Changing hydraulic fluids - HUGE drain pans?

[Jay4200]

When I got my L4200, I had to add a couple of gallons of hydro-fluid (due to a long-seeping sight glass), and I changed the hydraulic-fluid filter, but didn't replace the bulk of the fluid. I'm ready to change out the mess, but can't for the life of me figure out what to use to catch the drained fluid. My tractor holds a little over 10 gallons of hydraulic fluid, and there's not a whole lot of room under the drain point, not to mention all of the clearance used up by my backhoe subframe mount. What on this earth is flat enough to slip under the tractor AND hold 10+ gallons of stuff at the same time AND be able to be handled so that the old fluid can be poured into a suitable container afterwords without creating a Superfund site in the process? Same question holds for the 5 additional gallons sitting in the front axle.

Maybe dig an access pit with the backhoe first and use a couple of 5-gallon buckets? Still sounds like quite the mess trying to change buckets in the middle...

Thanks - JayC

 

[6sunset6]

I will be real interested in this. Will have the same problem myself very shortly.

 

[heymack]

Can you lift the machine up with FEL and backhoe then block it somehow? With my tractors, I've never had a clearance problem slipping 5 gallon buckets under.

 

[jsborn]

Not sure how much room you have under your machine but look at this mortar box it should hold approx 17 gal.

Find Pro Mortar Box, 29" x 23" x 6" and other Masonry Tools at Aubuchon Hardware

 

[Kendall69]

This is what I use on my big trucks and the tractors


Lisle Truck Oil Drain | Oil Drains | Northern Tool + Equipment

 

[Rusty]

I used a 10 gallon RubberMaid storage tub for the last hydraulic fluid (3.3 gallons) change on my B7500 HSD. It worked quite well. I was able to slide it wherever I wanted under the tractor, and caught all the fluid. You may be able to find a similar, larger tub or pan. I removed the front wheels to drain the front axle, eliminating quite a mess from the previous drain.

 

[schmism]

its not THAT big of an issue, i just use a regular drain pain which holds ~2-2.5 gal without makeing a mess... and did it in 3 lifts.

i just layed there under the tractor watching it pour into the drain pan then stuck the drain plug back in with a few turns while i got up and emptied and replaced the pan..

repeat above as needed.

with a second pan and a helper there would be virtually no need for you to have to move and could keep an contious streem of fluid

 

[johnk]

I did it the same way Schmism did it. Hopefully that drain plug goes back in easily. I filled the drain pan, dumped it into one of the 2 buckets I had standing by and relitively spilled little fluid. I was scared at first also but as long as that drain plug goes in you're all set. Good Luck.

 

[RedDog]

If my memory serves me, I have 17" of clearance under my drain points, so I cut down a plastic 55 gallon drum.

My tractor has 15 gallons of hydraulic fluid and the cut down 55 gallon drum catches it all.


I think I cut the drum so it is 15" tall.

 

[Jay4200]

If my memory serves me, I have 17" of clearance under my drain points, so I cut down a plastic 55 gallon drum.

I had to cut down a 5 gallon bucket to about 10" high for my engine oil changes, so I guess I have about a foot of clearance under the front. I only have about half that under my backhoe mount, however, thus the problem.

I'm sure the multi-stage approach in a little drain pan would work (5x dumps), but I was hoping for something a little less attention-intensive. I like that truck drain pan - awfully pricy though.

JayC

 

[Redbug]

That's a real good idea...cutting down a 55 gallon plastic drum...why didn't I think of that? Now that I know about it, there's all sorts of other uses I could be using a cut down drum for. Thanks Reddog from Redbug!

When I changed out all my fluids, (L3830 Kubota), I used a couple 5 gallon buckets and a small flat type oil change pan. The buckets would just fit under the tractor. I used some other old 5 gallon pails with lids and poured the used oil into them for disposal.

One thing I noticed...not all the oil drained from a single drain point would fill up a 5 gallon bucket. There are several drain points which make up the sum total. I would drain one oil point into a bucket, and use another bucket for another drain point, hopscotching around, emptying the previous bucket as I went. For the front axle, I taped a funnel to the side of the tire and let the fluid dribble from that into a standard flat oil change pan.

 

[hsvhobbit]

I went by Tractor Supply and picked up a washtub, just galvanized sheet metal that held all the fluid just fine. If you get 2 you can do both sides of the rear axel at the same time.

 

[john_bud]

Now let me get this straight.....


You have an FEL on the front a hoe on the back and a subframe in the middle that reduces the clearance down to about 6", right?


Did I miss the part about the BACKHOE?

Get 2 empty 5 gal buckets, dig a trench that is about 36" deep. Place the buckets into the trench - drive over them. Drain fluids, slide buckets as needed. Backfill trench so the wife doesn't know....

Schism, Is it the picture, or did your hydraulic fluid look that scary chocolate milk color? That looks like water contamination to me (if it really was brown milky color). You may want to drain and refill again at the end of summer to make sure it's clean and free of water. The hydro fluid from the kubota with 300+ hours on it was just a light tan, which is what you want to see from a healthy tractor.

jb

 

[Jay4200]

Now let me get this straight.....

You have an FEL on the front a hoe on the back and a subframe in the middle that reduces the clearance down to about 6", right?

Did I miss the part about the BACKHOE?

Yes, you are right, and apparently you DID miss the part about the BACKHOE. From my first post:

Maybe dig an access pit with the backhoe first and use a couple of 5-gallon buckets? Still sounds like quite the mess trying to change buckets in the middle...

See? OTOH, your addition regarding wife is now on file .

JayC

 

[California]

Instead of a huge expensive drain pan (how are you going to pour neatly from that, and where ya gonna store it when its filthy) or going down into a pit to quickly swap buckets, why not just use a siphon pump?

I used these jugs (on edge to reduce their height) and halted the stream to change jugs by lifting the suction end of the hose out of the tank. No mess. Then I drained the siphon, and used it to refill the tank.



This BH is nearly 30 years old and not used for 5 years. I drained it before running it, because if there were water or debris in the bottom I didn't want to run that through the pump. The first jug came out so clean I thought about using it as diesel, but then as I neared the bottom of the reservoir the color darkened with some microscopic black pigment. No water or junk. The suction pump can be squeezed to 'vacuum' the low corner of the tank, so I think I got it cleaner than what will come out the drain plug.

 

[john_bud]

Yes, you are right, and apparently you DID miss the part about the BACKHOE. From my first post:



See? OTOH, your addition regarding wife is now on file .

JayC

Well, at least I was 1/2 with it. That's about 2x better than normal....

jb

 

[orezok]

I use the trays that bus boys use at restaurants. They hold about 10 gallons, are very sturdy and cheap! Any restaurant supply carries them.

 

[N80]

I have an L4400. A five gallon bucket will not go underneath. Like someone else above I used a basic galvanized wash tub. All the drains will run into it at once. But then you have a full washtub you can't lift. So I dipped it out using a coffee can putting the fluid back in the 5 gallon buckets the new fluid came in. A little messy but only took about 5 minutes.

Wiped the tub out with paper towels and then cleaned it out with dish washer detergent. Took another 5 minutes.

Took fluids to recycle station.

 

[bucmeister]

A trick I learned of several years ago involves a shop vac to control the flow. The discussion was about collecting oil samples mid-drain for analysis while changing oil in our 7.3L truck engines without making a mess.

Answer was to plug a shop vac into a power strip you can control while under the truck, then put the hose over the oil filler opening, turn it on, pull drain plug, turn vac off and on to control flow.

If your fill opening terminates far enough away from the fluid this works great. If so, just use a regular drain pan and turn the vac on whenever you need to stop the flow and dump the oil. Alternatively, there are a lot of shallow decent volume plastic pans to be found at Wally World and Dollar stores.

Unfortunately, for me, the oil filler on my tractor is very close to the standing oil so when I tried this with it I got some oil sucked up into the hose and just have to deal with the mess. What I need to figure out is a way to put the suction on the top of the valve cover like the filler on my truck engine is positioned.

 

[InlineDieselFan]

My method that works for me, I just did my 200 hour service a few weeks ago. I used a 5 gallon oil catch pan and I loosened one of the filters and then sat there on my stool. When the pan was almost full I snugged up the filter. Dumped the oil into a five gallon bucket and then repeated the oil filter drain method. Dumped it into another 5 gallon bucket then I pulled the drain plugs and got the rest of the oil and the other filter. Then refilled it with fresh oil and filters.

steve