Hey Folks! My father and I recently came into a 2003 F550 with central hydraulics (belt-driven). The truck is an ex-municipal plow truck, so it has a reasonably complicated hydraulic system (with plow, dump, and sander hookups) which neither of us are particularly familiar with. So, I'm interested in knowing if there are any good resources for learning about maintenance and troubleshooting of those systems. I've done a bunch of Googling, but given that each truck's setup seems to be slightly different and that I don't even really have a solid idea of what some of the parts actually do, I haven't been able to learn very much. At the moment, I think (?) I'm experiencing a problem with pump cavitation (air in the lines). I have no real basis for saying that other than the sound that the pump makes on some of the hydraulic circuits. The dump circuit is almost silent -- other than the load exerted on the engine by the pump, you can't hear anything as the dump body moves. The plow circuits have always been substantially louder and, to my untrained ear, sounds like the pump is pushing air along with fluid. Additionally, the action of the plow when its moved is fairly jerky -- it moves easily and is certainly usable, but tends to snap around a bit (again -- making me think air is in the lines). So, aside from generally learning more about how central hydraulic systems work so that I actually know what things to research when I have a problem in the future, I'd also love any hints/tips on how to troubleshoot that particular problem. I'm happy to post pictures if that'd help. Even just a simple "this is what all those parts in the picture are and this is what they are there for" would help me enormously. Thanks! - Stuart :Banghead (if this question is inappropriate for this board, let me know if you know of a better place to direct it to)
Welcome to HEF Stuart. :drinkup I'm not familiar with plow truck set ups, but I can imagine various components, especially if it has a single hydraulic pump to operate dump bed, plow, and spreader at the same time. If you post a pic of a component that you're not familiar with, there's a possibility one here might know what it is.
Thanks Willie! Here's a few pictures. I'd love comments on any of them! This is a view of the cab controls . Three cable-attached levers for the plow lift, turn, and dump lift and the sander control just to the rear of it. This is a view from the right side behind the cab . Obviously, that's the oil reservoir in the center. I have no idea what this valve is though. It doesn't budge if I twist, pull or push it, but I may just being too ginger with it. This is a view from the left side behind the cab . In left foreground there's a block that I think may be a set of solenoid valves used to control the sander. Really not sure on that one. This is a view of the sander hookups . We didn't get the sander with the truck, but might at some point. Looks like two circuits, but I'm not sure why there are two (one set doesn't appear to have been used previously). This is a view of what I think is the return manifold together with the oil filter. Behind it is the valve set for the plow and dump. That stuff seems to be fairly straightforward. I didn't include a pic of the pump -- it's buried up in the engine compartment.