Maintenance

[twopatches]

My machine has sheared the bolt off inside of the dipper ram  (middle section top ram). I had a complete new ram fitted but after 4 hours use the same thing happened again. I am told the ram usually would bend before shearing, but the ram has not bent and was only doing light work at the time of breaking. The machine has only done 1000 hours in total, so not old! Does anyone know of any underlying problem the machine may have that can cause this ram to shear off instead of bending before it breaks? Has this happened to anyone else and did they manage to solve the problem? Can't afford to fit new ram every 4 hours!

[tcomer]

It sounds like you are stretching the bolt that holds the piston on the rod???  If this is so, here are some causes that you may have overlooked...

When hauling the machine, do you tuck the stick hard against the boom and then use chain binders to pull the boom/stick hard against the deck?? with the motion of the machine while transporting, this could overstress the bolt.

Could just be a rash of bad cylinders... ask the dealer to disassemble and check the bolt... it could have been stretched due to overtorque at assembly or it could be the wrong bolt.

Look at operations that would cause an impact on the stick  when the stick cylinder is fully extended. Example... boom up, stick all the way in, pushing something with the back of the bucket.

Is machine used with a hammer or some other attachment???