What to Do If Your Truck Loses Hydraulic Pressure on the Road
If your tipper or crane suddenly loses hydraulic pressure, stop in a safe spot, shut down the PTO, and check for an obvious leak before doing anything else. Don’t keep cycling the ram — that just pushes more oil out through the failure point.
Stop Cycling It
The instinct when a ram stops lifting is to keep working the lever, hoping it frees up. If the loss of pressure is due to a burst hose or a blown seal, every extra cycle pumps more oil out onto the road and can force air further into the system, making the eventual repair take longer.
Check the Obvious First
Before assuming the worst, look for a hose that’s split or pulled off a fitting, and check the tank sight-glass or dipstick for oil level. A surprising number of pressure-loss call-outs come down to a hose failure that’s simple to spot and, if you’re carrying a spare, quick to swap.
Don’t Top Up and Hope
If the tank is low, resist the urge to just add oil and carry on. If oil is leaving the system somewhere, adding more only delays the same failure and risks contaminating fresh oil with whatever caused the original leak.
When to Call It In
If there’s no obvious external leak but pressure still isn’t building, the fault is likely internal — a worn pump, a valve not seating, or a failing PTO — and that needs proper fault-finding rather than roadside guesswork.
Need this looked at rather than just read about? Our Hydraulic Repairs & Maintenance service covers exactly this.