Hydraulic leak in new Ventrac 4500Y

[Bearsden]

Well, I spoke too soon about being completely happy and am wondering if anyone else has run into this specific problem?

Our maintenance guy who does most of the mowing and is also the primary user of our new Ventrac discovered what turns out to be hydraulic fluid leaking from under the right rear fender. The front access panel was removed and the entire compartment above the rear wheel, which include the hydraulic fluid cooler, is awash in hydraulic fluid. In addition to the rats nest of wiring in there, there are multiple fittings in series connecting to the cooler. A call to the dealer resulted in a suggestion to see if any of the fittings were loose and an attempt be made to tighten them. Our guys cleaned it up to the best of their ability, tried tightening, but nothing seemed loose. The bottom of the cooler is dry so we suspect the leak to be in the lines or fittings, but can't find it. I also just found out that they have added almost 3/4 gal. of fluid keeping it topped off.

I'll be calling the dealer today, but thought I'd see if anyone else has run into something like this.

 

[murphy1244]

Sorry to hear of your problem. I have 146 hours on my machine with no problems since t was set-up properly. How do you like the Diesel?

 

[Raw Dodge]

Try loading the auxiliary circuits in all directions, like the front lift and steering , see if one of those lines are leaking only when that circuit is being used.If it's leaking that bad it shouldn't be too hard to find the source.

 

[prs]

If it is a connector with slow seep and you can not see it seep in reasonable time, dry the connections off and wrap with strips of ordinary shop towel. Then go work the machine as usual for a hour or two. The seep should be evident.

CAUTION! It can be dangerous to look for leaks with system under pressure. A fine stream of high pressure fluid can penetrate your skin and underlying tissue. Loss of fingers and more can result.

prs

 

[Bearsden]

Went back to our maintenance shop yesterday afternoon, removed the lid with the cup holder, opened up the top of the compartment and spent about an hour trying to clean up the oil and oil soaked grass clippings in there. Not sure what it's made of but there is a loose fitting "protective" tubing/sheath around all the oil lines which once soaked with oil will never be free of oil again. Regardless, got it cleaned up the best I could, started it up, felt around the inboard fittings going into the cooler which seemed to stay dry, but immediately detected/felt seepage around the outboard fittings. By then I called it a day and will continue on this morning seeing if just some simple tightening will do the trick.

 

[prs]

I believe I would call the main plant. This is an assembly error on the production line unless you have an add-on valve. If you have a dealer installed valve, I would suspect that as primary culprit.

If fluid has been added, what type of fluid was it? Amsoil or Ventrac? Or UTF hy-tran? Service tech may need to vacuum that out and refill with new Ventrac spec. They should come to you for that.

prs

 

[Bearsden]

I believe I would call the main plant. This is an assembly error on the production line unless you have an add-on valve. If you have a dealer installed valve, I would suspect that as primary culprit.

If fluid has been added, what type of fluid was it? Amsoil or Ventrac? Or UTF hy-tran? Service tech may need to vacuum that out and refill with new Ventrac spec. They should come to you for that.

prs

Nothing to do with valves. There are three fittings with two of them being 45º's to make a 90º to go vertical in the cooler. The leak is at the fitting going into the cooler. It can both be felt and seen.

The tractor only has 32 hours on it. Ventrac hydraulic was dded.

 

[Bearsden]

We tried tightening the fittings yesterday to no avail. We then disconnected the fittings from the cooler, removed the cooler and discovered what we''re assuming is the cause. The threads on the inboard side (non-leaking side) were clean, shiny and sharp. However on the outboard (leaking side) the threads looked like they had been cross threaded and were completely buggered up and ragged looking. Our dealer is having new fittings, a new cooler and more Ventrac fluid shipped to us.

 

[BKBrown]

It's just my humble opinion, but Ventrac should be paying you dealer to send their mechanic out to do that work. This repair should not be your problem and it should not be your dealer's problem. You should not need to send your tractor in to the dealer and wait for it to return. -- If this was a cross thread at the factory - Ventrac should make it right.

 

[Raw Dodge]

It's just my humble opinion, but Ventrac should be paying you dealer to send their mechanic out to do that work. This repair should not be your problem and it should not be your dealer's problem. You should not need to send your tractor in to the dealer and wait for it to return. -- If this was a cross thread at the factory - Ventrac should make it right.

I agree,in our case we have a great dealer who would pick up the machine and even leave me a loaner if needed..