Just found this on one of our reach trucks during a PM. The dings in the cylinder from the chain were deep enough that they were pulling quite a bit of oil past the wiper. As Raymond cylinders are a pain in the butt to re-seal, I decided to repair. Block the carriage and disconnect the chain, leaving the damaged area visible. Circle emry cloth around the cylinder and sanded the high parts of the divets down. Used JB weld putty to fill in the low spots. Waited one hour and sanded smooth. No more leak and the new operator learned something.

yeah i have seen that alot with our trucks the operator over lowers when in a rach usualy hitting the ram and damaging the seal packing..clean the ram if deep scracthes appear we use somthing called Titanium putty works well so far let that stuff sit over nite with the mast up and sand it off then replace the seal kit. cheeper than raplacing the ram if you can save it

_normally_ chains DON"T damage the cylinder.
If you are having a situation where the operators are "over-lowering" and allowing slack in the chains as they deposit (or retrieve) a pallet in the racks, then that situation needs to be fixed. One way is to get all the drivers to see how easy it is to score the chrome on a wasted cylinder rod. I would also want to warn the operators of the possible oil bath/shower/soaking they may get from a broken hose when the slack in the chain is suddenly "taken up", particularly in trucks with side-shift or auxiliary function attachments.I have seen far more cylinders damaged by the wrapping of a chain around the cylinder while trying to drag something out of a trailer of other confined space.
In either case, it is something that should (in my not all that humble opinion) be blamed on the operator training program, and best addressed by a competent operator trainer/training program and management being made aware of the expense involved in the repairs.

normally chains damage cylinders when up in the air and slamming backwards into racks causing chains to damage cilinder shafts

operator error

happens allot where i work at.


chain whip can occur if 1 chain is mal-adjusted and up and driving

if you cant fix it with like a 400 grit or its deeply scored youll need to replace the rod or have it re-chromed