Yoke dampening device...

I was in the process of insulating my garage, while moving around some boxes I looked inside one and saw a device I had not thought of in a long time. I came across a surplus "automatic" door closer, you know, the type that does not let a door slam shut, but at the end of the stroke pulls it closed tightly. I started to play around with it, it has three different "screw-valves" controlling three different ranges, opening force, closing force, and "pull-in" (to latch the door.) With the included linkage I believe one could have a hydraulically dampened yoke, this could work on both column mounted yokes, and "slide" yokes, single and dual-linked. Just an inspiration I thought I'd share, much easier than the hydraulic cylinders in a tube design I emulated earlier last year.

We've used these, and I think Westozy did too. They work reasonably well, although getting a balance of force is difficult if you have them opposing each other.

Just playing around with the one I have I do not see why you would need to oppose it, what am I missing?

Because you would have to balance the closing force of each cylinder to maintain the yoke in a neutral position.

It's nice having the adjustment though. You can set the push/pull force to your liking or whatever requirement you need. As long as both are the same force.

That's right. And the problem with opposing force is they tend to cancel each other out a fair bit.