Power Trac 1845 customizations

[Charlie_Iliff]

John:
Looks as if you're having as much fun with your 1845 as I am.
The box blade mod looks great. Some day I'll probably do that, but it's a bit down the list. I look forward to more reports on the rake. I don't have one, but am considering it. The rake might be a bit aggressive for lawn work, which would be my primary application. I hope you can post some pictures of yours, as modified, and some description of applications it's turned out to be good for.
For feathering the lift and curl, I've found the easiest thing for me has been to reduce throttle, thus flow. It makes it a lot less abrupt, although you can still get pressure, just more slowly.
Did you get the tilt seat? If so, watch for interference between the throttle cable and the connectors to the seat solenoid. I also ran a separate ground wire tying the negative battery pole to lugs in the rear and front frame sections, with a wire to the ground lug attached to the seat back. I think I had some intermittent ground faults, leading to some jerky behavior that seems to be smooth now (15 minutes test only, however.) The tilt seat is sort of neat, but I don't really need it, and wouldn't have bought it as an option. I got mine before they priced that, the strobe and fire extinguisher separately.

 

[Sedgewood]

<font color=red>Looks as if you're having as much fun with your 1845 as I am.</font color=red>

Charlie if I'm not then you're having way too much fun for a growed up person!!

<font color=red>The rake might be a bit aggressive for lawn work, which would be my primary application.</font color=red>

I think so. I think it would rip up the sod pretty badly. The closest I get to lawn is what the Bush Hog leaves behind, and now of course the much much better job done by the roughcut mower. More on that later. I'm using mine to clean ditches, rake the trash off an area I Bush Hogged last year, push fallen limbs off the fields, etc. I'll try to get some pictures in a few days.

<font color=red>For feathering the lift and curl, I've found the easiest thing for me has been to reduce throttle, thus flow. It makes it a lot less abrupt, although you can still get pressure, just more slowly.</font color=red>

Yes, slower helps, and I'm getting better at it. It may be I just need to slow down a bit, take this PT life at a more leisurely pace, given all the extra time the increased productivity of the thing gives me. But there's just SO much FUN I can't wait to have!

<font color=red>Did you get the tilt seat?</font color=red>

No. My thinking was that $900 was a bit much to invest to make 10% of my seat time more comfortable. The deal was a stretch for me anyway and the $900 I think is better spent on the box blade. The seat can come later perhaps. The strobe I would like since this thing is a bit slow over the road.

 

[Sedgewood]

Roughcut Mower

I put about three hours on the roughcut mower yesterday. Wow. This thing just pulverizes multiflora rose, which I'm seriously infested with here. Most of what I did was brush hog type stuff. I cleared some areas in a young open woods area. The maneuverability and fine positioning control is just amazing after 35 years of looking over my shoulder watching my Bush Hog crashing around skinning trees and cutting things I wanted to leave. Gotta watch those flailing rose wands though now that I'm right down at their level and close up too. It'll cut hardwoods up to about 1-1/2 inches and I'm not sure how it might do in a thick tight clump of brush. Probably not well; even the Bush Hog has trouble with that. Not being able to attack those clumps is a small tradeoff for the up front maneuverability and finer cut of the roughcut. To say nothing of the major difference in physical wear and tear on this getting older body saved by not having to brake, clutch, and shift constantly. I'm impressed.

I took a look under the mower and saw once again that the stump jumpers have holes for four blades. Why? Would there be some advantage to having four rather than two blades? Would four blades stress the hydraulic motor too much? Does anyone have a comment?

Oh, and in light of MossRoads cautioning post elsewhere to beware of hot hoses when disconnecting the mower, I felt of them when I stopped after my 3 hours of mowing. They were barely warm. When the tractor first arrived I hooked up the mower and took it for a short maybe 5 minute test run after which the hoses were too hot to touch. The only difference I can think of, other than the 3 hours of running/breakin time is that as I recall the 5 minute test was run at about half throttle and while the whole 3 hours was not at full throttle the last half hour or so was. My knowledge of hydraulics is sketchy at best. Is there a loss of efficiency in the hydraulic motor that might account for the part throttle heating? Does the fact that the tractor now has close to 30 hours on it also contribute to the cooler running oil? And what is the correct throttle setting for the mower anyway, and the tractor in general? Power Trac apparently assumes we know all this stuff and offers no tutorial in the manual.

I'm running out of question marks - that's enough questions for now.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

<font color=red>The seat can come later perhaps. The strobe I would like since this thing is a bit slow over the road. </font color=red>
I doubt you'll opt for the seat. Although it does increase comfort on slopes when it is properly set up, I'd advise not operating on anything where you'd be uneasy in the fixed seat. The 40 degree stuff is for someone else, and you avoid the need for an electrical circuit or two and another hydraulic system.
The lights are something else again. If you got their strobe, you wouldn't have the wonderful challenge of installing a truly good set of working and hazard lights. Read Mark Chalkleys description of his Chalkleyized system on the EF-5. You'll want one.
(I'm not going to be working much at night, and the rear is visible because of the strobe, so that mod is way down my expanding list. But when you get yours installed, I may copy all or part.)