Hydraulic Pancake Cylinder

[Swamp Yankee]

Picture is worth 1000 words,

Unfortunately I don't have one, but I'll try to be brief.

An older logger I work with, who like me does per diem harvesting when things get busy has a compact pancake cylinder with a telescoping ram that hooks up to a PortaPower type hand pump. He uses it for direction falling and it is indeed slick. He's actually on his annual hiatus down south until after Easter so getting a pic isn't happening soon.

The cylinder as I remember is about 6 inches or so in diameter, 2-1/2 to 3 inches tall. The ram actually telescopes the larger first to extend is about 4 inches in diameter, the second maybe 2+ inches in diameter. The base is serrated to bite into the bottom of the backcut. He cuts a window in the backcut drives the cylinder in and starts pumping as he finishes the backcut. Total extension with both rams from memory is about 4 inches.

One of the unique features is it becomes self leveling. As the bigger ram extends it actually compresses the wood forming a ring that helps to prevent it from kicking out.

I've google searched but really haven't found anything quite like it. That said, I may be looking or or using the wrong search words. I've checked arborist suppliers, logging suppliers, hydraulic companies, etc and can't seem to find this cylinder. The owner told me he bought it when he was working in Montana back in the mid 80's.

Hopefully I've given an adequate description, any insight as to where to find one is most appreciated. I have found similar units used for machine and construction leveling but non-telescoping.

Thanks in Advance for any help.

Take Care

 

[HuskStihl]

Sounds cool, is it much different than a Silvey jack?

 

[Swamp Yankee]

Sounds cool, is it much different than a Silvey jack?

Same principle

Like the Silvey Tree Saver Jack it uses a remote hand pump with a long hose so you don't have to be right next to the tree when jacking. Shape of the cylinder is different than the Silvey and the height when collapsed appears shorter, but with the exception of the telescoping cylinder very similar in application.

Take Care

 

[northmanlogging]

There are some out there, can't remember who makes em.

You want heavy duty jacks and pumps for this kind of work, a porta power pump is not up to the kind of pressure needed for lifting big trees, you need something along the lines of 20ton minimum, 30 would be better. The little porta power is only rated at like 5tons, any kind of cross wind or sudden movement of the tree and you'll be eating hydraulic oil and cast iron for dinner.

I was looking into building something like this earlier in the year, but cost was prohibitive, a couple of 20t bottle jacks from home gyppo, while not being short and fat, will save you about $2000. and still get the work done. They start at about 9" tall with custom plates, and about 6" in diameter, I think they have a 6" throw with more if you screw the ends out, to be honest I haven't needed to extend them all the way, and hope I never do...

The down side is you have to be standing right next to the tree, you don't get that extra head start like the divorced pump gives you.

And remember, back up the jack with wedges, jacks fail don't rely on just the jack to hold that tree up, jack a little pound a little, or pound a little jack a little, whatever, just keep that wedge tight.

 

[imagineero]

The porta power type rams are commonly available, and come in tonnages up to 1,000 tonnes pretty easily, though I've not seen the pancake style ones larger than 500 tonnes. 20~50t is commonly available in most industrial ram shops. I used to use these, and 100 tonne load skates to move 400 tonne dump truck bodies when I worked up in the mines. The dump bodies weighed about 80 tonnes empty depending on how much ore was trapped in the gussets. We used two slew cranes to lift them, generally a 150tonner and a 50 tonner. The bin was too large for even a 300tonne crane to have enough lifting capacity if it went for a single lift, so each crane would take one end. They'd lift it up, the truck would drive out, then put it down on a cradle we made up with load skates under it on tracks. From there, a 20tonne truck could usually push/pull it into the workshop.

None of this stuff is cheap, you won't really be saving anything over a silvey. If you're curious, you can google low profile rams, squat rams, pancake rams. The hand pumps at 100T+ are S L O W