Broken hose, lift stuck in air

[BeezFun]

I broke a high pressure line on my lift while it was in the air. Is there any way to lower it so I can change the hose on the ground? On the attached schematic the line that broke is near the top of the drawing, right above the word "Cage" on the drawing. The hose is broken right under the cage and it's about 10' in the air. As soon as I turn the pump on, it leaks so much fluid that I can't develop pressure to lower the boom. Here's a picture of the lift, the cage is not this high, I just happened to have this photo:

 

[BukitCase]

Never used a towable, ran drivables from 40 to 85 feet and ALL had ground controls that would let you lower them REGARDLESS of running or not - if you still have whatever manual came with yours, might try looking for that option... Steve

 

[BeezFun]

Never used a towable, ran drivables from 40 to 85 feet and ALL had ground controls that would let you lower them REGARDLESS of running or not - if you still have whatever manual came with yours, might try looking for that option... Steve

Mine has that too, it's a hand pump that allows you to pressurize the system by hand. Problem is the high pressure hose is broken, so it doesn't matter whether I pressurize it with the electric pump or with my hand, the fluid still comes out and I can't get enough pressure to release the PO check valves that are keeping the thing in the air.

 

[newbury]

Can you reach the broken hose with a stepladder and jury rig a patch?

 

[BeezFun]

So I got the old hose out, it's 40' long. I'm on the way to get a new one made and I have an idea to make this easier. I'm going to connect the new hose at the fitting on the base of the lift and then just drape the hose up and connect it to the cage while I'm standing on a ladder, then I can lower the boom to it's ground position. Then I can work on threading the new hose back through all the internal channels that guide it up to the cage.

 

[BeezFun]

Can you reach the broken hose with a stepladder and jury rig a patch?

I can reach it on an 8' ladder but I'm not aware of any kind of patch that would work, it's 2100psi.

 

[Streetcar]

the drivable version have valve to release all pressure,lowering the boom

 

[Jims1025R]

For my similar experience with fire trucks, it requires hydraulic pressure to be applied to lower the boom, so if you have a loss of pressure, it doesn't drop the boom uncontrollably - the boom must be powered down, even though it would settle by gravity. This is an extra valve in the boom cylinder. On the fire truck, if the engine shut down, so no hydraulic pressure, there was a standby electric hydraulic pump which could be momentarily run to lower the boom. It didn't have to work very hard, just enough pressure to trip the down valve in the boom lift cylinders, then it would settle as long as pressure were applied to that valve.

The only contingency for a blown boom cylinder line was that you could manually slew the boom left or right to get it away from whatever, but you could not lower it until the line was replaced.

I would expect a man lift to have similar safety provisions.

 

[newbury]

I can reach it on an 8' ladder but I'm not aware of any kind of patch that would work, it's 2100psi.

I was thinking of rubber tubing, a little roofing tar, all bound around the leak by plumbers clamps. Just enough so you could get pressure in it and lower the cage.

 

[4570Man]

The cylinders have check valves that require fluid pressure to operate. It’s not going down without fluid. If the blown hose isn’t essential to lowering maybe you could cap it then lower the boom