What to do when a hydraulic hose busts?

[bambam31]

Fortunately, I've never had a hose bust but I know it'll be there one day. If I get a pinhole leak or worse what should I do? Shut her down and just leave it in place until I get a new hose?

 

[Fordtech86]

I ripped the power steering line on mine about a month ago,was clearing brush and got a tree run up through the belly pan, heard a loud pop,sh#t sprayed every where and made a grinding noise, after the oh sh#t moment that I assumed I went thru the radiator I killed it instantly. Towed it back to the house with the truck to find the return hose pulled off the power steeering, still lost about a gallon of fluid in a matter of seconds

 

[CapnDean]

depending on where the line is your best bet is to shut it down. there are several instances where you might could simply disconnect the affected implement and move on.

 

[Dave_eng]

Fortunately, I've never had a hose bust but I know it'll be there one day. If I get a pinhole leak or worse what should I do? Shut her down and just leave it in place until I get a new hose?

The biggest issue is to avoid injuring yourself by having high pressure oil injected into your body.

It is human nature to hold your hand over a suspected leak. In a hydraulic system, the jet of escaping fluid can be so small that it would take a magnifying glass to see it.

Most newer Kubota Owner's manuals contain the following caution.

In terms of what to do when a leak happens, this depends greatly on the hydraulic circuit being served. A hose serving a FEL bucket is not serious and will not leak any more if you do not send any flow to the bucket. You can safely drive back to a place to repair it.

In general terms, replacing all hoses before they break will allow you to do the replacement at a convenient time.

Hoses bought from a local shop who fabricates the hose and its ends or hoses bought on line will be more economical than ordering Kubota parts.

Dave

 

[vic gerbasi]

SHUT HER DOWN i had the experience of a holey hose on the road returning from snow blowing at my neighbours oil everywhere got the tractor to my yard. oil sprayed in more places. WTF got the hose off and went to local at that time tractor repair place got a new hose with proper fittings returned home connected new hose. tried to continue to do some tractor work, very slow bucket and loader action...went and got a few litres of hyd fluid returned home put h fluid in tractor with very little change in loader activity back to tractor shop get very large container of hyd oil very heavy to lift and try to put oil into ridiculously placed inlet of tractor got her filled up works vewry well now..went to princess auto and got a small transfer pump i wonder if the kubota designer engineer every had to fill the hyd line by hand on an L3300 all worked out in the end

 

[SidecarFlip]

The biggest issue is to avoid injuring yourself by having high pressure oil injected into your body.

It is human nature to hold your hand over a suspected leak. In a hydraulic system, the jet of escaping fluid can be so small that it would take a magnifying glass to see it.

Most newer Kubota Owner's manuals contain the following caution.

In terms of what to do when a leak happens, this depends greatly on the hydraulic circuit being served. A hose serving a FEL bucket is not serious and will not leak any more if you do not send any flow to the bucket. You can safely drive back to a place to repair it.

In general terms, replacing all hoses before they break will allow you to do the replacement at a convenient time.

Hoses bought from a local shop who fabricates the hose and its ends or hoses bought on line will be more economical than ordering Kubota parts.

Dave

Exactly on the hole in the hose.

Hydraulic fluid under high pressure can and will penetrate your skin and once it gets in your tissue, it will cause an infection and can cause a limb to get amputated to stop the infection.

Had a friend lose his arm below the elbow from liquid injection. he was using an airless paint spray and the nozzle tacked across his lower arm because he was careless.

End result after a ambulance ride to the hospital was amputation of his lower arm to stop the spread of the infection.

Never touch any leaking hydraulic hose or fitting. Shut the unit down and relieve the pressure before attempting any repair or inspection.

Stuff can kill you if it gets injected under your epidermis.

 

[rentthis]

Turn it off and replace the hose. It's seldom fun but it is always necessary.

 

[bambam31]

Thanks for the replies. I learned something. You can never be too careful.

 

[baronetm]

One more thing with a blown hydraulic line, if it atomizes the fluid and it hits a hot enough surface if could erupt in fire. Have seen this happen twice in my years of employment, between oil, fire and a sprinkler system it makes quite a mess. There are hydraulic fluids that are fire resistant but they are not compatible with a Kubota. Super UDT2 Fluid has a flash point of 262 dg. F/128 dg. C.

 

[Fordtech86]

One more thing with a blown hydraulic line, if it atomizes the fluid and it hits a hot enough surface if could erupt in fire. Have seen this happen twice in my years of employment, between oil, fire and a sprinkler system it makes quite a mess. There are hydraulic fluids that are fire resistant but they are not compatible with a Kubota. Super UDT2 Fluid has a flash point of 262 dg. F/128 dg. C.

You bring up a very good point, i thought about that when mine came off and blew all over the exhaust and the engine after it had been working hard for a few hours, Luckily it didn’t burn. I have seen trucks catch fire tho from transmission cooler lines blowing and spraying on the exhaust.

 

[Bulldog]

Super UDT2 Fluid has a flash point of 262 dg. F/128 dg. C.

That sure seems low considering it's common for hyd systems to operate at 200 degree range or higher in some applications..

The Amsoil fluid I use has a flash point of 446*F.

 

[Flienlow]

Oh....BTW...since you are asking and new to this. Hydraulic hoses usually come with sticker shock. -Just sayin.

 

[skeets]

Oh I just stay calm and utter about 20 minutes of naughty words,, dont fix anything but it makes me feel better,,, And yeah make sure your holding your self when you see the prices,, but then if you need it,, then the cost dont matter

 

[Lil Foot]

When I rebuilt the backhoe & FEL on mine, there were some hoses that were not pretty, but usable. I cleaned them up, capped the ends, and put them in the spare parts stash. Now, if I blow a hose, I can quickly swap for one of my backup hoses and keep working. This also allows me to take the blown hose in to use as an pattern for the replacement hose. You can almost always use a longer hose to replace a shorter one, just secure the excess so it won't snag on things.

This has also allowed me to help both my neighbors when they lost a hose. One neighbor liked the concept enough to buy an extra hose that matched the longest on his tractor, just to have a backup hose on hand.

 

[Donystoy]

If replacing hoses you certainly want to go to a proper hydraulic shop for good quality hoses which are not cheap. When I built my log splitter 20 years ago the three hoses were over $200. I blew a bucket curl hose on my loader a few years ago. When the hose blew it sprayed vertically and showered the entire tractor and myself with oil. Not very pleasant. Fortunately I was able to reverse out of the pond I was digging and take the tractor back to my shop where I eventually installed four new top quality hoses. I had some un-installed economy hoses sit on a shelf for a few years that showed numerous cracking on the outer rubber without even been exposed to sunlight.

 

[Benhameen]

I had a hose from the FEL remote to the tractor that had rubbed and was getting thin. Before I let my brother in law use it, i went ahead and replaced it. I can’t remember if it cost $17 or $27, either way i didn’t think the cost was too bad. I bought the hose from a local Kubota dealer. It used to worry me while using my tractor knowing it would fail at some point. All good now...