Splitter hydraulic fluid overflowed

[Ctwoodtick]

Changed the engine oil and hydraulic fluid on my 25 ton dirty hand tools log splitter this afternoon. I’ve done it before but it’s been a while so I was a little bit out of practice with it. It definitely didn’t go as smooth as I would’ve liked.
Couple of things I noticed-the capacity amounts referenced in the manual seem to not be very true to life, as it seemed like the oil would start to overflow after less than the minimum amount was put in. For reference, I did the oil change on the flat surface of my garage. The manual references 20 ounces of engine oil so I put that amount in after I had drained the old oil. I would say after about 15 ounces it started coming back on me. I let it drain until it was not dripping anymore. Put the cap on and called it good. Then started doing the hydraulic fluid. After draining it and then putting on a new oil filter for it, I began putting in the new oil. The manual specifies that you put in 4 gallons and then you put the splitter through a couple of cycles and then put an additional gallon in. Well, just under the 4 gallon mark it started overflowing. I’m glad that I had put down a sheet of plastic ahead of time because it would’ve been a real mess. I was able to siphon out the excess oil and was able to get the oil level to be within the OK range. ToMorrow I will run the splitter for a few cycles and the check the hydraulic oil level again to make sure there is still a good level in there.


Just wondering if this is a common experience for people when they are changing their splitter fluids. I’m wondering if there is residual fluids that essentially cannot be drained unless of course you have the splitter tilted. I would’ve figured there would been a bit of fluid left, but the amount with especially the hydraulic fluid was really surprising.
Thanks in advance for any info you can give me!

 

[salecker]

I have never changed the hydrolic fluid on my splitter,you would have to use it everyday for years to ever need to change fluid unless it gets contaminated.
I never change the hydrolic fluid in my equipment,filters yes.
As for overfilling, just check you levels.

 

[blades]

Have to remember that there is the fluid still in one side or other of the cylinder. You should not fill supply tank full as you need to leave room for heat expansion of the hydro oil. When changing also need to cycle system several times to get any trapped air out.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I have never changed the hydrolic fluid on my splitter,you would have to use it everyday for years to ever need to change fluid unless it gets contaminated.
I never change the hydrolic fluid in my equipment,filters yes.
As for overfilling, just check you levels.

Thanks for the info! Also take that advice about not changing the hydraulic fluid unless it’s to be contaminated, I wasn’t aware of that and just figured it should be changed every once in a while like every couple years or something.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

Have to remember that there is the fluid still in one side or other of the cylinder. You should not fill supply tank full as you need to leave room for heat expansion of the hydro oil. When changing also need to cycle system several times to get any trapped air out.

Thanks! In a couple weeks when I’m back home, I will take out some more oil to allow for air expansion and then check levels after cycling it through a couple times.

 

[Eman85]

Possibly wrong manual with wrong capacities?

 

[Highbeam]

I have never changed any fluid and refilled by alleged capacity. They have dipsticks. Use them. Filling by alleged capacity is likely to leave you underfilled or overfilled as you discovered.

Maybe as a rough guide, if the manual says it needs 15 quarts, you add the first 3 gallons really fast and then add the remainder a bit at a time checking with the dipstick. This is what I just did on my diesel pickup last week.

 

[Ctwoodtick]

I have never changed any fluid and refilled by alleged capacity. They have dipsticks. Use them. Filling by alleged capacity is likely to leave you underfilled or overfilled as you discovered.

Maybe as a rough guide, if the manual says it needs 15 quarts, you add the first 3 gallons really fast and then add the remainder a bit at a time checking with the dipstick. This is what I just did on my diesel pickup last week.

For sure- lesson learned. Thanks for the info

 

[brenndatomu]

I have never changed the hydrolic fluid on my splitter,you would have to use it everyday for years to ever need to change fluid unless it gets contaminated.
I never change the hydrolic fluid in my equipment,filters yes.
As for overfilling, just check you levels.

Water or contamination for sure...and most log splitters have much smaller oil tanks than what is recommended by hydraulic engineers, so they tend to run hot, heat is the enemy of hydraulic oil/systems...I would propose that any splitter that runs long enough, hard enough that you can barely touch the tank, (140*f) should get new oil every couple years. If it runs into the 160* range definitely needs fresh oil on occasion!
Depends a lil on how many hours you put on too...