Pre flight check

[mudfarmer]

Try to be smarter than me please 

Been working on this "ready to work" skidder for 3 weeks. Checked fluids, fired up and let it run for a while to warm up and headed out for a ride.

1/2 mile back in woods I finally brushed the snow off the dash, oil pressure 0, panic and shut down. No tools, fluids still good everything looks ok. Made decision to drive out and hope for the best, needle pegged at 0 all the way.

Did I mess up oil pressure gauge line while working in the dash or under the hood? No that all looks fine. There is oil in the filter. There is oil in the bottom inch of the clear line to gauge, not moving  :embarassed:

Took gauge line off, could not blow and get any pressure! Well may be getting somewhere? Fired up with line disconnected and got a Jed Clampet geiser!!! Well boys we have plenty of pressure but need a new gauge and a beer  8) probably won't forget to check gauges for a while

[Old Greenhorn]

Ah, don't feel bad. Given the symptoms I kind of guessed what you have there. It's probably moisture in the line which may defrost after it runs for a while if the clog is near the engine.
Back 20 years ago I maintained all the machines in a machine shop I worked in and the compressors was one of them. A pretty big screw compressor we got to replace two 20 HP reciprocal compressors that were a full time job, which is why we had two.  ;D
Anyway, that screw compressor was a dream, no issues at all and it ran 24/7 for 360 days a year. It lived in a shed just outside the building wall, ran on 480v and generated enough heat to keep that building warm year round. I designed and installed automatic fans and power vents that worked off the temp in the building to limit the heat.
Anyway, I would shut it down on Christmase eve, just before the company party. Sometimes during the holiday break I would come by the shop and do the annual maintenance, full oil change, filters, check a  bunch of stuff, etc. Then I would stop back in the day before we all went back to work and fire it up. Well, the first year e had it, it wouldn't fire up. Kept giving all sorts of safety alarms, no oil, no pressure and I panicked. A machine shop relies on the compressor for a lot more than blowing chips and a lot of the machines won't run without a good clean air supply. It was a Sunday and I put in emergency calls for service help, but it was New years day or close and nobody was answering phones. So we started back up the next day with no air and limped along on one of the old screw compressors which was not a happy camper. Finally get some tech help on the phone, explain the issues and the tech 'knows' what it is. All the pressure transducers are froze up with condensation. He has a set on the shelf and jumps in his truck and runs them up to me and we swapped them out in 5 minutes. BINGO, all good to go. I kept the old set and dried them out, but each year after that I would order a set and just change them during service. I had 5 years with that compressor and only one unplanned downtime incident that lasted less than 15 minutes. I love screw compressors.

Anyway, don't be hard on yourself, it's a weird set of circumstances.

[mike_belben]

Frozen condensate broke the gas regulator guage on my mig bottle yesterday, and froze up the gas solenoid pintle.  Had to take cover off, pull hose, blowdry it and then let it spit the ice specs out.  That was one of half a dozen -2F dangits.

Winter always adds insult to injury for me.

[BargeMonkey]

 I changed an expensive fuel pump out, injectors, had the deere tech come check the computer, find out I had a cracked fuel filter housing 🤦‍♂️. Mechanic and I just stood there in the tundra and shook our heads, can't win them all. Throw 5k into the wind for a 50.00 part.

[Corley5]

I put a brand spanking new Bosch oil pressure gage on the Kubota engine I swapped into my firewood machine. Close to 70psi cold and 43 when warmed up. It started losing pressure little by little. I thought at first it was because the engine had sat for a while and was loosening up. Then one evening it dropped to 15psi. I shut it down and quit for the day. I looked for V1505s online that night just in case. Next morning I cut open the filter and there was nothing out if the ordinary in it. I went to town and got a different brand of gage. Problem fixed. Same oil pressure I started with. I talked with the mechanic who maintained the engine's previous owner's equipment and he told me he'd replaced several of those Bosch oil pressure gages on this engine. I've put several hundred hours on it and this gage never changes.

[mudfarmer]

That all makes perfect sense, I was thinking some crud got dislodged after the poor thing got the oil changed for the first time in 5yrs but frozen is a better bet.

Now we are running the parts store's finest gauge, a Bosch Style Line. It was also their only gauge  ;D Back to regularly scheduled 40 at hot idle.

Not complaining, I knew what I bought but anyone that didn't know and bought this thing as "work ready" as advertised would have been pretty upset. More like "ready for you to work on" It's got about 50% new bolts, they were all missing. About the same for hoses except they were leaking, torn, worn through. Brake valve just pouring oil out the body, steering cylinder with bad scored rod pushing out $20 a turn, back chains worn so bad they were mostly shackles and still broken and breaking, winch wouldn't free spool unless you hung from it, list goes on.

[mudfarmer]

you guys posted while I was typing, Corley ya gotta be KIDDING ME MAN  :D

[Corley5]

Good luck with that Bosch gage  ;D

[Peter Drouin]

Just like my 1044 lull. The man said it was 100%.
What I didn't know It was 100% ready for a rebuild'
$ 40,000 later it's good. :

[moodnacreek]

Started up my spare forklift yesterday because it has chains on it.  Hydraulics where froze so let it run until I herd a funny hissing noise. The hyd. pump split in the middle and it was not from freezing [in the pump while sitting] but it must of passed some ice or had a frozen relief. Always more fun.

[47sawdust]

Thanks for sharing these stories friends.It can really be hard on a persons self-confidence floundering around with equipment that doesn't talk.
At least my wife let's me know right off what my problem is.

[mudfarmer]

It is tough, my requirements are a small affordable machine but they don't make that anymore. There was an awassos in VT but it was $40k, almost 20yr old and looked beat in the pics. Can't justify that for part time work I just don't have the coin. So here we are with a 50yr old machine that cost a fraction but making up for 40yr of deferred maintenance  ;D I will road it 2mi to the site tonight after day job if it doesn't turn into 14 hour shift like yesterday.... 440 and a 1ton I am a real "wanna be" now!

[Stephen Alford]

   Mr Mudfarmer you have posted as many nighttime pics as anybody.  I have worked in the dark many nights and you cannot have too many lights on the skidder .   Headlights are great and a flood light on the rear is usefull. A few extra handles by the doors and a chain from the top of the cab to the top of the fairlead will give you something to hold onto and stop debris from falling across the back of the machine . A tree pusher is sweet  .  Had some digger teeth on the blade for extra stop on slopes . The picture gallery is down at the moment so pictures another time ... A couple abc 20 pounders for fire suppression .  Walkie talkies or phone to check in on a regular bases .  The night work is not the safest but you have to do what you have to do .  I really enjoyed yarding at night with the tractor and grapple .Nice warm cab a few tunes light snow soooo peacefull 🙂

[mudfarmer]

yes sir, work all day and it sure gets dark early so then end up working into the night in the woods. Last year it worked ok to cut asap in the afternoon before dark and all day on weekends then skid after dark all week. Not sure yet how theoretical increased skid capacity will adjust work flow. Already replaced the very poor lights that were on it with some nice LED, one front one back but need to slap a big light bar on the front too like I set up on the tractor. The tractor you can be 100ft away front or back, 50ft to the sides and still working in daylight at 8pm in January  ;D There is a holder for a small extinguisher but need to figure out where to mount 20lb ers for sure!

There is about as much room for storage on this thing as the little kubota, sometimes feels like less because the stock fuel tank is all beat up and unhooked, they put a home built tank in between the winch and the arch so not sure yet where to even stash a saw   : I see where there used to be a chain between the cab and the arch but somebody torched it off. No tree pusher but can't drive to hardly any of the trees on this job anyway so won't worry about that for now. I am concerned about the short cable and will need to keep my extension handy and maybe some chains. Very happy so far with the brakes especially after fully rebuilding the valve. No worries on the pictures I have studied your setup closely!

[Stephen Alford]

   Sounds good ... couple after thoughts would be magnets bottom of fuel and hydraulic tanks .... Spot light inside fuel tank from the sounds of er worth checking . Had 3 kill switches on my ol beast ... hard for a stranger to start ... A little stone on top of fuel cap at night . Used tire tubes to cover winch and tools you have to stach . They are opaque and do not show up at night with a bit of slash on top .  Weld extra bottom on a cart great to haul battery s if you park er back in the bush .  That and lots of luck .... 😁   Oh , for me a 1/2 skidder mainline 100 ft was all that was needed and a manual cable cutter ... good to go .🙂

[nativewolf]

Our Ponsse Elephant was sold to us by Ponsse with an inspection checklist that specifically included cooling system, crane, ujoints, and grease system.

The cooling system did not exist: radiator had a hole the size of a thumb, the water pump was shot, the thermostats were shot, the radiator cooling fan was shot.  In short the cooling system was non existent.  They pretended it was just an error due to cold when they sent it out but no..it was fraud.  They even had a service tech stop by after 2 1/2 months and tell us the reason the grease system wasn't using much grease was that it just barely lubed.  What fraudulent crapola.  So, yeah your "ready to work" machine might not be.  Here's the good news:  after forcing them to replace some things and my son and I replacing the others we have a rock solid machine.  Heck our new employee even tipped it over 4 months ago, we righted it back up and let it sit overnight and fired it right on up.  We've replaced a worn rotator grapple (took us a day) but that's after we've put another 3k hours on it and it now has over 20k hours and moves along.  Oh, a trucking firm slammed the crane steel lines off by trying to go under a low bridge (idiots) so 2 fairly big incidents and it still is rock solid.  I suspect you'll find the same, it might take you many months to get it all done but I hope by the summer you'll have a tight (ish) machine.  Good luck Mudfarmer and nice to hear the detailed reports.

More bad from us, our Ponsse Bear is a ADMIN LANGUAGE EDIT lemon.  It's clocking right at 19% downtime and this winter that has moved up to 26%.  We can't run a business with so much downtime and have started talking to govt agencies here regarding Ponsse failures.  So, I guess I would say be happy with the older machine you can fix.  The bear issue right now is that one or more of the computers is likely dead, they may have been sending us bad replacements(not flashed correctly), the engine wont turn over at all, remote support is anything but consistent in diagnostic and this is after a service truck was here 100 hours ago to fix issues with the electrical starter wiring/relays. 

[mudfarmer]

That is for sure some real rotten luck! I am sitting in the truck on the landing eating a half frozen sandwich and thinking... 19%? 26%!?!?! My job is highly sensitive to downtime, if we hit those numbers even in a month even for just one small client me and everyone I work with would be on the unemployment line. Hope you can get things straightened out!

[nativewolf]

Yep it is beyond ludicrous.  Seems like you are working through your issues one by one, you have a hit list it seems so you can be on the lookout for deals on parts.  I'd post more but I am so disgusted nowadays that joy is just gone. 

[mudfarmer]

Well good to hear from you, stick with it we can all commiserate together! If things don't slow down I will be run ragged on all fronts. Lift pump pithing diesel this afternoon, add it to the list  :D

[Nebraska]

Native wolf sorry you are having to deal with that shoddy garbage you have had more than your share.

[nativewolf]

Thanks Nebraska. 

[mudfarmer]

[nfo]I was having a lot of trouble with the winch, just free spooling. Not a big guy, it was all I had to put a foot against butt plate and spool off 6ft at a time. Obviously not going to move any wood that way and most trees are a ways from the trail. Took it apart a few times and adjusted, played with valve and cable but just couldn't make it better.

Yesterday it was too warm to skid so after work I took it apart AGAIN. A lot of head scratching and wrench turning and staring at the book later I figured it out but had to run to town for parts. I hope nobody needs a fine thread 7/16 nut because I bought the last one in a 20 mile radius and just that one nut fixed it so it is perfect.

Someone had the winch apart and left out the "special nut" on the slave cylinder. With that nut missing the stroke of the cylinder isn't long enough to fully release the brake band.

Now I know why the seller had custom wrenches he could find in 30sec and asked if I had ever adjusted one of these winches, and another time said he was getting too old to pull the cable. One missing nut. Honestly probably why he sold the skidder [/nfo]

[mudfarmer]

The missing "special" nut (it's the shiny one)


OOPS

[Stephen Alford]

     Good on ya Mr Mudfarmer .  Like Mr snowstorm used to say if your going to own it you might as well learn to fix and maintain it . Their only a pain the first 30/40 times ya got to mess with it after that you will know exactly what and when you need it .  Having a skidder on site and willing to show up and use it when your hired trucker  is available to come is huge when it comes to cash flow .  Hopefully  you won't have to work at night to much it's plenty dangerous in daytime .  Stay safe out there .

[teakwood]

The missing "special" nut (it's the shiny one)


OOPS

That looks exactly like the 3305 winch i have on my 540A

[mudfarmer]

The missing "special" nut (it's the shiny one)


OOPS

That looks exactly like the 3305 winch i have on my 540A

Your previous posts about the winch were very helpful, you are one of the top experts in the world apparently 💪 luckily I didn't make it as far as pressure testing and valve/pump work.

Might help future searchers of the "special nut" this is a 3305 on 440A Poor Boy Special

[teakwood]

When I joined FF back in 2014 because I had bought a new to me skidder with a problem 3305 winch on it, I was as green as they come and some of the good old gentlemen's, mechanical experts on skidders guided me thru the fix and I was so happy when it worked. 
And now I get so satisfied when I can help, give something back and not just being a freeloader on the forum. Because in the beginning it sure felt like that