Kubota L3200 HST - Told not to drive in high range by dealer?

[krobertson]

@ brokenot - Understood but it was my very first road trip 1 mile each way 2 miles total? I do not know the actually definition of excessive they are using but I would say 2 miles with 15 min between each mile is not excessive....would you?

UPDATE - Kubota called me...a guy who was of no help he said he would have a svc manager supervisor call me back that was late yesterday. So no news yet. This weekend I will work her Fri and Sat quite a bit so we shall see what happens.

 

[Grandad4]

Your 2 mile round trip is absolutely not 'excessive roading'. If you were trying to tow a heavy load up Pike's Peak at 1,200 rpm in road gear... well that's excessive. I'm exaggerating, of course, but your tractor is easily capable of travelling in hi range on the road if it's operating properly. You do need to keep the rpm's up and you may need to back off the HST pedal if the engine starts to bog on a hill, but none of that should be causing the HST juice to overheat. Unfortunately it sounds like you've got a dealer that's being less than helpful in sorting this out. Over the years I've mostly seen Kubota as an outfit that values its reputation and tries to do right by their customers (same can generally be said of other brands also), but having a good dealer really counts for a lot. Hope your issues can be resolved to your satisfaction.

 

[brokenot]

No...I don't think that's excessive. My post was more intended as "general information" than situation-specific. I saw a couple of replies essentially saying that manufacturers don't build machines that will overheat/fail/etc. while doing nothing other than being operated in a manner that they're capable of being operated in. And that just isn't accurate...HSTs do build a lot of heat when operated for extended periods at high speeds. It seems that in most cases, the machine manufacturer sizes the system volume and cooling capacity around the machine's most likely intended primary duty. Travel to/from the jobsite is a secondary concern. If they were to build a system that was suited to doing anything, anywhere, at any time, they'd have to boost the system volume, the size of the cooler, and then add more complexity to the mix to keep things from being cooled too much...such as having an electric fan controlled by a temperature sensor blowing air across the oil cooler, and a thermostat plumbed into the system somewhere to speed up/slow down flow through the cooler as necessary.

 

[krobertson]

Sounds like a weekend fix-er-up project LOL. Not to worried...I honestly think they were trying to cover up the fact that something was not staged right upon delivery. I will update everyone come Sunday night or Monday. Probably burn 10-15 gallons of fuel between Fri and Sun so if something is getting ready to rear it's ugly head I think it should show up with 3 days of work behind it. We shall see!

 

[Samuellm]

I find that hard to believe the only way I cold see it happening is if it was running in too high a gear and the relief valve is opening because that will heat it up fast.
Pulling a plow at 2 M/H or running flat tack will produce the nearly the amount of heat.
In fact pulling a plow is harder than just running down the road.

 

[NoSoMo]

I ran it in High at about 3000 rpms when driving down the high way and back.

You are running your machine 7% over its maximum design RPM. 2800 RPM MAX! I'd try operating within factory stated limits and see how things go from there. Running at high travel speed is far from the easiest work your machine will see. I have a GST 3800 and it takes some time to get up to speed when rolling at idle in 8th. Try that with your 3200...... Place it in H, at idle go full pedal forward and grab the hand throttle and pull it to RPM. You won't jump right up to speed. Encounter a hill and you will see the RPMs and speed drop without adding considerable throttle.

 

[MHarryE]

I can't remember comment in this thread but what difference is there to the hydro whether it is in high or mid range if the engine is at full power? The hydro is the first part connected to the engine. After that comes the fear transmission, then the final drives. Running in high range at full engine power, the hydro must transmit the same load as if you were to put an attachment on the rear and run it in mid range at full propel and full power. I omit low because your tractor will spin the tires before it gets to full power in low - at least mine will. So if a person looks at what Kubota puts in their manual as the maximum implement size, selects any of those implements, I assume they designed the hydraulic cooling system to reject the heat generated. The general design guideline for cooling a hydrostatic drive is 30% of peak power that can be transmitted through the hydro. If they under design the hydraulic cooler they should at least put a high oil temperature alert light/alarm as a warning. Now if the final drives are the culprits generating heat from sloshing oil at high speed, that's different. They are beyond the gear transmission and tractor speed will generate a lot more heat.

 

[crazyal]

What I will say about high range and my Kubota is this. I use H but find that if I'm not careful I can overdrive it by pushing the pedal to go faster than the engine has power for while going up some of my hills. Watch the road speed, if pushing the pedal harder doesn't change your traveling speed then back off. Otherwise you will heat up your hydro oil. Whether or not it'll boil off, I don't think so but heating the oil up past it's normal operating temp will shorten it's life.