I could bust the nut loose.  But that didn't work.  So I just took the rod in to the shop and had them do the R&R on the seals.  Getting the rod/piston back in the tube was a real challenge and I used ratchet straps to support and ease it back in.

Now the boom lift rams were another story.  Mine are 7 foot long and the rod is 2.5", IIRC.  I set the forks on a hill so the ram was going up hill.  Pulled the top pin and loosened the cap nut.  Extended the ram, slung in ratchet straps from the boom.  Got to the end, removed the top line and then pushed it the rest of the way out with the pump.  That sucker was HEAVY!  I used my backhoe to sling it into my pickup.  The shop had to cut the nut off as they couldn't bust it loose.  R&R the seals and I re-assembled.  That was the right hand ram.  Now the left one is leaking bad.  Not looking forward to that one as it is between the boom and the cab - very tight quarters!

[caveman]

I would not have wanted to do this job solo.  

[Southside]

I have done both of those and was thinking "I don't remember them being all that hard, how did I remove those cylinders?". Then it hit me, I have an excavator.  ;D

[Don P]

Sweet!, Oh you'll get good at it  ;D.
The first one I worked on didn't rumble but it had leathers :D.

If the steel is damaged it needs to go to a shop or find another. The glands on the skidsteer are aluminum and I think it had a horse barn in its life. The aluminum spalled apart but I found replacement glands and it was still a home repair. 

On the Lull's egged out frame tilt cylinder, the shop keeps a variety of tube sizes and turned a new cylinder, then repacked and tested it. 

[caveman]

Yesterday we spent a little time and tinkered with the parking brake.  There was a lot of slack in the cable but everything seemed to be intact.  John printed off that section of the online manual we purchased so we had an idea of how to adjust it.  I assume it had never been adjusted.  After some drilling, a judicious application of Corrosion X and a Allen Wrench and a pipe wrench, we were able to get the adjustment mechanism apart.  Still it did not take enough slack out of the cable so we removed a pinned link, cut out 5/16" and reassembled it.  Still it was not tight enough to hold.  Then, while under the machine to adjust the cable on the other end, I had an epiphany.  There was a nyloc nut on a tensioner on the caliper that clamped on the disc mounted to the front drive shaft.  This was adjusted and we now have an amazing parking brake.  I drove it down to the pond (shallow end just in case), put the front tires in the water and set the brake.  On the incline it held.  I then tried it on a steeper bank and it had no problem holding.  

About the time we sat down for lunch, a friend showed up with a GN trailer load of 16' and 20' pine logs.  It was great to be able to lock the brake while shooting the forks under the logs instead of doing a three-pedal shuffle.  I was able to unload 3-4 logs at a time.  I ordered mirrors and a spinner knob this morning.

The steering is still an issue we need to work out as well as it needs to have the alternator rebuilt and lights added.  I am glad we got this machine.  It has made many tasks quicker, safer and removed a lot of manual lifting.

[Magicman]

Of course I am 100% portable and depend upon what the customer has but I always smile when I see a telehandler. 

[Peter Drouin]

The reach is the best thing.


 

 

 

And a 5 yard sawdust bucket.

[caveman]

I would like to get or make a three-yard bucket and an adapter to be able to attach to skid steer implements.  A man basket is also on the build list.  

[newoodguy78]

Caveman keep an eye for buckets at auctions. I know a couple people that picked up buckets off of scrapped out machines real cheap. Rather than pinning them to the carriage where the forks attach, they took box tubing welded it to the inside bottom and stuck it out the back. Then they just slid it on the forks and either chained it or fastened it to the carriage so they could dump it. 
For scooping sawdust or using it to scrap out jobsites it worked well and was a whole lot cheaper than a matching coupler and bucket. 
For a man basket check out Titan implements. 

[btulloh]

The metal cage from an ibc tote makes a great man lift. Cut out a few rungs on one side for easy entry. Strap it to the brick frame. Cheap, easy, safe.