There's one section of my 5 acres I had pretty much ignored most of the summer while I was working on other areas. It's been real wet and the grass grows fast in Florida. I finally went in there with my TC18, hydro, and 4' brush hog to get the thick, wet grass back under control.
With only about 15 PTO HP, I've gotten used to the mower bogging down every once in a while. Usually, if I lift it, it will come right back up to speed, I can back up a bit and let it back down and keep mowing. If it's really thick (as this was) the hydro is great for just creeping along.
This time, when the mower started bogging and the engine slowed, I couldn't get it to come back up to speed. I lifted the mower, depressed the clutch, took the PTO out of gear, put the hydro in neutral, and the engine kept running slowly. It never quite stalled, and would try to build back up to PTO RPM (around 2450), but something was still slowing it down. But, what? Nothing was connected, and the PTO shaft wasn't turning.
Eventually, it cured itself (after about 5 minutes of waiting), and I mowed for another hour or so without problems. Then, it did it again. I tried some other combinations. With everything in neutral, I worked the hydro pedals and it seemed like it came back up a little faster. I also found that if I lowered the throttle to about half way, it would pull down to about 1000 but wouldn't stall, and seemed a little easier to get it back up to speed.
Over the course of about 6 hours (the grass was really thick, and I think I was mowing at about 1/10th MPH), it did it a couple of more times. But, most of the time it was OK - the mower might bog, but it came right back to speed as it always has. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason why sometimes I would have the problem and other times not.
The only thing I can figure is that maybe I got the hydo too hot or something, or something in the PTO was binding. The hydro fluid is full. The tractor has about 250 hours.
Today, I finished the mowing and it was OK all day - no problems.
Any clues what might have happened, and is it a symptom of some greater problem?
With only about 15 PTO HP, I've gotten used to the mower bogging down every once in a while. Usually, if I lift it, it will come right back up to speed, I can back up a bit and let it back down and keep mowing. If it's really thick (as this was) the hydro is great for just creeping along.
This time, when the mower started bogging and the engine slowed, I couldn't get it to come back up to speed. I lifted the mower, depressed the clutch, took the PTO out of gear, put the hydro in neutral, and the engine kept running slowly. It never quite stalled, and would try to build back up to PTO RPM (around 2450), but something was still slowing it down. But, what? Nothing was connected, and the PTO shaft wasn't turning.
Eventually, it cured itself (after about 5 minutes of waiting), and I mowed for another hour or so without problems. Then, it did it again. I tried some other combinations. With everything in neutral, I worked the hydro pedals and it seemed like it came back up a little faster. I also found that if I lowered the throttle to about half way, it would pull down to about 1000 but wouldn't stall, and seemed a little easier to get it back up to speed.
Over the course of about 6 hours (the grass was really thick, and I think I was mowing at about 1/10th MPH), it did it a couple of more times. But, most of the time it was OK - the mower might bog, but it came right back to speed as it always has. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason why sometimes I would have the problem and other times not.
The only thing I can figure is that maybe I got the hydo too hot or something, or something in the PTO was binding. The hydro fluid is full. The tractor has about 250 hours.
Today, I finished the mowing and it was OK all day - no problems.
Any clues what might have happened, and is it a symptom of some greater problem?