Repairing leaking hydraulic rams

[alaskaninak]

When i first bought my camper one of the rear rams had a split in it that would weap/leak oil I repaired it by cleaning the ram with sand cloth, slathering on the flux and soldered the split.
View attachment 16904

Last fall i had the front ram develop a split at the very bottom just above the fitting that the copper tube screws into, since i was on a fishing trip i ended up going to a welding shop and they soldered it for me and it allowed me to finish out the trip and get home. The problem was it still leaked a bit so i resoldered it but couldn't get it to stop, i think it was sneeking fluid past the o-ring on the inside so after soldering it a couple of times and failing to stop the tide of oil i just cut off about a 1 1/4" of the ram and plugged in the fitting and holy sh#t no more leak !!! EXCEPT no there was another tiny weap up the ram a bit so get out the sand cloth, slather on the flux and soldered that sucker up and now no more leaks. All i had to do was drill a new hole in the rod inside the ram to make up the difference for the shortened ram length. Hope a all lasts now but i'm going to add a small soldering kit in the tool box in case they blow again !!!

 

[Rusty]

I'd be looking at replacing the whole set with the new larger cylinders...I'v never heard of them splitting before...sounds like a corrosion issue

 

[alaskaninak]

Why replace them with bigger ?? If they were corroding i could see where the metal was eating up but it all looks good. I did think of maybe some kind of dissimilar metal contact(electrolosis) with the galvanized straps that hold the rams in place touching the bronze but the areas around the straps are fine. To my way of thinking if it was corrosion it would be spreading and crumbling sort of like rust but not a clean split.

 

[Rusty]

you're entirely correct....corrosion would be eating them up. but for some reason yours are splitting???....and in need of repair.

The newer rams on the more recent Alaskans are larger in diameter and carry the load better, distribute pressure more evenly and are a more solid support when raised. Several guys have changed over to larger cylinders with good success, some even salvaging them off newer models. If you're going to be soldering cylinders and carrying a repair kit to drain/clear/soldier/refill along the way....maybe it's time to take a look at what you can do to eliminate the PITA....

I haven't gotten to that point quite yet...but it has crossed my mind once or twice when balancing the top by hand when relieving the pressure.

Have you a picture of a split before a repair?....could there be moisture in the cylinder which freezes, then splitting?

 

[alaskaninak]

you're entirely correct....corrosion would be eating them up. but for some reason yours are splitting???....and in need of repair.

The newer rams on the more recent Alaskans are larger in diameter and carry the load better, distribute pressure more evenly and are a more solid support when raised. Several guys have changed over to larger cylinders with good success, some even salvaging them off newer models. If you're going to be soldering cylinders and carrying a repair kit to drain/clear/soldier/refill along the way....maybe it's time to take a look at what you can do to eliminate the PITA....

I haven't gotten to that point quite yet...but it has crossed my mind once or twice when balancing the top by hand when relieving the pressure.

Have you a picture of a split before a repair?....could there be moisture in the cylinder which freezes, then splitting?

I'd think buying new rams would cost me more than i paid for the camper LOL !! I'd think the rams would have to be full of moisture/water before they would split and i store the camper in the down position so the rams are empty of any fluid that could freeze. Yeah its a odd thing, i've thought of trying to find some air rams to use instead of hydraulic ??? One of the pics i posted shows the split at the bottom of the ram. I have to take a look at Mcmaster Carr and see if they have some new ram tubing and make myself some new rams. Thought i saw a thread on here with the dimentions of the pipe needed for the rams?
Anybody got a set of rams they want to sell ???




Standard-Wall Brass Unthreaded Pipe

• Use with air, water, oil, natural gas, steam
• Fittings and Flanges: Use socket-weld bronze

Also called Schedule 40 and regular pipe, this brass pipe has seamless construction for unrestricted flow. It's unthreaded for brazed connections, which are less likely to leak than threaded connections. Meet ASTM B43.

For technical drawings and 3-D models, click on a part number.


Lg. Each
1/2 Pipe Size
1 ft. 4501K74 $17.77 3 ft. 4501K54 49.08 6 ft. 4501K33 84.62

 

[Rusty]

I've been around Alaskans for a fairly long time and I've never seen one split like that before.

Brian Wheat is a member here and occasionally enters into the conversation...if not, a call to the Alaskan shop might shed some light on this one...

The split at the bottom could indicate moisture collection...but the split up along the side is another case entirely

If you keep your eyes open...occasionally there are Alaskans given away for parts...although the drive may make it out of the question for your location...the hydraulic tubes are typically the longest lasting part of the camper

Air rams.....now there's an interesting twist

 

[alaskaninak]

I've been around Alaskans for a fairly long time and I've never seen one split like that before.

Brian Wheat is a member here and occasionally enters into the conversation...if not, a call to the Alaskan shop might shed some light on this one...

The split at the bottom could indicate moisture collection...but the split up along the side is another case entirely

If you keep your eyes open...occasionally there are Alaskans given away for parts...although the drive may make it out of the question for your location...the hydraulic tubes are typically the longest lasting part of the camper

Air rams.....now there's an interesting twist

I did send Brian pictures of the low split and asked about my idea to just cut off the split he said to go for it and see what happens, i did and it seems to work, time will tell what happens. I'm always looking for a parts camper and sooner or later one will show up there are quite a few of them around here. The splits do have me stumped ?? you'd think something with oil running through it would last forever !!! I had a hole in one of the copper feed lines develop about a year ago so i drained all the oil to fix that so the oil is fairly new just can't see it having any moisture in it and if it did i'd think it would burst the copper lines since it gets down to 30 below zero around here in the winter. Yeah air rams and a 12volt compressor at least if you had leaks it wouldn't make a mess. Oh yeah carry a bicyle pump in case the battery goes dead !!!! Thanks for your responses always good to hear other's views on things.
Steve

 

[Rusty]

many of the copper leaks occur around the kitchen area.....salt...........

 

[nixfwc]

Alaskaniank, how have your soldered tubes held up? I have just discover a split at the bottom of one of my tubes as well. I have been considering silver soldering the crack but it sounds as if it did not hold well for you. When you cut off the split section, I take it you still had plenty of lift room? Not sure which way to go with my ram.

 

[MikeDahlager]

Here's another possible explanation. Since the tubes are most likely cold drawn, there may be lots which have residual stress sites present due to improper annealing (assuming they were annealed post-drawing).

If you have ever reloaded brass cartridges, you have probably seen cracked cases due to repeated drawing of the metal when resizing. Same principle.

I agree with Rusty. Go for the larger tubes.

 

[Riverrat]

Going to stay with the hydraulic system for the current mod but air would be nice as I have a 12v compressor installed for tires and such. Has anyone tried air, what are the problems?

 

[Ripperj]

Air is very easily compressed , oil is not, not so sure how well air would work with out some pretty expensive actuators that maintained position. Unless fully extended or retracted, my gut says it would be like having the roof on springs.