trouble connecting skid steer quick disconnects

[scuvnut]

I ran a set of hydraulic lines from the rear remotes to front of my tractor to run my grapple and my 4 in 1 bucket.

I seem to have a recurring situation. I was using the grapple this morning and then needed the 4 in 1. The problem arises when I went to connect the skid steer quick disconnects from the tractor back to the 4 in 1. One slides right on, the other wont budge. I tried moving the hydraulic levers in the tractor as I assume the problem is pressure in the line. Nothing works except for sitting around for 10 - 15 mins and waiting.

Any thoughts on how to get by this?

 

[aczlan]

One slides right on, the other wont budge. I tried moving the hydraulic levers in the tractor as I assume the problem is pressure in the line. Nothing works except for sitting around for 10 - 15 mins and waiting.
Any thoughts on how to get by this?

Are you moving the levers with the engine on or off? If the engine is off I don't know why you would need to wait as that should relive all the pressure in the lines. if you are going this with the engine on you need to shut it off or you are not reliving the pressure on the tractor side of the lines.

Aaron Z

 

[scuvnut]

The engine was off.

 

[flusher]

I ran a set of hydraulic lines from the rear remotes to front of my tractor to run my grapple and my 4 in 1 bucket.

I seem to have a recurring situation. I was using the grapple this morning and then needed the 4 in 1. The problem arises when I went to connect the skid steer quick disconnects from the tractor back to the 4 in 1. One slides right on, the other wont budge. I tried moving the hydraulic levers in the tractor as I assume the problem is pressure in the line. Nothing works except for sitting around for 10 - 15 mins and waiting.

Any thoughts on how to get by this?

I have a similar setup on my Mahindra 5525--skid steer adapter plate on the FEL arms, two 20-ft hyd hoses with male QDs running from one pair of rear remotes to the front. With the engine off, I cycle the directional valve on the remotes. Then I just press the end of the male QDs against the FEL arm to crack the small valves in the QDs to relieve the pressure.

 

[J_J]

This is a common problem, and has been around forever, and will be around a long time. There are a bunch of tricks that has been mentioned already. You have to relieve the pressure on the cylinder, or hyd motor, etc. The easy way is to push on the male tip, if it not a flat face QD. One way I have suggested is to install a tee on the cylinder side of the QD , and put a cap on the tee part. If you have trouble connecting, just release the cap and some fluid will be released and you should be able to connect. You should have no problem connecting this way.

If a grapple is opened, it may put some down pressure on the QD, making it hard to connect, but it is usually hydraulic expansion caused by heat that causes most of the problem.

 

[jk96]

Same problem with my connection and Markham Grapple. Problem solved by leaving the grapple open 3/4 when I shut the tractor off. I then push the remote with the tractor off to relieve pressure and let gravity close the grapple. This seems to do a pretty good job of relieving the pressure in the lines and have had no problems since.

jk

 

[smitty9266]

Always connect the hoses from the grapple together when you disconnect. Also make sure grapple is closed before disconnecting. Always shut off tractor raise and lower 3 point then raise, lower and curl, uncurl bucket, now if you use electric valve make sure key is on and work toggle.(Note: when they installed my valve they power it from a circuit that only was powered with tractor running, you could never bleed pressure. It is fixed now!!)

Jeff

 

[scuvnut]

Thanks all for your suggestions and tricks. I'll try them out and see which one seems to work the best for me. You are all great assets.

 

[scuvnut]

This is a common problem, and has been around forever, and will be around a long time. There are a bunch of tricks that has been mentioned already. You have to relieve the pressure on the cylinder, or hyd motor, etc. The easy way is to push on the male tip, if it not a flat face QD. One way I have suggested is to install a tee on the cylinder side of the QD , and put a cap on the tee part. If you have trouble connecting, just release the cap and some fluid will be released and you should be able to connect. You should have no problem connecting this way.

If a grapple is opened, it may put some down pressure on the QD, making it hard to connect, but it is usually hydraulic expansion caused by heat that causes most of the problem.

The problem is on the QD that are on the tractor, the grapple is not the problem. The other issue is that the QD are flat faced, so how do you release the pressure if there is not tip to press down on?

 

[J_J]

That is the point I was trying to make, there is nothing to push against. Most tractors do not use flat face QD's. You have to release fluid some other way. Put a tee in-line on the hose from the attachment, and release the fluid when you have to. It will only cause problems when it is very hot, causing the fluid to expand. Should not have this trouble in the winter time. You could perhaps make a tool to push in on the flat face of the QD, a special plier type tool that would hook on the bottom of the QD, and push in on the flat face of the QD.