Had my R4010 three weeks now.

[Short Game]

Last night at 9:30 a friend came by and wanted to see my new tractor. I'd parked it under its shelter and just let it sit since the hydraulic line popped because I had plenty else to keep me busy. The new line arrived last night as well and will deal with that today. Anyway, I went to start it up for him and it sounded almost like the battery was all but dead. It tried to crank for a second and then, nothing. Not even a click. It had stumbled the same way upon trying to crank a couple of times before, but then cranked normally upon retrying (once a few days ago, and once yesterday). My friend convinced me to not work on it last night, but to hit it in the morning after sleeping on it. Good advice to be sure.

Up and out there at 5:30 (couldn't stop thinking about it). Everything electrical looks good and the lights, when all of them are turned on, are bright. Battery is full up. Removed and cleaned the already new and clean battery connections anyway. No change. I jumped from the battery cable lug of the starter solenoid to the spade clip that connects to the starter switch: nothing. Took a pair of pliers and put the handles across the two large solenoid lug nuts: sparks, but no other action.

The only diagnosis I can come up with is the starter has seized up. The starter's aluminum case parts are white with oxidation from its long time sitting on the lot in the sea air of Astoria, OR.

Just over thirty hours on the tractor. Interesting.

 

[Short Game]

The dealer's mechanic called me back as I was just getting into the starter. What I found inside was evidence of a eighth of an inch of water having been in the bottom of it for some time, making a rusty mess of things. There is a rubber drain tube that is a bit off center and with the tractor setting l level, that eighth inch is the water level. The bottom-most brush was a real mess. The two in either direction up the sides were also frozen in their tracks. Those two freed up fairly quickly with some WD-40 and working them. The bottom one was blooming with all sorts of corruption from the various dissimilar metals, iron oxide shading things generally red. It took me over an hour of heat, force, and WD to finally free it up. I certainly didn't want to break it, as doing this four and a half hours of work, instead of exchanging it when a new one arrives, was in order to get back into operation. I need to get back to mowing TODAY (yesterday, actually)!

I took pics of the mess before I started working on it. [I tried to see if my Xubuntu could open the pics. While it could see the Canon camera there, I could not get at the pics. As soon as I clicked on Canon Power Shot, it told me I couldn't get the files. When I clicked OK, the camera disappeared from the drives list. I'll take the camera over to the dealer next week and let them put the pics in their computer.]

Well, the new hydraulic hose is on the bucket and the machine is starting again. With the brushes frozen up, it was fine until they wore only the first thousandth or so before they lost contact with the commutator, which itself was also a mess of rust and corruption. All clean now, and far enough away from the ocean and also, living under cover. The only thing that really worries me is that bottom brush spring was under that water and is deeply pitted and thin from the rusting. It could fail. The way this starter is made, the brushes are not replaceable. Perhaps I should go for the new one, as this is probably my only chance. At least this way I can use the tractor today.

Admittedly, the first 50 hours are a shakedown cruise. Everyone is as surprised as I am that the hose failed. The starter problem will give the dealer something to think about when their new tractors sit out on the lot for extended time. I think it's safe to blame this failure on the economy. I doubt it would as likely have happened to a working tractor. The drain tube should be right at the bottom, though. That alone would have saved it from the problem.

 

[Short Game]

For fifteen years I used my little 27 horse Cub Cadet bucket forks as a saw buck. I have a bad back and can't do my bucking bent over logs on the ground. So, I have always held the log up at chest height and I just let the saw climb into the cut. I cut most of the way through (I've learned how much is too much) and then I deck the logs on the ground. When I roll them off the forks, usually the uncut portion will be on top, where I walk along and quickly finish the cuts. I end up with all my bucked logs in a deck where I then circle them with my box scraper-mounted homemade splitter. My box scraper also has a receiver hitch that tows my wood cart, so the split rounds nearly drop into the trailer. It's been a great system for this feeble old man. That little tractor lifted some pretty big logs, and never a problem with the hydraulics. There were a few logs it couldn't lift, but nothing ever broke.

The Cub Cadet is down for the count, waiting for a difficult engine repair. To keep going, I got a brand new 2010 R4010 gear LS. It has 41 HP and is a one third bigger machine, weight, and HP. I modified my bucket forks to fit the new bucket, and one of the first things I noticed was, I could not tip the bucket back with logs of larger size. Logs that the Cub could pick with ease, the LS can't manage. The first time I tried using the forks for my wood chore, I popped the lower right bucket hose with only several skinny pecker poles for weight. It sprayed oil all over me and thoroughly shocked me, as I have never popped a hose before. The dealer went to the local industrial supply and get a new hose made up for me. When I got it, I saw they had it made from the next larger size of hose.

Anyway, now I'm losing sleep, lying awake and thinking about the left side stock hose popping while I'm standing there bucking a log. It's not a pretty picture, that log rolling over me with my revving saw right there in front of my face.

So, I have two issues:
One is not trusting the stock hydraulic hoses.
The other is not enough power to tip the bucket back.

I have not yet tried to do any digging, but I'm wondering how poor a digging job it will do if I can't rotate that bucket up into a dirt bank. I fitted my Cub's bucket with a receiver hitch and I made a simple five foot boom of 2X2X1/4 square tube. I had plucked and moved a 300 pound anvil that flexed the tubing, but the Cub lifted it with no problem. The Cub and the LS have the same diameter cylinders to tilt the bucket.

The other day, to make a covered place to park my rider mower, I built a stand for a simple homemade aluminum pickup canopy that weighed maybe 150 pounds. I spent the day mounting a receiver hitch setup for the LS bucket so I could use my boom to set the canopy in place. The FEL didn't have the bucket power to raise the boom. I could get it up with the up-and-down control, but I could not rotate the bucket back to get the extra lift I needed to do the job.

I've already made up my mind to replace all three of the other lifting hoses with the bigger diameter tailor-mades, as I won't feel safe with the stockers any longer. But what's the deal with insufficient power to tip the bucket with any but a small load? This is unsatisfactory, especially when I look at the larger engine, and larger hydraulic pump, this LS has.

I have used the forks and bucket tilt on the Cub to push me back out of trouble, and even bent them doing it. This tractor could never do that with the power it has there now.
======================

This mirrors a post/thread I put over in Hydraulics.

 

[rocknrod]

... I modified my bucket forks to fit the new bucket, and one of the first things I noticed was, I could not tip the bucket back with logs of larger size. ...

Ya think?
What kind of engineering analysis did you conduct on this change?
I hope your not complaining.

 

[Short Game]

I'm just comparing what a new tractor with a third more weight, horsepower, larger hydraulic pump, etc. is doing for me. I'm trying to get help with the issue. Take a look at what people are doing with their boom poles in "Build It Yourself." If I just needed a bigger lawnmower, I wouldn't have these issues.

BTW, my LS dealer wouldn't hesitate to sell me clamp-on bucket forks for the tractor they sold me. We dealt on a quick-release fork setup that I decided against because of cost and the fact that the width wouldn't serve well for longer things like logs.

 

[LittleBlueTractor]

So, I have two issues:
One is not trusting the stock hydraulic hoses.
The other is not enough power to tip the bucket back.

Can't say I blame you on not trusting the stock hoses considering your experience with them. But I'm thinking there must be something wrong with your bucket tip/curl circuit. I found a live 8-10" stump while brush hogging. I got the lip of the bucket under part of it, but it wouldn't budge when I tried raising the bucket. Tried tipping the bucket back instead and it came right up. I have a set of quick attach forks, but can't say I've done any heavy work with them.

 

[Short Game]

Been having a lengthy discussion in "Hydraulics" on this issue. There, at least, it doesn't become a Chevy/Ford kind of thang. I think we will get it sorted out sooner or later.

 

[Short Game]

The starter problem will give the dealer something to think about when their new tractors sit out on the lot for extended time. I think it's safe to blame this failure on the economy. I doubt it would as likely have happened to a working tractor. The drain tube should be right at the bottom, though. That alone would have saved it from the problem.

I just finished installing the replacement starter. I noticed one difference in the new one: they moved the drain tube to line up with the bottom! Apparently mine wasn't the first to have that internal rust issue. I guess they won't be needing my photos to show what happened to mine.

 

[Short Game]

This shows why I expect a little more power from the bucket rollback on my new 41 HP LS: my little 27 HP Cub Cadet moving a 30 foot Douglas fir:

 

[Short Game]

Nearly seven weeks in now.

Well, the dealer mechanic loaned me a gauge and I just checked roll-back pressure. It was right up there near the rated pump pressure: 2400 psi. Granted it was a 10,000 psi (full scale) gauge, but whatever the exact reading, it was close enough for me in any case. I'm at the point of admitting that it is just not going to do what my old Cub Cadet could do in the way of bucket roll-back strength, for leverage reasons.

In every other way, I'm pleased with my R4010. The dealer folks at Astoria's AG-BAG Forage Solutions gave me the best deal possible, have been there with everything they've promised, come through with LS support on warranty issues, and are friendly, cheerful, great people.