My 4720H just died in my driveway

3pedal · Apr 3, 2019

Last night I was bringing in the trash cans with the Tractor and noticed a loss of power. In the 1/4 mile drive I went from the tractor seems a bit sluggish to dead in the middle of my driveway. The engine made a clattering sound in the last couple hundred yards that would go away if I pulled power. Any idea what might cause this? I have a couple months left on the engine warranty, but my dealer went out of business sometime last year, so I am not sure how to use it.

It has been a good machine until this, and hasn't seem much use, with only ~130 hours. The DPF light was on when this happened.

Getting it out of the driveway hopefully won't be too hard. Getting a dead tractor on a trailer though could be a challenge.

ericm979 · Apr 3, 2019

Maybe you can use a portable winch or a comealong.

Was the DPF light blinking or solid? If it was blinking, how fast?

There's a plug on the exhaust manifold that is an emergency exhaust outlet if the DPF is plugged. You could try removing that and see if it runs. Though clattering sounds can often be mechanical problems that you would not want to run the engine with.

Any Branson dealer should honor the warranty.

LouNY · Apr 3, 2019

I would check the fuel filter and the flow out of the filter.
Also as ericm979 mentioned pull the plug on the exhaust.
Does it restart good?
If it restarts how does it run?

3pedal · Apr 3, 2019

I think the DPF light was blinking, but can't swear to it, and do not know how to qualify the speed. I wasn't paying a lot of attention to it.

Since the breakdown took place at dusk, there wasn't a lot of light to check everything. I'll look at fuel filter when I get home from work. I had a friend that's tractor got clogged up with algae. I didn't know about the exhaust outlet. I'll see if I can find it.

On a positive note, I head back from Branson, and they have set up someone local to service tractors sold by the defunct dealer. Assuming he can handle warranty stuff, this could save me a several hundred mile tow. I am waiting to hear back from them.

Slowpoke Slim · Apr 3, 2019

Start with fuel, that may be all it is.

fried1765 · Apr 4, 2019

3pedal said:
Last night I was bringing in the trash cans with the Tractor and noticed a loss of power. In the 1/4 mile drive I went from the tractor seems a bit sluggish to dead in the middle of my driveway. The engine made a clattering sound in the last couple hundred yards that would go away if I pulled power. Any idea what might cause this? I have a couple months left on the engine warranty, but my dealer went out of business sometime last year, so I am not sure how to use it.

It has been a good machine until this, and hasn't seem much use, with only ~130 hours. The DPF light was on when this happened.

Getting it out of the driveway hopefully won't be too hard. Getting a dead tractor on a trailer though could be a challenge.

Check your warranty date carefully!
Be certain that you get the tractor in perfect operating condition before the warranty runs out!

3pedal · Apr 4, 2019

I pulled the plug on the exhaust manifold last night and the tractor ran fine, if loud. It blew a ton of soot out onto the loader arm. I would not want to run it that way for long, but did let me move it out of the way and get it on a trailer.

Hombre · Apr 4, 2019

3pedal said:
I pulled the plug on the exhaust manifold last night and the tractor ran fine, if loud. It blew a ton of soot out onto the loader arm. I would not want to run it that way for long, but did let me move it out of the way and get it on a trailer.

So the DPF filter is plugged. Not sure how long the warranty is on that particular item. If no warranty, there is another thread here that will help you take care of that issue.

The idea behind the plug removal is only to be able to move the tractor on to a trailer or out of the way as you did. Not meant to run any length of time in that condition.

ericm979 · Apr 4, 2019

The DPF light has three states (per my 20/25/series shop manual):

CHECK: blink every 2 seconds.
CAUTION: blink every .5 seconds
EMERGENCY: on solid.

For CHECK the manual says to clean the DPF. For CAUTION is says to check the sensor. For both it says to take it to the dealer. For EMERGENCY it says "DPF could be damaged seriously if you keep driving even though lamp blinks".