Hydralic fluid heater?

[sgreanbeans]

Have been trying to figure out the best way too warm up/keep warm, the hydraulic fluid in the Bucket truck, anybody have any cool tricks to share! I was thinking about putting in one of those dipstick heaters in the reservoir.
Looking for a shop with heat to rent, no luck. They have power but no heat, and don't want me leaving a electric heater going all night, which I understand!

 

[magna19]

how many gallon tank? does it have a extra bung in it. they make the block type heaters that fit into a pipe plug that are 150 watt which will keep the oil nice and toasty. set them up on a a timer that will come on a couple of hrs before you start running the truck and that would be a decent setup.

look at mcmaster carr site or granger for them. i used them on trash compactors years ago in the winter to keep the oil warm,some had a thermostat in the oil to keep it at a certain temp.worked good.

 

[Aero_101]

Magnetic Block Heater

In a different application I've used magnetic block heaters with great success. You can order different sizes and wattage. Worked perfectly and easy to set up.

 

[treevet]

electric blanket on the tank?

 

[Sep]

You put a hydo line on the bucket tool outlets from the supply to the return and the loop circulating will heat up the oil. Just turn pto on at the shop and warm it up before going to job.

 

[pdqdl]

If you are really serious about keeping the oil warm in the winter, you could engineer a solution. I would suggest using a salvage engine-oil cooler from some diesel engine.

Oil coolers are for cooling engine oil with the circulating water in the engine coolant (radiator). They also work very nicely for keeping idle hydraulic oil systems both warm in winter and not too hot in the summer time. They have a water jacket connected to the engine water pump, and oil from the hydraulic system passes through it to get warm (or cooled).

This would be a cadillac system that (depending on your oil pump setup) could warm the hydraulic oil as you drove to the job, and would keep it at operating temperature all day long. It would also take a pretty big commitment in labor and parts to get it all working.

You could also just change to the low temp hydraulic oil for bucket trucks. $$$ !

 

[pdqdl]

You put a hydo line on the bucket tool outlets from the supply to the return and the loop circulating will heat up the oil. Just turn pto on at the shop and warm it up before going to job.

That probably wouldn't provide much gain. Most bucket trucks have open center hydraulics, and the oil is always circulating anyway. Just turning on the hydraulic pump will accomplish the same amount of heat-circulation.

Or were you suggesting that the hydro-circuit will heat the adjacent control lines on the trip up to the bucket controls?

 

[sgreanbeans]

how many gallon tank? does it have a extra bung in it. they make the block type heaters that fit into a pipe plug that are 150 watt which will keep the oil nice and toasty. set them up on a a timer that will come on a couple of hrs before you start running the truck and that would be a decent setup.

look at mcmaster carr site or granger for them. i used them on trash compactors years ago in the winter to keep the oil warm,some had a thermostat in the oil to keep it at a certain temp.worked good.

I like the sound of that, seems pretty simple, I will look into that, the magnet ones as-well.

pdqdl, nice design, I have thought about many different ways to do this, yours is right in the middle of it, just don't have the time to mess with it, some one who does could come up with something for all of us, maybe make a little money!
I smell a new invention coming to save us all

 

[sgreanbeans]

I found these hot pad heaters at Orielly, they are 150w, 5"x4", 120v. Anybody used these? Was gonna buy 2.

 

[pdqdl]

I've only had one bucket truck, and it was terrible in the winter. The problem, however, was not cold oil in the hydraulic system. That only took a couple of minutes run time to loosen up and work fine...from the lower control station nearest the pump. The real problem was the thick viscous oil in the tiny little control lines going up to the bucket. When it was really cold, the responsiveness of the control handle was almost nil.

I don't think heating the oil in the tank will do you any good. In marginally cold weather, you may see some improvement, but I'll bet that when it goes single digits, the 50'-60' passage down the tiny little control hose will quickly chill down into sluggish performance. Now if your bucket has electric/remote controls operating closer to the main tank, you will probably get a nice boost in performance with heated oil.

I think you can buy special low-temp hydraulic oil for those bucket trucks, it just cost a bundle. The low viscosity in colder temperatures gives an immediate improvement, and you don't need to worry about any of the parts quitting at a critical time.