NH Skid Steer Drain Plug

Does anyone know where the hydraulic oil drain plug is for the fluid that runs the loader on a NH LS170 skid is?

The great intelligence in Bellville didn't see a need for one.
Make up a hose whip, hook it into one of the couplers, put the other end in a bucket and let rip. When you get the first surge of air, shut it down. Change the filter and refill with new oil.

Rod

The book says to remove the belly pan and remove the lowest rubber suction hose from the tank. Sounds messy, Rod's method sounds much better. I've never changed mine, just the filter. The oil gets changed every time a hose breaks.

If the reservoir also supplies the hydrostat pumps, that's a potential way to damage them as well as the hyd. pump and they aren't cheap. Once the oil level was getting near the bottom, you would probaly get some cavitation(air) in the lines and that can damage pumps and other components. I'd loosen the suction line like the manual says to eliminate any chance of damaging the hydraulics or what I did to drain most of the oil from my Cat was buy a cheap($20) rotary barrel pump and a piece of thicker wall rubber hose(so it wouldn't collapse) to fit on the suction side. I stuck the hose in the filler and pumped about 90% of the oil out. I used the drain for the last little bit but it's kind of awkward right above the track. If there's a plate to get inside the reservoir to the suction strainers, you could take that off and either weld a fitting for a drain on it, or at the bottom of the reservoir. Of course this is if you have a steel tank. Being able to access the inside of tank would allow you to clean out any metal shavings from drilling a hole for a drain. My manual says to change the hyd. oil every 1000 hrs. It would be a real pain without a drain. Dave

Are you talking about an LS170 specifically?
I don't recall the manual saying anything about how to drain the oil on mine. You certainly are not going to get the cross loose at the tank without some major disassembly. Believe me. I tried. Did a lot of cursing about it. Then I just stuck a whip in the boom coupler and let fly...

Rod

You must like work.
If the machine is not moving, the hydro is not displacing anything. The shaft is simply turning on it's bearings.
One burp isn't going to kill a charge pump either.
Just shoot it out with a hose whip. Quick, cheap, easy and effective.
No matter what way you go about it you're not going to get all the oil out so you might as well just get most of it, change the filter and get on with life.
I could be wrong but I don't think there's even a suction strainer on these machines. They've got a one piece moulded plastic tank with a single suction nipple on the bottom front SIDE... and the return is built into a 4 way cross that attaches to said nipple.
They didn't intend for anyone to open it. The filter is a high pressure return filter so the tank should be clean anyway.


Rod

There's 2 suction strainers and a return line filter on mine as well as a drain plug. Return line is usually lower pressure cause it's not doing any work, same as suction line. It wasn't hard to pump the oil out of my Cat and I didn't need to shoot oil all over the place or risk damaging the piston pump. Plastic hyd. tank, no suction strainer, no reservoir drain and chain cases that are too thin. Don't think a NH will be at the top my list if I decide to get another skid steer. Dave

Well, I'm glad it's you who's suffering with the Cat. There are machines other than NH that I would own for a purpose if hte price was right but Cat is not among them.

How do you damage a piston pump when it's not working combined with an auto shutdown that will shut the engine down when charge pressure drops below a safe level?
I'd love to know...

I think you'll find that there are a lot of machines today that don't use a suction strainer. Many use a suction filter... but in the case of this loader, the return filter is there and a filler neck strainer... so the return filter will catch anything in the system before it's returned to the tank and the neck strainer keeps foriegn material out. It seems to work anyway.

Rod

It's not a Cat skid steer. It's a Cat crawler loader. What's wrong with pumping the oil out through the filler? It's not very hard and not messy at all. My Cat has a drain but I didn't have a big enough pail that would sit on the tracks to hold 60 litres of oil. I pumped the oil into a plastic garbage can and then put a smaller container under the drain for the rest. My skid steer has a steel tank which is better for heat dissipation and also a drain. A plastic hyd. tank in a skid steer and no drain. I guess they try to make them as cheap as possible without much thought of maintenance. Any time hyd. oil is low, you risk damage to components. Dave

(reply to post at 13:42:11 02/27/10)

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I know its 7 years later but I just bought a used 2001 Ls170 and I would like to do some maintenance to it. I want to change the hydro oil. I read your post about making a whip and draining it through that. When you say connect to couplings do mean the auxiliary quick connects, and if so does it matter which one? Doing it this way you are sure there is no way to harm the machine? Also the service manual states 10w30 SH/CG4 does, I having hard time finding that rating any suggestions on type of oil.