u/Twelve-Foot

Just confirming that I'm thinking about this right. This front end loader has a leaking piston seal, while lifting there's enough flow to overcome the leak and raise the load. Once stopped the load/boom settles down. So am I right in thinking that effectively it's lifting with 2,000psi over the 5 square inches of the piston, but then because of the bypassing it's only holding with the 2 square inches of the rod, thus it's building to 5,000psi? Thus blowing the seals out of the control valve.

Note: My test for the leaking piston seal was to loosen the fitting on the rod side of the cylinder. Oil leaks out and the boom drops even though the cylinder extends to lift so there shouldn't be any pressure on that side.