2003 5600a looses speed on slight grade

[moremph]

Hi all,

Have a 2003 5600a we purchased last winter with a rod knocking, Rebuilt the engine and have used it plowing some snow and around the shop and house with great results. The big thing I have noticed is when driving it from my house to shop about half a mile thier is a section of the road that over say 750; raises 20' in elevation a grade but not much of a grade. When going up this hill the machine will slow way down to like 9-10mph. Once on flat ground it will travel at 15-16 mph and get as fast as 18 going down hill. At no time does it lug the engine or bog. Is this normal to loose this kind of speed when climbing a small grade like this. Doesn't appear to be an power issue because it does not strain the pump enough to lug the engine. Or is their an underlying issue possibly.

Thanks Travis

 

[timm9]

moremph,

Do you have the history on this unit? If you still have access to the previous owner I would call them and ask if while they owned the unit did they have the drive motors changed out. If the previous owner is not available I would reach out to the bobcat dealer that you will most likely use in the future and ask them to check their internal system to see if there is a record of the drive motors. I'm sure at this point you are reading this and saying, WTH is he talking about. If you do a search on this site for 'drive motors' you will find many posts. While I have no way of determining that is your issue, it sure sounds like what happened to all thee of mine.

The drive motors were unfortunately flawed at the OEM manufacturer. The internal cylinders of the drive motor were 'sleeved' and the metal sleeving is disintegrating and sending the particles throughout the closed system ultimately plugging your filters. Strangely enough, the smaller hydraulic filter next to the battery never did plug or throw a code, only the larger one under the bed. If no one has any history I would start by pulling the larger of the two hydraulic filters (the one under the bed, not next to battery) and dump the contents into a container that will allow you to see if there are metal particles in the fluid. You can also carefully cut open the filter and inspect.

All three of my units (B series) were affected by this. In the beginning you could not tell that we were loosing power as it was so subtle. By the time we knew we had an issue, the units did not have enough power to drive themselves up the ramp to the semi low boy taking them back to the dealer.

How many hours on the unit?

Hopefully your issue will be much simpler...

 

[moremph]

I am aware of the drive motor issues. and i do believe this unit has had them replaced. The filters were all changed when the motor was rebuilt and this has exhibited this issue (or what i believe to be an issue) since the moment we first operated it. I have never operated another toolcat so I was not sure if this was normal behavior or should it maintain max speed. I almost feel that it is a flow or psi issue personally

 

[birddog0304]

Watch the rpm's u r running when this occurs. Mine will do this if I'm cruising along from house to barn and my rpm r less than 1500. Picks right back up once over the grade. Rarely have the issue when running 1800 & up. Had drive motors replaced 22 mths ago and this is definitely not the same as what i experienced with them failing. Mine is an 'A' also. Check hydraulic fluid. Also how many hrs have used it that day. I had a new exp 2 weeks ago. it would not move and boom/bucket would not move after moving and stacking hay for 10 hrs. No codes. Cooled down for 30 min and have no issues since. Had never worked it that hard before. Btw I'm no expert just a farmer

 

[DEWFPO]

My 2009 Series D has always done this even without an attachment on it.

DEWFPO

 

[SSdoxie]

Toolcat is equiped with Horsepower Management. The computer/controller senses load on the engine when pedal is stoked and will adjust the hydrostatic pump stroke (reducing stroke) to maintain engine RPM when encountering an incline. To test if the HP Management is sole cause of the slowing tavel speed; turn Work Mode on then drive it up same incline, if the engine starts slowing down and you have to let up on the pedal to maintain RPM then HP management is reason for the reduced travel speed.
If a week drive in either front or rear is the cause, travel will still slow down while maintaining engine RPM while in Work Mode. This is because the axle speed matching is on, controller adjusts stroke on the stronger pump/motor to match the weaker axle. You can trun axle matching OFF, then the stronger axle will be doing all or majority of pulling.