Hydraulic hose failure on the max lineup

[Gale Hawkins]

the left (from opperator's station) side short curl hose exploded at around the 10 hour mark (iirc, maybe 20), unloaded. I'd just gotten done pushing some brush into a small pile (in preparation to push it over to the burn pile). had the bucket about 4 feet up and went roll it forward and it said *pow* and oil mist rained down.

second one was from control valve to curl cylinder,

I don't even know on that one, I guess some prior indiscretion weakened it and it just finally let go, bucket again unloaded and hadn't been clearing/moving stuff for a few days.

A little bit about my property, and the uses for the tractor:
it's flat, what we call prairie soil (or gumbo, its a light tan clay), unless it's july and we're in a drought, its almost like modeling clay in it's consistency (in the late summer, it's concrete), the "back 40" is overgrown scrub brush and popcorn trees. I periodically run through parts of it to clear things out and keep things clear, I'd say the biggest stuff I try to tackle with the tractor alone (bxpanded toothbar is great for this) is around 4 inches, catching at an angle and pulling up and curling (almost like picking up a bucket of material) these are soft trees. For the bigger stuff I've got a pretty awesome stihl saw that makes short work of things. Stumps, as above, get dug up if they're big, or I use this modified middle plow-turned-chisel-plow (custom home made blade) to hook roots and pull up with the 3pt. That only really works when it's wet and muddy. I haven't had to clear anything really in a year.

the rest of the time, the tractor gets used to occasionally till areas, bush hog other areas, and spread gravel by the shop. I would think it's got a pretty easy life, but then my perspective may not be reality

On that hose in the top picture you may look at if going with a 4" longer hose if possible. I would just go to NAPA or other store that makes up hoses on the fly and replace and move forward. Most use Gates around here. If the new ones blow in the next few years then you may have more than a weak hose problem.

 

[linuxman51]

That's what I've done so far. the BH hose is long, I may have to take out a loan to get it replaced. None of the ones I've replaced have ruptured, and the hose is thicker/bigger.

 

[LD1]

The reason I ask what you were doing is because just about every tractor has the"ability" to pressurize 2x or 3x your pumps relief pressure. And can do so a number of different ways.

First, the tractor usually has alot more tractive force than it does hydraulic force.

When driving, and hydraulics engaged with the ground....you can develop tremendous pressures.

It's all geometry and angles that determine how much. The cylinder.....acts like the pump. (Think of a little Piston pump on a floor jack or bottle jack....same principal).

So picture this....loader bucket dumped almost all the way.....using it like a bulldozer (backfilling a hole or whatever.) With the bucket at this angle....it has ALOT of leverage trying to EXTEND the cylinder. That builds lots of pressure.

Same goes for bucket dumped and backdragging.

Same goes for driving if the backhoe engages the ground.

Or wanting to pull something by chaining to the backhoe and driving....

All of these things.....you pressure isn't limited to the pressure the relief is set at. It's limited simply by how much traction you have. And if you have enough, the hoses are usually the weakest link.

There are other ways that you can over pressurize hoses, but these are the most common mistakes made that result in blown hoses.

And this isn't to rule out that mahindra could have just gotten a batch of bad hoses. Remember...they aren't a hose manufacture.

What brand are the hoses that have failed?

 

[linuxman51]

I'll look at the long one and see. Yeah, I understand that concept... it'd be easier to nail down as the cause if it happened when things like that were going on. None of those have happened with the backhoe (not that they couldn't, but *I* haven't pushed against or attempted to drag/etc with the backhoe engaged in something..usually it's the backhoe dragging the tractor around and sinking the outriggers lol).