Broke Hydrostat twice? Why?

[dfkrug]

Heck, if you like, my wife and I could maybe schedule a road trip and drop it off and maybe help (or more likely watch)
you work on it. We're retired and love driving.

Sure, come on down. I have made that trip before.

Sadly, many tractor makers will not sell the internal parts of an HST (Kioti, McCormick/Landini, now TYM),
but I know Kubota will. I think JD also.

 

[joe12185]

My father has a 95 cub cadet 7195 and his hydrostatic unit broke a few years back, 800 hours on the machine, the dealer who did the repair told us that the unit had overheated. someone was borrowing the tractor at the time that it broke, so we can't be sure, but the dealer said that that type of problem happens because the tractor was used in high range for a job that should have been done in low range. His tractor only has high and low ranges one of the reasons that when I was looking for a tractor I made sure it had 3 ranges. Having used my father's tractor a lot over the years it always seemed like low range was too slow and high was too fast. Working the tractor in the wrong range would be my guess as to why HST's fail based on my limited expierence with my father's tractor.

 

[Bob Christensen]

My father has a 95 cub cadet 7195 and his hydrostatic unit broke a few years back, 800 hours on the machine, the dealer who did the repair told us that the unit had overheated. someone was borrowing the tractor at the time that it broke, so we can't be sure, but the dealer said that that type of problem happens because the tractor was used in high range for a job that should have been done in low range. His tractor only has high and low ranges one of the reasons that when I was looking for a tractor I made sure it had 3 ranges. Having used my father's tractor a lot over the years it always seemed like low range was too slow and high was too fast. Working the tractor in the wrong range would be my guess as to why HST's fail based on my limited expierence with my father's tractor.

Thanks, Joe.
I doubt that I had the exact same problem, because I use low gear a lot. I suspect it's because it makes me feel sooooo powerful.
But I'm going to consider it another vote for overheating.

 

[Bob Christensen]

So I talked with the local tech who actually ran the pressure test.
He put it in neutral, put the brake on, started it, ran it up to full throttle, pushed the go pedel all the way down (still in neutral), changed the guage to the other port, ran the same procedure with the other go pedal and never got as much as 500 psi.

If he was supposed to leave it in hi or lo gear, well I can only wish the manual had said so clearly.

 

[Bob Christensen]

This is kind of embarrassing.
Today is the first day since the new hydro that I have really been able to use the tractor and pit it through its paces. And wow! Much stronger in every way. FEL stronger.

And there's a short hill on one of my paths that I have had to use low gear for a long time. Maybe several years. Not today. Just came off the go pedal a bit and zoom! Right up.

I think maybe I was learning stuff through experience and reading this site that made the tractor more effective while it was getting slowly weaker. Plus the frog in the heating pan of water thing. So I didn't notice until it reached some tipping point and just broke.

 

[Billrog]

Really pleased to hear all's well Bob and your tractor is preforming like it should.

 

[wmonroe]

That's good to hear the tractor is performing better than you had expected.

 

[Bob Christensen]

Well, thanks guys. It does feel like a new tractor again(with the front grill smashed in).
But I still got to figure how I broke it twice.
But this site is just amazing with all the help people are willing to provide.

 

[Sysop]

But I still got to figure how I broke it twice.

I think you answered it in a previous post...

And there's a short hill on one of my paths that I have had to use low gear for a long time. Maybe several years. Not today. Just came off the go pedal a bit and zoom! Right up.

High range should be reserved for no/low load travel situations. A hill, short or not does create a good deal of load. I always go up and down my hills in low with high engine RPMs to feed it lots of fluid.

 

[Bob Christensen]

Well, you're the second guy on here that has said this.
So, I guess I have two bad habits to change.
What you said and better and more often cleaning of my radiators.
Thank you for your input.

Bob