Hydraulic couplers and hoses are the much-abused umbilical cords between tractors and towed equipment. If a planter’s marker arms begin to act wonky or a field cultivator’s wings fold slower than normal, check the usual suspects, including:
- Faulty quick couplers. The seals and springs inside both the male and female couplers can fail. To test female couplers on tractors, switch hoses from another system to the questionable couplers. If the problem stays with the coupler or if the problem follows the hoses will decide where to start repairs.
- Damaged hoses. Folding equipment, especially planters, require lots of hydraulic hoses to be routed through areas where they get bent at sharp angles. Retaining straps fail, hoses shift and hoses get crimped enough to restrict flow. Problems that originate after folding or unfolding a piece of equipment justify close inspection of all hinge points. Problems that develop in the field after crossing ditches might be related to vertical movement of wing sections or pinch points near the tractor hitch.
- Reduced hydraulic flow/lift. Many tractors have some sort of hydraulic flow control, whether it’s a simple “rabbit/turtle” control on the tractor’s SCV or a more sophisticated computer-controlled flow control in the cab. More than one “major hydraulic catastrophe” was avoided when it was discovered those controls had somehow been bumped or altered. Always check the simple stuff first.
- Sagging wings on towed equipment. Drooping planter bars and sagging wings on field cultivators can often be cured by cycling the system all the way up and all the way down to re-phase the system. This is a common problem in fields with lots of waterways or terraces, where the planter or field cultivator only gets partially raised, over and over. Stop, raise the machine and hold the hydraulic lever in “raise” for 15 or 20 seconds, then do the same thing with “lower.”
