Farm equipment hydraulic repair in Yolo County
Tomato and rice harvesters, almond and walnut shakers and sweepers, tractor remotes and three-points, loader and implement cylinders, sprayer fan drives. Harvest-season routes from Woodland, published prices, parts held for the machines that are cutting.
Farm equipment hydraulic repair in Yolo County runs $350 to $900 to reseal a small implement or header cylinder, $1,000 to $3,000 to rebuild a large-bore shaker clamp or bankout dump cylinder, $800 to $4,000 for a tractor pump or sprayer fan motor, and $245 to $750 for a hose made at the machine in the field. The county has about 1,000 farms averaging 456 acres, grown on processing tomatoes, almonds, rice, wheat and sunflower, and nearly every machine that plants, sprays, shakes and harvests that ground is hydraulic from the three-point to the header (source: USDA Census of Agriculture, Yolo County). Capay Hydraulics runs a mobile crimper truck on harvest routes from August into November, holds seal kits and hose for the harvesters and carts that are working, and rebuilds cylinders, pumps and valves in the Woodland shop the rest of the year.
The Yolo County calendar, in hydraulic failures
- February to April, planting and spraying: tractor remotes and three-point lift, planter and drill lift cylinders, orchard sprayer fan drive motors and boom cylinders, the first hoses to crack after a wet winter.
- May to July, cultivation and hay: cultivator and ripper lift cylinders, swather and baler circuits, loader cylinders stacking hay, the summer heat starting to cook seals.
- Late July to October, tomato harvest: header lift and boom cylinders, elevator and sorter drive motors, bankout cart dump cylinders, transport trailer hoists, and a lot of hoses on machines running 16-hour days.
- September to November, rice and nuts: rice harvester header and unloading auger circuits, tracked tractor drive motors, shaker clamp and boom cylinders, sweeper head lifts and motors, harvester pickup drives in a cloud of dust.
- Winter layup: the pitted rods and dried seals that will show up as leaks on the first day back in February. Extend, wipe and grease rods before parking.
Machines we stock parts for
John Deere, Case IH, New Holland, Kubota, Massey Ferguson and the older International and Ford tractors still working the Capay Valley; tomato harvesters and bankout carts; rice combines and tracked tractors; orchard shakers, sweepers and harvesters; sprayers with hydraulic fan drives; and the loaders and forklifts at the hullers and packing sheds. The brand matters less than the seal profile and the fitting standard, and we carry the common ones for all of them.
Heat, dust and water: why Valley farm hydraulics fail
Three things in this county kill seals faster than hours do. Heat: Woodland afternoons above 100 degrees push oil temperature past 180 in a black steel reservoir, hardening seals and hose tubes. Dust: orchard sweepers and harvesters pack grit into rod wipers, and the next stroke drags it past the seal and scores the bore. Water: rice ground runs cart and tractor cylinders half submerged, and a rod that sits wet through the winter pits where the seal rides. A worn wiper is a $20 part; the scored bore it causes is a $1,000 rebuild. We replace wipers on sight and tell you when a rod needs to come out before winter.
Where the harvest routes run
Tomato and row-crop ground around Woodland, Dixon and Davis; rice up Highway 113 to Knights Landing and the Natomas Basin; almonds and walnuts in Winters and up Highway 16 through the Capay Valley; dryland and orchard ground north to Dunnigan and Arbuckle. Trip fees by town are on the cost guide.
Farm hydraulic questions
My harvester header is bleeding down mid-field. Can you fix it today?
In season, usually yes. Header lift cylinders are small bore, and a reseal is $350 to $900 with a day in the shop, but during harvest we pull it at the field in the afternoon and aim to have it back before the next morning shift.
Do you work on older tractors, or only the new ones?
Older ones are half the farm work. Pumps, valves and cylinders on 1970s through 1990s Deere, Case, Ford, Massey and International tractors rebuild well and are worth it on a paid-for machine. Parts that are no longer made get machined or substituted, and we say which.
Can you come out to the orchard for a shaker clamp cylinder?
Yes. Clamp cylinders are large bore, $1,000 to $3,000 to rebuild, and in shaker season we pull them the same evening and turn them overnight when the kit is on the shelf, because a shaker that will not hold is a crew standing idle.
What does it cost to fix a sprayer fan drive motor?
Hydraulic motor repair or replacement runs $800 to $4,000, and orchard sprayer fan motors are usually gear or gerotor units at the low end. If the motor died from contamination we say so, because the same oil will kill the replacement.
Do you do preventive checks before harvest?
Yes. A pressure and flow test on the harvester or tractor before the season is $195 to $450, credited against any repair we find. Hoses that are cracked or the same age as one that already failed get flagged so they can be replaced on one trip.
Price a farm repair
Machine, part, symptom, and which road it is on. In season, call (916) 848-2246 and say it is a harvester.