I just traded my 1992 (1,510 hr.) 955/72" belly mower for a new 2001 (built in March) 4700 HST/72" belly mower early last week. It had 12 hours on the tach when I bought it, and had been at a local dealer since late March of this year. Well, I mowed my ~15 acre yard last week and then went back over about 7 acres yesterday morning, and all went well. However, after changing over to my bushhog yesterday afternoon for about 5 hours (a 1 year old 5.5' Taylor Way 250 medium-duty cutter) and cutting some tall grass/weeds (only 1 year old) on the south end of my place, I discovered a problem with the tractor.
OK, here's the story - after finishing cutting with the bushhog for the evening I throttled down (as always), turned off the PTO, shifted to range C (I was in B while cutting), and started towards the house at idle. Well, the HST squealed loudly at that point and almost killed the engine! Startled, I throttled up to 2000 rpm and tried again - this time the tractor moved, but not very well, and not very fast, and it squealed loudly again. I tried full throttle and full HST forward pedal and it bogged the tractor down to ~1800 rpm (at full throttle). This was all the tractor would do at full/full in C range, and I held it there for a good 10 seconds to test that. Releasing the HST pedal immediately brought the engine rpms back up to 2800. 2WD and 4WD settings - same result. At that point I thought that maybe it was just hot or something from all the bushhogging so I nursed it back to the house at about 1500 rpm and half HST pedal, and let it cool off overnight. However, I tried it again this morning, with the exact same result. The parking brake is not set, the belly mower is still in place and secured with the 2 pins at the front tunnel, and I did use the cruise control quite a bit yesterday. Any ideas on the subject before I return it to the dealer with only 23 hours showing on the tach? I sure hope it's something simple.......... that post about the 4700 split in half gives me the willies...........
Mike
PS - FYI, the dealer has been great to work with thus far and should not give me any problems at all - they have already said that they will come to my place (40 miles away) if I ever need service or anything. I just want to make sure that I'm not doing something wrong on the tractor before calling them out to look at it.
OK, here's the story - after finishing cutting with the bushhog for the evening I throttled down (as always), turned off the PTO, shifted to range C (I was in B while cutting), and started towards the house at idle. Well, the HST squealed loudly at that point and almost killed the engine! Startled, I throttled up to 2000 rpm and tried again - this time the tractor moved, but not very well, and not very fast, and it squealed loudly again. I tried full throttle and full HST forward pedal and it bogged the tractor down to ~1800 rpm (at full throttle). This was all the tractor would do at full/full in C range, and I held it there for a good 10 seconds to test that. Releasing the HST pedal immediately brought the engine rpms back up to 2800. 2WD and 4WD settings - same result. At that point I thought that maybe it was just hot or something from all the bushhogging so I nursed it back to the house at about 1500 rpm and half HST pedal, and let it cool off overnight. However, I tried it again this morning, with the exact same result. The parking brake is not set, the belly mower is still in place and secured with the 2 pins at the front tunnel, and I did use the cruise control quite a bit yesterday. Any ideas on the subject before I return it to the dealer with only 23 hours showing on the tach? I sure hope it's something simple.......... that post about the 4700 split in half gives me the willies...........
Mike
PS - FYI, the dealer has been great to work with thus far and should not give me any problems at all - they have already said that they will come to my place (40 miles away) if I ever need service or anything. I just want to make sure that I'm not doing something wrong on the tractor before calling them out to look at it.
