HELP!:QD's on line are frozen stuck!

[SCRich]

I can barely see the screen from the sweat I can't keep out of my eyes. I was outside cleaning up a tree I fell last week and came time to take the long logs out of the yard and take it to the burn pile. I took my loader off and connected my WR LONG grapple but I can't get my hose fittings undone. It's been about 1 month since I have used the grapple, it is just over 1 year old and lightly used on my property. When I disconnect the grapple from the tractor I always connect the male and female ends together to avoid getting any dirt into the lines, fittings, and save the fluid from leaking out.

Well now the collar will not pull back and I can't disconnect both ends from each other so I can connect it back up to the tractor. Any ideas ? I am new to tractors having only owned one for 1 year and this is the first time it has ever happened to me. Only other expirience was with Hurst tools for many years but none of our lines ever behaved this way thank God since lives did depend on them.

Rich

 

[Willl]

Crack one of the fittings loose on the cylinder and bleed the pressure down.

 

[Inspector507]

I can barely see the screen from the sweat I can't keep out of my eyes. I was outside cleaning up a tree I fell last week and came time to take the long logs out of the yard and take it to the burn pile. I took my loader off and connected my WR LONG grapple but I can't get my hose fittings undone. It's been about 1 month since I have used the grapple, it is just over 1 year old and lightly used on my property. When I disconnect the grapple from the tractor I always connect the male and female ends together to avoid getting any dirt into the lines, fittings, and save the fluid from leaking out.

Well now the collar will not pull back and I can't disconnect both ends from each other so I can connect it back up to the tractor. Any ideas ? I am new to tractors having only owned one for 1 year and this is the first time it has ever happened to me. Only other expirience was with Hurst tools for many years but none of our lines ever behaved this way thank God since lives did depend on them.

Rich

Rich,
There's probably been a temperature change since you connected them together. The fluid has expanded due to heat or sunshine. My thought is you'll have to try to remove one of the QD's with a wrench or two and relieve the pressure before they'll come undone.

 

[SCRich]

Rich,
There's probably been a temperature change since you connected them together. The fluid has expanded due to heat or sunshine. My thought is you'll have to try to remove one of the QD's with a wrench or two and relieve the pressure before they'll come undone.

Yes there has, last time used 4-6 weeks ago it was in the mid 70's last week we hit 103 here at the house and we had 6 days of 98-101. Right now it's a chilly 88.3 degrees. Never thought it would amount to this much of a difference and I did have the grapple last summer but at least last summer we had some cool days mixed with warm ones, so far this year it's just been super hot for days on end.

Rich

 

[SCRich]

You guys were right on the money. I cracked the fitting at the T coupler that splits to each ram from the QD hose, bled about 1/2 or 1 oz out and it worked like a charm. I guess this is common, easy now that I know what is going on. Thanks! Now the trees are off the slope and in the flat portion of the yard.

Too hot, to pull out the chain saw now and start chopping but I think I'll do that later right at the burn pile after the sun goes down. Last few burns I did proved to me that 3ft or so chunks burned much better and more fully than the 8-10ft sections I had. I have several 14+ month old trees I am going to chop up in the pile first on top of the branches and dry pine needles. Then I'll chop up the green stuff and put it on top of that, hopefully the burn will go better than the last one that needed a lot of tending to.

 

[jinman]

Rich, I'm sure it is clear now that putting connections together may keep them clean, but it will not keep pressure from building up when heat goes up. The only way to prevent that is to put a male QD end attached to nothing in the female hose end. You can then drop that end into a bucket or a pop bottle to catch any fluid runout. You only need to do this to one hose to keep the whole system unpressurized.

 

[SCRich]

Yep, I guess that is the only way not too troublesome anyway.

Fluid loss, how much can I afford on hydraulics? Every time I disconnect I would be losing quite a bit. I would figure that eventually I would be needing to top the fluids off every so often.

 

[radman1]

Yep, I guess that is the only way not too troublesome anyway.

Fluid loss, how much can I afford on hydraulics? Every time I disconnect I would be losing quite a bit. I would figure that eventually I would be needing to top the fluids off every so often.

Disconnect you oil connections when the tractor/skid steer is hot or when the temperature if very hot. What I try to do most times, is disconnect my hydraulic connections soom after I have been using the tractor or skid steer, if I know I will be disconnecting the attachment anyway. If I wait until the next morning and disconnect when oil is cold, I will often have the same problem you described. I still often have the same problem you decribe in the spring when I try connecting hydraulics that have not been use over the winter.
Don't worry about the small amount of oil loss when cracking open a fitting. The amount is minimal compared to the oil capacity of your tractor. I almost never add oil to tranmission between oil changes unless I had a hose burst or major oil leak.

 

[SCRich]

I always disconnect right afterwards while storing. I usually keep the bucket on since I use it a lot to unload the pickup or carry tools. In this case it was my first time having used it since our cool/cold spring so it was a "learning expirience". And BOY! does it lock up, that was tight, not even any sign of a budge, I was afraid that something had corroded, like the small bearings it was that tough.

Now I got to find a spare connector, never shopped for one so I can put it on an end and then get an old bucket, maybe TSC . Problem with the bucket is keeping the oil from going into the ground and keeping it drained of rain water. I guess 1 somewhat high hole would work for downpours and I can cut a bucket top for a hole just large enough to fit the connector yet keep most of the rain out.

 

[aczlan]

Rich, I'm sure it is clear now that putting connections together may keep them clean, but it will not keep pressure from building up when heat goes up. The only way to prevent that is to put a male QD end attached to nothing in the female hose end. You can then drop that end into a bucket or a pop bottle to catch any fluid runout. You only need to do this to one hose to keep the whole system unpressurized.

I would not recommend draining the fluid from the system or leaving it "open" as that would allow water/condensation to enter and rust the system from the inside out. (WayneCountyHose would be the one to verify that)

I would first shut the engine off and move the grapple control lever back and forth to relive any pressure in the system, the I would disconnect the lines and connect them together, if the pressure buildup was a big problem you could also make a MaleQD x shutoff x FemaleQD so that you could hook the M and F ends of your QD into it and if there is too much pressure open the shutoff...


Just my $0.02