REGINA – Every farmer has struggled with an unruly hydraulic hose. Either the hose was removed while still pressurized or it sat in the sun all day, heated up the oil in the line and created pressure on the ends.
Chuck Campbell has been selling farm equipment and attending farm trade shows for the past two decades. He has seen the struggles with hydraulics first hand.
“We were at a farm show in Kansas and were trying to hook up a piece of equipment after the show. But because of sitting outside and oil expansion in the hoses, the lines had pressurized and we couldn’t get it hooked to the tractor to fold it up,” said Campbell, who is based in Kenosee Lake, Sask.
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“The normal way is to relieve the pressure by taking wrenches, undoing it and bleeding it off, or bang it on the drawbar and squirt oil all over the place until we had the pressure bled off. If we had some way to bleed it off gradually, without having to do that, it would be ideal.”
Campbell and a farmer in Kansas came up with a simple hand tool they call the ExSpurt to solve the problem. It’s a combination of a clamp and pliers.
“You grab the end of the hydraulic hose with a pair of pliers, then a T-bar handle that you screw in bleeds the pressure off. It’s two tools in one. Half the tool holds it in position and the other half bleeds the pressure off,” said Campbell.
The opening of the jaws is the right width to fit over the groove on a standard hydraulic fitting. The other half of the tool clamps over top the outside of the groove to hold it in place. That holds the end in position and a T-bar handle gets screwed into the stopper at the end of the hose to relieve the pressure.
“We wanted to have a shield on there to deflect the oil down, so you could catch the oil in a cup or container,” said Campbell.
“Usually there isn’t that much oil that you have to catch. Normally, we use a coffee cup or something that would hold four to six ounces. That’s about all you have to bleed off to get the pressure relieved.”
The tool includes a chain connecting the ends of the two handles to serve two functions.
“One is to hang the tool up when you’re not using it, but the most important function is to hold it so it can’t open wider than your hand. With it wide open, you can still grasp it with one hand,” Campbell said.
“On the farm, some guys hang it right on the back of the tractor on that chain.”
The ExSpurt is made from flat steel. Campbell gets it laser cut to the dimensions he wants, forms the shield on a press and then assembles it.
“It comes in real handy with the older tractors. Some of the new tractors, you can hook them up under pressure. But a lot of the older tractors and imported tractors, you can’t hook up under pressure. Those are the ones it’s most useful for,” he said.
Campbell sells the hand tool through equipment dealers, or call 306-577-8995. The tool sells for $29.95.
