TC45D Gutless Wonder

[jinman]

Farmacist, this past weekend I forced myself to hold-off and only slightly depress my hydro pedal as I was digging with the FEL. By only "scrubbing" 300-500 rpm off the engine, I could lock the differential and spin all 4 tires simultaneously. It was uncanny. The power came on fast and strong and the engine never approached stall. Of course, I could stall it by depressing the pedal all the way down, but why? I was able to fill my bucket very easily with semi-hard dirt and I'm extremely pleased with the performance of my little TC45D. However, for the first time I noticed that the powersteering seems to stall about halfway through its full throw. If I moved forward, it would easily go to the stop, but sitting still, the power assist seemed to just go away when the wheel was about halfway through its left or right movement. It wasn't a problem, but it is a curiousity. I'll keep checking and observing on these issues./w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif

JimI

 

[JATO_RaT]

Jim, your power steering situation made me wonder if it is doing this while stationary or while you are moving? A loaded bucket and being stationary are about the toughest demand you can make on a power steering unit. Rat...

 

[jinman]

You are absolutely right Mark. I was sitting still with a full bucket. Any movement made it very easy. It is curious as to why it stalled 1/2-way through its full throw. I tried this in several places, so it wasn't something on the ground.

JimI

 

[dieselpwr]

JimI
That was the power steering complaint I had in my earlier ranting. /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif It is normal I guess. It is just an underpowered pump / systeem. The one I tested at the dealers lot did the same thing with a loaded bucket. You'll find that it takes very little movement to get things moving again; but, its just the fact that by this time, you would think engineers would have designed it for turning with a load at a standstill. Lets face it, these tractors are most commonly purchased with loaders & should have been designed to deal with these issues. Its not like power steering is a new concept that couldn't have been improved on over the last 50 years to deal with the weight of a small tractor with a full loader. Does it keep you from functioning? No. Its it annoying / frustrating? Yes. I guess this is just the way compacts are. They are not real tractors. (I am just waiting for the response to that comment) I feel I can say that because I own one. I love the manuverability that I gained when stepping down in frame size, however, I am not too impressed with the function for a 45HP machine. They could have beefed things up more & really made one heck of an awesome machine if they had wanted to. When a manufacturer offers one I'll be getting in line to buy. Until then I guess I'll just settle for what I have. /w3tcompact/icons/blush.gif

Troy

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>just the way compacts are. They are not real tractors. (I am just waiting for the response to that comment)</font color=blue>

OK, define "real tractor" for us./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[dieselpwr]

To me a real compact tractor would also include some of these qualities that my TC does not have: heavily-built, well designed machine able to perform all fuctions allowed by the options you selected on your machine. The limiting factor should be the engine. It should be like a little tank. /w3tcompact/icons/cool.gif To me a compact tractor should be relatively heavy for its small size & basically overpowered. The optional features should be overbuilt as well since people do abuse them. Things should be made so they are very very difficult to break. I would submit that many of the ways people on this forum damage their tractors are really "normal" uses for this type of machine. We tend to call it abuse because the machine doesn't take it. The other perspective is that the machines are underdesigned. If quality is defined by fitness for use these really aren't all that great of quality machines are they? People like to use them to lift heavy things, go over heavy brush, pull & jerk on heavy loads, max out pto driven devices, and dig & rip hard with loaders & implements. I would be willing to pay more for some extra steel, heavier drive line components, skid plates, stronger 3pt arms, stronger loader components... all while keeping the small size. My theory is that if the engine is the limiting factor for most things, the companies wouldn't make enough money on service & spare parts. That's why they don't build 'em better. The engine is the one thing that I do like so far on this machine. If it was the limiting factor I would be impressed with it simply because the power requirements were what I used as criteria to select the size machine I needed. I made the dumb assumption that all the other components would be designed to fully utilize that power without failing. Do you see the same issues with large field tractors? Not nearly as often. I guess I just expect to much. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

Troy

 

[Bird]

OK, Troy, I just wondered what your concept of a real compact tractor would be. You have some interesting thoughts, although I'm afraid I can't agree with you. I think the compact tractors are pretty well designed and hold up quite well for the kind of use they get. Of course, I suppose most of us have never seen any piece of equipment without having some ideas (perhaps feasible; perhaps not) about how they could be improved.

Bird

 

[glennmac]

Troy, I think you may have a valid point. I think these tractors could be more rugged. It seems a lot more effort goes into competing on ergonomics and user-friendliness and styling than on toughness and performance. There's almost a feminine quality to some of these tractors.

I am constantly shocked at the flow of reports from users about quality problems and things breaking--particularly, if I may say so, on JD's. People take delivery of brand new machines and seals are breaking the next day. I cannot understand why skidplates are not even a separately priced option. My Kubota has been relatively trouble free but I have broken housing of my belly deck twice on tiny little surface roots. This is an attachment that weighs 500 lbs and costs almost $3000. So far, Kubota will not accept my arguments that they have an obvious design problem that could be easily fixed.

The overall problem, I think, is that these tractors try to be too many things. They try to be lawn mowers, ag tractors, construction tractors, comfort tractors, beauty queen tractors, wife-friendly tractors, easy-to-use tractors, easy-to-detach tractors, easy to drive tractors--all at the same time. They actually do a good job at all this, but many compromises are made along the way to try to accomplish all of these mutually-exclusive objectives. Therefore, someone who wants pure muscle performance and durability may be disappointed.

Having said this, I love my tractor.

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>Do you see the same issues with large field tractors? Not nearly as often.</font color=blue>

I've been kind of wondering about this comment since yesterday. Since I live in real farming country and have friends and neighbors who are farmers/ranchers, it seems that every time we get together the main topic of conversation is what broke down this week, and in many cases, we're talking about almost new equipment; tractors, balers, hay cutting equipment, etc. And when I go into dealerships, what's in the shop; big ag equipment. My first thought was that they have a lot more repairs to be made than most of us compact owners ever thought about, and more complaints about design flaws, poor quality, etc. However, since there's a lot more of the big ag stuff in this area than compact tractors, and since they also use their tractors and implements more - put more hours on them, I don't know whether you're right or not. I suspect it's a draw./w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Bird

 

[JATO_RaT]

Bird, around Northern California, John Deere is the dominating agriculture tractor. I have looked at them and have to say that it would appear a great deal more quantity of steel goes into making them. It has to. A D8 has a ton more steel in them then a Ag tractor. I guess its a matter of physics. When you start making componets longer, support more power, and generally take greater loads you either beef up the componet or design it so it takes the load. An airplane doesnt always count on a thicker, heavier piece of metal on a componet to satisfy its needs sometimes its just a matter of design. When it comes to compacts, I have noticed that the Kubotas I am interested in have a much greater web section in the loader support arms then any of the John Deeres. I mentioned this over at the JD area, it was a real concern of mine since I am particularly hard on loaders. The JD's loaders for the 4500, 4600 and 4700 are made in Canada and look to be a very old fashioned design. They could be perfectly fine, the small arm size just scares me. I have yet to bend, twist or generally do anything to damage the loader on the L4850 (LA950 loader)