Any secret to releasing pressure to attach hydraulic lines for 4 n 1 bucket?

[Allgood]

I'm working in a wooded area and twice now I've had a hose yanked out by a limb. No damage, no harm, no foul, but it sucks getting the hoses back in. It's a Tak 140, but I assume all the connectors work the same. Any tricks to releasing the pressure and getting the hoses back in?

 

[MrElectric03]

Im not familiar with that peice of equipment but you should be able to turn the key on(engine not running) and move the hydraulic lever for that funciton and it will release the pressure in the line as long as the hydraulic accumulator is working correctly.

 

[Allgood]

Uh, I see I put this in the wrong section; it's really a track loader with around 80 hp. That's not much of a "mini" skid steer. My fault.

Anyway, I thought the same as you but that sure didn't work. I could hear the electric valves clicking etc., but only time released the pressure enough to re-insert the hose. Even after a half an hour or so, even a pretty big and powerful guy will have one heck of a workout getting it back in. I just think there has to be some sort of trick that I'm missing.

 

[dsichewski]

might be a pressurized tank....remove cap and see if that relieves the pressure?

 

[DrJim]

The newer Bobcats have a unitized quick coupling assembly with an integral return line--a third line back to the tank. When you begin to insert the connectors, the pressure and fluid is bled back into that line. My 773 does not have that. For my machine ( a 773 G series without the 3 line or "case drain"), there is a button you push that shuts down the machine and bleeds off the hydraulic pressure. But the problem you are having is that you are yanking the line out, leaving the combo bucket pressurized. So whatever pressure relief function your machine has does not (is not able to) relieve the pressure in the hoses on the attachment. The best remedy for that is a . . . leaking fitting or leaky hose on the bucket

 

[willie59]

I'm trying to figure out how you're yanking your hose connections if the machine has typical flat face couplers?

 

[DrJim]

Duh. Atco is right. My farm equipment experience is mixed up with my skid-steer brain. OK, then what I said has some validity. Before you disconnect your 4 in 1 on purpose, close it and set it flat where it doesn't have any pressure on the articulated portion. With the flat-face couplers, if we get the first hose coupled and then can't get the second one on, we pull the first one off, and then the second one usually pops right on. . . and then the first one does, too. Maybe that releases just enough pressure to allow the connections. Atco, if you're on-line, go look at my posts to your thread on Bobcat spool valves.

 

[Allgood]

Yes, the flat face couplers. I had a stick yank another hose out yesterday. I just took a half an hour break when nothing else worked. Still, it was one heck of a push to get the bottom line back on!

 

[willie59]

Well it's hard for us to know for sure, not doubting you're having this problem or you wouldn't have posted it here, but I have a feeling it's not so much a limb yanking your hoses out as much as it is a limb is getting lodged at the flat face couplers and is slipping the lock sleeve of the coupler back which makes your hose/hoses pop out.

When it does that, the hoses to the attachment are still under pressure. When that happens, the only way you're going to connect back to the machine is loosen a fitting on the attachment hoses and vent the pressure.

If you're using a Tak TL140 like pictured below, it looks like it has the new style flat face coupler unit that release pressure to disconnect from machine. If I'm right, when you go to remove an attachment, you push in on the coupler by grasping the hose and pushing it toward the coupler. This opens an internal port in the coupler that vents pressure to the small line in the middle of the assembly. Once vented, you pull the coupler lock sleeve back and uncouple the hose. But in your case, if a limb is slipping that sleeve back and popping a hose loose while your working the machine, the hoses to the attachment didn't get pressure vented from them. Gotta crack some hose fittings to vent pressure.

If you own the machine, I think I would look at some way to fit a bracket, plate, something at the mounting of the coupler assembly that would prevent limbs from getting at the couplers and popping your hose loose. Seems that's the only way to remedy your problem.

 

[Allgood]

Yup, mine is a 2006 model with about 650 hours on it just like that with the same hydraulics. I'm clearing a really gnarley area with lost of limbs everywhere, lots of vines and everything that grows low to the ground has thorns. I didn't get any lines yanked off today, but I did manage to ram a thorn about 1" under my fingernail that got in the cab with me when I went to grab it to throw it out. Based on how that feels, I think I'd prefer fighting a pressurized line. Thanks for the info.

 

[willie59]

I think I'd rather deal with Kudzu vine than thorns. Sounds like you're clearing locust trees.

What attachment are you using to clear the ground?

 

[FarmerAlex]

Gday, now i'm not familiar with these style of hydraulic couplings, but for ag gear the hoses have a ball or protrusion from the center. When the two ends couple together they open each line. Now the way i've found to release pressure in a line is to get a rubber mallet and just tap the center ball. Oil will squirt out and its best to have a rag on hand, but with a couple of hits all pressure has gone.

Hope this helps

Alex

 

[watglen]

A 1" thorn under the fingernail!!!!!!


OUCH!!!!!!!!

:Banghead

 

[Allgood]

Yeah, I've done the same with that style of lines. You're right about the rag around it. I'd not want to get sprayed in the eyes and you made a good point about using a rubber mallet as to not damage the fittings.

 

[Allgood]

Good guess! Those freaking black locust shoots seem to come up everywhere and sprout thorns as soon as they can! I also have some hawthorn (sp?) that have thorns so wicked that I ran one through the side of an R4 tractor tire last year. I think y'all are getting the idea why I'm clearing out all I can before we can use the area.

 

[Allgood]

I think I'd rather deal with Kudzu vine than thorns. Sounds like you're clearing locust trees.

What attachment are you using to clear the ground?

I don't have Kudzu on this piece of property (but I do where I live). I worked about 7 years in the strip mine business and I mostly did clearing with a D11. It was a fun job until you slammed over a ridge so hard you thought you broke your back or got one of those things stuck (bout got fired for that). Anyway, since you mentioned Kudzu, can you believe that nothing but a bunch of Kudzu vines stopped me in a quarter million pound (or more) D11?! I was ripping along pulling trees down behind me and ripping vines out like crazy and I kept getting slowed, and slowed, and slowed until the dang vines stopped that huge 750 hp machine! I was able to back back out, but they sure as heck stopped me dead in my tracks. The guy on the next shift said he spent nearly the entire shift cutting the da*m vines off the machine! You know anything that kills it? I know of no chemical that will kill it. I've also dug it out down to about 8' or so underground only to have it pop back up in a week or so!

 

[willie59]

Kill it? LoL, lord no, I've never heard of anything that will kill the stuff. I grows prolifically all over the SE United States. My grandfather used to call it "twenty mile a night vine". LoL, I'll never forget that. And yes, I can believe a mess of Kudzu would be capable of stopping that dozer, the stuff literally is that expansive and intertwined. It's originally a native plant of Japan, planted here for erosion control on slopes and such, but it has exploded out of control. Typical with man and his bright ideas eh? It's usually considered a nuisance plant/vine as it completely overgrows all other native growth, but with you and the dozer, I think that's one of the few times it's not.

 

[sheepfoot]

Hey allgood, we use a simple gates clamp behind the female release, push it up tight and tighten it down, this has worked well and costs little to try it. We have also gutted a set of quick connects
and welded a nut on the hose side, made a tee handle screw that you can turn in to release the pressure, there are couplers on the market that have a lock pin, and even a nut that you can tighten
up against the female coller to help stop this.

 

[DrJim]

:BangheadAllgood, some of my experience is just coming back to me.

With our JD 5425 ag tractor, it has the typical ag connectors with the round balls that you simply push in and jerk out to remove. I bought the tractor new, and from the start had a heck of a time connecting one of the hoses--of course, the primary coupling fitting. Everyone treated me like I was, well, just a stupid dentist that should know better than to fool with equipment. I got all sorts of advice: Let the loader down, release the tilt pressure on the loader bucket. Raise the 3 point. Lower the 3 point. Turn the tractor off and cycle all the hydraulic controls first one way and then the other (that won't work nowadays due to electro-hydraulics--you have to start the tractor to drop the 3-pt hitch.).

We had issues with connecting the 4-in-1 bucket to the Bobcat, too, sometimes whacking the fitting with a 6x6x18" block, or even a wood fence post. Then I met a guy who said, "Doc, that shouldn't be so hard." He took the flat-faced fitting off of another attachment, put on the combo bucket, and shazzam, even a weakling like me could easily connect the coupling, first time everytime, without any special efforts. We even figured out we could connect and disconnect without shutting the Bobcat down--just as easy as with it turned off via the "bleed hyd. pressure" switch. It was a defective/pesky flat faced coupling from the very start.

Huh. I wondered if the tractor fitting could be my problem. It didn't take but a minute to figure out that yes, it was the darn fitting. It never occurred to me that the fitting would be balky from the start--remember, we bought the tractor new. A year and a half into it, we changed the fitting and the problems went away. The tractor is the same as the 773. We don't have to shut it down to connect or disconnect (do lower your implement/attachment to release all or most of the pressure from those lines).

Two machines, two fittings, and all our coupling issues were resolved. It's worth checking. Doc

 

[andrezzz2u]

Hope this helps you.

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