RTV-900 Linear Actuator Bed Lift

I've been looking for an inexpensive way to lift the bed on my 2004 RTV-900 Utility model Kubota.

I just don't have the $1500 necessary for the OEM or equivalent setup so I started looking at hydraulic pumps and cylinders and also linear actuators.

In most cases the cost was $1000 or so to build a setup. While Googling Linear actuators I ran across a 6000N (1320#) linear actuator that ran on 12V with a 10" lift for under $100 but it came shipped from China on Ebay.

I hedged about buying it for a couple of weeks but after reading the feedback I decided to take the plunge. Ebay/Paypal are pretty good about refunding on scams.

Took about 10 days to arrive so I hooked it up to 12v, no instructions but the VOM proved capable, and it extended and stopped at the full extension. Huzzah!! It has limit switches to stop both the up and down movement.

Put it on the 900 with washers and 3/8" grade 8 bolts to see how it worked. Up went fine but down didn't let the bed all the way down. Total length is to long. 16" vs 14"+ on the Kubota hydraulic cylinder. Obviously 2" extra installation length was needed.

I came up with these brackets from 1/4" hot rolled.



They are made with a flat edge that bears on the Kubota mount for lifting.

The lower mount is again 3/8" grade 8 spaced with washer that floats in the lower mount.



Here's the complete install



There remain a lot of questions about durability, lifting ability and others but for now we will see. I'll report back with any good/bad news as I use it over time.

It probably not a good idea for those that bury the RTV's in mud but mine just goes through the woods and shallow water/mud so we shall see.

This is the bed lift on youtube in real time for those that are interested.

http://youtu.be/Xp5GdWU7a-w

One last thought - The one thing you lose with the actuator is the ability to float the bed. I thought about that but without the OEM hydraulic tank, it pretty easy to get to the bottom mounting bolt to remove it and raise the bed if the unit fails in the down position.

Bob

Git 'er done Bob!

Be careful with it until you see what it can or can not do. It looks a bit light.

Goooood deal for YOU.........It should be illegal to make a dump bed but not provide a way to do that. Could NOT do without ours on most every job that we do......Perhaps after a bit of a test you could review it for us and give a link to the site???????........so.....as BC says above.........Git er done...........God bless........Dennis

Thanks for sharing your ideas and photos for your bed lifting and lowering. Because of the weight we can and do put into the bed, it would best best advised to go "easy" at first and see what your "off shore" actuator is capable of handling. I like the way you made adaptor plates to make it all work for you.

I have been researching the use of a linear actuator for the bed dump and curious to know what experience others have had. I haven't pulled the trigger yet but this is what I have found so far.

Warner Linear has a heavy duty actuator capable of lifting 1,200 pounds with a stroke of 8 inches. The retracted length is 14.3 inches which is perfect for my RTV900. It looks to be ruggedly made and it is built in the USA. I would be interested in the opinions of the forum as to what I have found. Thanks.

Mark Sibole has done this . If he doesn't chime in soon, check his older posts.

Nice build!! Love individual ingenuity!!!

One thing to consider with lift capacity. The actuator's capacity is rated at the lbs of force it will initiate when activated. So if the actuator is installed in a vertical position when the bed is lowered it will exert 1320lbs of lifting force straight up.

On the RTV the cylinder is laying almost horizontal when the bed is lowered. So the vertical force it exerts on the bed will be dramatically reduced. Might be reduced as much as 50%. A more math knowledgeable person than I can easily compute that?

Anxious to hear your real world test results.

Good job on the install!!

Collie,
Mine is a Hydrolyc cylinder and an electric hydrolyc pump.
On my plow that has the actuater he has but smaller.Im curious to see how well his works under a load as even with mine if I dont load it just right when over loaded mine will struggle to get it started but once it moves a tad with smallhelp it goes just fine but its the inital lift from laying flat it struggles with but I am talking about overloadding it a lot with wood piled 3 to 4 teet high across the whole bed.

But even if it lifts say a 500 pound load he is still ahead of the game IMO.

OOPS, I should have posted earlier. The setup I used worked just fine until I added a couple hundred pounds to the bed. It just wouldn't lift it. Didn't bend or break, just no up. It should work if one could find a more powerful actuator.

Sorry, meant to post and CRS set in. Bob

Ive seen some add the switch to a cord so they can press the switch [lus add a helping hand to the lift to get it to go unser a heavier load.That ot you offset your load more weight to the rear to balance it out.Remember you are not only lifting but its pushing to .

avantiguy said:

OOPS, I should have posted earlier. The setup I used worked just fine until I added a couple hundred pounds to the bed. It just wouldn't lift it. Didn't bend or break, just no up. It should work if one could find a more powerful actuator.

Sorry, meant to post and CRS set in. Bob

Click to expand...

Yeah, that's that Geometric thing I was talking about. I'm just not smart enough to figure it out before spending money!!!!

I looked at my hydraulic lift cylinder this evening with the bed down. It's maybe 15 degrees above horizontal. Try to imagine the amount of force required to make the bed go up when the cylinder is expending most of it's energy trying to push the bed forward.

The factory hydraulic bed cylinder probably has 3500lbs of capacity. It's a wonder it doesn't rip the bed hinges off and push the bed thru the cab.

Actually I've saw that happen with dump trucks over the years.

Sorry it didn't work out. I was rooting for ya.

Mark.Sibole said:

Collie,
Mine is a Hydrolyc cylinder and an electric hydrolyc pump.
On my plow that has the actuater he has but smaller.Im curious to see how well his works under a load as even with mine if I dont load it just right when over loaded mine will struggle to get it started but once it moves a tad with smallhelp it goes just fine but its the inital lift from laying flat it struggles with but I am talking about overloadding it a lot with wood piled 3 to 4 teet high across the whole bed.

Click to expand...

Thanks Mark. My memory isn't as good as it used to be.. collie

Came across this post looking for cylinder stroke for the factory ram. I'm building a dump bed from scratch. My RTV900 came with a dumpster mounted on the back. Just let me throw a chainsaw and some rope in the dumpster. I'll just dump them out on the ground when I need them. Yes it wasn't going to work for me.
A Toro workman, I think a 2110 model has the actuator on it. I had one for years. It mounted the actuator so the bottom was lower and the push was straight up to start. If you were to make a mount to relocate the back pin of the actuator to become a bottom mount of the actuator.