PT-1850 on the HIll!

[AVIVIII]

I joined about 7 years ago when I bought my John Deere 430, but have been pretty quiet since....

On Sunday, I just brought home a 2005 or 6 PT-1850 with a pile of attachments, which I know very little about, besides it took 2 trailers to move!


In the background, you can see a portion of the messy hill that I plan on clearing!

I emailed Power-Trac with all my serial numbers and they are going to send me "a manual" through the mail, not sure what I'm going to receive. I've also called and spoken with Terry about some hydraulic fittings which went way better than the email conversation that I had with CS. But I still have some questions.

The previous owner switched the hydraulic couplings over to a drip-free, flat face, skid steer-style on the tractor and the flail mower, but not the rest of the attachments, as that was the only one that he used. I have 2 90" rotary mowers, one of which appears to be ready for use and I have already ordered new fittings to convert that one. What is the best source for blades? Or do you all buy through pT? I also got a knuckle boom mower that appears to have never been used (probably because the tractor seems to be missing a required hydraulic connection? again, no manual...) a stump grinder that looks like it has a trencher wheel on it, small forks, and a bucket. Neither the forks nor the trencher/grinder have the normal quick-attach plate on them, but 3 fork/clevis/yoke? that look like they would need to be bolted to the tractor in place of the quick hitch? I don't have a direct use for either of them, so I'm not particularly worried it.



Before it rained, I did a little mowing just to try it out today. Snapped a couple beauty pics about 2/3 of the way up the hill. Now all I need is a deck-over trailer so I can move it without taking the wheels off!





I've been reading the forums for the past week, but any other insights or suggestions are appreciated, especially if you know anything about the boom mower!

 

[MossRoad]

NICE!! :thumbsup:

 

[LittleBill21]

totally off topic, was the zip system more or less then tyvek?

 

[MossRoad]

The attachments that don't have quick attach plates were most likely from before the time they had the quick attach and used a pin system for mounting. You can convert them easily by welding on a QA female adapter from PT, or several folks here on TBN have made their own for considerably less cost.

Just be aware of the dump angle before you weld anything permanently, or you'll get an implement that may not curl back far enough. There's quite a few posts on that angle subject here in the PT forum, or just start a new thread when you're ready and the PT folks will jump right in.

 

[wasabi]

Congrats

She' a serious beast that will take you places you're not sure you want to go and will knock down anything you can run over

Be safe and enjoy!

 

[AVIVIII]

totally off topic, was the zip system more or less then tyvek?

When you consider labor, about the same. And (at least in our area) Zip is considered weather tight, so you can start electrical, not that I have...

 

[SpringHollow]

The boom mower should have some controls with tilt etc. Also you need shut off needle valves installed on the FEL lift and tilt cylinders (needle valves circled in picture). I purchased the boom mower and never used it because I did not have time to do commercial mowing so I sold it.





Ken

 

[AVIVIII]

Thanks Ken! It looks like I have all of that. I definitely have at least 2 needle valves, maybe 3, I'll look again tonight. I can understand shutting off the tilt cyl, but the lift too? The hose without a (obvious) connection must connect to the tilt or lift circuit then? I've got a few hydraulic fittings to change before I can use it, but I've got about 1/4 Mile of overgrown road frontage that I cant get to, and nasty little pond across the street that I plan on using it for.

I have to make sure I have the rest of the parts too, the blade and part of the spindle were never installed, still wrapped up from the factory!

-Kevin

 

[SpringHollow]

The controls connect to the auxiliary PTO circuit (I believe on an unmodified PT, that is the the fittings used for the quick disconnect). You need to lock the lift cylinders after you adjust the counter weight height because that unit is heavy and the leakage would constantly be dropping it. The mowers height and tilt are controlled via the bank of control valves which you mount to be within easy reach.

I will answer the seat question here too (sorry everyone for sidetracking the "by state" thread). I was very concerned about added height. After I first installed it, my head on big bumps would just touch the FOPS. But the suspension is adjustable and after adjusting it, I do not hit even when wearing a wide brimmed hat that sticks up a bit. I am almost 5' 8". It is definitely a back and kidney saver for me. As a side note, I never use the slide adjustment after getting it where I wanted. One could add extra mounting holes and just try different locations. But I am the only one who uses this tractor and I can see where adjustability would be nice for different users.

Ken

 

[woodlandfarms]

I went a different route with small rubber shocks I found. I put them between the seat and the metal. It works, not nearly as sweat as Kens setup but it is fine.