Spent 4 hours chasing a phantom leveling issue on a brand new install

I was setting up a four stop hydraulic in a 1920s building downtown and the leveling would drift about 1/8 inch every time. After swapping multiple parts and even replacing the valve, I finally noticed the old steel guide rails had a slight bow I missed on the initial check. Had to shim the brackets on the bottom two floors before it would hold steady. Any of you guys run into a similar issue that ate up your afternoon for no good reason?

2 comments

2 Comments

faith_price723d ago

Jump right in and say it - is drifting an eighth of an inch really that big of a deal on a hydraulic in a 100 year old building? @jessel35 I hear you on the anchor story, but sometimes we overthink these things when the building itself is probably settling more than that every season. Sure, leveling is important, but chasing a tiny bow for four hours sounds like a choice when you could have just adjusted the load or put a shim in from the start. I've seen guys swap entire valves over a hair of drift and it just makes me wonder if we've forgotten what "close enough" looks like on old iron.

jessel3523d ago

Man I spent a whole day chasing a bounce on a two post lift last month, only to find out one of the concrete anchors had cracked loose under the base plate. Felt like such a dummy when I finally put a level on the column and saw it leaning like the Tower of Pisa lol. That bow in the rails is the kind of thing you don't spot until you've already swapped three controllers and a power unit. At least your shim fix worked - I ended up having to epoxy a whole new anchor in and wait 24 hours for it to cure.