Three Years on the Fence: Bringing a JLG G10-55A TURB Back to Work

That's exactly what happened with this JLG G10-55A TURB telehandler in Williams County.

One of our salesmen was making a customer visit when the conversation turned to the machine sitting along the fence. The customer had been frustrated for a long time because nobody wanted to work on it.

The G10-55A TURB had been sitting there for roughly three years. Weeds had grown up around it, and the machine had essentially become part of the fence line.

The primary problem was a bent tilt cylinder rod.

But getting the cylinder out was going to be the real challenge.

Getting a Three-Year-Old Machine Apart

When heavy equipment sits outside for years, components don't always come apart the way they're supposed to.

Pins seize. Corrosion builds up. Dirt and moisture get into the joints. What should be a straightforward cylinder removal can turn into a serious fight.

That's what we ran into with the tilt cylinder.

The cylinder pins were effectively seized in place. A normal pin-pulling operation wasn't going to get the job done.

We had to use arc/plasma gouging techniques to work around the seized pin area, followed by a large pneumatic air hammer to drive the pins out.

This wasn't a situation where you put a pin driver on it and give it a couple taps.

We had to work the material, relieve the seized areas, and then use the air hammer to generate enough force to break the pins loose and drive them out.

Once we finally got the pins out, we were able to remove the tilt cylinder from the telehandler.

The Cylinder Came Back to the Shop

The machine itself stayed onsite.

We removed the cylinder in the field and brought only the cylinder back to the shop for teardown and fabrication work.

Once the cylinder was apart, the damage to the rod made the repair decision pretty straightforward.

The rod was bent and wasn't something we wanted to simply straighten and put back into a machine that was going back to work.

We fabricated a new cylinder rod and transferred the original clevis.

The clevis had to be properly fitted and welded onto the new rod, maintaining the correct geometry and attachment points for the JLG application.

After the rod work and cylinder rebuild were completed, the cylinder was ready to go back to the customer.

Back to the Jobsite

We returned to the machine and reinstalled the repaired tilt cylinder onsite.

But we didn't stop with the cylinder.

Since the machine had been sitting for approximately three years, we went through it and addressed several other problems while we were there.

We performed a preventive maintenance service, repaired the lights, and got the windshield wipers working again.

The goal was to get the machine back into usable condition, not simply make the tilt function work again.

All of that machine-side work was performed in the field at the customer's location.

38 Months of Rental Payments

There was another part of this job that really put the repair cost into perspective.

While the JLG sat along the fence, the customer had been renting another telehandler.

By the time we completed the repair, he was on month 38 of renting that replacement machine.

Thirty-eight months of rental payments had accumulated while his own telehandler sat unused.

The entire Mondak repair bill didn't exceed two months of what he had been paying for the rental.

That means the customer was able to put his own JLG G10-55A TURB back to work for a fraction of what he had already spent continuing to rent another machine.

Three Years Sitting. Back to Work.

What started as a machine nobody wanted to work on ended with the customer having his own telehandler back in service.

We removed seized cylinder pins onsite using heavy-duty tooling, removed the cylinder, rebuilt it around a new rod, transferred and welded the original clevis, and returned to the jobsite to reinstall it.

Then we went through the rest of the machine: PM service, lighting repairs, windshield wipers, and the other work necessary to get it operational again.

The JLG had spent roughly three years sitting beside the fence.

Now it was back doing what it was purchased to do.

Hydraulic Cylinder Repair and Rebuilding

This job is also a good example of the hydraulic cylinder work we handle at Mondak Equipment and Hose.

We don't automatically replace a cylinder when it fails. When the cylinder is repairable, rebuilding it can often be a much better option than trying to locate and purchase a complete replacement.

Our cylinder capabilities include:

• Hydraulic cylinder teardown and inspection
• Cylinder resealing and seal replacement
• Cylinder rod replacement and fabrication
• Rod repair when appropriate
• Cylinder barrel/tube replacement
• Barrel repair when appropriate
• Clevis repair and replacement
• Clevis removal and welding
• Piston and gland inspection and replacement
• Replacement of worn internal components
• Bushing and bearing replacement
• Field cylinder removal and installation
• Cylinder reinstallation in the field
• Hydraulic testing after rebuild
• Custom cylinder repair when replacement cylinders are unavailable or impractical

We can work on cylinders from construction equipment, oilfield equipment, aerial lifts, telehandlers, material-handling equipment, industrial machinery, and other heavy equipment.

The JLG G10-55A TURB is a good example of how we approach these repairs.

The entire telehandler didn't need to come to our shop. We handled the machine-side work at the customer's location. The seized cylinder was removed in the field, brought back to our shop for teardown and fabrication, and then returned to the jobsite for installation.

The damaged rod was replaced rather than trying to make a questionable repair to a bent component. The original clevis was transferred to the new rod, welded into place, and the cylinder was rebuilt and resealed.

When a cylinder barrel is damaged beyond repair, we can also replace the barrel/tube rather than automatically replacing the entire cylinder assembly.

That's an important capability when working on older, specialized, or hard-to-source equipment. A complete replacement cylinder may be expensive, difficult to locate, or simply unavailable.

We can repair the cylinder you already have.

From field removal to shop rebuilding and fabrication, then back to the jobsite for installation, we can handle the repair from start to finish.

Diagnose. Repair. Get back to work.

That's what Mondak Equipment and Hose is about.