An overlooked and often neglected component on a travel lift (or other hydraulic equipment) are the gauges. Gauges display the hydraulic pressures of the machines at idle, while moving, and under load. They are incredibly important to have to judge the PSI range for your machine, and they should be clear and readable by the operator.
For the most part, these pressure gauges will only be understood by the engineers, but it’s important to keep track of them so that you can understand when things go awry. Because of this you need to know how to read the pressure gauge and when.
How to read the Pressure Gauge
First, all of our systems come with pressure gauges installed and are easy to spot, validating their importance. When the machine is off, it should have a pressure reading of zero, if it says otherwise your machine will need calibration. However, there are three pressure readings you should measure and know by heart.
- Idle Pressure Reading – Machine when it turns on and has sat for a while.
- Pressure When Moving – Machine without materials, while it is moving consistently.
- Pressure Under load – Machine being still, with materials.
These are critical measurements to familiarize yourself with and have written down or even better, pictures. You want consistent pictures and readings for when you call your engineer.
If something does happen to the machine, you will now be able to log and compare the various pressure readings and report back to the engineer accordingly. Without this information would add in a lot of guess-work to the equation and would only increase the downtime of your machine.
If you have any additional questions about the pressure gauges, how to read them, or have any noticeable kinks or problems with your gauges, don’t hesitate to call us today at (631) 472-3030!
