PTO Driven Hydraulic Dump Bed Ram

[MattL]

Acquired this a few months back, got around to using it and seemed like the pump was sucking air towards the end of the stroke(slowing down and not going all the way up). There is a pipe elbow with a plug in it about 3/4 of the way up the ram, with it raised I added a few quarts of oil and it lifts better but pushes a little oil out of the rod seal when body is set down. The dump body is made by Mullins Body and Tank Co of Milwaukee, not sure if they made the ram as well. Not sure if it is a ram with a reservoir welded around it or a double acting cylinder where the rod side is used as the reservoir. Any insight would be appreciated.

 

[donjr]

You may be lucky it didn't raise all of the way. If
that bed goes all the way up, especially with a
load, it may over tip, raising your tongue and
drawbar enough to bend your pto shaft, or worse,
snap your pto shaft off on the tractor. Use a solid
drawbar AND a heavier tractor, or at least draftlink
lock arms with that rig.

 

[OH - 961]

Is the pump mounted directly on the ram, or is it a separate pump?
I have a (different brand) with the pump mounted on the ram itself, and the upper end of the cylinder is the reservoir for the oil.

I will second donjr's post about the drawbar: you may be in for a rude surprise if you dump a heavy load!

Myron

 

[Anonymous-0]

third on drawbar, have seen a truck set on end when heading up hill, load stuck and box raised to far. some of these old dump truck hoists have a two way cylinder, if this one has it, it must be powered up and powered down. shutting of pto and dropping hoist by gravity causes the cylinder part to fill with air and blowing oil out, also it takes a while to work all the air out of one of these cylinders if this has happened.

 

[rrlund]

Don't know the answer to the question,but it looks just like mine. All I know about the pump is that if you shut off the PTO with the box up,it will spin the PTO backwards and come down quick.

Like donjr says,be careful dumping it with that drawbar you have on that tractor with no steady bars. You'll flip the tongue right up in to the PTO.

 

[DeltaRed]

Ditto on Donjr's comment.Be Safe!!!!

 

[Bret4207]

Mine has a pump built more or less into the ram. I'll also join in the group warning about that set up. Get a solid draw bar and heavier tractor. The leaking seal is just part of the game with 50-70 year old makeshift equipment.

 

[MattL]

These pictures are from the guy I bought it from, I currently have it on the rigid drawbar of my dad's Ford 5000, I'll admit I hadn't thought about it tipping backwards though.
The pump is part of the cylinder, anyone know if there is supposed to be a breather in this system? I thought about replacing the fill plug with a filter fitting but where the oil level is at now it would push oil out when down.
Maybe that is how to set the oil level, set down with fill plug out?

 

[OH - 961]

MattL,
That style hoist doesn't need much venting. The oil from the bottom of the cylinder just moves into the upper part of the cylinder when the bed is lowered, so no air is really being forced in or out of it. There might be a small vent hole on the fill plug but probably not necessary.

Myron

 

[Rich'sToys]

Yes, as you mentioned, leave the plug out the first time you lower the bed. That way, if you've overfilled it, the excess oil has a way to escape. Otherwise, you'll blow the seals out of it.

Also as mentioned, Be safe! Don't do ANYTHING under that raised bed unless you have it securely blocked up. If anything goes wrong (blown hose, etc.) and that bed comes down, IT WILL KILL YOU!