Indicator light?

[dhattaway]

There are several Branson members here that have "gutted" their canister. Hopefully one will be along with a detailed explanation of what they did. I think all you need to do is open it up and take out the screens, but since I went a different way, I can't speak from experience there. I do know from talking to my own dealer at the time, that if I brought it in, it would be covered under my warranty for either cleaning or replacing. I think my dealer said he would have ordered a new one to put in my tractor, sent my old one off to be cleaned, and then kept my old one as a future replacement for someone else if needed.

By then I had pretty much made up my mind to delete mine, so I never did take him up on it. But if you're tractor is still under warranty, I'd call your dealer and let him "deal" with it.

I took your advice and called the nearest dealer. To my surprise, they said it IS covered by my warranty. They've ordered the new one from Branson and will swap with me when it arrives. Now let's see how long it takes for it to come in!

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

Hey that's good news.

 

[HawkinsHollow]

I called my dealer yesterday as well. And he said they would have to take a look at the sensor before they could get me a new canister under warranty. He asked if I had done the "regen" process. Which is basically going out to bush hog for 2 hours. I looked in the manual it does not say anything about a "regen" process. Noe it looks like if I am going to get anything from them I need to get the tractor into their shop to be looked at. Which is a hassle any way you look at it. So close to just gutting this thing and being done with it.

 

[Asteral]

I took your advice and called the nearest dealer. To my surprise, they said it IS covered by my warranty. They've ordered the new one from Branson and will swap with me when it arrives. Now let's see how long it takes for it to come in!

well going by the last set of those Diesel particulate filters i've ordered, it took them about a week to arrive from Rome, Ga so its shouldn't take them to long ot get your filter in.

 

[dhattaway]

I called my dealer yesterday as well. And he said they would have to take a look at the sensor before they could get me a new canister under warranty. He asked if I had done the "regen" process. Which is basically going out to bush hog for 2 hours. I looked in the manual it does not say anything about a "regen" process. Noe it looks like if I am going to get anything from them I need to get the tractor into their shop to be looked at. Which is a hassle any way you look at it. So close to just gutting this thing and being done with it.

Sounds like somebody at the dealership is confused about which brand of tractor you're talking about. I've searched everywhere for anything about a "regen" for a Branson and there just isn't any info or reference. (The DPF dash light isn't even shown in the manual) It's a shame that we can't find a muffler that would go in without a lot of custom exhaust work like Slowpoke Slim did on his.

 

[ptsg]

Branson used a DOC or Catalyzer on their tractors. This mean it doesn't actually regen like other brands, but it's constantly burning the soot once it gets to the proper temp.

If it doesn't get up to the right temperature, it will plug up and cause issues.

On the newer 2021 models, Branson uses a DPF, which regens every once in a while. Good thing is that Branson kept the fully mechanical engines and used a very clever way of increasing the temp on the DPF to start the regen process. They use a butterfly valve, controlled by the datalogger, on the exhaust, after the DPF, so it restricts the flow and increases the temp on the DPF.

Regarding the muffler, for the 15 series that use the A1700 engine, they can just buy the muffler of the 2515, should be bolt on. For everything else, it pretty much needs custom work done.

 

[Cougsfan]

I gutted mine. It wasn't that hard to do. Just pull the canister and take a hammer and chisel and start chipping out the carbon-like material inside the main canister. It helps to take a masonry drill bit and drill a few starter holes through that carbon like material first. Took me a couple of hours. Cleaning up the big mess it makes on the floor is included in that time. The is the only part you have to gut is the canister. The screen on the end piece is not a problem. I gutted it about three years ago and have no regrets. Afterwards the exhaust does smoke a little for a few seconds after start-up and sometimes a little under heavy load (still a lot less than my other non-pdf'd diesels). It is nice to be able to run the engine at an idle for a long period of time and not worry about plugging the DPF. My warning light still comes on and blinks for a few seconds right after I start the tractor. Don't know why. The tractor doesn't seem to be any noisier, runs just fine, and may have gained a tad bit of power (that could be my imagination).

 

[Cougsfan]

If they send you a new one under warranty, I'd keep the old one and gut it. They are easy to change out.

 

[ptsg]

"... My warning light still comes on and blinks for a few seconds right after I start the tractor. Don't know why...."

Probably just a self check feature on the data logger?

 

[HawkinsHollow]

Called the dealer back and he agreed to get me a new canister for mine under warranty. I think I might talk to the muffler shop down the road and see how much it would cost to get the muffler mod done or just buy a muffler like PTSG said. That way I won't have to worry about it and I will have a new canister if I ever sell it or trade it in.