Hydraulic checks before fall harvest on Winnebago County farms

Winnebago County plants around 37,000 acres of soybeans, 36,000 of corn and 15,000 of forage, most of it west of Oshkosh toward Omro, Eureka and Poygan. That ground comes off in a window of a few weeks, and the machines that take it off sat through August. Hoses do not fail in the shed. They fail on the first full day of load, and Oshkosh Hydraulic Line Repair spends every October making hoses in fields that could have been made in a yard in September. This is the walk we do on a preseason inspection, written down so you can do the first pass yourself.

Why the first week of harvest is when hoses go

A combine or chopper hose spends eleven months relaxed and one month at pressure. Rubber that sat all summer went hard at the bends, and the cover cracked where the sun hit it. Then the first cold mornings of late September stiffen it further, and the first header lift of the day puts full system pressure behind a hose that has been holding nothing since last November. The hoses that fail are almost always the ones that flex: header lift, feederhouse, reel, unloading auger swing, and the grain cart auger fold. Hoses that just carry fluid from the pump to a valve block rarely go on their own.

The other reason is dust. Bean dust and corn chaff pack around fittings and hide a weep for days. By the time you see oil on the ground the fitting has been leaking through two fields. Wiping every fitting clean before the season starts is the only way to know what is new.

Walk the machine before it leaves the yard

Machine off, pressure relieved, flashlight in hand. Run a gloved hand along each hose and look at the fittings, in this order.

• Header and feederhouse. The hoses across the header attach point flex every time the header lifts. Look for shiny flat spots where the cover rubbed, cracked cover at the bend out of the fitting, and wire showing through. Check the multicoupler faces for grit and missing dust caps.
• Reel and auger drives. Reel fore and aft cylinders and the unloading auger swing cylinder both have hoses that move with the cylinder. A wet rod or a gland collecting dust means the cylinder is weeping and will get worse under a full tank.
• Hydrostatic lines. The big four wire hoses on the drive circuit run hot and at high pressure. A crack in the cover or a bulge near a crimp on one of these is a stop the machine item, not a watch item. They cost more than any other hose on the combine to replace and take the pump with them when they blow.
• Grain cart and wagon. The auger fold and spout hoses run down the tongue to the tractor remotes and drag on the hitch every turn. Look at the section nearest the drawbar. Check the tractor remote couplers for weeping around the sleeve.
• Loader and skid steer at the pile. The bundle at the boom pivot wears three hoses at the same spot. Check the quick attach cylinder hoses and the couplers on the attachment side.
• Every fitting. Wipe it, run the machine for five minutes, look again. Fresh oil at the nut is a leak. Our guide to reading a failed hose covers which fitting leaks a wrench fixes and which ones it makes worse.
• The tank. Level at the sight glass, and color against fresh fluid from the pail. Cloudy or milky fluid has water in it, and that is a separate job before the season, not after.

Anything with wire showing, a bulge, a kink or a cracked cover at the fitting goes on the replace list. Anything with a shiny flat but the cover intact goes on the watch list and gets a spiral guard or a clamp so it stops rubbing.

What a field breakdown costs against a yard inspection

Labor inside those ranges is $95 to $140 per hour. After hours the call is $150 to $250 and labor is 1.5 times the day rate, on the emergency page. Every row is on the pricing page.

The hose costs the same in the yard as in the field. What changes is everything around it. A daytime hose in Omro is usually $225 to $425 all in. The same hose at dusk on a Saturday with rain coming is the after hours call, labor at 1.5 times, a combine parked at the edge of a half finished field, and a truck and crew waiting on it. The inspection is priced so that finding one bad hose pays for it.

What to carry in the cab

Spares for the hoses that flex. During the inspection we measure the header lift, reel and auger hoses and make them to length with the right ends, so they ride in the cab until they are needed. Add the correct fluid for topping up (the winter fluid guide covers grades for the cold half of the season), a bag of absorbent, and a phone photo of every hose end so you can text us the fitting type without walking back to the machine.

If a hose lets go in the field, note how much fluid hit the ground. Wisconsin's spill law, Wis. Stat. 292.11, requires the person responsible for a hazardous substance discharge to report it to the DNR right away, and petroleum products including hydraulic oil are covered. Most field hose failures are a few gallons on dirt and we tell you honestly on the phone if yours is one that needs the call.

Getting the truck to the right gate

Field calls in Winnebago County need the fire number on the driveway post, the county road, and which field entrance, or a pin dropped by text to (920) 521-8455. A mailing address gets the truck to the house while the combine sits two sections over. During harvest we keep the long lengths that implements need and the quick coupler ends that tractors use on the truck, so the hose is made in the field, not back at a shop.

Booking the inspection

Call or send the form with the machines you want walked and the town. Early September is easier to schedule than the last week, and a machine that gets its list in early has time for a cylinder to come off if it needs to. The farm equipment page covers what else the truck does on a dairy or grain operation through the year.