Cylinder reseal and repair, mobile
Drift, weep, and sag are the machine telling you the seals are going. Catch it while it is still a reseal.
Call (970) 528-6741Cylinders fail slowly, then suddenly. The bucket that drifts down overnight, the boom that sags under load, the rod with a wet shine it did not have last season: all of it is seal wear, and all of it is cheap compared to what it becomes. Longmont Mobile Hydraulics handles cylinder work across the same coverage area as our hose service, from loader and tilt cylinders on compact tractors to the big lift circuits on quarry excavators above Lyons.
Diagnosis before parts
Drift can come from the cylinder or from the valve behind it, and replacing seals never fixes a leaking valve section. We run a leak-down check on site to separate the two before anything is ordered or opened. It takes minutes, and it is the difference between fixing the machine and fixing a guess.
In place, on the tailgate, or benched
Where the work happens depends on what we find. Straightforward reseals with a healthy rod happen in place or on the truck tailgate the same visit, in the $350 to $900 range on the pricing page. Scored rods, bent tubes, and welded-gland cylinders come off the machine for bench and machine work, quoted before removal. Farm equipment gets seasonal honesty here too: if a cylinder can safely finish harvest before coming off, we say so and schedule the work for the gap between seasons.
Cylinder questions
- My loader drops a few inches overnight. Is that a cylinder problem?
- Usually yes, and sometimes a valve. Overnight drift most often means oil bypassing worn piston seals inside the cylinder. A leak-down test on site tells us which it is before any parts are ordered.
- Can a cylinder be resealed in the field or does it have to come off?
- Many can be done in place or on the tailgate: gland out, rod inspected, new seals in, back together the same visit. Cylinders with damaged rods, bent tubes, or stubborn glands come off and go to a bench, and we tell you which path you are on before starting.
- What does cylinder work cost?
- A reseal typically runs $350 to $900 depending on size and access. Rod or barrel repair with machining runs $900 to $3,000. The difference between those two numbers is mostly how long a leak ran before someone called.
- Is a slow weep at the rod worth fixing now?
- Yes. A weeping rod seal lets grit ride the rod into the bore every cycle. Caught early it is seals. Left alone it scores the rod, and a scored rod is what pushes the job into rebuild money.