JLG 660SJ Boom Lift

[arto98607]

Few months ago I bought well used boom lift from a local contractor and decided to start a thread regarding my experience with it so far, and also perhaps find members here who may be willing to share their experience with a similar boom lifts.






This unit has a Ford LRG423 gasoline/propane engine with plenty of operating hours and was in need of some maintenance & repairs obviously.
The engine starts easy and runs nice & clean.

The first priority was the muffler which was in terrible condition, leaking badly and beyond repair - also a big a fire hazard:




Due to the side inlet/outlet & length restriction I was unable to find generic replacement, so I made my own muffler out of same diameter steel pipe since the OEM muffler was priced at about $900 + shipping.


The new muffler is all made of 1/4" thick steel and works very well - hopefully it will never need replacing!


The soot above is from many cold starts with badly leaking muffler!



So far I have changed engine oil, 37 gallons of hydraulic oil, all filters, cleaned up the carburetor (which was surprisingly clean inside) and replaced one long hydraulic hose.



As for testing the capabilities of the lift, I have so far taken out one hazard tree, starting from top down at about 65 feet from the ground.

It's little hard to see, but I am up in the basket with a chainsaw:



It was a quite an experience to be there and I have many more trees to take care of - so far so good.




Edit:

Here's couple of more photos when starting to cut from the top down:



This was felled down once the top was removed piece by piece:


Should have cut down bunch of these trees 20 + years ago when they were small enough to not to hit my shop!

Live and learn.

 

[Smokeydog]

That’s nice and big enough to do tree work.

My Dad bought a 1 ton bucket lift. Didn’t know he had so many friends borrowing to paint, build, trim trees, etc. Kept me busy repairing particularly after some bonehead damage. Luckily nobody got hurt too bad. Hope you are using a harness. Very handy but was glad when he sold it.

We had train and maintain a license to use mobile equipment at work. People usually don’t realize how much movement you have in a bucket. The older I get the more terrestrial I’ve become.

 

[arto98607]

That’s nice and big enough to do tree work.

My Dad bought a 1 ton bucket lift. Didn’t know he had so many friends borrowing to paint, build, trim trees, etc. Kept me busy repairing particularly after some bonehead damage. Luckily nobody got hurt too bad. Hope you are using a harness. Very handy but was glad when he sold it.

We had train and maintain a license to use mobile equipment at work. People usually don’t realize how much movement you have in a bucket. The older I get the more terrestrial I’ve become.

Thank you, valid points all!

I have noticed several local people have shown interest in it

This lift weighs about 25,000 lbs and is long so it should limit borrowing by friends etc. and I also would be concerned about liability as the owner, so I don't think it's going anywhere until I sell it....

Yes I used a harness and will each time for sure.
The bucket moves noticeably once you are way up there and it will take some time to getting used to.

Seems like it's best to limit looking up or down too much when up there!

 

[Rustyiron]

I had a similar JLG lift on rental from sunbelt for over a year. (No jib) I was able to move it myself and occasionally brought it home to the farm, the longer I had it, the more "job's" I found for it! I'll bet you'll find the same thing, enjoy.

 

[arto98607]

Update
I had decided to help a neighbor with my boom lift and ran into a problem.

Have been struggling with an interesting problem which began six days ago, when the platform control panel started acting up for no apparent reason!

The ground panel controls worked normally, but things went hay-wired as soon as switching to platform panel.


I was somewhat under pressure since it was stuck on an easement and decided to call for service help.

1. The brakes seemed to be locked on and would stall the engine on overload as soon as trying to drive forward or reverse.
2. At times the engine would cut off ignition as soon as switching to platform panel control.
3. At times the engine would overload as soon as we tried to rotate the platform
4. Service rep was trying to diagnose everything but could not figure out what was wrong, he suggested replacing $1000 "drive" electronic control board.
5. Service rep also suggested cleaning out all electrical connections - now that would take days since there are lot of of connections!
6. I had ordered two foot switch micro switches few days ago since I suspected them based on phone conversation with another service guy at local rental shop.



Stuck on shared private driveway for five or six days:




I decided to replace the micro switches this morning, right after USPS delivered them and VOILA - all controls are back to working normally!


2 x $15 Micro Switches in the foot switch:




Cheers

 

[ThePumpkin507]

That’s nice and big enough to do tree work.

My Dad bought a 1 ton bucket lift. Didn’t know he had so many friends borrowing to paint, build, trim trees, etc. Kept me busy repairing particularly after some bonehead damage. Luckily nobody got hurt too bad. Hope you are using a harness. Very handy but was glad when he sold it.

We had train and maintain a license to use mobile equipment at work. People usually don’t realize how much movement you have in a bucket. The older I get the more terrestrial I’ve become.

 

[ThePumpkin507]

A couple of things,check your emergency features.If your up in the basket and it fails to start.Cell phone to call.Can they manually do the features to get you down.Always wear harness,extra one for passenger.Anytime in and around hornets and wasps carry spray in basket.Always look up,before starting up,electric wires,tree branches.Drive slow,respect the machine.Good luck

 

[arto98607]

A couple of things,check your emergency features.If your up in the basket and it fails to start.Cell phone to call.Can they manually do the features to get you down.Always wear harness,extra one for passenger.Anytime in and around hornets and wasps carry spray in basket.Always look up,before starting up,electric wires,tree branches.Drive slow,respect the machine.Good luck

I agree, all good valid points!

Yes there is a way to lower the boom manually from the ground controls in case engine fails to start, and there is also 12V backup hydraulic pump which is good as long as the starting battery has juice.