Buying a new Branson

[LouNY]

And I'm the opposite I run in the e mode most of the time.
Generator, Hay tedder, and brush hog blower.
If I'm backing the brush hog (8 footer) thru real tall heavy stuff sometimes I'll drop it down into the 540 mode.
If it goes on the haybine it's on the full 540.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

when it comes to the Diesel particulate filter on the top of the engine keep you tractors RPM's in the 2200-2500 range while working and you won't ever have an issue with it clogging up or bogging your tractor down,
also congrats on the new tractor!

That is absolutely, blatantly false. And I'm living proof of that.

Look, I'm not trying to start anything with you, (and I love my tractor, so NOT bashing) but I lived with this for 2 years before going with the "ultimate solution". Just free revving the engine to 2500 doesn't do diddley squat to keep the filter clean. You can free rev it until you suck the fuel tank dry, and it won't keep the filter clear. Once you start having a plugging issue (idiot light just starts to flash), you can rev it up to the 2600 rpm rev limit, let it sit, walk away for 20-30 minutes and leave it that way, and it won't clear out the filter either. Lived it, breathed it, came home with the matching club jacket and T-shirt for it.

You have to keep the engine under load and keep the rpms at 2500. Both. If you don't do both of those things, you'll have problems.

In the summer, when I can run my brush hog, I had zero problems. In the winter, I'm not running any pto attachments. That's when the "fun" would start. Just pushing snow with a blade or bucket does not put enough load on the engine. No load on the engine = filter starts clogging, power goes down. My only "fix" was to road the tractor down the road in high range, 3 mile round trip, and I did that 2 or 3 times a month. All winter long. For 2 winters.

Now I have the "ultimate solution". A little custom surgery, and all is well.

I know some Branson owners never have, or never had this issue. But also, some of us have. There is a cure that is pretty easy and simple.

But don't come on here and tell folks they will "never have an issue" if they just keep the engine rpms high. Some of us have already lived through it and know that it's just not so.

 

[arnoldziffel]

That is absolutely, blatantly false. And I'm living proof of that.

Look, I'm not trying to start anything with you, (and I love my tractor, so NOT bashing) but I lived with this for 2 years before going with the "ultimate solution". Just free revving the engine to 2500 doesn't do diddley squat to keep the filter clean. You can free rev it until you suck the fuel tank dry, and it won't keep the filter clear. Once you start having a plugging issue (idiot light just starts to flash), you can rev it up to the 2600 rpm rev limit, let it sit, walk away for 20-30 minutes and leave it that way, and it won't clear out the filter either. Lived it, breathed it, came home with the matching club jacket and T-shirt for it.

You have to keep the engine under load and keep the rpms at 2500. Both. If you don't do both of those things, you'll have problems.

In the summer, when I can run my brush hog, I had zero problems. In the winter, I'm not running any pto attachments. That's when the "fun" would start. Just pushing snow with a blade or bucket does not put enough load on the engine. No load on the engine = filter starts clogging, power goes down. My only "fix" was to road the tractor down the road in high range, 3 mile round trip, and I did that 2 or 3 times a month. All winter long. For 2 winters.

Now I have the "ultimate solution". A little custom surgery, and all is well.

I know some Branson owners never have, or never had this issue. But also, some of us have. There is a cure that is pretty easy and simple.

But don't come on here and tell folks they will "never have an issue" if they just keep the engine rpms high. Some of us have already lived through it and know that it's just not so.

Slowpoke's experience seriously concerns me.

I'm about to buy (this week) a 4225h. My primary uses are: brush hogging 15 acres; plowing or roto-tilling three 30 x 60 gardens once per year; general 40 acre "hobby farm" stuff; might get a grapple.

Will THESE ACTIVITIES be Enough LOAD????

I'm not going to tamper with the exhaust piping during the 6 year warranty.

My plan has been to run the machine AT ALL TIMES between 2000 and 2500 rpm.

I guess I'm "calling all newer ( emission ) Branson tractor owners" to get some more real world reports on this topic.

Thanks.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

With a brush hog, a tiller, and a plow, I think you'll be able to keep the tractor under load enough of the time to be ok. My situation was in winter, I had no load I could run on it, other than roading it down the dirt road in high range. That did load it, and it would burn the filter clear, but it was my time, tractor operating time (hour meter running), and burning extra fuel. And that got aggravating.

I had mine to my dealer for it a couple of times the first year. The tractor was (and is) running fine. No fuel or tuning issues.

What part of the country are you in?

The other thing that I wondered about, and asked my dealer about in my first winter was, does running winter blended fuel, with Power Service additive cause any issues with the exhaust filter? And he said no, it didn't. But I always wondered if it was a contributing factor, or just anecdotal, because, as I said previously, this only became an issue in the winter time.

 

[LouNY]

I have to believe that the ambient temperature has a lot to do with it.
I know that our engines have thermostats and they should reach temperature and all that.
The only thing I have that has a DPF is my pickup and I know that it regens a lot more in cold weather and it takes a lot longer to do the regen in the winter.
Any time you have to heat something up close to 1000 degrees to burn the soot out when the air going by the outside of the pipes and the dpf are exposed to cold it's got to have more heat applied to get to it.
On top of that when the exhaust pipe came straight up thru the hood you could see that the engines had more exhaust smoke in cold weather then warm.
I have seen the mileage on my truck vary by as much as 4 mpg with a change in ambient temperature, on the same tank of fuel.

As far as being worried about a new one as long as it under warranty the dealer will be fixing it unless you don't want them to, might want to get it in writing what transport cost are for pickup and delivery on warranty work and if the dealer is going to provide a loaner during any work.

 

[arnoldziffel]

With a brush hog, a tiller, and a plow, I think you'll be able to keep the tractor under load enough of the time to be ok. My situation was in winter, I had no load I could run on it, other than roading it down the dirt road in high range. That did load it, and it would burn the filter clear, but it was my time, tractor operating time (hour meter running), and burning extra fuel. And that got aggravating.

I had mine to my dealer for it a couple of times the first year. The tractor was (and is) running fine. No fuel or tuning issues.

What part of the country are you in?

The other thing that I wondered about, and asked my dealer about in my first winter was, does running winter blended fuel, with Power Service additive cause any issues with the exhaust filter? And he said no, it didn't. But I always wondered if it was a contributing factor, or just anecdotal, because, as I said previously, this only became an issue in the winter time.

Thanks for the additional detail.

We are in Buffalo, NY area.

I don't plan on winter tractor use. Therefore I won't use winter fuel.

 

[arnoldziffel]

I have to believe that the ambient temperature has a lot to do with it.
I know that our engines have thermostats and they should reach temperature and all that.
The only thing I have that has a DPF is my pickup and I know that it regens a lot more in cold weather and it takes a lot longer to do the regen in the winter.
Any time you have to heat something up close to 1000 degrees to burn the soot out when the air going by the outside of the pipes and the dpf are exposed to cold it's got to have more heat applied to get to it.
On top of that when the exhaust pipe came straight up thru the hood you could see that the engines had more exhaust smoke in cold weather then warm.
I have seen the mileage on my truck vary by as much as 4 mpg with a change in ambient temperature, on the same tank of fuel.

As far as being worried about a new one as long as it under warranty the dealer will be fixing it unless you don't want them to, might want to get it in writing what transport cost are for pickup and delivery on warranty work and if the dealer is going to provide a loaner during any work.

I just remembered that the tractor's emission warranty is only 2 years. (Don't you think it should be the full 6 year warranty term too?) Maybe I could make some adjustments after that if need be.

 

[TomIre]

Just my experience here with 100 hours. Zero emissions issue. In the summer I mainly bush hog. This past "winter" (it was a mild winter and mostly in the 40-50 range), I put @ 30 hours at idle running a back hoe at about 80% of those hours. The rest was hauling rocks/dirt and travelling on my property to where I was working. Now, I did try to get @2200 rpms during the non back hoe time but was probably at that level 5% or so of those hours. I'm short, this has been a total non issue for me.
I can't begin to explain Slowpoke's vastly different experience except to say that the option of removing the soot cooker was a huge factor in my buying decision. Glad to see it was relatively straightforward and effective for him.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

And Lou could be correct about the root problem to the whole thing. Maybe it is just ambient temperature related. I know I'm probably the "odd man out" here, with winter temps that can stay at -30 F to -40 F for weeks, or even months straight. Maybe this is not one of the climates that the emissions design was tested for? I am just speculating, and don't want to run off the rails here. But even running wide open throttle, it has to take some time for the internal temperature of the soot cooker to go from a cold soak temperature of -40 F to +1100 F for the elements inside the cooker to do their job. Perhaps it is during this initial heat up phase that the plugging issue starts to gain ground?

Also, I run red dye winter grade fuel, with Power Service additive mixed at the ratio for ambient temperatures of -40 F. I know I can definitely smell the difference in the exhaust in the fuels, between my winter fuel mix and just running summer red dye fuel all summer long. I still wonder if there is some effect to the way the alloy screens in the cooker react to the different fuel blends?

Or I could have just got a special "race edition" tractor, that was built by Branson's "skunk works" factory racing development team, to compete in the factory sponsored tractor racing circuit? And maybe this tractor got accidentally put on the production line, and got shipped by accident to my dealer? (Just trying some humor).

I know from reading on the Branson forums, that there have been other owners with similar problems to what I've had. I'm not sure if each one of those other guys also comes from true "cold country" or not.

 

[Hombre]

There is a thread that's "dedicated" to the "soot cooker" problems some have had and the "corrections" done to eliminate them. I'm one of those who had issues with mine at around 60hrs. I live in a semi-cold winter climate and use the tractor a lot in winter snow removal. Perhaps there is some correlation there as when the first winter hit that I bought the tractor I only had about 20hrs on it, by the end of that winter I had over 60. When better weather rolled around and I was using the tractor on road work (I have a mile long drive) that is a yearly operation I started having issues. When the light would start flashing I would run the ball sack off it for a bit and it would go out, then come right back. Enough of that, didn't want to have to run the crap out of it all the time (I change implements a bit and usually leave the tractor running when I do that, or get off the tractor at times to do some minor operation and didn't want to be starting the tractor 20 times a day, so I......fixed it. No more issues, burn a lot less fuel and a bit more power. By the way as far as warranty work, the information I received on how to "fix" this problem came from the dealer I bought my tractor from, he did it to his. Your dealer may have different ideas so take that for what it's worth, but it shouldn't have a thing to do with warranty as it's only an EPA thing and has nothing to do with the motor longevity other than after removing it you won't have to run the beejeezus out of it anymore and can run at lower RPMs saving fuel. Your choice.