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Is a Hydraulic Pressure Gauge Worthwhile

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
Posts: 2168 West of Toronto
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2008-12-24          158855

I've not seen a small tractor with a hydraulic-pressure display. Is it because knowing the pressure would serve no purpose? If not, where would I plumb in the gauge, and how might I interpret the readings?

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earthwrks
Join Date: Dec 2003
Posts: 3853 Home Office in Flat Rock, Michigan
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2008-12-24          158857

Auer: It depends on what you are trying to monitor. What would want to monitor? But before you get that far, you would have to know design intent which is usually different than what it was built as, which could be lower.
And the manufacturer wouldn't allow public access to anything other than a general PSI at a certain point for a technician for anything other than a test. Reason being if you tested it and it didn't conform to the published pressure you could say it failed--and they wouldn't want that.

There is such a thing as using a guage on the loader lines to determine weight on the loader, but that would require calibration (based on what I have researched)

Case in point: I worked on the Misubishi Spyder folding hardtop sports car. It was designed to use two supposedly identical pumps and four hydraulic cylinders. Design pressure was about 3,500 PSI for the trunk lid to operate, but testing found that it took nearly 3,800-4,000 to make the hardtop operate. Keep in mind the pump supplier was supplying the same pump with a target of 4,000 PSI but just could not make enough of them. Rather than scrap the failed pumps they "detuned" the design PSI only for the trunk and those were given a different part number even though they came off the same line. ....

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hardwood
Join Date: Dec 2002
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2008-12-24          158858

Auer; To make an "M" Farmall into a more modern tractor I added on a pump driven by the belt pulley hub. It had way too much volume, you had to nearly idle the engine to have usefull hydraulic flow. It had a presssure guage in the line from the pump outlet to the valve body. Far from necessary but it was kind of interesting to watch the guage. If I remember correctly the pump was a 35 GPM pump, at full engine speed it so overwhelmed the valve body that with no pressure being used and all the flow going only back to the sump the guage would read 35-40 PSI. ....

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
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2008-12-25          158859

EW, glad you didn't help them with the Zero. Were you at one of their design centers in Japan or at their development affiliates in Illinois, Michigan, or Cal? Have a look at two models removing their tops on YouTube, Volvo and BMW. You may know that for a time recently, Volvo partnered with Mitsu, so you may be seeing some of your work in that car's hardtop tricks. The Beemer seems to work in the same way.

OK, what might I want a pressure display for? That's what I was asking, but maybe something like this. -It's not good for the system to try to lift implements before the pressure comes up, and the gauge can tell you when it's ready. -To monitor the system, note the pressure at say 2000 RPM, and take another reading every few months. -Before you disconnect something, you wait until the gauge shows zero pressure.

A tractor needs an engine and hydraulic pressure. The engine speed shows on the dash, and you can hear and feel it. But the hydraulic pressure is hidden. Just asking. ....

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earthwrks
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2008-12-25          158860

Auer: I was at the Michigan supplier, ASC, Inc. We also made amongst many other OEM's, (10) folding hardtop-equipped Rolls-Royce Bentleys. These were given by the Sultan of the United Arab Emirates to his 10 dinner party guests as party favors! Not kidding! Each one cost about $1.3 million and came with one of our technicians for a year. Any wonder gas prices were up there?

The hydraulics issue really isn't one. A-n-d yer kinda recreating the wheel when the wheel really works pretty well IMHO. LOL, do you have too much time on your hands?

Making hydraulic pressure isn't like making steam in a locomotive. Generally, as soon as the engine turns over before it even starts--it's making pressure. So there is no need to wait--it's there.

If you are having to wait, that could mean your pump is wearing out and the wear plates inside the pump have to heat up slightly to compress against the pump gears to make a seal. Conversely, the more a pump runs under heat the more it will lose (or as KW and KT says "loose") pressure as the pump housing being aluminum expands quicker and more than the steel pump gears inside.

I really can't think of a practical reason to have a gauge on a machine that is known to be running well. Just my opinion.

Now, that said, an oil pressure gauge or light is critical to monitor oil pressure inside the engine to avoid a catastrophic failure or monitor degradation over time. But we're tali9kng about something is critical; a hyraulic gauge isn't ....

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auerbach
Join Date: Sep 2007
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2008-12-25          158862

OK, the reason there's no pressure dial is that it would serve no practical value. Appreciate the time you've saved me.

I had one car with no fuel display (VW), another with no coolant-temp display (Citroen), and I figured those were low-grade cost savings, but no pressure readout on a tractor seems legitimate.

A Bentley for having to eat sheep eyes? Sounds fair enough. ....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-12-29          158912

The one place a pressure gauge is handy (for some people) is on the FEL lift circuit. As the load on the FEL increases, so too does the pressure in the lift circuit.

It is fairly easy to figure out, using known weights, what PSI on the gauge relates to what the weight in the bucket (or on the forks) is within a pretty slim amount of error factor.

To me a far more useful gauge to add would be a Hydraulic Oil temperature gauge.

Mind you I also think the Engine Temperature gauge should read in degrees, not Black, White, Red & Yellow.


Best of luck. ....

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candoarms
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 1932 North Dakota
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2008-12-29          158913

Murf,

I agree, Sir!

A temp gauge on the hydraulic circuit would be worth thousands of dollars.......or at least potentially prevent the destruction of thousands of dollars worth of parts due to the hydraulic oil getting too hot.

Excessive heat is the #1 cause of hydraulic equipment failure.

I also agree that the engine oil gauge should be calibrated in degrees. "C" and "H" don't quite cut it for me. Such gauges leave a lot of room for wonder and worry.

Joel
....

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Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999
Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
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2008-12-29          158916

For us the problem is not so much the "H" & "C" markings but that in fact most such gauges are set to only read a relatively narrow band of temperature.

For instance, the gauge might not even move until the sending unit detects a temp. of +150°. If however you are in a cold place that might be all you will ever get to, but it sure would be nice to know if the "C" means 150° or 15°.

We have retrofitted hyd. oil temperature gauges to our machines and can now tell when the oil is reaching a critical temp. so we can back off a bit and let the machine idle if necessary to lower the temp. to a safe point.

Best of luck. ....

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kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003
Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
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2008-12-29          158918

Reminds me of the oil pressure "gauge" on my Ford Ranger. The pressure switch was not analog, it was digital. When pressure was applied it closed a circuit causing the "gauge" needle to point to the green range. What a joke. ....

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