I like how flat face hydraulic couplers work and how clean they are, but I like that I can release the pressure on Pioneer couplers before hooking them up. In trying to connect attachments with different styles of couplers on my tractor I may have stumbled across a way to have the best of both worlds.

Pioneer couplers have a "poppet", and those of us who grew up in agriculture know that you can release the back pressure on an attachment by putting a rag around it and tapping it with a hammer (or pushing it down on the drawbar). Usually, a small tap and the pressure is out of the system.

Pressure in a closed hydraulic system of an attachment can be a real problem when hooking up. If the attachment was unhooked when it was cool, and then the temperature rises, or the hoses are exposed to the sun, pressure can build drastically in the system. You'd be fighting that pressure when trying to hook the couplers together.

As I said, Pioneer fittings have a way of releasing that pressure, but they're messy. Flat face couplers are much cleaner (they don't release much oil when disconnecting), but you can't easily tap them to release pressure. With an adapter hose you have the best of both worlds.

I've equipped my attachments with flat face couplers. When I'm taking them off the tractor, I'll hook short hoses to them with pioneer couplers on the end. Then I'll plug those Pioneer fittings together to keep the system clean.

The extra volume of the short hoses pre-releases a lot of pressure, but when I'm ready to hook up again, if there's still pressure in the system I can disconnect my Pioneer couplers, put a rag over the male part and tap it with a hammer. All pressure is released at that time. Then I can remove the adapters, and hook my flat face couplers up with no pressure against the implement side. It's a whole lot easier.

If you have multiple attachments, you'll need multiple Pioneer adapters. I'd recommend buying them in 1/2", 3/8" and 1/4" sizes so you can hook other attachments to your tractor if they're not flat face couplers. If you want to keep costs down, just buy one hose per attachment with a male Pioneer on each one and that will enable you to release the pressure when you're ready to attach.

Try this trick and I think switching your front attachments will be a lot easier.

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