B7500 Questions

[gusg]

I have pretty much learned as I have gone along. One problem is remembering to release the brake after it has been parked. I have driven for awhile while it is on and wondered what happened to my power. When I took delivery I made sure that he explained all of the controls even if I thought I knew them. Learned a few things that were not obvious. Also have the dealer go over removal and replacing the MMM and FEL. Also read the manuals cover to cover. I asked the dealer if there is a cover for the mid PTO. He says he knows of none. I thought that someone mentioned that they got one but maybe I am mistaken. Make sure that the toolbox has the two pins that are used to pin the MMM in the up position so you can use the 3PH at the same time that the MMM is on. Also check that the pins are there for the 3PH attach points. They are not expensive but they should be there all the same.

I took my FEL off yesterday and it took a little while but not too bad. Put it on in less than 2 minutes! The manual says to raise the front of the tractor to put the two large pins in. When I pulled the tractor up they were already lined up and just stuck the pins in. Piece of cake.

One thing I have noticed in the manuals. It says for the first 50 hours to take it easy with the throtlle. But you have to crank it up to mow so I put it up to the 540 PTO speed and cut. Worked great. Doubt this will hurt the tractor.

Clutching. I have found that I have to wait for the mower blades to stop turing before disengaging the PTO. Someone said this shouldn't have to be done but I get a loud grinding noise if I don't.

I have noticed that after driving the tractor I thought there was something wrong with my car's power steering. It seems so hard after the tractor.

I cleaned and waxed the tractor today. Looks great.

Good luck with your new 7500 and congratulations. Hope to talk to you soon about your adventures with the tractor.

 

[chim]

Snowman reminded me of something about the R4 tires. Check the tire pressure. When mine was delivered, the tires were really hard. I forget what pressure they had, but all four tires now have 10#, and when I find a gauge that goes lower, I plan on going lower with the rear tires. I think the liquid in the rear tires makes them behave as though they have more air than they really do. Today I moved a 10 ton load of rocks, and the front tires looked fine. With the heaviest 3PH implement on and raised, the rears barely deflect. After moving the rocks, I drove over to Mom's and backfilled about 100' of trench and pushed a bunch of brush into a pile, then came home and mowed. You're gonna love that tractor. I've had mine a couple months and it has over 80 hours on it so far...............chim

 

[gusg]

Thanks. I will check the pressure in the morning.

 

[Freds]

I was going to post this question in another topic, but since we're talking about screens here...
I don't know if I missed the page in the owner's manual about the screen under the hood or if it isn't there, but I had been cleaning the grill regularly while brush hogging high weeds and the following day my 7500 overheated while mowing the lawn with my RFM. Probably smelled it for 5 minutes before I realized that the smell wasn't one of the neighbor's barbeques. I shut her down right away and the dealer came out and picked her up the following day and showed me a plugged screen under the hood. I think that the salesman should have shown me the screen when I had the tractor delivered . Oh, well, live and learn.
Everything checked out OK and they gave her the 50 hour service even though she only had about 42 hours. They said they heated her up and put her on the dyno and there were no problems showing up. I mowed the lawn when I got her back (about 3 hours time) and had no problems.
Well today, I was brush hogging my weeds again (about 4-5 ft. high now) and everything was fine for about an hour and a half and I noticed the temp guage had crept up to the half way area. It was hot and the weeds were high and the going was slow to keep the rpms up so I didn't think too much about it. Not 10 minutes later I noticed the tractor starting to bog down in areas that were basically the same as ones we had just gone over. I looked down and sure enough the temp ga. was pegged again (thank god no smell this time). I shut her down and got off and looked at the grill... basically clean. I lifted the hood and checked the screen.. perfectly clean.
I'm thinking we have something other than dirty screens causing my tractor to overheat. Even a compact should be able to go all day without too much strain, shouldn't it? The past few times we haven't even made it a couple hours. Could I have a bad thermostat? I'll admit, I didn't check the fluid levels the last time I got it back from the dealer, but they had just given her a 50 hour service, so unless they're completely incompetent...
Any ideas why she overheated this last time?

Fred

 

[Kodiak]

With your weeds 4 to5 ft high, even if your grill and radiator screen weir clear you may not have had enough room for clear air to enter the engine compartment. Therefore the hot air from the engine just kept recirculating thru the engine compartment. A couple of times in situations like this I've had to prop the hood open several inches to allow the built up heat to escape. I've also had this occur while running with a weather shelter during snowplowing.

 

[Freds]

I see your point, Russ. I had the FEL on, so there was a few ft. in front of the grill where there were no weeds against the tractor plus the one side I had already hogged. I would be in this high stuff about two thirds of the time and the could pick up the pace when I got to the lower brushy stuff about 2 ft. high, but I guess with no air movement plus the slow going most of the time things got pretty stagnant around the engine.
Looking back on both times the engine overheated, it was running fine with the temp ga. in its normal spot for the first 1-1/2 hours, then it seemed to overheat rather quickly. It wasn't a steady climb.
Maybe I'll give your suggestion a try later on today and post if it does the trick.

Fred

 

[looch]

Freds,

Never has the temp guage on my B7500 gone up more than 1/4 - even bush hogging 4' high weeds in 90+ degrees. I think most Kubota owners on this board will attest to the fact these machines stay pretty cool no matter what. I'd have it checked out - maybe just a stuck thermostat.

Paul

 

[jhburke]

I have had my run hot a couple times. I found that you have to watch the screens real careful. I have been cleaning the grill and the removeable screen real regular but I noticed the last time it was the radiator its self. I watch the temp gauge real careful now and when it gets out of the normal range for my tractor I stop and find out what is wrong. Easier and cheaper than replacing or overhauling the engine.

 

[chim]

My 7500 seems to run cool according to the gauge. It only moves a little bit even in the real hot weather. There is a fair amount of heat being generated - you can feel it coming off the engine. I suppose "heat" means different things to me and the tractor. When it's in the 90°'s what feels like a lot of heat coming from the engine is probably not much to be concerned about. I have a Ford 1210 that has overheated because of the dirt caught in the screen. That tractor doesn't have the amount of sheet metal around the engine as the 7500 to trap the heat, but it seems to run a little warmer anyway.

So far I haven't really worked it real hard for any length of time. Short periods of activity like working to fill the bucket from a topsoil pile, even though it's tough work, only last for less than a minute. The only steady heavy work so far has been brushhogging (with a 5 footer) for part of an afternoon a couple weeks ago. The majority of the work done is mowing. If I do it all in one day it takes about 5 hours of running. This is with a RFM, so the RPM's are up, but not with much of a load.

The one odd thing that happened was last week. After running most of the day, I was close to finishing up with the mowing. For a minute the steering was harder and jerky. I turned the steering lock-to-lock a couple times and it cleared up. Hasn't happened in the 10+ hours since then. Another poster said he had a similar incident one time when his tractor was new. Turning the steering wheel like that is recommended in the OM to remove air from the system. I had the loader on and off a couple times that day so maybe I got some air in a line. I guess it's possible that some moisture got into the hydraulic oil and cooked off too.................chim

 

[Freds]

After thinking about it some more today, I think I'll just have the dealer look at it again. Maybe this time he will think it is more than just a dirty screen (although I definitely think that contributed to the first overheat). Everything under the hood looks like it was just steam cleaned when he had it last. Hopefully it's something minor like a thermostat sticking.

Fred