bucket truck hydraulics

[uglydukwling]

I have an Amador A-41-TF bucket truck. Apparently the company has been sold more than once, because Google comes up with the names Skyjack and Linamar.


It has a burst hydraulic hose inside the upper boom and the connections aren't acccessible. Looking into the upper end of the boom, I can see a plate where the hoses are connected to bulkhead fittings, but it looks just about impossible to reach the connections on the side I can see, never mind those on the back side of the plate. There is no access cover beside the connectors
.
It's hard to believe that they would have designed a boom that had to be dismantled to change a hose. Does anybody have any experience with this type of boom?

If there's such a thing as a manual for this truck, I'd love to buy one.

 

[Torquin]

I know where you're coming from, as my truck is a Telelect which became a Simon Telelect and then something else and now it's Terex. I was able, through Terex, to get a manual. They had to get it specially made, once I gave them the serial number off the boom. It isn't all correct, but it's better than nothing.

As far as your hoses, some will only be accessible if you pull them out of the boom When I have busted hoses in the past, I was able to access most of the ones I had to by taking loose the looms in the boom, through access panels in the boom, and move the hose to a point where I could work on the break. I still have one that's busted in the boom, for the jib winch, but I because I am unable to access that hose without pulling it out, I plugged those hoses and rerouted the jib crane tilt lines to run the jib winch. I just do without tilt. That will be fine until I can re-hose the entire truck.
If you are unable to do anything with it, you might see if you can find a shop in your area that can fix it. Look for Utility equipment repair facilities, and/or ask the power company guys when you see them. One of them is bound to be able to point you to someone that can assist.
I don't know what kind of hose you have, but since it is likely non-conductive (orange), like mine, you'll need to get some Parflex. The best price I could find was here: http://www.hydraulichouse.com/. I bought a roll of it so I could have extra, and it came in handy for the other breaks.


Chris

 

[uglydukwling]

If I could pull the hose out to the point where I could reach the connector, I could cope. The problem is that the hoses can't be pulled out. The connections are all made at bulkhead connectors on a plate inside the boom. There's no access cover anywhere near the plate. I suppose that if the plate could be detatched from the inside of the boom, it might be possible to slide it out with all the hoses attached, but as far as I can see, there wouldn't be enough slack in the hoses to do this.

The idea of using another line has some posibilities. I have an extra hose which fed a winch that no longer exists. It might be possible to switch this to the "upper boom fold" line which is the one that has failed. Easy to do at the top of the boom where all the hoses and valves are exposed, but I can't figure out how to trace the hoses to switch them at the other end, wherever the "other end" turns out to be. I can't do it at the lower control station because it doesn't have a valve for the winch. There must be a place where it can be done. Any ideas?

Does anybody have a boom that sounds like this design, even if it isn't an Amador?

 

[blue69oval]

Amador Parts and Service

Uglydukwling,

Stumbled across your post. If you still have the unit, you have one of the best aerials ever manufactured!!!

Parts are readily avaliable for the units as most were "off the shelf" pieces. (Not custom like Altec, Telelect, etc.)

For parts, manuals and service you need to contact one of these two companies:
-Fleet-All Services (Torbarrie Rd., Toronto, Ont.)
-CUE Engineering (Dundas St., Woodstock, Ont.)

Hope this helps for the future.