I never thought to ask here but there MUST be an old timer who’s come across this before. . .
I’m currently driving an 03 plate with manual HIAB in a DIY builders merchants environment, I add the DIY bit ‘cos no one in the co’ has a clue when it comes to the trucks.
She has to be parked outside in all the elements, she doesn’t have a problem starting but she does have a problem with the control levers for the HIAB freezing solid. At first I thought it was the grease/oil that lubricates the plungers freezing up but Fridays -5 temps needed a full 10 boiling kettles & 1 1/2hr of my precious time to thaw everything out before they were free enough to start work.
I’m going to work tommorrow & she’ll have had 2 days of up to -15 temps !
I’ve asked the (so called) contract maintanance peeps how to avoid it with little in the way of a legible reply & I’ve tried WD40 & antifreeze with no noticeable result.
How do I stop the hydraulics box freezing up to the extent that it takes me most of the morning to get it working?
You need to wrap it in some form of insulation. We put some old hessian bags over our loader tractor, it helps, but still needs some hot water when really cold.
I think its the rubber seals when frozen that cause the problem.The hydraulic oil doesnt freeze.
Short of leaving the PTO engaged until the hydraulic oil warms up and a bit of maniplunation on the levers, i dont theres much more you can do.
Wouldnt reccomend boiling water - do more harm than good.
If you can just get it to do anything, get it to do that, and keep pushing the lever up and down, pressure on hydraulic fluid heats it up and makes the whole system run more freely.
Leave it clamped around a pack of bricks at the end of the day and pick it up a few times in the morning.
It will help to shield the controls with cardboard or bubble-wrap though.
Arrived at work this morning at 0300 to be asked to load a Moffit onto my trailer to drop off to the catching team who going to load me at Pershore,it’s minus 6 in the yard and i couldnt even get the key to turn,looked in the cab for something to spray on it (didnt have my own unit as it’s in for 6 wk inspection )
Could only find the usual stuff,glass cleaner and polish,so thought i’d try the polish,sprayed it on the key and the controls for the forks and after a couple of minutes the key turned and away we went…worth giving polish a try
Mines an 04 tipper grab and I have the same problem this time of year. It’s the cables to the other set of controls that freeze up. At 6 year old the rubber gaters split and allow water to get in the cable which then freezes.
I remove the pins and release the cables from the main valve block then just manage with the controls on the drivers side.
marlow:
Mines an 04 tipper grab and I have the same problem this time of year. It’s the cables to the other set of controls that freeze up. At 6 year old the rubber gaters split and allow water to get in the cable which then freezes.
I remove the pins and release the cables from the main valve block then just manage with the controls on the drivers side.
I imagine with the nature of hydraulic oil and Hiabs they probably get lots of condensation in the tank and rams, even the spool valves will have moisture on the pistons. It must be worth considering draining the oil whilst the truck is parked in a nice warm workshop…
Wheel Nut:
I imagine with the nature of hydraulic oil and Hiabs they probably get lots of condensation in the tank and rams, even the spool valves will have moisture on the pistons. It must be worth considering draining the oil whilst the truck is parked in a nice warm workshop…
Its not easy to change all the oil in a crane, you can dump the oil in the tank easy but thats not even half of the oil in the system, the only real way to change all the oil would be to remove all the rams empty/re fill them then re fit to the crane. It would take a few days to do.
Same as marlow and dc4, release the cables and pins and circlip on the levers with the cables and keep moving the levers on the hydraulic side,also on the top of the boom is a stainless steel sensor 4"x6" in size pour hot water on that and it will free the booms. A tip is to cut the bottom of the canvas sleeve on the cables[water and ice trap] and pour hot water down either side of the sleeve that should get you going till you drive for a bit
On a could winters morning my hiab is a little slow, gets a good work out when your tipping 25-30 packs of blocks so soon warms up with use. Never had it seize up though, could it be down to lack of servicing? Ours get regular services which includes greasing and fluid changes.
washy jnr:
Arrived at work this morning at 0300 to be asked to load a Moffit onto my trailer to drop off to the catching team who going to load me at Pershore,it’s minus 6 in the yard and i couldnt even get the key to turn,looked in the cab for something to spray on it (didnt have my own unit as it’s in for 6 wk inspection )
Could only find the usual stuff,glass cleaner and polish,so thought i’d try the polish,sprayed it on the key and the controls for the forks and after a couple of minutes the key turned and away we went…worth giving polish a try
Quick tip i had same prob with key for locking diesel cap,get ciggy lighter heat the key and insert in lock a few times,worked for me,got the tip off a polish driver in poznan.
regards dave.
marlow:
Mines an 04 tipper grab and I have the same problem this time of year. It’s the cables to the other set of controls that freeze up. At 6 year old the rubber gaters split and allow water to get in the cable which then freezes.
I remove the pins and release the cables from the main valve block then just manage with the controls on the drivers side.
We spent hours on our grab by wrapping hessian sacks then bubble wrap then black shrink wrap around the cables from the main valve block to the manual lever block, all looked like it would never freeze again with all that protection on it!
Huh got there next morning and all froze up as bad as before all a waste of time so got our fitter to disconnect the cable side ,when our grab driver got back in the yard that night i asked him how he got on and he said the levers now work better than they ever have very free not sticky and much faster so it looks like the manual cable always make some kind of drag when connected even in good weather1
So it looks like they will be disconnected now for a good few months,
)
