Recall

[Old_Hickory]

The 1st time I ever heard of a hydro was on an JD 850 dozer I had the oppurtunity to use(1986).It was a brand new dozer that was a demo left at my place of employment. I experimented with the hydro,I maintained a coal pile for a power plant. I would back that dozer off of a steep coal pile as fast as I could and try to shift it to forward as fast as I could and you could not shift it too fast,the machine would come to a crawl and go in the opposite direction in a smooth fashion.
My next hydro was on a Craftsman riding mower I bought new in 1996 and give to my cousin this year,the reason I got rid of the Craftsman it was getting some age on it and was becoming unreliable(small things like switches etc),the Hydro never give me a problem though.I replaced the Craftsman with a John Deere riding mower and yes it is a hydro tranny as well.

 

[yellowsocks93]

Those are just MY experiences with hydro units at the dealer I work for. I never stated that all hydros are problem prone. People have probably had bad luck with gear models too. But everytime I have to drive a 4000 series hydro the pedals are stiff and they whine like crazy. Maybe some TLC is needed. The hydros do sell better and just about every compact we sell is a hydro with a loader. They also hold their resale better than a gear 4000 series compact.

 

[Heath]

Yellowsocks,
Of the Hydros that you see in your shop, is there a "typical" problem that they seem to have? Just curious.

 

[yellowsocks93]

To tell you the truth I have never worked on one because I am not a mechanic just parts and clean up. I know they are in there for trans. work because they get split. One problem that I saw once was one of the mower lift link pins fell out and the operator raised the deck up and cracked part of the transmission casing. It was about 500 dollars for the part plus labor. This can happen to any 4000 series tractor though. The pin fell out on mine but nothing was damaged.

 

[rockyridgefarm]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( But everytime I have to drive a 4000 series hydro the pedals are stiff and they whine like crazy )</font>

These aren''t 4000 TEN's - are they? Sounds like the original 4000's that had a lot more trouble.....

 

[Old_Hickory]

Mine is a 4000 series and I never have had a problem with the hydro,the differental lock now that is another story.

 

[yellowsocks93]

In my original post I mentioned only the older 4000 series and made no reference to the newer 10 series. We have had one or two of new 10 series leak transmission oil but it was really no big deal and the ehydro is a pretty nice system. Much revised over the older units for sure. I was just saying I have seen quite a few hydros that have had problems. I'm not saying their bad or anything just personal preference.

 

[keeney]

When I worked at Toro, they were working on some prototypes of systems to replace the hydrauliclly drive the cutters on the greensmowers with electric motors. The main reason was not that the hydraulic motors or pumps would fail in any major way, but because even a small, slow leak in a seal would eventually drip on the high-dollar golf green and generate complaints. A hose failure would often make the entire green useless.

I don't think they ever made any production units with electric cutters, but it does illustrate the one way in which hydraulics tend to fail. The most common problem is not that they suddenly stop working, they just tend to gradually start leaking as seals wear out and/or degrade.

- Rick