Oil & Fuel 2015 Branson 3520h DPF Issue

[Mr Bitz]

Ok. Dpf clean out procedure. It seems just running these tractors at or above 2000 Rpms is not sufficient. This is strictly per experience of my own. Doing loader work or cutting brush or backhoe use does not appear to raise the temp in the dpf high enough for burn out. Per my experience on a 2015 3520cx Brandon tractor with now 200 hours. I was doing some serious loader work with this tractor at 2000rpm or higher consistently and my dpf light would come on and stay on solid no blinking. I would throttle down and light would turn off throttle up again and light would turn on again. This kept going on for a couple hours but didn't really notice a shortage of power. Finally when I was done and the light was still on I decided to take it out on the road and full road gear and run it full throttle up and down hills making it work very very hard. About 10 minutes after doing this I started smelling a horrible smell like burned rubber and plastic it was awful but I just kept running it hard at wide open throttle every once in a while hitting the brakes if there wasn't a hill to labor the engine some. About 5 minutes later the smell went away and the tractor was running better and has more power. This tractor is primarily used around our shop to load and unload pallets off​ of trucks so it never gets warm enough to burn particulate matter off. I have to believe that even at 2000 or above Rpms and light work is not enough to get up to temp on these tractors. Need to remember that these are little diesel engines and they don't typically run very warm to begin with. So be sure to make that tractor work very hard once in a while and I think the dpf will last much longer.

 

[Btown]

Do Branson's go through a regen? I thought that Branson's had DOC's not DPF's on their tractors.

 

[Mr Bitz]

No they are dpf. Passive regen, regens all the time. Just need to be up to temp.

 

[Btown]

If they are passive regen then yes you have to run it hot to clean it out, they should think about making it an active regen. If you use your tractor like I do for 5-10 minutes at a time it will not generate enough heat to burn off all the soot.

 

[Mr Bitz]

I think the whole thought process of the DPF that Branson incorparates is the fact that you DO NOT have to use DEF and the engine is NOT computer controlled. Having both or either one of those would have significant impacts on the pricing of the tractors. These engines are as simple as they get. A person needs to look at this whole thing as a frequent occurance to burn out the PM(Particulate Matter) it does not have to be everytime you take the tractor out. Like I said in a previous post I have 200 hours on my tractor before I even saw a light come on, and this tractor goes from idle to the occasional 2000-2500rpm but mostly idle and up and down doing small loader work. Just make it a habit maybe once a month or depending on how much you use it and/or how hard you use it to work it really hard and if it's going to be a hot day even better. Run the tractor like you planned on using it but do the self burn out on it occasionally.

 

[Btown]

DEF is used to reduce NOX gasses not soot like the DPF does. No tractor under 100 hp uses DEF, because they easily meet the emissions for NOX gases. Yes you made it 200 hours and figured out how to fix it. If you didn't do this you could have ruined the DPF and needed a new one. I have owned several diesel cars that had active regens, never a problem.

 

[Mr Bitz]

Not saying that DEF is a bad thing nor is common rail. But the are a lot of problems out there just in general. Trucks, tractors, cars. If they are equipped with dpf, they will develop problems eventually and will have to be replaced, no way around it. However things are getting better in this department. Branson just has the least complicated system. Mechanical.

 

[DavesTractor]

Seems that every system has it's strong and weak points. I think as time goes on, systems will get better and better from all brands. For those of us old enough to have gone through the carburetor to fuel injection stages with cars, we can remember plenty of issues as they went from mechanical carbs to vacuum and electronic assisted carbs to early throttle body FI, etc. But eventually we are left with high performance and low emissions and better mileage. Albeit at a much higher cost and much more complexity.

Branson's system is probably the most simple. It is either good to go, or it is clogged from not getting it hot enough. And it doesn't take even a trained mechanic to figure it out. However for folks that run these gently, I'd favor a button that could induce a DPF clean if needed. When you test a Branson long term on a dyno for thousands of hours, the DPF keeps itself nice and clean without any need for a burn off cycle, however it is under a load and up to temp.

I do like the simplicity of the mechanical engine with a fancy muffler/exhaust better than a computerized engine with a fancy exhaust. Mahindra has a different spin, a complex engine management system and CRD, but not DPF. That is clever as well. But you do have computer controls.

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

I have always since I was a kid fixed and repaired almost all that I have owned. Have done about everything in my sixty two years I have been breathing on my own from plumbing to IT work. I like you might say like to row my own boat. On the farm when I was a lad we fixed everything that broke and didn't run to town and have someone else do it because either save money or it being independent. With other tractors having computers controlling injection or what ever it's like jet fighters and fly by wire. Software to control these devices binds a person to the dealerships in a way I would rather not be. Branson's are the only tractors I know of that a simple minded person like myself can fix the problems that arise from this emissions laws dictate without having to hack software or paying lots for a programmer. In other words you can put a wrench to this machine and fix it for good. I don't understand why they are even putting emissions stuff on a tractor anyway. Isn't off road use exempt?

 

[Mr Bitz]

Agreed Kentucky farmer.

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

Agreed Kentucky farmer.

Thank you sir!!! Its something else farming today. Watch some YouTube videos of farmers today and the skills of farming are a thing of the past. Computers, gps, auto steer you could put a broom stick in the seat and stay in the house and watch your favorite episode of honey bobo. All you have to be able to do is set up the computers to control everything from guidance to what ever you have behind the the tractor and the rest is done. It would probably text you to let you know there is a problem or its ready for its next task. We cut, raked, baled hay, planted, drilled, plowed, disk and spread manure with out computers. At one time we use an planter that you used wires to control the planting and had to move the wire after each pass was done. With that you could cultivate in any direction and as you went around the fields the corn rows lined up left to right, top to bottom and corner to corner. Better weed control. Now it's no till and sprayed and everything from planting to spraying is controlled by 0's and 1's. What ever happened when farmers had manure in their clothes,beat up knuckles, grease under their finger nails and a grip that could choke a full grown bull. I'm an old farmer with beat up hands, crap on my clothes, and a tractor that smells like it burns diesel. Got about everything in the tool box to fix what goes wrong with it too.

 

[DavesTractor]

...... Now it's no till and sprayed and everything from planting to spraying is controlled by 0's and 1's.

They say there are 10 kinds of people that understand binary, those that do and those that don't. Always thought that was funny....

 

[Btown]

Seems that every system has it's strong and weak points. I think as time goes on, systems will get better and better from all brands. For those of us old enough to have gone through the carburetor to fuel injection stages with cars, we can remember plenty of issues as they went from mechanical carbs to vacuum and electronic assisted carbs to early throttle body FI, etc. But eventually we are left with high performance and low emissions and better mileage. Albeit at a much higher cost and much more complexity.

Branson's system is probably the most simple. It is either good to go, or it is clogged from not getting it hot enough. And it doesn't take even a trained mechanic to figure it out. However for folks that run these gently, I'd favor a button that could induce a DPF clean if needed. When you test a Branson long term on a dyno for thousands of hours, the DPF keeps itself nice and clean without any need for a burn off cycle, however it is under a load and up to temp.

I do like the simplicity of the mechanical engine with a fancy muffler/exhaust better than a computerized engine with a fancy exhaust. Mahindra has a different spin, a complex engine management system and CRD, but not DPF. That is clever as well. But you do have computer controls.

I agree on a regen/light button for Branson. Mahindra uses a DOC which also needs to be warmed up good to work properly. They are having issues with theirs too.

 

[LincTex]

At one time we used a planter that you used wires to control the planting and had to move the wire after each pass was done. With that you could cultivate in any direction and as you went around the fields the corn rows lined up left to right, top to bottom and corner to corner. Better weed control..

Those old set-ups are very, VERY rare now. Once in a while I'll see pieces come up on ebay.

Organic farmers that rely on cultivation (no chemicals) are constantly looking for this old equipment that makes cultivation more efficient.

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

Those old set-ups are very, VERY rare now. Once in a while I'll see pieces come up on ebay.

Organic farmers that rely on cultivation (no chemicals) are constantly looking for this old equipment that makes cultivation more efficient.

I would enjoy see it done again. Laste time I seen it was back in the early 60's. The only thing that was sprayed on our farm was pea's and sweet corn that was contracted to grow for Birdseye. We grew 20 acres or each and Birdseye contracted a company that had a plane that flew over the fields and sprayed them. I think it was mostly for bugs. It was a bright yellow older style plane that was loud as he!! Made my uncle mad as can be and we always had to chase the cows because they would go thru the fence and scatter all over the country. I think the guy in the plane knew he was causing it too.

 

[Aaron L]

Biplane? Most likely a Stearman. Excellent aircraft.


Boeing-Stearman Model 75 - Wikipedia

 

[Kentuckyfarmer]

Biplane? Most likely a Stearman. Excellent aircraft.


Boeing-Stearman Model 75 - Wikipedia

Yep that's it. I live not more than a mile from a little country airport now and everything under the sun flies in and out of there. Nothing big just small stuff and even some military helo's that are sometimes noisy but all the livestock is use to it and doesn't bother them. But up in Minnesota way out in the country and all of a sudden this loud plane would appear over the hill right over the pasture where the cows were the tails would go straight up and the utters were flopping and they were gone. No worning from anyone. It would have been nice so we could have put the cows up and anything else so we weren't chasing them half the night. In those days it was done on foot. No such thing as 4wheelers. Just had a old 51 Chevy to follow who ever was guiding them home from behind.

 

[cottwood]

I left it like it was. The new muffler is a bolt in replacement for the DPF. I haven't taken off the sensors and data logger yet, so the DPF light is still flashing like mad. I just needed to get the tractor off of the road where it stranded itself a month ago. I'll pull it into the shop this weekend and clean it up. I need to remove the sensors and data logger, and weld up a bracket for the muffler.

With the muffler on in place of the DPF, it feels like it's been uncorked. It feels much more responsive and more powerful. If you had me drive one with a DPF and one without and told me the one without was turbocharged, I'd believe you. This little three cylinder engine is actually pretty hairy chested.

When I first started the tractor after installing the new muffler, it smoked like a gateway to he11. I ran the RPM up a bit and once it burned off the soot that had lined the exhaust manifold, it cleaned up a lot. The only real difference now is it is a little louder, and belches a bit of smoke when you first start it. When you accelerate it also puffs a little smoke, but once it reaches operating RPM, the visible smoke stops. Just like the diesel tractors I grew up on.

Pictures follow...

View attachment 494458

View attachment 494459

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And for a video that shows me starting it and the way it sounds now...

YouTube

Hi Dplanton,
I am taking my 3520 to have a muffler installed tomorrow. 69 hrs and misses at startup because of the dpf. My question for you is does the data logger have to be removed to stop the dpf light from flashing? I have disconnected both sensors. Or will it stop once the muffler is installed? I currently have 3 holes in the dpf from uninstalling the dpf sensors. If you take off the data logger will the rest of the dash lights continue to work?
Thanks! Robin

 

[cottwood]

Figured it out. Just unplugged data recorder and taped up the ends. No more dpf light! Runs better just with the extra holes from the sensors being out. Smokes a lot. Can’t wait to get the regular muffler on tomorrow and have it run how a diesel tractor should run! Run any rpm and not worry about it. I love this tractor and will love it more with no for emissions issues. It is a little workhorse!

 

[ptsg]

It will breathe better and run a lot happier for sure. Heck! You might even find it more responsive and powerful.