Hydraulic Hose Question

[Tim/South]

 I have a boom truck and need to figure how to rig some hydraulic hoses.
The boom is a knuckle boom that also has two extensions that boom in and out.
I have a grapple but can only use it as a Knuckle boom because that is as far as the plumbing goes.
I would like to be able to reach out the other 15 feet or so. Right now I do not use the grapple because I am limited in reach.

A friend told me to look into the hoses used on an extenahoe back hoe. I am not certain how those work, I believe they build a loop in the hose when the back hoe is retracted.
I can see where a standard hose would cause me problem just hanging down.
There are a lot of common sense folks on this forum so I thought I would ask for some advice/opinions.

Thanks in advance.
Tim

[isawlogs]

Maybe Sprucebunny will look in here , she might be able to ge a pic of the extend a boom plumbing off of her back-hoe.

[bill m]

This is how it is set up on my log trailer with the extend a boom

[Jamie_C]

If your extension boom is 15 feet combined then you might have to look at what was commonly used on "squirt boom" harvesters like the Valmet 901 or like what is used on the big rail delimbers. It is basically a system that rolls and unrolls the hydraulic hoses from a drum kinda like you would use for your garden hose at home. I would find a decent hydraulic shop in your neighbourhood and start explaining what you want to do and get their advice.

[Tim/South]

Thanks for the replies and ideas.

I have talked to a local hydraulic shop and they were not familiar with how to plumb an extension.
I am going tomorrow to a boom truck business. I am looking to buy a used bucket. I plan to ask them how the extensions are normally fed.

[Jamie_C]

Feeding the extension is rather easy, plumbing the attachment at the end of the 15' extension should be the only minor difficulty.

The extension booms themselves have a cylinder in them and the hoses are quite easily routed for those. If you have a "double extension" then you would have a 2 stage cylinder similar to what is used on a dump truck or large dump trailers.

You could build a bracket on the end of the boom to support the hoses supplying fluid to the grapple but you are going to have a lot of hose out there swinging in the breeze just waiting to get caught on something.

If your local hydraulic shop doesn't know how to plumb a simple extension boom i suggest you very quickly find a different hydraulic shop to deal with.

Another consideration is does the current valve bank on the truck have enough sections to plumb everything you are looking to do. If not you might be able to expand your current valve bank with an additional section or you might need an entirely different valve bank setup.

Either way you really need to find a hydraulic shop that actually knows more about hydraulics than how to crimp a fitting on the end of a hose.

[Stephen Alford]

Hey Tim/South, the hoses on the extension are steel lines to the joint ,then steel lines curl back toward the levers then go to rubber lines. They are held together by clamps which seperate them but keep them moving as one every couple ft. This is the only pic I have, hope it gives you a bit of help.