Hydraulic Leak and Bio Oil

We inherited a few GKIV from our sister course the last few years . I was concerned about hydraulic leaks happening on these old machines since they are used on and around greens . Going with the Greens Care Bio oil paid off last Friday. We are short staffed this time of year , so I'm doing double duty and helping out on the course as needed . Friday I mowed approaches with one of the GK's and the steering line ruptured leaking about 5 liters of bio oil in front of 16 green . 

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Old technology is never fun to repair in this situation . I was going to do a post on the repair but was getting a little behind .   

The steering lines run down under the floor pan . The machine is a 2000 year model and over time the floor pan wore a hole through the Kevlar rap . Not an easy repair . Well it was easy but a lot of parts had to be removed for repair and it was a little time consuming  .  

Being way under budget last season I was able to get a basic Hydraulic line making kit . So far I have used it a few times making up lines as needed. I'm starting to get pretty good at it now .

This is the Bio Oil from Jacobsen . A lot of manufacturers have their own line .  

After repairing the lines with a high quality replacement  line I also notched out the floor pad and installed these hose guards from Lawsons .

 

A few pictures of the leak 4 days later .

Some courses will use Dawn liquid detergent and water right away to get rid of the Bio Oil streaks.

I have seen hydraulic leaks in the past from NON bio oils and the damaged area had to be removed and replaced with new sod . With this product, turf should look uniform again in a few weeks.

The lines are faint and my superintendent was impressed that no grass was damaged . He asked about what kind of hydraulic fluid was used in the machine . It was my first time seeing a Bio Oil leak and I'm very impressed . I may look into doing our Toro 3150 Q this winter .It is a little more costly and doesn't last as long as regular hydro oil.   The damage may have been reduced a bit because the oil was spraying up on the floor pan first giving it a little time to cool off . The line also blew around 1.5 hrs. into the job.