I Won't Operate My Equipment in Wet Weather

[John_Mc]

I picked up one of these Air Combs a few years ago. Air blows out the side through a series of small holes along about the last 6" of the tube. Works great for reaching down the back side of a radiator in tight quarters.

https://www.amazon.com/Innovative-Products-America-Radiator-Cleaner/dp/B00FABSY6Q

 

[Muhammad]

I've been out in the rain on my cab tractor while moving dirt. If it's not a heavy storm, or if it's just a passing storm cell, I'll just turn on the wipers and keep working.

And that's what makes a cab worth the investment.

 

[chim]

The EddieWalker approach works for me. The RFM works OK but needs a cleaning when the grass is juicy. Below is a link to what worked well on the Kubota. Somewhere I commented that on the Ford there's a small hole in the fan shroud that serves as an insertion point for the blow wands that make it very handy to reach the entire back side of the radiator without needing to work around the fan blades. Next time the Kubota needs cleaned I'll check if it has something like that. If not I'll carefully make a hole or two. a 1/2"" hole or two won't affect the cooling capacity.

Last week I did a good cleaning on the Ford's radiator along with a coolant flush 'n refill. For the latter I refilled / ran / drained with plain water a few times. Then after removing both radiator hoses, flushed it all and blew it out with a shop vac. Refilled with distilled water and antifreeze mix.

My, What dirty fins you have

The goal today was to clean the radiator and condenser fins. Funny how tasks have a way of increasing in scope. It was a successful day though. What really surprised me was just how dirty the fins were. I do use compressed air and the two tools shown in the first/second photos and felt my...

www.orangetractortalks.com

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I have a radiator genie, but rarely see the need for it

 

[grsthegreat]

I mean, this picture was only about 30 min worth of brush cutting to get to that point. In this case, it wasn't getting hot. I just knew with the stuff I was mowing, it was prone to happen very fast. It was just a matter of cleaning the screen too and it was good to go again.

A lot of people don't even realize that depending on what they're cutting, they may need to cleaning those radiators multiple times during the job. Then, they found the expensive way that they really should pay more attention to cleaning the radiator. I've seen others blame the manufacturers for using small radiators or some nonsense like that.

This is all part of owning and operating a tractor.

View attachment 3307493

Im surprised there isnt a prescreen before the radiator. My kioti has one. It catches nearly all the crap before it gets trapped in rediator.

 

[MossRoad]

My current machine doesn't have a radiator... air cooled Kohler.

 

[ptsg]

Im surprised there isnt a prescreen before the radiator. My kioti has one. It catches nearly all the crap before it gets trapped in rediator.

There is one. That's what all that cotton stuck too.

That time, I just parked the tractor so the wind would blow from the engine side to the front and tapped the screen. All that stuff came right out.

 

[grsthegreat]

Ok, hard to tell by that picture.

 

[OzarkChris]

My tractor hasn't seen rain/snow since I bought it new. Actually, none of my equipment or implements have.

This is NOT a slam, but I am curious. How do you do this? I end up having to go out and plow snow, dig out drainage ditches during storms, etc, etc.

I am pretty sure most, if not all of my equipment (Tractors, backhoe, implements, etc) has been out in just about every type of weather - I do try to head to the barn during severe thunderstorms/tornados though.

 

[jaybo77862]

My Kubota BX2680 was running warm when mowing in 90 degree plus Texas weather. I always clean the radiator screen before starting but it still was warmer than I thought that it should. I added wetter water and that helped a bit. Finally I noticed that the radiator was over half blocked by chaff that passed around the pre screen. I blew it clean and temps remained normal even in hot weather. I just added blowing out the radiator to the regular checks I make before using now.