What Is a Hydraulic Power Pack and When Do You Need One?

A hydraulic power pack includes a motor, a pump, a tank and the valving to control flow into one self-contained unit. That means you can run a tipping body, a tailgate loader, a crane or a hoist without plumbing into the truck's transmission-driven PTO circuit at all, which matters on vehicles where a PTO is not fitted, is not available, or is already spoken for by another circuit.

Heavy Hydraulics stocks a hydraulic power pack range spanning 12V hydraulic power pack units through to petrol and diesel engine-driven packs, and our team can size one to your cylinder, your duty cycle and the equipment you are running. Here is what is inside a hydraulic power unit, if you need one instead of a PTO-driven system, and how to size one properly.

What Is Inside a Hydraulic Power Pack

Four parts do the work: a motor to provide drive, a pump to generate flow, a reservoir to hold and cool the oil, and a directional control valve to send that flow to whatever cylinder or motor is doing the job. A 12V or 24V unit runs off the vehicle's own electrics. A petrol or diesel engine-driven pack takes over when the job needs more continuous flow than a battery-fed unit can sustain.

PTO vs Hydraulic Power Pack: Which Do You Need?

A PTO, short for power take-off, draws drive from the truck's own transmission, so it depends on the engine running and the transmission being able to accept a PTO fitment. Heavy Hydraulics is an authorised distributor of Parker Chelsea power take-offs, and for plenty of jobs a PTO is still the simplest way to run a pump. A hydraulic power pack works independently of the transmission instead, which suits equipment on trailers, vehicles with no suitable PTO mounting, or a second piece of gear that needs its own supply rather than sharing the truck's circuit.

When Do You Need a Hydraulic Power Pack?

A few situations point toward a power pack over a PTO-driven pump:

• Your vehicle does not have a PTO fitted, or the transmission does not support one, so there is no way to draw hydraulic drive from the driveline directly.
• You are running a trailer, a demountable body or standalone equipment that needs its own power source independent of the towing vehicle.
• You already use your PTO for one circuit and need a second, separate power source for another cylinder or hoist.
• You only need occasional operation, such as a tailgate loader or a tipping body that runs for short bursts, where a compact 12V unit is simpler than plumbing into the PTO circuit.

12V Power Packs vs Engine-Driven Power Packs

A 12V hydraulic power pack (or 24V, depending on your vehicle) runs straight off the truck's own electrics, which suits light, occasional jobs like a tailgate loader or a small hoist where the battery can handle short bursts without much strain. Ask more of it, longer cycles, bigger cylinders, continuous running, and a 12V unit will struggle to keep up. That is where a petrol or diesel engine-driven power pack earns its place, running independently of the vehicle's electrical system and holding up to sustained duty that would otherwise flatten a battery-fed unit.

Sizing a Hydraulic Power Pack to Your Application

Getting the flow rate, tank capacity and motor size right matters more than picking a unit off a shelf. Undersize the tank and the oil overheats on longer cycles. Undersize the pump and the cylinder moves too slowly to be useful. Oversize either and you pay for capacity the job never uses. Heavy Hydraulics sizes each hydraulic power pack to the cylinder bore, stroke and cycle time of your application, single acting or double acting, based on your equipment rather than a generic off-the-shelf rating.

Why Get Your Hydraulic Power Pack From Heavy Hydraulics

Heavy Hydraulics has specialised in truck hydraulic systems since 2016, as the hydraulics division of Heavy Automatics, and is an authorised distributor of Parker Chelsea power take-offs, OMFB hydraulic components and Oilpath valves. Five service facilities across the mainland capital cities and more than $10 million in parts inventory back a team that designs, supplies, installs, services and repairs hydraulic systems, rather than selling a part and leaving you to fit it.

Get Your Hydraulic Power Pack Sorted

Browse the current hydraulic power pack range through the Heavys store, or call 1800 022 831 to talk through sizing for your vehicle and application. For the full hydraulics range, including the PTOs, pumps and valves a power pack might replace or work alongside, visit the Heavy Hydraulics page.

Frequently Asked Questions