Had an interesting incident with Yet Another Quality New Holland Product this week.

1116 swather. Jumped the header up/down when going over a wheel track. Header drops pretty hard and blows out a steel compression-fitting T joint in the header up/down hydraulic circuit.

There is a pressure relief valve (factory adjusted) on the circuit, but it appears to me that it is a silly non-solution to the problem of a header drop spiking the pressure in the circuit, because the hydraulic pump output is on the other side of the pressure relief valve. Doesn't seem like there is a whole lot of chance of shock-induced pressure getting an escape out that path.

So I'm thinking about plumbing a hydraulic accumulator into the circuit. Never having done this, three questions:

1. Will this help the situation I describe? I'm guessing y'all running combines and swathers must have seen this situation before.

2. What is involved in installing an accumulator? Is this just a bolt-on into the circuit, or is there something I'm missing?

3. How big a unit and what type should be used in this type of application? On the 1116, the header raise rams are about 1.5" in diameter and they're single-acting rams.