Had my R4010 three weeks now.

[Short Game]

Too busy to snap even one picture?

I have come up with a work-around by emailing pics to myself from another computer. If you want to see my log forks and some other stuff, see the, "Show Us Homemade Splitter...," and the, "Log Forks" threads in "Build It Yourself."

Sawdust stuck in the bar oil. It didn't stay clean for long.

 

[Short Game]

Coming up on 11 weeks on Saturday. I'm averaging over ten hours a week. A new issue has cropped up recently that is probably also due to how long this tractor sat on the lot. It's one I must solve soon, as it's potentially a hazard. The joystick on the loader is sticking in the "raise" position. It started doing that about a week or so back.

It was once in a while at first, but it's every time I raise it now. I mow with the bucket off, but I'm raising the loader over obstacles quite often. While I'm watching where I'm going, expecting to lower the loader after a turn is done, I'll look back and it's high and still going up. Not good!

It might have gotten rain water inside the boot and is sticking because of rust. There is some rust on the outside right around there. It has lived under cover for 10 weeks now, so I'm pretty surprised this has come up. I told the dealer mechanic about it yesterday when I was in town.

Another possibility is a sticking control valve. That would be something I wouldn't be readily able to deal with, and one for the warranty.

I'm going out now to take the boot off and see what I can see.

 

[I have no memory]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't LS have a 5 year warranty? Shouldn't this be covered on it?

 

[Short Game]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't LS have a 5 year warranty? Shouldn't this be covered on it?

If I see it's in my realm of capabilities to look into the problem, I will likely fix something so I can get back to work. I have documented what I found under the joystick boot. I found the rust I suspected, and lots of various metal oxide crudations. I broke out a brand new parts cleaning brush and poured some WD-40 into a pan and scrubbed it out and blew it out with compressed air three times. I scraped some of the more serious rusty places. The lever stopped sticking almost immediately. I think that there was standing water inside the boot when I got it, and it didn't stick until it was almost dried out, beginning a new phase where the sticking became an issue.

I got on the horn with the dealer and told them what I found. I asked if they thought it was cool to just pack a bunch of AmsOil red synthetic grease on everything and put the boot back on. They could see no harm in that (nor could I). I don't expect it will ever be an issue again. If it is, it's documented at 10 weeks.

I got back out there and got my mowing done. Back after my firewood tomorrow.

 

[I have no memory]

I appreciate your efforts and being mechanically inclined and I probably would do the same thing. The continuing problems would get me after awhile though especially on a new machine.

B.

 

[Short Game]

I figure it's the economy's fault that this machine sat on a lot in sea air for a long time in a very rainy year, creating a couple minor problems so far. I got a good deal on it because it was last year's model, so I can't complain too much. I am so happy to have it, as my life here pretty much depends on it. It's doing what I need it to do.

 

[Short Game]

Here is what I found behind the joystick boot:

Before opening:

Inside the boot:

Time to clean it up:

After three cleanings:

After this, I coated/packed it all with top quality grease and put the boot back on. Operation is totally smooth with no sticking. It's still not pretty, but I'll leave it to the dealer's discretion whether they feel good about it or not. I'm not too worried, as the tractor now lives under cover. When the starter was found to be rusty inside, I wanted it replaced, even though I had gotten it working again, as the brush springs were seriously pitted and the potential for failure was high in my opinion. I don't foresee any fatal problems here, but if it dies as a result of this rust, I have it documented.

=============

BTW, is there an quick way to post the thumbnail images that are enlargeable by a click?

 

[vwnotrunning]

And you have the time stamp from this forum to document when you discovered and did the clean-up.

 

[Guesseral]

Short Game does you loader lift more and tilt better with the forks than with the bucket forks. I think your tilt problem was due to leverage and the weight being to far out in front of the pivot point of the loader arms. What I found out about mine was that the hydraulic pump only has a 8 gallon per minate flow rate. I was used to my old ford 641 with a external mounted front pump and the flow rate is way more (not sure how much) and the loader on the new tractor isn't as fast as the old one. The new tractor lifts heavy loads but it does have its limits the same as the old ford. Did you old tractor have a hydraulic pump that was shared with the 3pth or did it have an external pump mounted on the front of the engine that was only for the loader? Even if the pump was shared between the two a higher flow rate could be the reason you can't do the same thing. Just some thoughts!

 

[Short Game]

I had my first opportunity the other day to dig some dirt. I needed only one bucket load of subsoil from a mound of it that I'd placed a few years ago with the Cub Cadet. What I found was far less breakout force with this loader than with my little Cub Cadet. It was pretty discouraging. The only way I was able to fill the bucket was to repeatedly ram the mound until the dirt was broken up and softened enough that the loader could get through it. This is dirt I'd originally dug from the ground, with much less effort. Pretty discouraging indeed.

Yes, for dealing with logs, with four times the leverage over the bucket forks, the log forks are now about equivalent to the bucket forks when they were on the little Cub Cadet. The loader is my biggest disappointment with this otherwise satisfactory tractor. While the physical size of the pumps, steering and loader/3PH, is about double that of the CC, and the relief pressure a few hundred pounds more, what it can do is notably less (with a slightly narrower bucket, a third more weight, and a third more horsepower).

Maybe it's about time I heard from the the big boys at LS (do you suppose this thread would catch their attention?). I admit I'm pretty ignorant, as this is only my second tractor. All I have for a reference is what I got used to. Were the Cub Cadet's loader and hydraulics so much better, or is this one that much worse? It's obviously built strong enough to take more force, but where is that force? Or maybe, as one with limited experience as an operator, it's me. I could be doing it wrong and/or expecting too much. If this had been my first tractor, I would have figured it was normal.

If I could, I would refit this loader with bigger, longer, bucket cylinders and change the roll-back geometry by raising the upper pins a few inches. I'm never in so much of a hurry that I couldn't wait a few seconds longer for the power I'm needing.