Slowing down and pictures

[woodlandfarms]

So, the tractor is quite a kick in the pants. It goes EVERYWHERE. Funny, I am more afraid of going up and down a hill than going a cross it. I guess it is that Hydraulic seat.

But, I am having an issue that Terry has a solution for but wanted your guys opinions. After driving hogging the tractor for an hour or so I can no longer go up and down the hills without turning the PTO off. It starts out strong, but falls apart as it warms up. Terry feels it is a filter issue. My tractor was quite abused and Terry feels that there probably is a lot of junk in the system, even thought the flushed and replaced a lot...

Today I promise I will get some slope and brush hogging pictures. It is just me at the farm this week so I am a bit stymied in picture taking. The first is just some cuttings I have in the grapple, and the second is something wonderful I found with the brush hog (Boy did that make one heck of a noise)

Today is my last day for maybe a month or two before I get to come back. Really, really bummed...

Carl

 

[KentT]

Nice pics! It's great to hear you're impressed with the PT...

If it is not a partially-clogged filter (as Terry suggests), my initial impression is that you're losing torque simply when the oil gets hot. Several of us with older PT-422s and PT-425s experience that same symptom.

Changing to a thicker (higher viscosity) oil would help some, but the "final solution" as I'm just getting ready to go through is to put higher-torque wheel motors on it.

On that machine, changing to thicker oil would be a pretty expensive experiment...

 

[ponytug]

Dear Carl,

Really impressive. What type of grapple is that?

If hot oil is your problem, the power issue will correlate with the tank temp. Have you tried one of the cheap digital meat thermometers? $20. on sale, complete with stainless steel protected cable? Some even come with alarms, but I doubt that you would hear it. You could clamp against the tank or wrap it onto the metal portion of one of your hydraulic lines. If it is, switch to a heavier oil, or one with temperature extenders.

If you are still flushing crud out of the system, next time you change the filter, cut it open and look. It is often very informative; metal chunks, dirt, rubber debris, acorns... Changing a few filters isn't that expensive, and you want the crud out of, not in, your system.

Since you did have a bunch of crud in your system, it wouldn't be that surprising if some of your motors/pumps had some additional wear (i.e. clearance) that makes the hot oil problem worse.

All the best,

Peter

So, the tractor is quite a kick in the pants. It goes EVERYWHERE. Funny, I am more afraid of going up and down a hill than going a cross it. I guess it is that Hydraulic seat.

But, I am having an issue that Terry has a solution for but wanted your guys opinions. After driving hogging the tractor for an hour or so I can no longer go up and down the hills without turning the PTO off. It starts out strong, but falls apart as it warms up. Terry feels it is a filter issue. My tractor was quite abused and Terry feels that there probably is a lot of junk in the system, even thought the flushed and replaced a lot...

Today I promise I will get some slope and brush hogging pictures. It is just me at the farm this week so I am a bit stymied in picture taking. The first is just some cuttings I have in the grapple, and the second is something wonderful I found with the brush hog (Boy did that make one heck of a noise)

Today is my last day for maybe a month or two before I get to come back. Really, really bummed...

Carl

 

[J_J]

Dear Carl,

Really impressive. What type of grapple is that?

If hot oil is your problem, the power issue will correlate with the tank temp. Have you tried one of the cheap digital meat thermometers? $20. on sale, complete with stainless steel protected cable? Some even come with alarms, but I doubt that you would hear it. You could clamp against the tank or wrap it onto the metal portion of one of your hydraulic lines. If it is, switch to a heavier oil, or one with temperature extenders.

If you are still flushing crud out of the system, next time you change the filter, cut it open and look. It is often very informative; metal chunks, dirt, rubber debris, acorns... Changing a few filters isn't that expensive, and you want the crud out of, not in, your system.

Since you did have a bunch of crud in your system, it wouldn't be that surprising if some of your motors/pumps had some additional wear (i.e. clearance) that makes the hot oil problem worse.

All the best,

Peter

Carl,

You should be aware that the oil going to the charge pump on the tram pump is the only oil that is being filtered. All the oil will be filtered eventually, but could take a long time. The other pumps, draw oil directly from the tank, and you run the risk of debris in all your other lines and motors, except for the wheel motors. The tram pump and wheel motors are in a closed loop system. If one of the lines going to the hydraulic wheel motors is breaking down and shedding pieces of rubber, you could have a serious problem. I believe your machine has case drains, and therefore, a good hydraulic shop could measure the amount of fluid coming out of the case drains, and could tell you something about the condition of your wheel motors. The oil will thin out as it warms up, and a thicker oil would help some. If you live in the South, you could get away with a single weight oil like UTF red, which is a good hydraulic oil, unlike motor oil. If you are in very cold climates, you have to use a multi grade oil, be it hydraulic oil, synthetic motor oil, or a synthetic hydraulic fluid. If it is a well used machine, the wheel motors may be due for a rebuild, or you might consider upgrading to some new motors, but they are not cheap.

Every one should be aware of what usually causes wear on the wheel motors, or any motor. It is the particles smaller than the filter limits. These small particles act like abrasives as they slide by all those parts and eventually wear down and you start to lose motor efficiency, and start leaking more fluid into the case drains. The purpose of the charge pump is to make up this fluid that is diverted out of the closed loop system. That is my understanding of the way the system works.

 

[RegL]

I think someone mentioned a while back that their are external filtering units that you can pump your hydraulic through to clean it up.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Thanks to everyone. I replaced this second filter and things are working better. Still by no means perfect, but becoming livable.

I plan to flush the system when I return. Does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks

Carl