3 point overload???smoke etc....

[RickyB]

Been running my 2910 for a couple of months now(2 payments an 49 hrs later) and cant say enough about how much this thing performs. I have backhoed, yorked, chipped, bucketed, skid winched etc...I love this thing. Aside from ripping appr. 8 pairs of shorts by getting them caught on the fender mounted levers when jumping off ,and the situation I am about to mention, I have had no problems whatsoever.
A week or so ago I performed a fluid and filter change on the hydraulic system as well as the motor. (the 50 hour maintenence reccommended) Everything went slick except for the filters which I had a hard time obtaining from my dealer. Finally got em all. They sent me home with one for the hydraulic system while 2 are neccessary as there is one on each side...bla-bla-bla-. To make a short story long...I ran the machine for appr. an hour or two doing misc stuff chipping, loading etc..with no noticable effects in performance after the maintenence procedures. When I was doing some more logging with the Farmi winch, I encountered a situation that was new to me. I had hooked on to two logs, both appr. 20' long. One was a small 6" spruce and the other was a pretty good size beech, appr. 18"-20". Reeling them in was a piece of cake with the Farmi, but when I locked on and tried to lift them, the 3 point only went appr. 1/2 way up. I did not notice at first and commenced to the landing. The tractor felt a bit bogged but I figured it may just be from the load. About halfway to the landing, I noticed what was going on. The hitch would only go up appr. 1/2 way and at this point point the machine would noticeably begin to work,(even when not moving) also a slight odor and a bit of smoke would fill the air ( not bad) indicating to me something was not quite right. The landing is not far from where I started, a 100 yrds or so,(and level) so it was no big deal. Anyone else had this happen? Did I overload the hitch? I have not skided enough logs with it yet to compare but it doesnt seem to me that this would be to much, this thing has seven notches in it for 7 logs. (understandebly not 7 20" beech trees) Or is something else up.

I await your advice old wise ones!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
RickyB

 

[Bird]

RickyB, what kind of RPM were you running it? And was the smoke and odor from the exhaust or somewhere else?

Bird

 

[RickyB]

Bird....
Was running about 2gs on the tach..couldnt realy tell where smoke had originated, it was relatively faint and wind was preety steady. It certainely wasnt a choking, blinding, heat-em up drag burn, but I did notice it in the air. I checked the tranny level and felt the case for temp, but it was barely warm. Fluid level is right on the button and fresh to boot.

 

[gordon]

It's possible that the 3point was maxed out for weight that caused the lugging it still trying to lift but didn't have enough power left to lift it. In doing so running off the relief valve caused the smell and odor that was in the air.
Gordon

 

[Bird]

RickyB, I doubt that you've hurt anything. Gordon may have identified the problem, or I thought maybe RPM too low lugged the engine a bit and that can cause a little smoke and exhaust odor.

Bird

 

[Rowski]

To add to what gordon said. It could be that the exhuast got really hot from lugging the engine and gave of a smell. I should say it got hotter than it has gotten before. When I serviced my NH I drove it a mile to my repair shop. I finished the service and drove it back home. When I was going back there is a steep hill. I had the tractor rpm set at PTO speed and going up this steep hill. It lost about 500 rpm. The engine was really working hard. The tranny was in High gear. I started to smell something. I keeping going, it had oil pressure and everything seemed fine. Then all of a sudden the muffler and the pipe started smoking really badly, burning some of the coating off or something. It looked like if someone had put a coat of oil on the muffler and it was burning off. I though I had worked the tractor engine pretty hard in the first 50 hrs but I guess not. If you haven't already, call the dealer and let him make a note in his file about what had happened for future issues in the warranty period.

Derek

 

[TomG]

I don't know about Farmi winches, but is it possible that they limit how high the 3ph can be raised? I guess such a design would make sense from a safety point of view.

What you described sound similar to what happened with my backhoe. The hoe mount locks down the 3ph. I inadvertently bumped the 3ph level to the raise position. With the hitch locked down, the engine labours, some smoke comes out the exhaust, and the relief valve squeals. Even if this isn't the explanation, it's a good thing to recognize this set of conditions. It doesn't take long for the hydraulic oil to get real hot when trying to run the entire pump output through the relief valve.