brand new 485 backhoe..horror story

yukonhunter · May 25, 2014

I have a brand new 4520 with a 485 backhoe...I only put eleven hours on it so far and was digging some holes witfth it to plant some trees and all of a sudden I hear a huge bang and lose hydraulic control of my bucket. I call the dealer and he tells me I need to be careful digging holes...are you kidding me. Then he tries telling me I should try fixing it myself.....but its still under warranty. He said for him to pick t up he would charge me....what...with eleven hours. I ended up calling another dealer who picked it up and didn't charge me...it ended up being a broken cylinder and I forgot the name of the other part put it was broken also. I can't believe the original dealer, I will never go back to him again. I wonder what went wrong with my backhoe,? Any suggestions

mfreund · May 25, 2014

Let me look into my crystal ball to diagnose what caused one of the at least 5 cylinder to break. Sorry could not resist. Pictures would help.

As for the first dealer, I do not blame you. Delivery charges are not warranty covered. The second dealer must have decided to eat the cost to make you happy.

Code54 · May 25, 2014

Love to see what happened - that had to be a fluke (bad luck).
Hope they get you all taken care of and back in business.

Coyote machine · May 26, 2014

Another way of looking at your unfortunate situation is that you are lucky another dealer came to the rescue. I hope things get resolved quickly and to your satisfaction through the 'new' dealer and under warranty.
As stated, pics of before/after would help us help you, and be useful for all our education of what happens to what when/where/etc.

yukonhunter · May 26, 2014

I will ask the dealer exactly what parts were broken Tuesday

Beechboy · May 26, 2014

Sounds exactly what happened to my new 485 backhoe . The Big Bang I got was the dipper stick actuator piston rod nut blew off the rod taking all the threads with it. John Deere said they had never seen anything like it. I appeared to me that either the nut was not torqued properly , or the heat treating on the piston threads was not correct. Anyhow JD refused to warranty it, and I had to purchase a new rod and seal kit for over $ 600.00 .
Not a happy Camper !!!

Beechboy · May 26, 2014

I also sent the rod to JD for inspection , never got a reply, or the old piston rod back !!
I will look for some pictures

Yellowfever440 · May 26, 2014

If that cylinder was in its warranty period they should cover it if not then the service manager isn't doing his job. I can see your point about the first dealer but really they don't have to pay for transporting the unit unless it is not easily moved or dead.

J_J · May 26, 2014

They should have done the warranty work on that cyl.

I might can answer your question about why the nut blew off.

It could have been weak metal, but I think it was force of you pulling or pushing the dipper using the bucket as the prybar. The bucket is locked with the bucket lever in neutral. The force on the bucket generated so much pressure that something had to give, and in your case, it was the nut.

Some BH cyl have relief valve on each cyl to take care of pressure generated by brute force.

You can add relief valve if you don't have them.

yukonhunter · May 29, 2014

So with mine it was a busted cylinder and the plunger broke and fell out...said they never seen anything like that before..so I just got it back today and used it for ten minutes and the exact same thing just happened...I am furious...I just called the dealer and they said they never heard of this and will call me back...what should I do??