Tractors, excavators and other heavy machines are the most useful and most dangerous salvage: a running tractor with fuel is a stationary power plant through its power takeoff shaft, and hydraulic cylinders multiply force, but a raised bucket, a pressurised hydraulic line and a spinning shaft can each kill. Lower every boom and implement to the ground, relieve hydraulic pressure before opening any line, and treat a leaking hydraulic line as a skin-penetration hazard.
Farms and construction sites hold machines far more capable than any car, and their power sources, shafts and cylinders can be reused whole or in part. Their size makes mistakes much more costly.
A Tractor With Fuel Is An Industrial Power Plant, So Protect It
The parent article calls a farm tractor with a power takeoff shaft perhaps the single most versatile stationary power source. A running tractor with fuel is an industrial power plant, and tractors and their fuel supply are strategic assets. Hydraulic cylinders from excavators, backhoes, log splitters and dump trucks convert fluid pressure into linear motion, and a single cylinder can exert tons of force. For the principles and builds see Hydraulic Systems. For using the PTO see PTO & Belt-Drive Applications.
Salvage targets include excavator arm cylinders, dump-truck bed cylinders, log-splitter cylinders complete with pump and valve, forklift mast cylinders and agricultural loaders and three-point hitches (parent article).
What You Need
- Cribbing, stands and chains, to hold raised parts.
- Hydraulic hoses, fittings and fluid; transmission fluid works as hydraulic fluid (parent article).
- A hand pump, an engine-driven pump or a PTO pump, and a control valve.
- Gloves, eye protection and a partner.
- A fire extinguisher or sand, for diesel and hydraulic oil fires.
Method: Make It Safe, Then Reuse It
Step 1: Lower and block. Lower every bucket, blade, boom and implement to the ground. If it cannot be lowered, support it on cribbing or stands before anyone goes near it.
Step 2: Stop the energy. Switch the engine off, remove the key or battery lead, and let hot parts cool.
Step 3: Relieve hydraulic pressure. Operate the controls with the engine off, as the machine’s design allows, and loosen fittings slowly with a rag round them and your face turned away.
Step 4: Check the running condition of any machine you intend to run: fluids, belts, shaft guards and the fuel quality; see Diesel & Heating Oil.
Step 5: Remove components such as cylinders only when the load they carry has been supported separately.
Step 6: Reuse. Use the power source through the PTO, and the cylinders in presses, splitters and lifts.
Common Mistakes
- Working under a raised boom or bucket held by hydraulics alone. Pressure bleeds off and it falls.
- Checking for a hydraulic leak with your hand. High-pressure fluid can penetrate skin.
- Stepping over a turning PTO shaft. Entanglement is fast and severe.
- Starting a machine that has stood for a long time without checking fuel and fluids.
Safety
Crushing, injection, entanglement and fire
A raised boom, bucket or blade can fall on you if its hydraulics leak down; lower it or block it before working near it. Hydraulic fluid under pressure can penetrate skin from a pinhole leak and needs urgent medical care; look for leaks with a piece of cardboard and never with your hand. Rotating shafts such as the PTO take in clothing and limbs in an instant: keep guards fitted and shut the machine down before touching anything that turns. Diesel and hydraulic oil burn; keep sand and an extinguisher to hand. Heavy machines roll over on slopes; do not run them on soft or steep ground.
What’s Next
- Learn next: PTO & Belt-Drive Applications — using the shaft
- Combine with: Safe Extraction Procedures — the general order of operations