Saturday, February 13, 2016

Slide - Hydraulics Part Three

Well, it's finally done.  
I successfully replaced the blown hydraulic cylinder on our 5th wheel trailer.
It didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped, but it wasn't as bad as it could have been, either.  Once I had the cylinder installed, I had a  tiny leak at one of the fittings.  When I tightened it a little more, it got worse.  There are two of these fittings, one at either end of the cylinder, and they each have an O ring.  They look like this:
One of them worked great, but the O ring on the other one had to be replaced.  Not replacing them to begin with cost me an extra two quarts of hydraulic fluid and ruined a shirt.  Still, I guess it could have been worse.
The whole job cost me  less than $250.  
  • hydraulic cylinder  198.00
  • O ring                         1.00
  • hydraulic fluid          20.00
  • Gorilla tape                5.00
  • two old shirts            10.00
If I had paid to have the job done, the least it would have cost was the $500 deductible on our extended warranty, and I have the satisfaction of a job done right.
I did not add in time since I'm retired and didn't have anything better to do, and I didn't account for all the aches and pains.  Crawling around on the gravel under the trailer is rough on a 73-year-old body.  
Even so, I'm very pleased with the results.
 

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