Buying Advice Potential PT Buyer Questions

[frischtr]

Based on my experience with the brush grapple, those teeth are gonna bend. The good news is that they bend back if you can swing a big sledge hammer.

We'll see in time. I've put it through a lot already with no troubles so far. Been digging a few boulders out of my yard with it, weighing up to about 700 lbs. The teeth appear to be made of 1/4" plate.

 

[SpringHollow]

Having used electric and hydraulic winches, i have been much happier using the Honda-powered Portable Winch. Certainly for what i do, it is a nice solution.

Not sure where in Canada you are located, but you are welcome to drive down and see my PT but it is the slope mower.

Ken

 

[MossRoad]

PTWannaHave

Welcome to TBN! :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

1.) If one wheel spins, then 'stuck'? (I.e.: all wheels on same hydraulic 'circuit'. If one wheel spins, all hydraulic pressure/torque goes there and none left for other three wheels.) This is quite a concern (I know very little about hydraulics? It is a pain on my current Cub garden tractor that when one wheel spins, I am stuck.

1.1) Can this be easily changed to make either all wheels independent, or have FWD & RWD independent of each other?

1.3) If one wheel motor dies, simply disconnect hydraulic hoses, plumb bypass, and keep going on indefinitely on three wheels?

The wheel motors are in a series/parallel arrangement. That means two of them are in series and the other two are in series. Then both of those series circuits are in parallel.

So if one wheel spins, the other one in that series circuit will still have flow to it and should get you unstuck.

As for easily changing it... I would have to say no. It would not be easy, but could be done with plumbing.

If one wheel motor dies and you were to remove it from the circuit you would have to connect the two ports of the wheel motor (maybe three ports on the units with case drains) so the wheel motor could free spool. Also, as I described the series/parallel setup above, lets say you have 10GPM to each of the two series circuits. I'm not sure, but if you remove one of the wheel motors from one of the circuits, you may get a two oars on one side of the boat and one oar on the other side effect. I.E. the single motor will probably not run at the same speed as the circuit with two motors. I may be wrong, but I may be right, too. :laughing:

If you are concerned about gearing, you can order the smaller PTs with larger wheel motors. That will give you more torque to the ground, but lower top speed.

 

[MossRoad]

1.4) This might sound very newbie-ish: Since the PTOs are hydraulic motors on the implements, does that mean that the speed can be infinitely varied? For example, you could control the speed at which the mowing blades turn, or the speed of the rotation of the tines on the tiller.

There are two PTOs on a PT.
One is the main PTO. It is either on or off with no variable control and is controlled by an electric on/off switch.
The second is the AUX PTO. This is the lever next to your right knee. It is a valve that is normally closed and can be moved in two directions. It is for the quick attach cylinder (opening and closing the latches) and it is also used to control things like opening and closing the grapple on a grapple bucket or angling a snow plow left and right.

The speed of the main PTO can be varied somewhat by changing the engine speed. However, running the air cooled engines at lower speed also reduces the engines cooling fan speed and can cause overheating problems. Those gas engines are meant to run all out all the time when a load is on them. You could put a valve in the PTO line to vary the speed of the PTO and dump any unused oil back to the reservoir, but you need a bit of hydraulic knowledge to do that correctly. Most of us had ZERO of that knowledge when we started here, but most of us also are kind of wacky and actually learn about how our machines work, so we are all learning hydraulics over the years. PT owners tend to really get to know their machines! :thumbsup:

 

[MossRoad]

2.) Anyone ever thought of ordering a PT without an engine, and then installing your engine of choice (say a Honda, or liquid cool Kawa, diesel, or ...)?

3.) Anyone know if a PT can be ordered in desired color (other than JD and MF??

You would have to get an engine with the correct shaft size for the pumps furnished by PT and you would also have to make sure it will fit in the tub. Things like mufflers and radiators come to mind. Unless you are proficient and welding and fabrication, I would not undertake that task myself.

As for color, you can always ask. Highway orange and safety yellow come to mind.

 

[MossRoad]

4.) How does the mowing deck float over the surface exactly? I haven't seen good pics that explain that

4.1) Do you have to lower the arms with the deck on flat driveway to adjust height before starting to mow? (I.e.: what replaces the 1-2-3-4-5 height settings of a lawn tractor? Mowing will represent 2/3-3/4 of my time on the tractor.)

4.2) I would like a 72in mower, but the widest available (even for PT-1430) appears to be 60. You'd have to go to a PT-1445 for 72in. I wonder why that is (I currently have a 46in mower, and would like to reduce my 4hr/week grass cutting time?

The mower deck rides on its own set of wheels. The PT just pushes it along. It will tilt forward and backward and side to side independent of the tractor. The FEL arms are put into FLOAT mode, so the deck will go up and down independent of the tractor as well. So, three axis movement independent of the tractor. Works fine.

Adjusting the cutting height on the PT is one shortcoming. The front casters are adjusted by removing a pin, dropping the caster, setting the correct number of spacers above or below the mount and reinstalling. It only takes a minute, but your hands are gonna get greasy, greasy, greasy. Did I mention greasy? :laughing: As for the rear wheels, they are bolted on in pre-drilled holes. There are 5 or 6 holes of varying height. It requires two wrenches to remove the bolts. So, if you are a frequent deck height changer type person, this will be a drawback for you.

A 60" mower is about 25% larger than a 45" mower, so my guess is your mowing time of 4 hours will be reduced to 3 hours in a flat open field.

 

[J_J]

I believe the hyd motors that are in series, are designed as 1500 psi motors, and the 3000 psi developed by the pump is dropped across the two motors. If the you did bypass/remove one motor in the series, and then you stall out the one hyd motor, the pump is going to try and put 3000 psi to the motor, and could blow the seals or burst the casing. Both legs of the pump circuit will see 3000 psi, because they are in parallel.

 

[J_J]

I really don't think PT will sell you a machine with no engine, or one not painted.

I would recommend buying a used machine, and doing what you want with it. Re-engine, etc, , and paint any color you like.

 

[BobRip]

Most of us had ZERO of that knowledge when we started here, but most of us also are kind of wacky and actually learn about how our machines work, so we are all learning hydraulics over the years. PT owners tend to really get to know their machines! :thumbsup:

Who's wacky? (Oh, that's probably me).

Seriously though, since there is no dealer support network, you need to be an independent cuss, who's willing to get greasy and learn what you need to learn. PT has excellent telephone support (you talk to the factory expert and he will help you as much as needed), but you do the work yourself. Of course people here (the best wacky people in the world) will also provide you with excellent support.

Cold starting is an issue. Since the engine cannot be decoupled (well not easily) from the pumps, the starter must turn over the engine and pumps. When the transmission oil is cold the engine will not start. I keep mine in a heated garage mostly for that reason. You can put heaters on the hydraulic oil and the engine and that helps. I have a PT422, and I am not real familiar with how the diesels start.