Front axle fluid leaks on side hills

[ericm979]

I've noticed gear oil leaking from my 3725's front axle filler a couple times. The last time I had it parked on a side hill with the right side lower than the left for about an hour while running the chipper. There was oil all over the tire. It's coming from the vent hole in the filler cap on the right side.

I mentioned this to Dave's Tractor where I bought it and they said they've asked the factory to address it and in the mean time have come up with a fix. Which they sent to me. As you can see it's an extension tube between the axle and the filler cap.



It seems to help. It's still weeping a little but I may need to tighten it down some more.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Thanks for the heads up. I may have to do the same thing to mine. Haven't side-hilled it yet, but need to mow my ditches soon, so it may be a problem.

Do you know if that's just a standard part (like pipe thread-or)?

 

[ericm979]

It looks and feels like straight thread. Probably metric.

 

[LindenBruce]

It's prolly a boss fitting. That has the same thread pitch as pipe, BUT it is a straight thread NOT tapered like pipe. It uses an o-ring to make a seal. I t that it? B.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Didn't have any leaking from mine while cutting my road ditches. I wasn't sitting parked on a side hill, but I did run down the side hill for a few hundred yards at a time without any sign of leaking.

 

[ericm979]

I tightened the fix that Dave's sent me and it's not leaking. When I installed it I was being conservative on the torque; it needed more.

The vent hole in the cap is small and there's often a labryrinth in there as well to keep the fluid on the inside. So it may take some time with the vent side of the tractor down to start leaking out the cap.

 

[LindenBruce]

OP, so how do you like your 25 series thus far? Bruce

 

[ericm979]

I like it a lot. It's done all that I expected. I'm using a small 5' rotary cutter on it for manuverability so I'm not stressing it there. When I get more brush cleared I'll get a wider flail mower. I do a lot of wood chipping with an 8" PTO chipper. I chip stuff as big as will fit. I've stalled the engine once with a large fir branch but I'd had the hydraulic feed set on high and couldn't reach the feed control lever in time. I can tell the tractor is working hard when chipping larger stuff but with the feed turned down it handles it with just a small drop in rpm.

There's some little things that I want to do to the tractor like mounting a tool box and extending the control levers for the 3pt and rear hydraulics but I've been spending my free time using the tractor or cutting brush for the chipper and have not gotten around to it.

My choice of IND-10 wheels and tires for a lower CG has resulted in a couple tradeoffs. Less clearance under the tractor I knew about but I'd forgotten that the 3pt would be lower. I had to modify the dealer installed hydraulic tilt cylinder to get the 3pt up to normal height (the Branson hand crank link has enough travel and adjustment without modification). The cruising speed in 2nd range is kind of slow. Normal size tires would help that, but when mowing steep stuff I still need to use 1st range. For me the tradeoffs have been worth it but I'm operating on steeper slopes than most people. I'm glad I got top and tilt; I should have gotten hydraulic rippers for the box blade too.

It's really quiet- quieter than the L3301 I tested and my old B7100. My neighbors say they can only hear it when I'm working on the property line by their house.

I'm at 48 hours, will probably do the 50 hour service this weekend.

 

[LindenBruce]

Thank you for the information. So your hydrostat is not that loud huh? I have heard other brands and the whine is very noticeable. I am thinking about the 4225R or H. I need as much PTO HP as I can get and the R version has a few more of those over the hydrostat. But I like the ease of the hydrostat. So six of one half a dozen of another. B.

 

[ericm979]

The HST on mine is quieter than my old Kubota or the L3301 I tested. I may just be ignoring it (I wear hearing protection unless I'm just moving the tractor a short distance). I try to avoid driving it in too high a range, where you're using small amounts of HST pedal against large forces (hill, etc). The Branson HST gives you feedback when you're doing that- the pedal feels stiff. My Kubota didnt' do that but it complained by making more noise instead. At first I was annoyed by this but once I figured it out I kind of like it- it's telling me to use a lower range or sometimes just more throttle. if I was using 3rd range a lot it might still annoy me as it's always got that stiff feel when starting out from a stop in 3rd. But we only have about 120' of flat road and it's not worth shifting to 3rd for that, so I have only tried it a few times.