B2710 Steering problems

[Ian]

The power steering on my B2710 starts to bind after an hour or so of mowing. The temperature indicator never rises more than 1/3 of the way to redline. I've only got 105 hours on the tractor.
I checked the Discussion Archives, and it seems that a few owners had reported similar problems last August.
Has Kubota come up with a fix for this? I will try using synthetic oil in the transmission if all else fails, but it sure would be nice if Mr. Kubota already has a solution figured out (maybe even covered under warranty /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif, which in my case runs out in 2 weeks!).
I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has experience with this problem.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Are you by an chance mowing in 4WD? On my L35 there is a substantial windup in the front and rear tires, and on even dirt I can't get it out of 4WD without dropping the bucket. Once I was using it for some time in 4WD with the bucket up, shuttling firewood and the steering did feel a bit funny. It's hard to REALLY tell as the steering on this is basically effortless even with a load in the bucket. I haven't had the occasion to really test that but with all that turning (mowing) you were doing 2WD would probably make some sense.

Of course if you were already using 2WD, cancel this post, and I'll go back to scratchin' my head!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

del

 

[Bird]

I've had my B2710 a year now and I've only felt a little binding in the steering twice; both times in very hot weather, after more than an hour of continuous mowing with the brush hog in such light mowing conditions that I was running in 2WD, HIGH range, pretty fast, using the speed set (cruise), and making some hard fast turns using one brake. I haven't even spoken to the dealer about it because I know now hard it can be to isolate intermittent problems like that.

Bird

 

[art]

Ian do not change to synthetic oil until you talk to your dealer. If you can constantly make this happen offer to show him or his technician the problem. There is some thing wrong. your tractor has a two year warrantee and should be covered.

 

[art]

Del big difference between the two tractors. But you should balance the air pressure in your tires to eliminate your problem. Your fronts or rears are way to hard or way to soft and that is your problem.

 

[Ian]

Thanks for the input gentlemen - I see I'm not the only person viewing tractor websites in the wee hours...
I am mowing in 2WD 95% of the time. I seem to leave fewer gouges and marks in the turf when turning if the 4WD system is not engaged (the square shouldered design of the front tires dosen't help with this problem either). On hills the extra braking effect of 4WD is greatly appreciated, but I don't have many of those - comes from low living /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif(1/2 my land is swampy).
Once the steering starts to bind after about an hour of 2WD, high range mowing, the binding will continue - I can feel resistance with as little as 1/4 to 1/8 turn of the steering wheel. Normally the steering on this unit is effortless, lock to lock.
Needless to say, I'm concerned that I may be damaging the power steering pump (cavitation?) or something related to it. Also, the implications of not having quick steering available when you need it...
By the way, I use 8-9 psi in the rear (turf tires), and I'm still not contacting the ground across the total width of the tread. I can't find any information from Kubota on what pressures to run when lightly loaded with mid-mount mower only attached.

 

[Bird]

Don't know what difference it would make since we're both mowing in 2WD, but I'm running R1 (ag) tires with 12 psi (water and antifreeze filled) rear and 16 psi front.

Bird

 

[Alan L.]

Ian, I had the power steering problems last summer when my B2710 had under 100 hours on it, It now has 155. It was much the same as yours in that the heat guage never showed the tractor was hot, but idling down for a while, or even mowing in low range helped the problem. I had the problem brush hogging in medium range.

I don't really know if the problem was resolved permanently. The dealer had the tractor and ended up changing the hydraulic fluids I had just changed myself and I never had anymore trouble. I'm not sure if it was quite as hot after that, and this year I have brush hogged only once and that was in May. I have had other matters to attend to and my property was pretty much bulldozed so not much to mow right now.

I can say that you should remove the screen in front of your radiator and clean it, but most importantly you should clean the grass and stuff that tends to get stuck on the front of the radiator itself.

I plan to try to get it to mess up while its hot, but so far changing the fluid (I had put Super UDT and the dealer might have gone back to regular UDT) has fixed the problem.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Did you ever get this resolved? My new B2910 with 20 hours just exhibited this behavior today while brush hogging on a cool day. I have cut four other pastures on hot days with this machine since I got it two weeks ago and all was fine. I am very discouraged with this and will talk to the dealer Monday morning. My old B2150 never did this.

 

[Bird]

bsauter, as far as I know it's happened so seldom that no one yet knows for sure what caused it, so no solution. Be sure to let us know what your dealer says. Since mine was barely noticeable twice in 200 hours, I haven't talked to the dealer about it.

Bird