I went after work and hooked up the Brush Hog Squealer SQ720 (since we are sharing detailed info) to my 2016 LS XR4140HC to prove to my dealer once again that I can't mow more than 10 acres without it overheating even thought all airways are nice and clean. I have discussed this many times with them, but they have a lot of staff turnover so who knows what they even know anymore. I am doing this because I reached out to LS about all the issues I have had, went in circles for a month trying to get someone to talk to me but instead I got a 2 sentence email telling me to just go back to my dealer. Those guys at LS Tractor USA... big jokers they are. :drink:
This time was different though, since my AC compressor has locked up and burned the belt off, that load on the engine is no longer there. The belt is melted off so there is noting to drag the engine down from an AC perspective. Since the amount of HP an AC compressor uses seems to be widely speculated for an average, lets just say a few hp. Those few HP are now diverted back to the engine to power the PTO and the hydro-static drive system to move the tractor.
Now, I did have to drive with the doors and windows open on the cab (my ac now), but I was only going about 3 MPH so the wind drag should have been minimal. :laughing:
When the tractor was new the AC was, well, awesome. It was great. I even mowed my whole pasture at my 40 acre lot multiple times that year and it never overheated, with ice cold AC no less. We had a very hot summer the 1st year we got that tractor and it did great the whole summer until the 1st major issue happen in November of 2016 which was the hydraulic cooler splitting at the seam and flooding the tractor engine compartment with oil. Since then the AC was not good and has gotten worse each day until it just died this year. The compressor was never fixed under warranty even thought I had asked them to, but belts man; those were replaced often and always seemed to be the issue?!? The weird part about the belts is it never helped. So, whatever. I did get this from LS though in the 2 sentence response from them: "He further explained, that the AC Compressor has nothing to do with the previous repair and is out of warranty. It’s recommended that your tractor is taken in to a dealer for air conditioning diagnosis before anything else can be said." Oh wait, dang I was wrong. They sent me 3 sentences. I thought that part was 1. Its not even why I reached to them, but whatever. I guess they called the dealer instead of me and talked about the last issue I had. Anyway.
This action was to make sure what I have been having problems with for 3.5+ years was still there. After bringing it in and it coming back over and over again not fixed, I got tired of driving hours round trip to get it not repaired. I ended up just buying an old tractor to just dedicate to mow with. It made me *very sad (*replaced other choice words) at the time since its an open station tractor and the main reason I bought my LS was to have an AC cooled cab to mow in. Its also gear and not hydro, but whatever. Who cares at this point. The idea then was that I was going to then wax up the ole' LS and pawn it off on some other poor fool. I did not end up doing that. Instead of that evilness, my wife used it as her tractor to drive around and do stuff since it did have at least a little AC working. This info is so you understand why I mowed today, remember you all wanted details so I am sharing. And no videos remember!
So what did I learn?
I learned that mowing with a cab tractor with the windows closed and no AC in Texas is a greenhouse you melt in.
Mowing in a cab tractor with all the windows open is a small dust and grass tornado that stays in the cab with you. I would have rather mowed with my old open station tractor.
And I learned that the drag that the failing AC compressor was putting on the engine did not matter, I get in about 5 to 8 acres of mowing and its done.
So yeah, its still broken. That is what I did with my LS Tractor today.
Now, for those of you boys and girls (and other) that do like videos so they can see the action; I will have them posted on my YouTube channel in the next few days. I won't even put a link to my channel in this post (psst, its always in the signature below if you need it).
