Massey 2660HD rear brake issue

[sawtooth]

Other than roughly $200 I was told it was about the same cost either way which is why I decided to take my chances and hold off after the right side was complete. What sucks is this was either something that was missed during the recall or something that was added to the recall at a later date. I have no way of knowing as that dealer is no longer in existence. So yes pretty much sucks for sure. Originally I bought the tractor 2-3k under value so at a good deal so to speak but that’s all gone now. Guess it could have been worse. Tractor has roughly 900 hours on it now. It actually looks and drives like a new one except for the left brake. But that’s a big EXCEPT. Lol.

I have a friend that can fix about anything and considered having him help me but there was a learning curve with this entire ordeal so not sure I want to risk it. Also, I’m not sure how to get the proper info to him per the retrofit as this info isn’t in the service repair manual. So do I go for the sure win or try to save some cash and throw a Hail Mary? Could dig myself a deeper hole if I’m not careful.

 

[JWR]

Yes, with ball park of $200 difference I'd have done the same thing.

Mine is 9 years old from date of purchase new in 2011 and has 430 hours on it. I'm in an oddball situation 330 miles from my farm and normally able to work there a few days once a month. Many factors hold down my hours including a knee replacement in 2013 and an accident requiring shoulder replacement last October. That and being in my 77th year I can be slow at times. Bought it here in So MD and hauled it to WV myself. Supporting dealer back there went out of business 30 Sept 2014. Thank goodness I got the bugs out of it in the first 3 yrs of ownership just as the dealer went out. I had a LOT of repair work initially but all done under warrantee. One issue drug on just past my 2yr point and AGCO extended my warrantee another year. So I really had all the bugs out that mattered before the 3yr point. Not had to seek a dealer since then (and the nearest is ~ 80 mi. away.)

With 900 hrs on it, your's is still a young tractor and looks to be in great shape too.

 

[JWR]

Update? You've probably covered a lot of ground since April. Brakes all squared away?

I've been using a beatup old flail mower that I refurbished most of the summer. When you are not cutting heavy brush and just clipping pastures it works great and I think a little faster than a Bush Hog. My flail is an Alamo 7.5 ft found in an auction for almost nothing. Put about $400 into it and is now the most used tool.





Last trip to the farm I put on the FEL mounted hydraulic cutter (Lane SharK) I use to cut overhanging branches and trim fence rows. I'm running the flail mower on the rear and the Lane Shark up front probably the rest of the summer.

 

[sawtooth]

Hello JWR,

Seriously you bought a Land Shark? I just found those online a few weeks backs and plan to buy one next year. How do you like it? I need to edge my fields and thought that would be much easier than what I do now which is by hand. Also how hard is it to hook up?

As for my MF 2660HD it’s getting there but brakes are not resolved yet. The right side is fine but the left side is still screwed up and I haven’t had time or the funds to return it to the dealer to do the revisions yet. I think once they add the extra return spring set (like on right side) it will be good but unfortunately that’s another $1,500 or so just for that. Probably will tackle it this winter as they knock off 10-15% since their slow that time of year.

One big improvement I just made though is the seat. I thought something was wrong with it as it seemed to bounce a lot and not very comfortable. So after checking into it and I realized the spring set up underneath the seat was damaged and not operating correctly. Problem is I couldn’t get any parts for it because it’s a model that comes out of Brazil. Plus on top of this I couldn’t change the seat out because the mounting locations were off from what grammar supplies here in NA. So long story short I bought some C channel and then made a adapter bracket which worked perfectly. The new seat is super comfortable and really nice.

 

[JWR]

Beneficial mod on the seat. Right up town. My seat adjusted well for my fat butt/weight and has been no problem. Sorry those brakes have drug on as an issue. So glad I had mine done when new under warrantee.

Yes, I was the first one to buy a Lane Shark in the state of WV. Very happy with it. It can get to be a long story so if you get into it let me know and I will add details. The local dealer in WV is a Kubota dealer and I took the tractor to them for installation thank goodness. The return hyd line must go to the sump up under the tractor in hard to access places and the plumbing required is less than obvious. But Lane Shark has that rig figured out really well. I had a much larger one back in 2011 picture below, which was super HD but I lacked hydraulic pump capacity to really run it well. Not robust at all.



I traded that very heavy front cutter (which was only centered, not to the side and not able to rotate to vertical) in on a an ORSI brand rear mounted articulated boom cutter (went to SC after it) looking like this (which I still have.)



The ORSI is a great machine for serious cutting in oddball places including overhanging limbs, brush over sink holes where the tractor cannot go, etc. It is a beast in that it has two of it's own pumps to drive the cutter and the movement of the arm/cutter separately. Reaches out 17 ft. Four ft hog on the end. Will cut almost anything. Weighs around 2700lbs. The problem with that is it is mutually exclusive with any other rear mount tools like my 7ft hog or my flail mower. And it takes 2-3 hrs of work to mount it (at my dear old age of 77,,, challenging.) I can do it but it is all I can do.

Then along came Lane Shark. There is a nice video on them on YouTube. I've had a fair amount of dialog with the young guy founder of the company [Travis Odom] down in Fla. Mine was an early model and he sent me complete replacements for the blade carrier, blades and bearings which are now very good. I used it a lot early this month. Very easy to put on & remove [fits the quick mount skid steer loader interface.] Also not hard to reconfigure into vertical horizontal or angled positions. The hyd motor is just right for my internal tractor pump to drive OK. I did run bigger lines and new connectors up to the loader instead of trying to use the third function bucket stuff. There is a knock-off called TB-One made by Titan. They literally bought a Lane Shark and japanese copied it adding a couple of minor features and put it on the market about a year after the Lane Shark came out. The design is very innovative but apparently Travis and those guys had insufficient patents. Longer term I'll keep the Lane Shark and sell the Orsi.

I could go on and on but will stop here. Let me know if you get further into it.

 

[sawtooth]

The lane shark is what getting next year. Looks like exactly what I need. Does it seem pretty durable to? Looks almost to good to be true. Lol

We just finished 2.5 days of hand clearing UTV trails by hand using powered pole pruners and chainsaws. Feel like I been to **** and back so the shark looks especially good right now. Lol

 

[JWR]

The lane shark is what getting next year. Looks like exactly what I need. Does it seem pretty durable to? Looks almost to good to be true. Lol

We just finished 2.5 days of hand clearing UTV trails by hand using powered pole pruners and chainsaws. Feel like I been to **** and back so the shark looks especially good right now. Lol

I can't claim enough hours yet to be sure of durability. Two seasons and I've had it on and off too. The old blade carrier and blades were bad about coming off and having to be tightened every couple of hours. The new ones are solid and cannot come off so that is a major improvement. I think it is durable and well made. It is not the killer machine that my bigger Orsi is with the rear mount PTO driven pumps but the Lane Shark is extremely handy for pruning off overhanging limbs, up close to fence rows, etc. The 2660 internal hyd pump drives it very well. I think Lane Shark realized they had found a niche market there smaller than the big heavy cutters usually driven by large 20gpm+ pumps on skid steers AND readily driven by smaller tractors, actually smaller than ours. Just was nothing in that market before them. The design features are pretty darn near genius level and being purposely made to avoid having to drive it with a PTO pump opens up a heck of lot more customers. Other things that were "not right" when I tried one of the big FEL mounted cutters was they lacked provision for "what happens when you stop the drive." There was all kinds of screeching and sudden jerking and certain to tear up stuff. Travis & those Shark guys put in a bypass of some sort that does 2 things -- it allows the blades to spin down comfortably when you shut it off and when you use loader controls to raise or lower or tilt the loader frame. With the Shark you barely notice that flow only goes ONE place (either the Shark motor or the loader movement) at a time. It is smooth where using the big skid steer cutter it was jerk, crash and squeal in between every movement plus our 2660 does not have enough hyd pump flow for that stuff. Actually being a cab model yours may have little bigger pump than mine. Anyway, I do not think you will be disappointed.
The first two or three times you change configuration with it from centered to off to the side, etc. you will have to use the manual step by step. Anyway I did. Pretty amazing mechanical thing. Changing angle from horiz to vertical and in between is easy and obvious. There is talk about adding an hyd cylinder to control the angle but to my knowledge neither Travis nor Titan have that offered so far. He told me they were considering it.

 

[sawtooth]

Awesome. Setting aside a little cash now to build up for it. Wish I could pull the trigger now but COVID put a stop to it for now.

 

[JWR]

Any updates on the 2660 ?

 

[sawtooth]

Nothing yet. But plan to take it back in January as they are slow then do knock 15% off the bill. They few things that needed attention I already corrected so everything else works great except the left brake. I believe once I do the recall upgrade it will be fine though as the right side that already had the update works great. Guess we find out soon.