Hydraulic tank cap damaged by seat

[marrt]

Incline...where are the hoses that connect your wheel motors? In the picture above, the holes on top of the wheel motor where the hoses would normally connect are capped.

Also, I notice PT has made the wheel motor bracket part of the main tractor frame. On most prior PT's, the wheel motor sat in a separate weldment that was bolted on to the tractor. I can see some advantages in your design.

And finally, I wouldn't worry too much about reversing the wheels. PT uses a stronger wheel motor now than in the past when this was a concern. It's still not "recommended" but I doubt it will hurt anything for most owners.

 

[Incline]

From the inside of the tub for the rears or as shown here in front

 

[agjones]

The cleanliness of that machine makes me cry a little.

 

[marrt]

Wow, that's a totally different setup. Much better in my opinion. And, you have a case drain on the motors! My 1845 wheel motors have a case drain but I've never seen it on a smaller machine. This is a nice feature. Now I'm very curious as to the brand of these motors.

In any case (no pun intended), PT has made some significant changes to this machine. Other than the engine/pump arrangement (which they perfected 20 years ago, then abandoned), it looks like some very nice improvements.

 

[joshlee]

Wow, I did not notice the case drain hose! The 425 I bought new in 2015 did not have case drain wheel motors. That is an awesome improvement! Let us whatch and see if they start putting a draft control on 425, haha.

 

[m5040]

Why are hyd motors with case drains better then without?

 

[marrt]

Why are hyd motors with case drains better then without?

If you've been on the forum for a while, you will have noticed some owners with a "bad" wheel motor where the seal has failed and the motor is leaking oil. In fact, I think Smartguyz just had a thread about this issue. All hydraulic motors have some internal leakage, often by design (cooling). This leakage has to be relieved from the motor case or it would quickly blow out a seal. The purpose of a case drain is to relieve this pressure, usually by a return line to the tank.

In a motor without a case drain, a high pressure shaft seal, along with some internal valves, are used to relieve the internal leakage back to the low pressure side of the motor (since these motors are bi-directional, check valves are used). However, this is not an elegant solution because, over time, the high pressure shaft seal will wear and the motor will leak externally.

As a side note, in circumstances where high angular loads are applied to the wheel motor, such as "reversing your wheels," the seal will wear sooner, resulting in an external leak.

 

[Incline]

marrt - I don't want to take this thread too far off topic but I'd like to pick your brain about this case drain topic. I'll pose my question under the "newer model 425" thread.