Yes, the animation needs fixed, it's too stiff, it reuses the bumper car animations too much, and it seems too slow at times, but I've got an idea that I don't know if it works or not. (Probably not)
My concept is using WASD for hydraulic control. What you do, is you hold down Mouse 2 so that WASD controls the hydraulics instead of movement, but it reverts when you let go of Mouse 2.