By Josh Cosford, Contributing Editor
I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty good at troubleshooting hydraulics. It wasn’t always that way, of course. When I was with my previous employer, I recall my first customer visit in 2008, where I was expected to resolve their cylinder issue. It was a drill rig. They couldn’t get the auger to push itself into the ground, and I was immediately stumped.
Luckily, the president of my previous employer was just a phone call away, and I was able to leverage his quarter-century of expertise in fluid power and troubleshooting. You fluid power specialists probably already knew what he asked me to do — remove the rod-side work line and then actuate the valve to extend the crowd cylinder. When fluid began pissing out of the open work port, I relayed this to my boss, and he matter-of-factly replied that the piston seals were pooched, which I passed along to the customer.
The kicker was that despite that three-hour visit, the customer didn’t buy even so much as an O-ring for my efforts, and I’m sure many of you outside sales readers can relate. Troubleshooting can be the most thankless job, especially when the culprit is simply incorrect operation or a poorly adjusted valve. Figuring out that a customer installed their internet-purchased D03 valve backwards on the manifold may offer a meager reward of “oh geez, thanks” in lieu of future business, apparently.
And therein lies one of the rarely discussed downsides to being an effective troubleshooter: customers love someone who can fix their problems for free. Meanwhile, the peddler salesman solves the same problem by throwing new parts at the problem until something sticks. “Oh, it wasn’t the $4,000 pump I sold you? Hmm, maybe buy the $500 D03 from me because the one you bought online is defective.” And then, when the D03 valve arrives, the maintenance manager randomly installs the new valve in the correct orientation, and everything magically works. Mr. Peddler now enjoys the $4,500 padding to his sales target while wasting half the time it would have taken to troubleshoot “for free.”
My sales approach was always to follow the Golden Rule, with the hope that the laws of reciprocity would eventually lead to increased commissions. In reality, I was probably beaten out by the “Always Be Closing” guy, but I have no regrets. Helping customers is always the right thing to do. Regardless, whether you should pursue your ability to troubleshoot proficiently is up to you, because this article is more about whether you can do so even if you try.
I’m going to be frank here, and I mean no offense, but not everyone is on the problem-solving end of the intellectual bell curve. Don’t get me wrong; it’s commonly known that C-students make up their fair share of millionaires. However, those individuals would pay someone else to do their troubleshooting so they can shake hands and make deals instead. Being book smart is also not enough. You need to possess the traditional intelligence that enables you to assemble Ikea furniture without instructions, and you must have both attention to detail and high-level critical thinking.
You must be an analytical thinker to troubleshoot well. When a customer describes an overheating system, a newbie will first think, “Let’s see if the cooler is working.” However, coolers don’t fail catastrophically without clear signs, such as leakage, burnt motors, or water contamination. Something is generating excess heat, so it’s essential to understand what can cause heat in a hydraulic system. You need to understand how any hydraulic component, from pressure valves to pumps, can generate heat and also grasp how heat can affect the entire circuit.
With the right mind and mindset, you have the potential to be an expert troubleshooter, but that doesn’t guarantee success. You just need to be a giant nerd. The innate desire and patience to perform tedious tasks such as making ten printed copies of the schematic and using colored highlighters to mimic the pressure, work and tank lines under various operational conditions to help understand all possible circumstances. Such a task is not necessary for a log splitter, but is likely required for a 1,000-ton injection molding machine.
You must be willing to study hydraulics, learn to interpret even the most complex circuits and then get out into the field and put it all into practice. You need to be patient and methodical, which means most of Gen Z are disqualified (no hate … it is what it is). I’m sorry, but I just can’t picture any of my five children spending time reading schematics for hours, especially considering that my eldest son absolutely loves cars but can’t bring himself to read the driver’s handbook, despite being 16 for the past 16 months.
I apologize, as I know my take is controversial, but I feel like it’s suddenly okay to have controversial opinions again. If you feel left out or underestimated, then by all means, prove me wrong. I know I won’t get any takers because you’re probably only reading this if you fit the criteria. Either you’re a pro troubleshooter already or well on your way.
Filed Under: Engineering Basics, News, Trending, Troubleshooting
