Bobcat CT445 3 point problem

[roadhunter]

Just my luck. LOL. I purchased a different tractor and was planning on putting this up for sale and I think I must have made it mad when it heard the news. I used it this evening to unload a trailer full of logs and everything was working great. Thinking back I did notice a couple of times that the FEL control seemed sticky but nothing that really caught my attention at the time. 15 minutes later the neighbors came over and needed me to help move a round bale so I started it up and the 3 point would not come up. Messed around with all the other hydraulics but nothing worked. I searched the forum and found some people with issues on the little knob below the seat but that did not seem to work.

The FEL and remotes are operating correctly. I don't' hear the hydraulic pump straining. Still drives just fine, just no 3 point. Stuck in down position. Checked the hydraulic oil and it was a little low so I topped it off. Not sure what to think:confused3:

The good news is the tractor is just over a year old and should be under warranty. Only has 114 hours.

The bad news is that the dealer I bought it from has been purchased by a CAT/Challenger dealer and no longer services Bobcat. There is a new dealer in town but they are run by a car dealership and have been in business a month, clearly no experience/training with Bobcat tractors. I know the Bobcat dealer in Scottsbluff did not sell tractors as I stopped to buy a filter and they immediately told me they never carried tractors. I'm planning on contacting the corporate office tomorrow to see if they can recommend a dealer for service work that has experience with Bobcat tractors.

Any other suggestions or ideas what this might be?

 

[tman1020]

Any chance that the linkage could have come loose on the control? Or Do you have a second control lever on the back that might be hung up. Lastly I know u said remotes work normal but you do not have rear remote in detent do you?

 

[roadhunter]

I checked the linkage again this morning. The inside and second lever seem to be working correctly. I played with the rear remotes and you can hear the strain of the pump deadheading if you move the control. I do not have detents on them.

But thanks for the suggestions. Many times it's something simple.

 

[winston1]

I checked the linkage again this morning. The inside and second lever seem to be working correctly. I played with the rear remotes and you can hear the strain of the pump deadheading if you move the control. I do not have detents on them.

But thanks for the suggestions. Many times it's something simple.

Going to sound stupid but make sure your rear remotes are not holding pressure. I had a similiar problem with my ct235. Turned out my loader was off and I had pressured the loader control valve up. When I did this my 3 point started acting strange. It took seveal seconds to respond. Can't explain it much more than that but just saying try releasing the quick connects pressure on the rear remotes.

 

[k0ua]

I am thinking that the bobcats don't have a draft control, I think that was one of the difference es between them and the Kioti. But if it does make sure it is fully forward. You might have to take it to a Kioti dealer. But I don't know how they would handle warranty work.

 

[roadhunter]

Going to sound stupid but make sure your rear remotes are not holding pressure. I had a similiar problem with my ct235. Turned out my loader was off and I had pressured the loader control valve up. When I did this my 3 point started acting strange. It took seveal seconds to respond. Can't explain it much more than that but just saying try releasing the quick connects pressure on the rear remotes.

Interesting. I will give that a try.

 

[roadhunter]

I am thinking that the bobcats don't have a draft control, I think that was one of the difference es between them and the Kioti. But if it does make sure it is fully forward. You might have to take it to a Kioti dealer. But I don't know how they would handle warranty work.

What exactly is draft control?

I checked the little knob below the seat that adjust how fast the 3 point drops but not sure about the "draft control"

 

[roadhunter]

I called Bobcat corporate and they gave me the numbers to the dealers, wouldn't let me talk to the area manager who I asked to speak to. Like I said before the dealer where I bought the tractor about a year ago is now a cat dealer. There is a new dealer in town who said they would look at it but had no training and never worked on the 3 point hitch on a tractors before. They have only been in business a month and told me the next service opening was almost 3 weeks out. Then I called Bobcat of the Rockies down in Colorado (5 hours away). They were able to get in touch with the area manager and make sure they could offer warranty work. They has sold the tractors in the past and were familiar with them. Told me they were 2-3 days out. Completely professional through the whole phone conversation and call back. Needless to say I'd rather drive 5 hours to get good service than 15 minutes likely waste my time.

It's not going from working correctly to not working at all at any given time. I can't seem to find any real rhyme or reason. Tried playing with aux hydraulics, FEL, PTO, etc and can't seem to see any difference when I did it. The fact that is works correctly sometimes is what really has me puzzled.

I want to take care of this now so the next owner can buy with confidence so I am heading to Colorado next week.

 

[k0ua]

What exactly is draft control?

I checked the little knob below the seat that adjust how fast the 3 point drops but not sure about the "draft control"

The Draft control is a control lever that works in conjunction the 3pt control. It adjusts the sensitivity of the draft function. Here is the purpose of the draft function. When plowing the Position control sets the overall depth but what if the plow hits a root or rock? Instead of stalling the tractor we want the plow to automatically raise out of the ground and to become unhooked from the immovable obstruction. You could plow while your right hand is riding on the position control constantly to raise the plow, and drop it back down, but why not build a system to do that automatically and return it to the preset depth, and do it much faster than a person can react anyway?

How does it know when to raise the plow? When you set the "draft" another way of saying "pull" so that in the normal resistance of the ground you are plowing will not cause it to raise but when it hits something solid it will apply inward force on the toplink that causes a feedback mechanism to apply hydraulic fluid to the lift cylinder to jerk the plow out of the ground and off of the obstruction. And when that "draft" force is no longer there it drops the plow back into the ground at the depth that the position control is still setting at.

i probably did not describe this very elegantly but I hope you got the idea of the function I was trying to describe. I don't think the Bobcats have a draft control, but my Kioti DK35se which is a stablemate to a Bobcat CT335 does have one, though I don't have any use for it. Some people do use the draft control when box blading also.

The little knob under the seat is the drop rate control. It is simply a needle valve that lets the fluid escape the lift cylinder back to the tank, and controls the rate of that escape or if turned too far closed off, does not escape at all, and the implement will not drop under the pull of gravity at all. It just stays up and then guys come on this forum and ask why their implement will not go down.

 

[roadhunter]

The Draft control is a control lever that works in conjunction the 3pt control. It adjusts the sensitivity of the draft function. Here is the purpose of the draft function. When plowing the Position control sets the overall depth but what if the plow hits a root or rock? Instead of stalling the tractor we want the plow to automatically raise out of the ground and to become unhooked from the immovable obstruction. You could plow while your right hand is riding on the position control constantly to raise the plow, and drop it back down, but why not build a system to do that automatically and return it to the preset depth, and do it much faster than a person can react anyway?

How does it know when to raise the plow? When you set the "draft" another way of saying "pull" so that in the normal resistance of the ground you are plowing will not cause it to raise but when it hits something solid it will apply inward force on the toplink that causes a feedback mechanism to apply hydraulic fluid to the lift cylinder to jerk the plow out of the ground and off of the obstruction. And when that "draft" force is no longer there it drops the plow back into the ground at the depth that the position control is still setting at.

i probably did not describe this very elegantly but I hope you got the idea of the function I was trying to describe. I don't think the Bobcats have a draft control, but my Kioti DK35se which is a stablemate to a Bobcat CT335 does have one, though I don't have any use for it. Some people do use the draft control when box blading also.

The little knob under the seat is the drop rate control. It is simply a needle valve that lets the fluid escape the lift cylinder back to the tank, and controls the rate of that escape or if turned too far closed off, does not escape at all, and the implement will not drop under the pull of gravity at all. It just stays up and then guys come on this forum and ask why their implement will not go down.

Interesting. Thanks for the explanation. I never knew such a thing existed. I just always kinda thought that most tractor 3 points were in a "float" type position where the implement can "float" up over objects or a fancy way of saying no down pressure is exerted with the three point hitch.