Loader TC34DA burst bucket hydraulic hose

[amarlow]

Jinman! Anybody! Looking for help, please.

I took four days of vacation this week to work on clearing some of the property, and have been using the fool out of my loader & bucket -- digging up those invasive Russian olive, honeysuckle, buckthorn, some standing dead ash.

Yesterday I had a tree fall on me. Well, across the bucket, loader arms, next to my head, down the side of the ROPS. In the process, it may have bent the bucket tilt tubing. If not then, well I admit to being pretty rough on her in general this week.

This morning I was working on yet another olive. I have found I can lower the bucket, roll it forward, put the range select in 1 or low, then back up about five feet and "ram" the olive about three-ish feet above ground level to "loosen" the roots. I'll do this from two or three sides, if necessary, the proceed to dig out the entire root ball. It has been a technique which has worked extremely well. I find myself screaming (to no one in particular 'cause no on is around, thank goodness) things like "Hoo-ahh!" and "Oh yeah! Who's yer daddy!"

Well, this morning, as I "rammed" into the bush (not terribly high speed, mind you), the hydraulic hose on the left arm burst, spraying and bubbling fluid all over the front end of the tractor, on me, on the bushes...

I am off to purchase a replacement hose and oil. and will research this site when I get back, but I want to ask before I leave:
1. Once I get the new hose on, how do I replace the lost fluid?
2. I have 155 hrs on the tractor now. Should I go ahead and flush the old fluid? If yes, is there a description somewhere on how to go about this?
3. Will I need to bleed the lines? Again, is there a description somewhere?
4. Is my root loosening technique a bad idea? Too much pressure on the line when I ram into the bush? Or might I have done external damage to the line when the tree fell on me yesterday?

Thanks in advance, folks. I'll check back in a couple hours.

~Allen

 

[barbqranch]

My gut feeling is you are abusing your tractor way more than was intended. When it hits the object, huge forces are put on the various parts that will eventually break several things. It is sort of like a story I heard once of a person who used a chain wrapped around a tree and took his (small) tractor back and went forward till the chain stopped it. Although the chain was strong enough to lift the tractor off the ground, it wasn't strong enough for that abuse and decided enough was enough, and the broken end made sure he never did it or anything else again.

 

[amarlow]

Yep. I do think I'm being a bit too rough. Although, I will say the word "ram" is intentionally an exaggeration. I'm pushing the trees/bushes, but in 1st gear/range, it's really not all that aggressive.

I'm back from the local dealer where I purchased (2) replacement hoses (one as a spare). The service manager said the hose, and interior metal braid, looked "cut," and not like what he is used to seeing when a hose fails from the inside. That's encouraging. The replacement hoses are double jacketed, not single like the original equipment.

I also found out something more disturbing: This is the dealer from whom the first owner purchased the tractor new four years ago. That first owner did not return her for the 50 hr servicing, and did not purchase (from the dealer) any of the filters & fluids to do the servicing himself. Now, he may have ordered the materials online, which wouldn't surprise me. But he may not have done any of that maintenance.

So I'm out $34 for two hoses, and $204 for all the air, hydraulic, engine oil, and fuel filters, plus the engine and hydraulic oils themselves.

I had planned to do a good maintenance effort this fall anyway. Now I have all the materials. I think!

~Allen

 

[jinman]

Allen, there are 4 of those short hoses and I have replaced all of them on my tractor due to the OEM hoses popping right at the fitting as yours did. None of my new hoses have popped. The first hose popped when I was backdragging with the bucket almost perpendicular to the ground and found a stump. All the other breakages have occured at various times without a great deal of undue stress.

I think any "ramming" of a tree or anything else is abuse. I place my bucket against trees and then push hard, but I never back off and ram anything. None of my buckets are bent and I have downed some pretty big trees.

When you have your joystick centered, there is no relief valve in the FEL circuit. The relief valve is before the FEL in the hydraulic diverter valve. So, any pressure spike is felt by your hoses, rigid lines, and cylinder seals. Normally, the hoses are what goes first. That's a good thing.

As far as fluids, I would just top off the fluid unless you've lost over half. If you think the fluid needs changing, then I would do it. However, I would not do it just because I blew a hose and lost a couple of gallons. Look at your fluids and see if they look like they need to be changed. Your engine oil is changed at each 100 hours and the hydraulic fluid at each 300 hours. It is not normally changed at 50 hours. At that service, NH recommends only changing the filters (both main hydraulic and HST).

I'm glad you got your tractor fixed, but don't abuse it. If it won't do the job, you need a bigger tractor instead of trying to force the issue.

 

[AndyG]

It's a light/medium duty New Holland NOT a Caterpillar! The CAT won't stand a bunch of this treatment either BTW. Ramming at any speed is a bad idea as it puts tremendous shock loads on the entire system. You got lucky this time and the weak point was a cheap hydrauilc hose. Next time you might be writing to tell us that your tractor broke in half. You do have the right idea about pushing the trees out. Put your bucket as high on the tree as you can safely and comfortably. Pushing really high up will make the tractor unstable so be careful. Many people want to cut the tree first then dig the stump. Pushing up higher on the tree gives you lots of helpful leverage though. Ease up to the tree and push on it repeatedly. Use more of a rocking motion than ramming. Push 4-5 times then come at the tree at a different angle. Keep moving around the tree as needed. You can also take a few scoops of dirt near the base of the tree, this will cut some of the roots on one side. Next, push on the side that you cut on toward the opposite side. On a bigger trees, dig good sized cuts on 3 sides then push toward the side you did not dig on. Most importantly, work within your limits. If it feels wrong it probably is wrong.

 

[amarlow]

All replies much appreciated. I'll stop with the ramming bit, and just push.

Jinman, should I just go ahead and replace the rest of these four bucket tilt hoses? I mean if it's going to happen anyway, why not avoid the hassle and mess of any more failures? And the other question is have have you had any problems with any of the hoses that handle the loader arm lift? They looked bigger when I glanced at them this morning.

I haven't actually made the repair yet. I'm on the way out to the property now to do just that. Wish me luck.

And again, thanks everybody!
~Allen

 

[jinman]

Your choice on replacing the rest of the hoses. Since you have a spare, you are good to go, but you know how messy it gets when one blows. They aren't that expensive, so let your pocket book and your gut feeling be your guide.:thumbsup: