made a visit to the big cylinder repair shop watched them soak the seals in warm water first before install sure went on a lot easier,post up anything you have found or built to make hydraulic cylinder repair easier.
Much similar, old bean can with oil in, seals in the oil and gently warm the oil. Same idea, just different method. Always worked for me.
If you got a big enough pot put the gland in there too. Warm gland means you have more time to work em in. Cold metal will suck the heat right out of the seals.
A set of these for the gland seal made my life a lot easier. Here is a link to the cheapest place I could find. http://www.rocklinhydraulics.com/seal-installer-100.html