Cold Hydraulics!!!

[1st Class Husker]

Anyone having problems with their hydraulics freezing when its cold out, 25 degrees or colder!

We have a 2006 55 altec double bucket, when its cold we lose the jib functions, bucket rotation and impact wrench!!!( Very frusturating) The boom works fine though!

Have tried adding avaition fluid to oil res., blowing out orfices in hydraulic block, Altec even sent new hydraulic block from factory. Nothing seems to work, bring the truck into the shop and in 15 to 20 min everthing works fine.

Help,,,, any suggestions would be appreciated, running out of patience with altec and this truck!!!

Altec doesnt have any more suggestions and it really is frusterating to have a $200,000 man lift!!

[heelwinch]

They used what they called Glacier Blue hydraulic oil in our Altecs. We worked in a lot colder than 25 deg F, and never had any issues. Sounds to me like you might have moisture issues.

Is it continuous rotation? Have you serviced the filters?

[BigClive]

Sounds like moisture to me too. (Ice crystals form in the oil and block the control valves). It could also be that the higher viscosity of the cold oil is aggravating a valve issue that doesn't show up in warmer weather.

I can recall times in the past when I've been up tipping a kettle of hot water over a valve to melt the ice. Once the oil starts flowing it warms everything up and the issue goes away until the next day.