cold hydraulics

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treevet

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Any advice for speeding up the warming up of hydraulics during a real cold day. Someone told me if you leave the outriggers down and leave the boom up a little (bucket or crane truck) that the withdrawing of the rigs and/or the stowing of the boom gets the hyd. moving and expedites warming up of the unit.
 
Time, the only thing i found to warm them up is run time, but if you can do something that is easy for the machine to do that is easier on them.
 
Time, the only thing i found to warm them up is run time, but if you can do something that is easy for the machine to do that is easier on them.

That is why it seemed to make sense that to withdraw the out riggers and lower the boom would be easy but not sold on that it will aid the more difficult movements when cold and sluggish.
 
gonna give it a go tomorrow then. Just having them sit there on a real cold day with the pto engaged just doesn't get it until you start moving around.

My biggest bucket (75') was a snail today on the lower boom movement. Took forever to get improvement.
 
A simple heat exhanger could be added to the hyd. oil tank, heat tape and a insulating jacket seems simpler, plug it in over night when you plug in your block heater.
 
All good ideas and thanks, but alas, I have no electric at my equipment storage. This is soon to be changed.

Maybe an electric blanket on a port. generator over the hyd. tank?
 
All good ideas and thanks, but alas, I have no electric at my equipment storage. This is soon to be changed.

Maybe an electric blanket on a port. generator over the hyd. tank?


Park it warm, insulated with a blanket and a tarp, and if ya get to it early enough you will be surpised how much of a difference it makes.;)
I like the electric Bankie under a tarp idea. I might have to use that.

If you can, park the rig outta the wind, as the exposed lines and cylinders will draw heat out and dump it into the moving air.

Stay safe!
Dingeryote
 
What are the max. rpm's for your pump?On my semi tractor,the max. is 1500 rpm.,a lot of times when it is real cold,I'll kick the pto. on 3-4 miles away from my delivery point and just keep geared down so that I don't exeed the max. and the system will be warmed up good by when I arrive. Scott
 
What are the max. rpm's for your pump?On my semi tractor,the max. is 1500 rpm.,a lot of times when it is real cold,I'll kick the pto. on 3-4 miles away from my delivery point and just keep geared down so that I don't exeed the max. and the system will be warmed up good by when I arrive. Scott

another good idea to look into :cheers:
 
Greetings, Tell you what I did. I flushed the system using diesel. I drained the hydraulic. fluid filled with diesel, ran the hydraulic until warm than drained the system. Checked the screen and filled with fresh fluid. This was for my front end loader and 3 point. Lots of muck came out. 32 is the weight I have in it now. I live in the mountains between California and Nevada, it gets very cold here. The hydraulics work right away. Richard
 
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My theory is that ensuring the cylinders are in a position to drive fluid out of attachments into the central system may help it warm up faster - the idea is that the hyd oil will not circulate out to the extremities as much but will stay closer to a heat source (on my bobcat the hyd pump and reservoir is tucked close to the engine).
 
That would conform with the opinion that the first movement should be an easier one.

Tried the Frank Boyer trick with putting up and down the riggers without hitting the ground while on the job and it seemed to work real good.

This was the smaller bucket (55') but i have had this one sluggish many times before and it worked right off the bat.
 
I was going to ask what the condition of the oil was and last time of filter replacement. I think in the end though your going to have slow moving hydraulics in the cold.:)
 
I was going to ask what the condition of the oil was and last time of filter replacement. I think in the end though your going to have slow moving hydraulics in the cold.:)

Both my units have clean filters in the fall and one has totally new fluid as we blew a pump last summer.

My crane truck is even slower than the buckets and you can go out for breakfast once you engage the pto and come back later.
 
Running any function over relief will warm the hydraulics quickest. Depending on how the system is designed there may be different reliefs for different functions or there may just be one overall system relief. The higher the relief setting that you are running over the more heat you will put in the system. You could run the outriggers up and hold the lever there once they come all the way in - the fluid will run over the relief as long as you hold the lever.
 
I am all ears on all these posts bigstumps. Thanks, I am trying that next time. I think the coldest air is gone for a while.
 

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