Can We Over-Engineer this? B&G Rant !

[markpj23]

OK so I have a B&G autopilot system that I'm generally happy with. A few weeks ago the ram leaked out all its fluid so it was time to rebuild. Here's your basic Type 1 B&G ram:


Can't be all that complicated - a couple of seals and we should be good to go, right?

Start of rant........

B&G seal kit: $460.00!!

Outrageous - I'm going to find an alternative! Shopped around and delivered to a national hydraulics repair shop in Miami. They can rebuild anything, make whatever seals are non-standard, etc. Welll....... not so much. When they disassembled it and spec'd the seals, their price to make new was almost exactly the price from B&G.

What could possibly cost so much? Are the bits made from unobtanium or something??

So I bit the bullet and bought the seal kit. Here's what is in it - can you believe this??


It's just a simple hydraulic ram fer chrissake. How can you engineer a simple push-pull cylinder to require all this??

Next time I'll replace the ram with a simple reversible hydraulic pump and an off the shelf cylinder - likely for less than the cost of repairing this one.

UGH!