let's say a cylinder has a bore of 2", and the ram rod is 1" in diameter.
If it is a double acting cylinder (power in and power out), you will have a port at either end of the piston, which let's say in this discussion is in the middle.
There is a rod end of the cylinder and the other end
If fluid is applied to "the other end", oil will then be fed at pressure. Lets say, 2000 psi to keep it simple. The amount of force applied to the piston is roughly 6200lbs of force.
On the rod end, you have the area of the piston MINUS the area of the rod. That rod is in the way so you lose 1" of the piston, to keep it simple. So if the same 2000 psi is applied to the rod end, your force is somewhere around 4700 lbs. That's a ~1500 lb difference in force between lifting and downforce since loaders almost all have the rod end facing rearward.
Calculate hydraulic cylinder force.
www.engineeringtoolbox.com
hence, one should never ever judge a loader's lifting perfornance by whether or not it will lift the tractor's wheels off of the ground
I saw this often when I was at the dealer, guys would get a brand new L series, take it home (or take delivery) and 2 hours later griping because it wouldn't lift the front end off the ground. Several reasons, one, on hst's it's gotta be in neutral as the rear wheels need to roll slighly and with hst's they don't roll easily, and two the brake has to be off for the same reason. Can't tell you how many times I would have to go to a customer's house/land/farm and (1) take my foot off the brake (2) release parking brake or take it out of park and put range gear in neutral (3) explain to them that there is much less down force than there is lifting force because of the bias effect. Intentions were NOT to make them feel stupid, but to educate them, professionally. For a little while I had a copy of the link above to explain it but I gave that up too because people don't understand how to read and comprehend anymore. "Well my old Ford would lift the wheels right up"....yep...sure would, if it were that great why did you buy a new one? Secondly the geometry of the lifting mechanism was completely different. Thirdly the front end of the tractor was usually lighter weight in comparison (2wd normally) and fourthly, the wheels need to roll....and your new tractor is hst and not straight shift, hst does not have a clean neutral and pushing the clutch doesn't do anything but make it stop pulling, it still won't roll until you put the range shift into neutral or in some cases between ranges. Again, many refuse to understand, or just can't. Makes me glad I don't do that job anymore.