The 1736 so far...

[30coupe]

Well, I've had my 1736 for a few weeks now, and I've put about 36 hours on so far. My major gripe isn't with the tractor but with Massey Ferguson. My backhoe that was ordered on June 5 and paid for on June 13 still hasn't arrived! The dealer called today to say that Massey claims it has shipped...finally. I'll believe it when it's attached to the back of my tractor!

The tractor itself is a beast! The capabilities of this little bugger continue to surprise me. It has pushed over trees 7-8" in diameter and uprooted 15' tall honeysuckle, pulled my 2 bottom Ford Dearborn plow through 4 year-old clover plots, dragged my 8' tandem disk without so much as a grunt, and done pretty much anything I've asked of it even though I have yet to get the fluid in the rears. I'm waiting on the backhoe, so the tractor only has to go back to town once.

The only negative I have found thus far has been the quirky fuel gauge/tank crossover. That issue has been mentioned by many others already, but it is really annoying. At 10 gallons, the capacity is nothing to rave about to begin with, but when the gauge seems to have a mind of its own, I'm always nervous that it will take me by surprise and run out of fuel sometime. I try to add some fuel anytime I plan to be on it for more than a few minutes, but sometimes it won't even take 5 gallons to fill it to the neck while the gauge still reads 1/4 full...wtf! My dealer claims there is a fix for it, so I hope he is right. I just wonder why Massey hasn't fixed it yet since is seems to be a common issue. I kind of get the feeling we CUT owners are not nearly so important as "real" farmers whose tractors cost six figures. That bugs me since a $30-40K investment for a guy like me is way more of a hit than a $200k tractor is to someone farming 2000 acres.

Anyway, at this point I am very impressed with my little red tractor! :thumbsup:

 

[thclimer]

Welcome to the 1736 club!

I've learned to live with the fuel issue, just try to keep it toped off if I'm going to be doing a lot of work. If there is a fix I'd be interested to hear what that is.

I just ordered a set of pallet forks from Everything Attachments for my 1736, delivery was estimated at 6-weeks and I'll post a review once I get them.

 

[30coupe]

The backhoe came on Friday...still waiting on the fluid for the rears because now the tire place had a breakdown of their pump. Anyway, the backhoe is pretty amazing for its size, which is quite small...amazing how much bigger they look in the pictures online, lol! So far, I've dug out 8 stumps ranging in size from an 8" cedar to a 24" apple tree. That apple tree was a beast! Holy crap! Once I got it dug loose, I had a devil of a time getting it out of the hole. I finally scraped as much dirt as I could from the rootball and rolled it out with the backhoe. It was way too heavy to lift with the loader, so I ended up pushing it 1/8 mile to my burn pile! The cedar, a 10" walnut that had cracked in a windstorm, a 12" black cherry that was dying, and the apple tree were in our front yard. The wife is WAY happy to have them gone, especially the apple tree, which had poor quality apples that made a mess in the yard. At first she was dead set against the backhoe, but she likes it now! She keeps coming up with more projects for it now, so we are both happy!

The float feature of the MF backhoe is very handy. I use it to find the roots by setting the teeth just into the sod, floating the boom, and slowing pulling the bucket toward me. Then it's a simple matter of working my way out on the root until it finally pops. It keeps the hole from getting too big unnecessarily.

So, two thumbs up for the 1736 and the backhoe!

 

[billwleod]

Mine has the same fuel gauge issue. It does register occasionally. It acts like a ground issue. I would be interested if someone knows what the issue is. I haven’t tried to figure it out yet. Great tractor and I am always finding new tasks. My backhoe has removed about 20 stumps so far and many more to go.

 

[jimmyhouser]

Welcome to the 1736 club!

I've learned to live with the fuel issue, just try to keep it toped off if I'm going to be doing a lot of work. If there is a fix I'd be interested to hear what that is.

I just ordered a set of pallet forks from Everything Attachments for my 1736, delivery was estimated at 6-weeks and I'll post a review once I get them.

There is a flapper check valve in one of the rubber tubes in the crossover assembly. It's there for folks who operate on unlevel ground. You can either drill some holes in the flapper or slightly bend it. For those on flat land, just take it out. Otherwise, like climer said, keep it topped off.

 

[30coupe]

Well, I don't have all that much flat ground. My place is in the driftless region of Iowa near the Mississippi. It varies from a spring creek valley to the top of a bluff about 110 feet above the creek. So I imagine that may have something to do with the erratic gauge readings. It's just kind of an annoyance. The gauge didn't work at all on my old IH 454, so this is still an improvement, lol.

 

[30coupe]

Well, I don't have all that much flat ground. My place is in the driftless region of Iowa near the Mississippi. It varies from a spring creek valley to the top of a bluff about 110 feet above the creek. So I imagine that may have something to do with the erratic gauge readings. It's just kind of an annoyance. The gauge didn't work at all on my old IH 454, so this is still an improvement, lol.

My dealer was able to get things working with the gauge. It takes a long time to fill, but at least both tanks are full when I'm done and the gauge works now.

 

[zdman]

I originally had to fill my tank with about five gallons, drive it around some then fill again. My dealer fixed it - said something abou the flap between tanks being rotated. Not sure what he meant, but now I pour in until it fills up the neck of the tank at which point it gurgles, goes down some and I fill it more. After a few times I am now able to completely fill the tank. Annoying that it is so slow to fill though. It does run a long time with the gauge showing full then drops rather quickly. Never thought of just removing that flapper valve - would be interesting to see how hard that is to do.
I do dislike how touchy the fel joystick is. It is sensitive and hard to use if you are maneuvering in tight conditions.

 

[jeepcj7]

The first 1700 series had a cross over tube between the LH and RH fuel tanks. The fuel pick up tube and sending unit was on the RH side (I think). If you were on a slope with the LH on the down hill side you could run out of fuel with 1/3 of a tank of fuel. The flapper valve (check valve) was added as a running change to keep the fuel on the same side of the tank as the pick up tube when the tractor was on a slope. This helped prevent the engine from running out of fuel on a slope but resulted in a false fuel level reading (probably read fuller than it really was). The sending unit was then moved to the other side of the tank sometime later in production also resulting in a false fuel reading (probably read emptier than it really was) but better to read too empty than too full in my opinion. I haven't tried it - but if you need to wait a few moments to let the fuel level go down while filling the tank it would indicate that maybe only 1 of the fuel tanks is vented. You might want to try venting both fuel tanks and then T the vent hoses together.

 

[kg5ajp]

Use a dipstick

 

[zdman]

We have had a few issues with our 1736. One was the same fuel issue you have. Dealer worked on it and now we can at least put a full 10 gallons in instead of 5 at a time. Still have an odd issue when in high 1st or 2nd where it jerks (shimmies might be a better word) when releasing clutch. Oddly when using the forward/reverse shifter on the steering wheel (not hydro) to take off it never shimmies.
Most recently we had a major issue. Was using a soil buster plow in lowest gear and it hit a root or rock. Was barely moving and the sheer bolt on the soil buster never broke. However, the axle casing where the right lower three point pivot connects cracked. I don稚 mean a hairline crack either. Fluid just poured out. Broke bothe sides of the axle casing. It is at the dealer now being fixed. Had I been moving fast and hit something then I might understand this happening, but at low speeds this should never happen (axle should be strong enough for the rated hp of the tractor and wheels should have just spun).

 

[thclimer]

We have had a few issues with our 1736. One was the same fuel issue you have. Dealer worked on it and now we can at least put a full 10 gallons in instead of 5 at a time. Still have an odd issue when in high 1st or 2nd where it jerks (shimmies might be a better word) when releasing clutch. Oddly when using the forward/reverse shifter on the steering wheel (not hydro) to take off it never shimmies.
Most recently we had a major issue. Was using a soil buster plow in lowest gear and it hit a root or rock. Was barely moving and the sheer bolt on the soil buster never broke. However, the axle casing where the right lower three point pivot connects cracked. I don稚 mean a hairline crack either. Fluid just poured out. Broke bothe sides of the axle casing. It is at the dealer now being fixed. Had I been moving fast and hit something then I might understand this happening, but at low speeds this should never happen (axle should be strong enough for the rated hp of the tractor and wheels should have just spun).

Oh my, That sounds like a significant crack and sorry to learn of your situation.

Do you have any pictures?

I hope they are able to get it repaired quickly for you, any idea on time frame for the repair/what parts are they replacing?

 

[metalbender]

I,m assuming the lower control arms are the same as my 1742. Being a total newb when I bought, never thought about it. After owning for a while and looking closer, it truly looks like a poorly designed attachment point for major load bearing work. I'm wondering if it is a factor with any more owners.

 

[zdman]

Hope this image comes through. Hard to get a perspective from the photo unless you know what you are looking at. I agree with metalbender though, seems like an odd place to mount the lower arms to. I have not heard back from the dealer yet but will update when I do.
By the way, that photo was taken after I towed it about 100 yards, the crack was initially much smaller.

 

[thclimer]

View attachment 620881
Hope this image comes through. Hard to get a perspective from the photo unless you know what you are looking at. I agree with metalbender though, seems like an odd place to mount the lower arms to. I have not heard back from the dealer yet but will update when I do.
By the way, that photo was taken after I towed it about 100 yards, the crack was initially much smaller.

Wow, that is significant!

 

[Imold]

Yep that痴 pretty ugly almost like the casting was flawed. Hope you get it figured out and fixed.
A person would almost need to have a ripper 6 inches in the ground going maybe wide open and run into a cement slab or one huge rock to do that kinda damage one would think.



Jim.

 

[zdman]

Yep thatç—´ pretty ugly almost like the casting was flawed. Hope you get it figured out and fixed.
A person would almost need to have a ripper 6 inches in the ground going maybe wide open and run into a cement slab or one huge rock to do that kinda damage one would think.



Jim.

My thoughts exactly on the metal being flawed. Still waiting on dealer who is working with MF to make sure they will cover it under warranty. Fingers crossed.

 

[Imold]

My thoughts exactly on the metal being flawed. Still waiting on dealer who is working with MF to make sure they will cover it under warranty. Fingers crossed.

Will be interesting to see what they Say and do, under normal operating conditions that should never happen unless the casting was flawed, the 3pt was way overloaded or the internals exploded.


Jim.

 

[zdman]

Well, after two weeks of dealer waiting to hear from MF, called them directly. They responded quickly, approved the repairs under warranty and are working to get parts to the dealer. Good to see them standing behind their product.

 

[Imold]

That sounds awesome, glad they are taking care of you, do they have any idea what caused the problem yet ?