A weekend in Montana land

[Sackett2]

Some may think i'm a idiot, others will just shake there heads. Thought I would update you all on my weekend.
Thursday got the Montana, Friday night the starting issue. After several trips to the "dealer" I do have a running Montana with a PTO switch issue. And a seat safety switch issue, to be repaired.
Anyway this is not about that.
So far we have zero (0) instruction manuals for the Montana. I bought a 4" Montana brush hog on the lot, and the area salesman (not form my town) helped get it onto the trailer, 600$.
Saturday Dad and I set up the hog. Now mind you I am a mechanical guy, but a bit of reference to what and why we were doing this would have helped. Dad opened the tube for the manual, empty. The stupid safety cover for the u joint on the PTO drove us nuts. Dad and I went back to the Feed store to see if they had a manual or info- they were clueless. No manual at all for a unit they had on the lot. so dad and i fumbled our way to get this hog attached to the tractor.
Now on the top it said "needs 90 Gear oil" Dad and i both thought that meant need=use, and we didn't check it. If i had a manual for the set up it may have a warning to this fact....
The hog did 6 hours of work until it toasted the bearings.
I know some of the fault is mine; but ******, 20K on a tractor, fel, and hog and I still have not one manual.
will call the supplier tomorrow, and see what he has to say.
If I had a manual with part numbers I would order the part. Mind you, the tractor is great, but having some problems at the local level..

[gamble77]

Why did they sell you a 4ft mower with a 43hp tractor?!?!

[rcowan]

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. I agree the manuals stink.

I got my rig from the local dealer in Benson and he was a real pest about showing me the maintenance points. On the rotary cutter he made a point to show me difference between the check plug and fill plug.

Roland

[Maka]

I bet Sackett wished his dealer was a pest about such things. Good for the Benson dealer, sounds like he was diligent.

Maka

[shvl73]

It would be a good idea to always check the gear box before use. I didn't realize the seal on my Woods BB60 was gone. luckily before my first use this year, I checked, bone dry. I'm seriously thinking of filling it with grease.

[skipro3]

Delivered you a hog and didn't set it up for service is the dealer's fault. I'd be dropping it back at his door step and cancellng the check.

Didn't service the hog before handing it over to you?!? Unbelievable!!

[gemini5362]

I also think that the dealer who sold it to you should have checked to make sure either it had gear oil or made sure you knew to do that. One of the things montana needs to do is start having real tractor dealers. To many people out here are just becoming dealers and not giving any service. I would at the least call montana in springdale and have them ship me a new gear box. You might offer to pay for the bearings that have to be replaced as way to mitigate some of the cost of the repair.

[rcowan]

My nephew did that with no side effects.

Roland

Originally Posted by shvl73

I'm seriously thinking of filling it with grease.

[gemini5362]

I have known several people with units that had a seal leaking. The just filled it with grease and ran it like that. I did that 15 or 20 years ago. I still use that rotary cutter

[jc7622]

My dealer didn't set up my 7' Montana cutter either. I fried my bearings when a piece of wire got caught up underneath on the shaft. It eventually wore all the way through the bottom cap and the oil came out. I had to rebuild it all. The Montana cutters are made by King Kutter. You can buy the bearings at NAPA for about half the price that King Kutter sells them for.

My seal now leaks a little also. I was trying to load it onto a trailer with the FEL and it slipped and flipped upside down. I guess it jarred the seal pretty good because it started leaking immediately. I have to add a little every once in a while.

I have been thinking about putting grease in it. I used to own an old Land Rover and one of the fixes for a leaky from steering ball seal was to switch from gear oil to grease. This was a fix recommended by the factory. They even sold a kit with these little "official Land Rover" pouches of grease to fill it.