SnowRidge
Elite Member
About a month ago, my 48" brush cutter seized up. It was running fine, squealed for about two seconds, then locked solid.
I have always thought the design of this model with the motor bolted directly to the deck was suspect. Unlike the older variety, there is no Lovejoy coupler to temper the impact shocks from the cutter. On the model I have, they are absorbed directly by the motor. The cutter only had a couple of hundred hours on it. Most of those were cutting tall grass. It only had about five hours of brush cutting. This was a failure that shouldn't have happened.
The first thing I had to do was identify the motor. Power Trac had thoughtfully painted over all the identifying information on the motor.
I figured I should be able to find out who made in in a couple of hours of web time. It took me two days. It was made in Bulgaria by M+S Hydraulic and labeled for and sold by RR USA Inc. It was not comforting to find out that M+S Hydraulic was founded as a state owned enterprise back when the communists ran the country. Of course neither M+S Hydraulic nor RR USA have service information on their web sites, unlike Parker, Eaton, et al. Thank you Power Trac.
I called one of the few distributors listed by RR USA. As I expected, I got a "Yeah, we handle those, but we don't stock any of them or have any parts, but we can order some for you."
He got back to me a couple of days later. $850 for a motor and $86 for just the seal kit, plus freight. Whatever replacement parts were needed would be extra. The whole cutter only cost $900 brand new.
I called Power Trac. They wanted almost $500 for the motor. This may the first time that Power Trac has ever been cheaper on parts, but it was still too much, as far as I was concerned. I decided to try and find a name brand replacement.
After a lot of browsing PDF catalogs and much web surfing, I decided to try a Parker TJ series motor, which turned out to be a bit difficult to find. I expected to be able to order any Parker product from Precision Fluid Power, but they could not get the TJ series for some reason. Nor could a couple of other suppliers I tried. Finally, I found them at Hydraulic House in Orlando. Best of all, Hydraulic House is a discounter.
Of course, they don't actually keep them in stock. It seems that they are a build to order product with a ten or twelve business day lead time, depending on whether you want the motor painted or naked. I went with the bare metal in order to get it sooner.
The motor was built in Greeneville, TN, which is more or less right up the road, and a whole lot closer than Bulgaria, if I ever need parts. It fits perfectly. The total price including shipping was $350.56.
The full part number is TJ0050US080AAAAB.
The picture shows the motor after I came back from testing it in some really tall grass. It worked fine.
I have always thought the design of this model with the motor bolted directly to the deck was suspect. Unlike the older variety, there is no Lovejoy coupler to temper the impact shocks from the cutter. On the model I have, they are absorbed directly by the motor. The cutter only had a couple of hundred hours on it. Most of those were cutting tall grass. It only had about five hours of brush cutting. This was a failure that shouldn't have happened.
The first thing I had to do was identify the motor. Power Trac had thoughtfully painted over all the identifying information on the motor.
I figured I should be able to find out who made in in a couple of hours of web time. It took me two days. It was made in Bulgaria by M+S Hydraulic and labeled for and sold by RR USA Inc. It was not comforting to find out that M+S Hydraulic was founded as a state owned enterprise back when the communists ran the country. Of course neither M+S Hydraulic nor RR USA have service information on their web sites, unlike Parker, Eaton, et al. Thank you Power Trac.
I called one of the few distributors listed by RR USA. As I expected, I got a "Yeah, we handle those, but we don't stock any of them or have any parts, but we can order some for you."
He got back to me a couple of days later. $850 for a motor and $86 for just the seal kit, plus freight. Whatever replacement parts were needed would be extra.
The whole cutter only cost $900 brand new.I called Power Trac. They wanted almost $500 for the motor. This may the first time that Power Trac has ever been cheaper on parts, but it was still too much, as far as I was concerned. I decided to try and find a name brand replacement.
After a lot of browsing PDF catalogs and much web surfing, I decided to try a Parker TJ series motor, which turned out to be a bit difficult to find. I expected to be able to order any Parker product from Precision Fluid Power, but they could not get the TJ series for some reason. Nor could a couple of other suppliers I tried. Finally, I found them at Hydraulic House in Orlando. Best of all, Hydraulic House is a discounter.
Of course, they don't actually keep them in stock. It seems that they are a build to order product with a ten or twelve business day lead time, depending on whether you want the motor painted or naked. I went with the bare metal in order to get it sooner.
The motor was built in Greeneville, TN, which is more or less right up the road, and a whole lot closer than Bulgaria, if I ever need parts. It fits perfectly. The total price including shipping was $350.56.
The full part number is TJ0050US080AAAAB.
The picture shows the motor after I came back from testing it in some really tall grass. It worked fine.
