Tazewell trip report

[NJBill]

Ponytug,

Welcome, and thank you for the excellent summary of your visit to the dreamworld of the heavyweight tractors.

I, particularly want to thank you for the statement about the hose situation. Of late I have been concerned with owners believing that the schematics provided by Power Trac are correct, which in all cases is not so.
Oh yes there are probably some which come out correct, but I was trying to have owners make doubly sure by tracing the hoses on their particular model.
Thank you again for your reference to my recent pet peeve.
Bill

 

[ponytug]

J.J.
Interesting. Eddie demoed the tiller in reverse on newish soil; I suspect the play yard has been dug over more than a few times, but it did have 6" of grass growing in it. I'd have to look at the tiller again to check which way the blades are cutting upward through the soil. That is the direction you want to drive. The wrong direction would certainly greatly affect the cutting ability.

It took two passes to get down to the axle, but it probably could have been done more slowly in a single pass.
It seems perhaps that my expectations were out of line.

All the best,

Peter

Ponytug, On the tiller thing, as far as I know, most tilling is done going forward. There is no reason to till going backward except as Charlie said , to pulverize the dirt even more. The cutting edge is set to cut going forward, cutting from the top of the ground to the set depth. That tiller will cut down to the axle shaft if necessary. In hard dirt/clay, you have to go slow, but it will till as advertised.

 

[ponytug]

It's an 1850. My typo.

PT wasn't very keen on photos in the sales room. I have a couple of Eddie motoring around on the slopes.

Diagnosing hydraulic lock is pretty easy. "Gol durned, dag nabbit, durn thing won't go on."
Solutions tried;
Manhandling it onto the tractor hydraulic fitting. No luck.
Attempting to stick a finger in female socket to relieve the pressure. No luck.
Attempting to stick a penknife in, but cooler heads prevailed.
Giving up and driving back to the factory floor to get a wrench to loosen the fitting: solved.
Cross plumbing the QA: Presto hydraulic lock again, but really locked. The hoses were obviously stiff.

The maintaince class was very straightforward; grease those zerks! Every 8 hours. Make really really sure that you grease the lift cross member on the front arms, and don't forget the zerk behind the plate. Eddie mentioned one gentleman who has a pocket for his grease gun on the side of the engine cowling to make it easy.

Change the hydraulic oil filter and bleed it. No tip on filling the filter and waiting while it soaks in before filling it with more fluid to minimize the entrapped air. (Having the hydraulic filter have a differential pressure indicator on it could be useful. There's one on the engine air filter.)

Change the engine oil and filter every other hydraulic oil filter. Don't lose the brass washer.

Clean the engine oil cooler regularly. Clean the hydraulic oil cooler as needed. Presumably every eight hours.
No comment on using finer screening so that it would need cleaning less often. The engine cooling air intake is not against the screening lest people obstruct it with a slow moving vehicle sign.

I'm sure I am missing something, but I don't have my notes in front of me at the moment.

What, no pictures???? I can't believe no pictures!!!!

Great Write Up! Very jealous.

So, did you buy a new PT? You need to PM Alta Vista as he just bought a PT tiller for his 1850. Initially I was not sold on one, and was planning to buy one local and hook a hydraulic pump to it, but I think AV really dug his system...

An 1860? Was it an 1850?

Sounds totally cool. Tell me more about maintenance and how to diagnose and resolve hydraulic lock.

Carl

 

[woodlandfarms]

But the big question is did you buy one? Are you going to buy one?

Thanks for all the insight. Completely weird they would discourage pictures... I guess when you are married to your sister... Ooops... Bad Virgina joke...

 

[J_J]

.

J.J.
Interesting. Eddie demoed the tiller in reverse on newish soil; I suspect the play yard has been dug over more than a few times, but it did have 6" of grass growing in it. I'd have to look at the tiller again to check which way the blades are cutting upward through the soil. That is the direction you want to drive. The wrong direction would certainly greatly affect the cutting ability.

It took two passes to get down to the axle, but it probably could have been done more slowly in a single pass.
It seems perhaps that my expectations were out of line.

All the best,

Peter

Maybe this article will help explain tilling operation.


In standard tilling, tines turn in the same direction as the wheels, with soil churning down and out the back. In counter rotating tilling, the tines turn in the opposite direction of the tiller's wheels -- being pulled down into the soil against the forward motion, and creating an "upper-cut" action. Soil is thrown up under the tine shield and falls back, leaving a well worked, fluffy seed bed all in one pass. This is accomplished with a steady, easy pace with no lunging forward of the tiller.

The standard forward rotation is recommended for seed bed preparation, cultivating, and first pass tilling under of cover crops, leaves and compost.

 

[J_J]

The best way to cure hydraulic lock, is to relieve pressure, by whatever means. Most of us have a trick or two. You will learn as time goes by, but if impatient, just ask.

 

[KentT]

Thanks for all the insight. Completely weird they would discourage pictures... .

When my son and I visited Power Trac, he started to take pictures in the showroom, but they stopped him -- saying that they did not allow pictures to be taken of the showroom. Later, when I was loading up a couple of implements I'd bought, Eli did take these pictures of the warehouse, if anyone is interested. Not sure why they're so opposed to pictures...

Other Photos

 

[RegL]

It's an 1850. My typo.

PT wasn't very keen on photos in the sales room. I have a couple of Eddie motoring around on the slopes.

Diagnosing hydraulic lock is pretty easy. "Gol durned, dag nabbit, durn thing won't go on."
Solutions tried;
Manhandling it onto the tractor hydraulic fitting. No luck.
Attempting to stick a finger in female socket to relieve the pressure. No luck.
Attempting to stick a penknife in, but cooler heads prevailed.
Giving up and driving back to the factory floor to get a wrench to loosen the fitting: solved.
Cross plumbing the QA: Presto hydraulic lock again, but really locked. The hoses were obviously stiff.

The maintaince class was very straightforward; grease those zerks! Every 8 hours. Make really really sure that you grease the lift cross member on the front arms, and don't forget the zerk behind the plate. Eddie mentioned one gentleman who has a pocket for his grease gun on the side of the engine cowling to make it easy.

Change the hydraulic oil filter and bleed it. No tip on filling the filter and waiting while it soaks in before filling it with more fluid to minimize the entrapped air. (Having the hydraulic filter have a differential pressure indicator on it could be useful. There's one on the engine air filter.)

Change the engine oil and filter every other hydraulic oil filter. Don't lose the brass washer.

Clean the engine oil cooler regularly. Clean the hydraulic oil cooler as needed. Presumably every eight hours.
No comment on using finer screening so that it would need cleaning less often. The engine cooling air intake is not against the screening lest people obstruct it with a slow moving vehicle sign.

I'm sure I am missing something, but I don't have my notes in front of me at the moment.

Anything about adjusting the valves on the Deutz. I lost my book but I think mine are about due. I think I'll try to get a manual from Deutz before I try. Thanks for the report on the 1445. We don't here much about that one. Sounds like it has a lot more power than the 1430. I've looked at that 3cyl 2011f on the net several times. I believe it's only a couple inches longer than the 30hp in my 1430. Can you guess what I'm dreaming?

 

[Bob999]

Anything about adjusting the valves on the Deutz. I lost my book but I think mine are about due. I think I'll try to get a manual from Deutz before I try.

John Coxon (Sedgewood) has posted the relevant pages here:

PT-1845 Scheduled Maintenance

 

[RegL]

John Coxon (Sedgewood) has posted the relevant pages here:

PT-1845 Scheduled Maintenance

Thanks. I guess I was supposed to check the clearance at 50 hours. I missed that one. I've got 750 on it. Maybe I'll be looking at one of those 45hp sooner than I planned.