Backhoe Mahindra owners. Little help here please.

[Gasifier]

Couple of points from this thread. First, the fork/ quick connect issue is not a Mahindra problem. They source the loaders from quality suppliers like Ansung and KMW. If you're popping the fork frame off the quick connect, you're putting downward pressure on the tips of the forks, or the frame doesn't pin in correctly. Either is equally bad. Second, the problem with the tractor was an intermittent electrical short? Personally, I'd rather have my left ******** ripped off that have to troubleshoot that one. You could literally spend weeks/months before finding it, unless it finally dead shorts. I wouldn't sell it, because I doubt you'll have any more issues of this type.

I would like to clear something up here.

First.
Your information, which I think you obtained from a past poster, is wrong. Because he had it wrong. I did not “pop the fork frame of the quick connect”. I had my bucket on. Have pictures of it right after it happened. And I was back dragging to smooth an area off where I had dug stumps out of. Back dragging is a very common and normal thing to do with a loader and bucket. I’m not actually sure how it happened, but I personally think that while I was back dragging, the pin on the left hand side that holds the bottom of the bucket to the QA possibly hit a stone or another stump that was under the dirt and I hadn’t removed yet. As soon as that happened there is already pressure pulling the bucket away from the quick attach while back dragging. Didn’t take long to bend it.

Now let me just give said prior post the benefit of the doubt and just say I didn’t pin the bucket on right. (Apparently that would mean I did one side correctly and the other not.) And it was my fault that it came off. Fair enough. I did say I was going to see if it was covered by warranty. But what actually happened was when I talked with the dealer on the phone about it I did not push to try to get it fixed through warranty. I actually admitted to him on the phone that I was working the tractor pretty hard doing the ground work and I asked him to get me a price on a new QA. It turned out is was going to be something like $900+ and take a week to ten days to get here. Well I couldn’t wait ten days, I had work to do, and I didn’t want to spend that kind of money. So I had my neighbor take it off the loader, fix it, reinstalled it and I was back to work.

Second.
Why would there be a focus on the QA? This problem that resulted in the metal of QA being bent, should not be tied together with the others. The problem with the damage to the QA did not have anything to do with any of the other problems with the tractor. Not the hydraulic problems, not the bolts falling out of the steering mechanism early on, not the power/starting problems because of extreme corrosion at the battery terminals, not the transmission problem, and not the electrical short problem which they say apparently caused all the loss of power with the engine and much of the lost time. These are design and/or material quality problems of Mahindra’s.

And I do not believe that saying something is caused by excessive jarring of the tractor is even close to a decent cause/excuse for these problems either. If you design and then build a tractor to have a loader and backhoe installed on it then it needs to be designed to take the jarring that will come with that type of work. Come to think of it, driving across a bumpy road or field empty, or pulling a plow, rake, etc. would do some jarring as well.

I would rather troubleshoot than ........

I am truly hoping I won’t have any more issues of this type.

I’ve had family home visiting so haven’t had a chance to put it to work.

Thank you for your input.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

I would like to clear something up here.

First.
Your information, which I think you obtained from a past poster, is wrong. Because he had it wrong. I did not “pop the fork frame of the quick connect”. I had my bucket on. Have pictures of it right after it happened. And I was back dragging to smooth an area off where I had dug stumps out of. Back dragging is a very common and normal thing to do with a loader and bucket. I’m not actually sure how it happened, but I personally think that while I was back dragging, the pin on the left hand side that holds the bottom of the bucket to the QA possibly hit a stone or another stump that was under the dirt and I hadn’t removed yet. As soon as that happened there is already pressure pulling the bucket away from the quick attach while back dragging. Didn’t take long to bend it.

Now let me just give said prior post the benefit of the doubt and just say I didn’t pin the bucket on right. (Apparently that would mean I did one side correctly and the other not.) And it was my fault that it came off. Fair enough. I did say I was going to see if it was covered by warranty. But what actually happened was when I talked with the dealer on the phone about it I did not push to try to get it fixed through warranty. I actually admitted to him on the phone that I was working the tractor pretty hard doing the ground work and I asked him to get me a price on a new QA. It turned out is was going to be something like $900+ and take a week to ten days to get here. Well I couldn’t wait ten days, I had work to do, and I didn’t want to spend that kind of money. So I had my neighbor take it off the loader, fix it, reinstalled it and I was back to work.

Second.
Why would there be a focus on the QA? This problem that resulted in the metal of QA being bent, should not be tied together with the others. The problem with the damage to the QA did not have anything to do with any of the other problems with the tractor. Not the hydraulic problems, not the bolts falling out of the steering mechanism early on, not the power/starting problems because of extreme corrosion at the battery terminals, not the transmission problem, and not the electrical short problem which they say apparently caused all the loss of power with the engine and much of the lost time. These are design and/or material quality problems of Mahindra’s.

And I do not believe that saying something is caused by excessive jarring of the tractor is even close to a decent cause/excuse for these problems either. If you design and then build a tractor to have a loader and backhoe installed on it then it needs to be designed to take the jarring that will come with that type of work. Come to think of it, driving across a bumpy road or field empty, or pulling a plow, rake, etc. would do some jarring as well.

I would rather troubleshoot than ........

I am truly hoping I won’t have any more issues of this type.

I’ve had family home visiting so haven’t had a chance to put it to work.

Thank you for your input.

One of the better, no-confrontational, but effective rebuttals I have ever read on TBN. Well done Gas. Certainly better than I could do. :drink:

 

[darmstrong2319]

Good post Gasifier. Some people blame manufacturer some blame dealer and some blame operator, I’m guilty also but none of the blame games help the problem. I hope no more problems and keep us posted when you have a chance to work it some.

 

[Rustyiron]

:thumbsup: Me too!

 

[tkevan]

I gathered, maybe incorrectly, that the starting/power issues were caused by the now corrected short. You didn't say what the fix was with the low gear issue, so we can't intelligently comment on that. The bolts coming loose? Happens. They may have missed the locktite on the bolts for the steering rack. I do an inspection after each day of work and each morning before work looking for loose bolts/lines/wires. A "walkaround" is something I guess I picked up from my years in the service. The battery corrosion? Not sure how is that a Mahindra problem? Exide provides millions of batteries every year. I'll guess that is what's in your unit. The leads on my 4025 are solid lead, better than those on my Ram 3500. Maybe the 3550 ones are substandard, but I doubt they're worse than the stamped steel ones on the truck. I tend to leads as soon as I take ownership. Cover with Dielectric grease, and they don't fuzz up so quick. I too had my bucket pop off backdragging. The Ansung pins rode up with backwards pressure. I welded stops above the pins similar to other loaders I've seen. Should I have had too? Probably not. Ansung makes a good loader. But I did. The hydraulic leaks also happen. On all my equipment. I usually catch them, snug them up, and they stop.

 

[Gasifier]

I gathered, maybe incorrectly, that the starting/power issues were caused by the now corrected short. You didn't say what the fix was with the low gear issue, so we can't intelligently comment on that. The bolts coming loose? Happens. They may have missed the locktite on the bolts for the steering rack. I do an inspection after each day of work and each morning before work looking for loose bolts/lines/wires. A "walkaround" is something I guess I picked up from my years in the service. The battery corrosion? Not sure how is that a Mahindra problem? Exide provides millions of batteries every year. I'll guess that is what's in your unit. The leads on my 4025 are solid lead, better than those on my Ram 3500. Maybe the 3550 ones are substandard, but I doubt they're worse than the stamped steel ones on the truck. I tend to leads as soon as I take ownership. Cover with Dielectric grease, and they don't fuzz up so quick. I too had my bucket pop off backdragging. The Ansung pins rode up with backwards pressure. I welded stops above the pins similar to other loaders I've seen. Should I have had too? Probably not. Ansung makes a good loader. But I did. The hydraulic leaks also happen. On all my equipment. I usually catch them, snug them up, and they stop.

The starting power issues were from severe corrosion at battery terminals. This caused cheap wire ends to fall apart. I had to fix those because I had to get things done. And the dealership only has one mechanic servicing “well over 100 tractors” around the county. So I can’t always wait until he is free to fix .......

One at a time, when needed, I replaced them with new, better, corrosion resistant ends. Placing a grease substance sold to stop corrosion on terminal of battery as well. (And my tractor stays inside my barn when I’m not using it.)

The low gear issue was fixed by them going into transmission from the top and replacing a pin that had broken. This should not happen at this low of hours. Period.

When new, and now that it is fixed, changing to and from low, medium, and high, has never been smooth. You have to very carefully change using the brake and it can take allowing the tractor to move a little to get it into the l,m,h gear range you want. This is a design flaw. No doubt about it. I have never had a problem changing gears on other machines I’ve owned. And I’ve been driving tractors since I was a young teen. About 35 years now.

I pay them to do their suggested service. I grease all my fittings, and keep my tractor inside an enclosed barn.

Anyway. Let’s hope I don’t have anymore time loss issues for a good long while.

 

[linuxman51]

Yeah, good luck talking to Mahindra. They absolutely will *not* talk to customers it seems. If your dealer is good, they'll be an intermediary (mine is awesome), but sometimes you don't want to burden the middleman with your problems, ya know? Esp if it's not related to service or something like that.

Sometimes you want to talk to whomever designed the new seat, to find out what they like to smoke.
Sometimes you want to have a friendly discussion with the person(s) responsible for the battery tray/electrical system/battery selection process.
Sometimes you want to find out if everyone else is having trouble with their $26,000 piece of sh..equipment, or if you were the lucky winner in the monday lottery.

With all the trouble I've had with my max26, it just about has me ready to unload it on some other poor unsuspecting fool and trade up to something orange or green. maybe even a massy. If I did that, at least I could keep my dealer(though, given the history, he may not want me back lol).


I'm bitter right now. Seems like every three times I go to use my tractor around the property something tears up. That's probably an exaggeration, but that's what it feels like. Not every day that the end snaps off one of the loader control valves.

 

[tkevan]

The starting power issues were from severe corrosion at battery terminals. This caused cheap wire ends to fall apart. I had to fix those because I had to get things done. And the dealership only has one mechanic servicing 努ell over 100 tractors around the county. So I can稚 always wait until he is free to fix .......

One at a time, when needed, I replaced them with new, better, corrosion resistant ends. Placing a grease substance sold to stop corrosion on terminal of battery as well. (And my tractor stays inside my barn when I知 not using it.)

The low gear issue was fixed by them going into transmission from the top and replacing a pin that had broken. This should not happen at this low of hours. Period.

When new, and now that it is fixed, changing to and from low, medium, and high, has never been smooth. You have to very carefully change using the brake and it can take allowing the tractor to move a little to get it into the l,m,h gear range you want. This is a design flaw. No doubt about it. I have never had a problem changing gears on other machines I致e owned. And I致e been driving tractors since I was a young teen. About 35 years now.

I pay them to do their suggested service. I grease all my fittings, and keep my tractor inside an enclosed barn.

Anyway. Let痴 hope I don稚 have anymore time loss issues for a good long while.

I get your frustration. My leads are heavy molded lead on what looks like 4ga wire. Not sure but looking at a schematic of the 3550, it does look like they used the stamped steel clamps. Did they use a lighter gauge wire also? I think expecting metal parts to never fail prematurely is unrealistic though. Even the best ISO9001 factories have a MTBF. Metal fails. Without stress testing or NDT, there's no way to weed out every potentially internally defective part. And we wouldn't want to pay for a product that reflected the cost of 100% testing. Never had, and probably will never have, an HST unit, so I can't comment on the shifting issuesof your particular machine. I do have to stop my tractors dead to switch ranges, have to sometimes rock the 885 to get it to switch, but, again, those are both gear tractors.

 

[Gasifier]

Mahindra did contact me and left a message on my phone.

A follow up e-mail also said this:

Dear Mr. ______,

I called you this morning and left a voicemail for you to return my call. I have also been in touch with ______, owner of The Wood Chop Shop. ______told me your tractor has been repaired and returned to you.

Please accept my sincere apologies for the issues you have had and the time it has taken to resolve it. As a gesture of goodwill from Mahindra I would like to offer you the next tractor service for free. I have instructed _______ to take care of this for you and Mahindra would reimburse him for the service.

If I can be of further assistance to you please feel free to contact me at any time.

Thanks for choosing Mahindra and have a great afternoon.

 

[Rustyiron]

Those jerk's. everyone know's it Mr. Gasifier not Mr. _______ :laughing:
Everything still good?

 

[Gasifier]

Those jerk's. everyone know's it Mr. Gasifier not Mr. _______ :laughing:
Everything still good?

LOL

I’ve been busy working on things for my parents and with the real job. I haven’t had any time to work with the tractor. Bummer. A few days off coming up beginning of this week though. So I’ll put it to work moving debris of branches and tree tops with the grapple on the front loader. Might even pull a few stumps and rocks with the backhoe if the ground isn’t frozen very deep. We have just started getting freezing temperatures. Then it will be time to take the backhoe off in the detached garage and install three point hitch and the new to me heavy duty rear blade for snow duty. 3-5” coming Tuesday. I’m getting excited about being able to work with my tractor again.

 

[Gasifier]

Made some time to work the tractor today. Good power now and making some progress. About 3-1/2 hours of work done today. Moving debris and pulled a few stumps as well. Ground is not frozen down yet. Cold temperatures are here to stay now though. Going to the single digits this week. Maybe even zero.

 

[Gasifier]

Almost 8 hours of work on it today. Worked flawlessly. what a relief!

 

[mikeman1]

I am glad your problems seem to be over. I will keep my fingers crossed for you.

 

[sd455dan]

Almost 8 hours of work on it today. Worked flawlessly. what a relief!

Great News!!
Glad to hear the Mahindra is working well for you.

I am sure the extra beef in the machine is a help with removing and pulling stumps to.

Here is hoping for smooth sailing from now on.

Also Hope Mahindra puts your tractors problems and the solutions to the root causes in their data base,
and it saves the next purchaser of the same model much of the down time and agravation you have had to endure.

 

[darmstrong2319]

That’s good maybe all the bad is behind you. Good Luck

 

[DavesTractor]

Great News!!
Also Hope Mahindra puts your tractors problems and the solutions to the root causes in their data base,
and it saves the next purchaser of the same model much of the down time and agravation you have had to endure.

That is a great idea, but hard to implement as far as it relates to dealer visibility. All manufacturers are loathe to print a list of problems/solutions that might make its way to the public as it can bite them. But this still should be done in some manner at least at the regional service manager level. They need to share solutions to the oddball problems with each other and when a dealer from across the country has this weird intermittent loss of power issue they can go right to the connections that caused the grief for Gas. Another thing they should do is have a conference call regularly where the regional service managers discuss difficult cases. Seems that someone in the room always has the answer, but the question must be asked. Like I said before, most of the service managers are excellent mechanics in their own right, and I do not give out those sort of compliments easily.

I'm sure pleased that Gasifier got his machine working well. He is a hard user (not an abuser, don't misunderstand me) and he is the sort of guy that can flesh out weaknesses in a machine. Next time they decide to introduce a new machine, they need to give him one for 6 months and let him see what if any weaknesses he can find. I'm serious about that. Some guy that just mows a pasture 3 times a year won't find the flaws that a guy clearing a forest will reveal.

 

[sd455dan]

That is a great idea, but hard to implement as far as it relates to dealer visibility. All manufacturers are loathe to print a list of problems/solutions that might make its way to the public as it can bite them. But this still should be done in some manner at least at the regional service manager level. They need to share solutions to the oddball problems with each other and when a dealer from across the country has this weird intermittent loss of power issue they can go right to the connections that caused the grief for Gas. Another thing they should do is have a conference call regularly where the regional service managers discuss difficult cases. Seems that someone in the room always has the answer, but the question must be asked. Like I said before, most of the service managers are excellent mechanics in their own right, and I do not give out those sort of compliments easily.

I'm sure pleased that Gasifier got his machine working well. He is a hard user (not an abuser, don't misunderstand me) and he is the sort of guy that can flesh out weaknesses in a machine. Next time they decide to introduce a new machine, they need to give him one for 6 months and let him see what if any weaknesses he can find. I'm serious about that. Some guy that just mows a pasture 3 times a year won't find the flaws that a guy clearing a forest will reveal.

Concerning a data base for odd ball root cause solutions , maybe Mahindra could go with an (internal) authorized dealer TSB data base.
I am more for open source but understand why Corporate would be concerned over a complete list of problems that has been experienced with a particular model going public.

It seems to me that having the data can improve the overall design and assembly procedures and is a core part of how ISO 900(-) compliant manufacturing companies improve efficiency, product reliability, and root cause problem identification and making changes needed to insure that problems are resolved and do not happen again.

With Mahindra being 1 of or the only tractor makers to receive a Demming prize for Total Quality of Management...

You would think an internal by model problem/root solution with tips to expedite the repair, The data base could save them a lot of time, money, and greatly improve dealer and most importantly Owner satisfaction from day 1.


Also hope they send Gasifier a new model to test out someday and bet he could give them some insights and suggestions to...

I like how Mahindra builds heavy strong tractors and when the day comes to purchase a 28-40 hp model in the next year or so i will still consider a Mahindra

 

[Gasifier]

That is a great idea, but hard to implement as far as it relates to dealer visibility. All manufacturers are loathe to print a list of problems/solutions that might make its way to the public as it can bite them. But this still should be done in some manner at least at the regional service manager level. They need to share solutions to the oddball problems with each other and when a dealer from across the country has this weird intermittent loss of power issue they can go right to the connections that caused the grief for Gas. Another thing they should do is have a conference call regularly where the regional service managers discuss difficult cases. Seems that someone in the room always has the answer, but the question must be asked. Like I said before, most of the service managers are excellent mechanics in their own right, and I do not give out those sort of compliments easily.

I'm sure pleased that Gasifier got his machine working well. He is a hard user (not an abuser, don't misunderstand me) and he is the sort of guy that can flesh out weaknesses in a machine. Next time they decide to introduce a new machine, they need to give him one for 6 months and let him see what if any weaknesses he can find. I'm serious about that. Some guy that just mows a pasture 3 times a year won't find the flaws that a guy clearing a forest will reveal.

Thank you for your insight Dave. I appreciate it.

I’ll share you a few thoughts looking back on my experience.

To start. It hasn’t been a good one. I did all the same work with my other past tractors and did not have any major issues.

The 81 acre property is mostly woods, and was thinned out by a forester with a feller and skidder. All the really heavy duty stuff was done with much larger, industrial equipment.

One great thing to having the forest thinned that I was/am looking forward too is the much better access we will have to the rest of the property now. The forest was very, very thick.

So I am using my loader with the grapple to move branches and tree tops off the skidding trails. Piling some of them to burn. (Some I’ll leave for the wildlife, who love it for nesting and coverage.)

I’m also digging and removing the smaller stumps and weaving the trails through and in between the larger ones. And of course using the bucket on the front loader to do the dirt work of moving rocks and soil into low spots and filling them in, back dragging, and moving soil short distances. I also use my tractor for mowing tall grass/small size brush, firewood retrieval, and for snow removal.

But. Yes. I obviously do work my tractor. Probably more that most owners out there do of this size tractor and smaller.

The idea of lending a new tractor to find flaws is a good one. For Mahindra. But I doubt it will happen.

I want to say am very happy to have my tractor back and working again. And thank you to the local mechanic who solved the problem!

But the thoughts of all the frustration and lost time on my now seriously delayed projects with a very expensive new tractor will not be fixed with a $250 service. And I know. Lost time is not covered by the warranty.

A customer’s time is worth ...... ?
A customer is worth...... ?

Those thoughts will not leave my mind anytime soon.

Now imagine if the dealer and Mahindra got together and REALLY tried to make the customer(s) happy. Any customer who had very significant lost time because of a new tractor with serous problems. Like me.

What would that number be? Maybe 3 or 4 in every 100 tractors of 50 horsepower or smaller size?

And they came up with an idea and implemented it together. Like they said to the customer. What type of implement could you use, that would help save you some time, each time you used it. To help you to slowly make up for all that lost time you had.

How much would that cost the dealer and Mahindra if they did it together?

So they provided a gift certificate of say $750 to use as customer saw fit at the dealership, OR very steeply discounted an implement by 50% off retail cost. (If the customer could use an implement for their tractor that would really benefit them by saving time and it had a max cost of $1500.) That would go a long way. Much further than a tractor service.

A past poster said to me he thought the dealer would have something to say to me the next time he saw or talked to me. I talked to him on the phone the day they delivered my tractor back to me. I had called him because I had to drive out of town to pick up a brother at the airport two hours away. I wanted to give him the opportunity to do something for me. And I asked him what he and/or Mahindra could do for me about all my lost time, frustration, and now delayed projects. He said I’m sorry we don’t have any kind of program for that. And I don’t think Mahindra has any kind of program like that. And he expressed that he had a lot of lost time and frustration with my tractor as well. That is understandable. He didn’t build it. But he sold it, so bears some responsibility in my view.

Don’t get me wrong. I think he feels bad about it. He probably isn’t real happy with me either after all the trouble he had to go through as well with this tractor and me calling Mahindra Corporate out of complete frustration. But that is a result of my Mahindra tractor. He didn’t build it. Before this he and I had a good relationship. I bought equipment from him, he made money, and I used it to get the work done I needed done. They service it, 9/10 times just for routine maintenance.

And now I feel somewhat bad because our dealer/customer relationship is certainly not what it was. Because I have to wonder how they feel toward me from this point forward. Will I feel good about bringing any of my stuff to them for repair and/or service?

I have thought about how before, when I was very excited about my new tractor(and before these major problems), I was thinking of buying several different implements for my tractor. From the same dealer. Boy would they save me some time. I don’t know what I’ll do now.

Anyway. Thank you all. Gentlemen. For listening to my frustration about my tractor problems.

Maybe. Hopefully, it will save some headaches and frustration for another customer and/or dealer in the future.

And thank you again to my dealer’s mechanic for fixing my tractor.

And thank you to Brenda and Ernesto at Mahindra who were very understanding of my frustration and situation.

The snow is still falling and I’m going to go work my tractor some more.

Have a good day folks.

 

[Gasifier]

Can anyone help me identify this bolt? I found it on the ground on stone drive outside my barn just before it snowed. We walk this drive a lot between the house and the barn. And my wife and I hadn’t seen it. Then just saw it late Monday afternoon and picked it up. Luckily, before it snowed.

It looks eerily similar to the bolts that fell out of my tractor a while back when I had the steering problem. The bolts had fallen out of the steering mechanism where it bolted to the frame at the axle. The mechanic ended up having to take the tractor back to their garage and drop the front axle so he could get the bolts back in and torqued them to the right tightness. It may be possible that this one is the one that we couldn’t find before. Two had definitely fallen completely out. And I had only found one. And he had to get a new one. I don’t know.

I guess the only way to know is to have him check them when he does the next service. I did do a complete check around the perimeter of the tractor. Looking at all bolts and could not find a hole anywhere. All major frame joints on tractor/loader/backhoe checked. I wonder if this is a problem with this tractor. ? A lot of work with front loader and backhoe and driving over uneven terrain loosens them up?

Has anyone else seen this? Bolts falling out of their Mahindra? I just want to solve this problem quickly. I’ll contact dealer and arrange for that service to be done Mahindra said they would pay for. And have them check everything when they do it and ask them to tighten all bolts. I’m hoping it’s the one they couldn’t find before. But it seems like we would have seen it when we both looked for it when it happened, or my wife and I would have seen it since then.

Any help is appreciated.