Shop Talk Blog

A sudden hydraulic line blowout is more than just an inconvenience—it can shut down your jobsite, delay your project, and cost you in lost time and fluid cleanup. Whether you’re an independent contractor relying on a single machine or a rental business trying to avoid customer complaints, understanding how and why blowouts occur is essential. 

This Shop Talk Blog post will not only help you recognize the risks, but also empower you to spot the warning signs early and take simple steps to prevent disaster before it strikes. Your proactive role in this process is crucial.

Here are a few more blog posts you might find helpful:

• Hydraulic Hoses and Final Drives
• 5 Things to Avoid Doing with Hydraulic Hoses
• Exploring Hydraulic Connectors

Your hydraulic equipment has many different hydraulic connectors, and it’s good to know the different types. In this Shop Talk Blog post, we’ll talk about hydraulic connectors (threaded, flange, and quick disconnect) -- including how they work and where you’re likely to find them.

Here are some other Shop Talk Blog posts you might find of interest:

• 5 Things to Avoid Doing With Hydraulic Lines
• Hydraulic Hoses and Final Drives
• Causes of Hydraulic Hose Failure on Heavy Equipment

The minimum bend radius is important in hydraulic layout, but what is the difference between static and dynamic bend radius?

Of course, there are obvious signs of hose failure: fluid spewing from a crack, a hose split wide open, or a hose blown off a connector. However, there are several signs you can look for that tell you failure is imminent -- and that’s the blog post's topic.

You’re in the field working on a job with a tight deadline when the lifting arm on your skid steer or boom on your compact excavator suddenly loses power. You step out of the machine and see the cause: a leaking hydraulic hose. While you may not know what’s happening inside a hydraulic hose, some signs on the outside can serve as a red flag to replace (and maybe reroute) that hose. Here's a discussion on what to look for during your daily equipment walkaround.

It's essential to be careful when selecting a replacement hydraulic hose for your compact equipment.

Here are a few other blog posts you might find of interest:

• Five Things to Avoid Doing with Hydraulic Lines
• Identifying the Hydraulic Ports on a Final Drive Motor
• How to Destroy a Final Drive

The most problematic form of hydraulic air contamination is entrained air. In this post, we talk about why it's a problem, what causes it, and how you can prevent it.

It's suddenly gotten pretty cold here in Texas where we are located, but we have customers from all of the country that have to deal with cold weather issues at temperatures far lower than what we ever get. In this Shop Talk Blog post, we are going to take a look at how to keep your equipment running in genuinely cold weather.

Here are a few other posts you might find useful:

• Winter is Coming -- Tips for Machine Owners
• Cold Weather Issues
• Revisiting the Topic of Gear Oil

Hydraulic lines, whether they are stiff pipes or flexible hoses, act as a key part of the circulatory system for your hydraulic machines.  Here are some hints and tips for dealing with the hydraulic hoses that connect your final drive to your machine’s hydraulic system.

Here are some other blog posts you might want to check out ...

• Causes of Hydraulic Hose Failure on Heavy Equipment
• Tips for Installing a Final Drive
• 6 Cost Savings Ways to Manage Fleet Maintenance

Hydraulic hoses are the circulatory system of your hydraulic machine. When they fail, the entire machine can compromised. In this Shop Talk Blog post, we are going to talk about some of the most common causes of hydraulic hose failure on heavy equipment, and what can be done to prevent those failures.

Hydraulic lines are a major part of any hydraulic system; the hydraulics on construction equipment such as skid steers, compact track loaders, and excavators are no exception. Since hydraulics are so vital to your equipment, we wanted to dedicate a Shop Talk Blog post to this subject. Whether you are maintaining your own equipment or restoring an older machine, here are five things you want to avoid doing with your hydraulic lines.