I use to crawl under the tractor, car, or grasshopper to drain
the oil. Never again!
I use one of the fluid extractor to "pull" the oil/fluid up via
a vacuum (suction) created by the hand pump (or air compressor).
Essentially, you remove the dipstick and insert a tube/hose down
the dipstick tube and the vacuum does the rest.
There are a variety of brands out there - Pela, comes to mind.
The guys on the 'tdi' forum put me onto them. My cousin works
in a Mercedes dealership and this is their SOP for changing oil/fluids.
ONLY problem is finding one that will hold the 5-7 gallons of hydraulic
fluid. So, I pull out what the container will hold; dump it into the
ones that go to the recycler; and continue until done.
Somewhat related: Greg at Lubrication Specialist is one really
nice guy and a fellow VW TDI owner. Oh yes, TDI stands
for Turbo-charged Direct Injection (as in DIESEL). He is also,
a superb TDI mechanic.
Good luck.
Lon