What do you do when you arrive to your TLB and there is a 1/2" thick of solid ice from freezing rain on your cylinder rods. Last week I took the propane torch to my rods in fear of damaging the seals. Am I nuts or can ice damage the seals?:beatsme
We normally don't work at that point. I don't know if it would hurt anything to just run it.
Well you could park it so the backhoe cylinders would all be retracted and wouldn't the majority of the boom/buckets cylinders be retracted as well? Then just run moving functions until machine warms?
I give them a gentle clubbing with a stick. Usually one decent slap or two breaks it up enough to peel it off with a glove. Never damaged any chrome yet. We always try to retract the cylinders whenever we can. Helps on no surface rust when parked for a time also.
A cat guy told me once that paint and ice were the hardest things on cylinder seals. However you can get it off without damaging anything.
zhkent, I believe paint is bad for sure as it will ride up right between the rod and the seals. Ice will brake off but I'm sure it applies a lot of pressure on the wiper. Unfortunately it's impossible to retract all the backhoe cylinders unless you park it with the bucket way up in the sky. Will look like a scorpion ready to attack. lol old-iron-habit, Thats a good old-wooden-habit you have there. I'll try that next time.
Heating the bare shafts with a Blow torch is something I would worry far more about as far as ruining the seals go than the ice....not a great idea to apply heat to the bare shafts, the heat transfers quickly and seals are only rubber and will degrade fadt from heat. If we have to leave stuff out in the weather , we extend or reyract the exposed cylinder shafts into the tubes so freezing rain can not build up on the shafts...You can get most areas protected thid way.....
I would retract the rods you can then put a thin film of grease on the others. Making sure to grease the face of the cylinder around the wiper. The snow and ice will brake off easer and a diesel soaked rag will take off the remaining grease. Kinda messy but affective. Or buy a tarp.
Try using a rubber mallet or a rubber faced hammer to tap it off. You could probably use some warm water, pressure washer with a heater, spray some antifreeze maybe?
A 20 dollar tarp works really good....J
No worry of overheating anything. Ice melts at 33 deg. Rod still felt cold to the touch and all ice was turned to water.
A broomstick, wooden dowel, etc. Don't swing like the Bambino, just whack it sharply.
I don't think a little heat is going to hurt anything. Hydraulics run about 200 deg's. so using a torch just to get the ice to melt wouldn't be anywhere close to that. You don't heat till they're completely dry. The melted ice would still be cold and could be wiped off with a rag.
I don't think a little heat is going to hurt anything. Hydraulics run about 200 deg's. so using a torch just to get the ice to melt wouldn't be anywhere close to that. You don't heat till they're completely dry. The melted ice would still be cold and could be wiped off with a rag.