Hydraulic cylinder sizing

Whiskey Bent · Feb 20, 2016

I'm buiding a tilt bed trailer with a 12 volt hydraulic pump and 2 cylinders to power it. How do you size the cylinders? I Need 18" travel and prolly lift 3500-4500 lbs. I found some 2" cylinders will this be enuff?

Brendon-KS · Feb 20, 2016

A 2" cylinder has an area of just over 3 square inches (more precisely, "pi" sq in) so for each
1000 psi you have available it will lift about 3000 lbs. Having two cylinders will of course
double the total force so as long as your figuring is correct on the force you'll need this should
be plenty of cylinder area.

JD Seller · Feb 20, 2016

If you know the PSI of the hydraulic supply then you just multiply that times the surface area of the cylinder piston. This will be your lifting force. Then you just need to know exactly what amount of force you need at your lifting point.

mtny · Feb 21, 2016

Google hydraulic capacity calculator . Just used it to size a cylinder at work .

Adirondack case guy · Feb 21, 2016

As others have said, you can figure the force that a 2"cylinder can produce, but you also need to do some math to figure the mechanical leverage needed to raise the deck with cylinders mounted at an angle rather than perpendicularly under the deck. A lot of info is missing in your post, such as deck length, location of hinge point location of base of cylinders, location of rod pins on cyls., distance perpendicular straight down from rod pins to the heidth of the ancor pins, and where the weight will be centered on the deck. You have a LOT of math to do.
Loren

Hydraulic cylinder sizing

Whiskey Bent

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Brendon-KS

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JD Seller

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mtny

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Adirondack case guy

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