PT 2445 Backhoe

[jaquetarr]

What are your experiences with the PowerTrac Back Hoe?
The last backhoe I used was on a Kobota and loved it. Controls were smooth and sensitive. All the valves were tight and the boom stayed put!

With the PT unit the boom drifts down and the boom up is weak. The side to side movement seems pretty limited too.

Enough sad sack, Do I have a bum uint or have others found the PT backhoe to be lacking?
Rgds,
tim

[J_J]

Have you put a gage in the circuit to see if the pressure is correct. You have to know the pump pressure first as a guide to determine if the pressure is low, to say one, or all of the cylinders. Are you running the engine at max, or idle? Are the front hydraulics the same weak? Are the front and rear hydraulics running off the same pump? Are there any restrictors in the BH circuit?

[jaquetarr]

J.J.
To try to answer your many queations:
No gage installed. This is the second time I used the Hoe.
Only the Boom cyl seem to not want to lift. Could be air in the cyl?
Running the Eng at mid range, again the bucket and jib booms are good
Front Hyd are good w/ no problems on the tiller
I believe the 2445 has a two stage pump. There is no hyd diagram in the manual (previously discussed at length on this BBS) so my remark is from observation.
Do not know of / cannot see any restrictions such as pinched hose. The back hyd switch is in the full 'on' position.

I'm not asking for troubleshootiing as much as comparitive experience. It could just be that the PT BH has these charesterics when set along side of other Hoes. If everyone has had good performance and I'm the oddball then I'll have to get out the 5 gal bucket & wrenches and start checking things.

I could have a internal leaking control valve that is reducing power. I don't have a ultrasonic tester to listen for fluid bypass and, of course, after awhile everything is hot. With the short time it takes for the BH to drop from full upright to the ground. I suspect a leaky valve. - Maybe a control arm that is not set to neutral from the factory.
Rgds,
tim

[Charlie_Iliff]

With my 1845, the hydraulic cylinders have drifted down since new. PT stated that was normal. When I was in their showroom, I noted that those implements they wanted to stay up had extra hardware to hold them up.
Sorry, I don't have enough experience with backhoes to compare function, but I think the driftdown does not mean there is a malfunction, just a normal action of the valves PT uses.

[J_J]

My take on the boom cylinder is if you do have a slug of air on the bottom of the piston,and the cylinder stays vertical for a while, the air will tend to stay there, and will compress to the hydraulic pressure, however, the cylinder will start to operate with hydraulic/air at what ever pressure it takes to lift the boom and whatever you are lifting. If your cylinder is under the boom, you are pushing the boom up. If the cylinder is on top of the boom, you are pulling the boom up. The rod side of the cylinder should be faster, due to less area to fill. If you put the pressure and GPM to that boom up cylinder, it should work as advertise. Perhaps your BH valve is leaking when you go to boom up. A gage, with a tee on the cylinder hose will give you the answer.

If the cylinder has air in it, you need to get the boom cylinder to a horizontal position, and remove the rod end of the cylinder and run the boom cylinder in and out a couple of times.

I just noticed from looking at the pictures of the BH, that the lift up on the boom uses the retract mode of the cylinder, and should be faster than lower boom..

[jaquetarr]

Charlie Iliff,
I have a big slab of flat bar on one side of the boom & pins w/ clips to hold it in place. When the unit shipped, it was in place and I've used it to secure the boom when not in service. Glad to hear of your experience. I'll not worry about the drift down and just apply the lock bar.

Aye, Aye Capt J.J., a good place to start to T/S I was digging in mud and the lack of life may have been caused by a suction lock in the mud. The arm was flat out and at the angle there was not much torque force to lift with. It rained all day today so I can't get out to rechek the operation.

Thanks for the advice
Rgds
tim

[ksimolo]

I definitely would try the back hoe with near full throttle first and see if that makes a difference.

Ken