Questions about hydraulics for a boom lift

amanda11270 · Sep 7, 2013

I have an older Bolens tractor, that I work on myself, and I hook up and remove a plow that is operated by hydraulics for tilt and angle. However I also own a Altec bucket truck, and a few of my hydraulic hoses are getting old and worn looking as its a 1993. Can I just take them off, have new ones made and reattach them without having to bleed the system or anything? Im pretty sure thats how the system works, if anyone has experience with bucket lifts could you please give me some input.

medic0648 · Sep 8, 2013

Yep. Just pull, get new hoses made, replace, and operate all the circuts you affected full in/out several times to eject the air. Might need to top off the res after doing so since you will loose some hyd fluid in the process.

Dr Dave · Sep 8, 2013

If you have to remove more than one hose at a time, get zip ties in different colors to mark the hose and fittings.

Make some pull rings,for pulling the hoses through the boom. To do this get extra fittings that will screw onto your hoses, weld a ring to the fitting, so you can tie a small rope to it. This will also keep dirt out of your new hoses when fishing them through the boom.

After repairs are done, refill resivoir and opperate the boom from the lower controls, run through all the functions, for several cycles. Recheck the fluid and repeat his process again.

Once your sure the air is all out, you can run it from he upper controls, be sure you have a harness on.

Dave

amanda11270 · Sep 8, 2013

Thats exactly what I do with my tractor, I use colored zip ties whenever im changing attachments so I know what goes where. Thanks guys.

Discount Hydraulic Hose · Sep 9, 2013

On the bucket truck, be sure to use the right hoses when you replace them. On this type of equipment, that usually means nonconductive orange thermoplastic hoses meeting SAE 100R7 or 100R8 specifications. They are a little more expensive than regular steel-reinforced hoses, but it's important to maintain operator safety by using nonconductive hose materials. One mishap with an electrical power line could result in serious injury or even death.