A Beautiful Day to Rotary Cut

jbrumberg · Sep 20, 2007

It was a beautiful day to attach and set up the rotary cutter and start cutting my lower 7 A's. After about an hour of cutting the tractor started to run in the higher, but operational temperature ranges. The vegetation debris had started to really build up and clog up the grill ventilation ports and the radiator. The hydraulic radiator was not affected. There was a post and thread earlier this year to remind everyone about radiator clogging when mowing. I want to thank that member. I have included a couple of pictures to show how quickly things build up

! I guess I will hose the radiator down and then go back at it with my air compressor. Any other suggestions would be appreciated

. Jay

Don R. · Sep 20, 2007

Jay, your pasture looks a lot like the tract that I mowed the other day. One thing that I learned, just because the outer screen is cleaned does not mean that there is adedquate air flow through the radiator. I cleaned the screen twice in the pasture, only to have the temps begin to rise again after two or three rounds.

I finally drove the tractor home and hosed everything off really well and backwashed through the radiator. I mowed about 8 acres this morning and early afternoon without a hitch.

Thanks for reminding us of this important aspect of tractor operation.

3RRL · Sep 20, 2007

Jay,
Some guys have put screens ahead of the grill or radiator to help. Anytime you brush hog there's so much debris in the air it will end up in your radiator. When you squirt it out of there, be sure to get to the corners of the radiator too. Sometimes it builds up and you lose some of the over all cooling surface. Another thing to watch out for is the air filter(s). They will get clogged quickly as well. That will make your engine starve for air and run hot.
Other than that, it's great to be out there mowing like that, huh?

LoneCowboy · Sep 20, 2007

I thought you said it was tall.

tony123 · Sep 20, 2007

No fair....looks like you're having more fun tha..........opps. I mean, looks like you have more work to do than me.

jbrumberg · Sep 20, 2007

It's great to be back in the "seat" again after dealing with almost 3 months (2 weeks ICU/CCU, 1 week CC hospitalized) of dealing with "Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia with Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis"

! Most of the "specialists" feel that my tractor activities contributed to this syndrome

. I have been putting some serious "seat time" the last 2 days since I finally got "permission" from all the doctors and more importantly "She Who Must Be Obeyed

" to start to restart my former activities. I do wear a respirator mask for tractoring, but looking funny has never been a problem for me

. Unfortunately I have to rejoin the real "work world" in October

. Jay

canoetrpr · Sep 20, 2007

Jay - sorry to hear about your ordeal and I'm glad that you are on the road to recovery.

Silly question - do you lift the hood and actually wash the radiator out - or just vaccuum stuff up?

jbrumberg · Sep 20, 2007

canoetrpr said:
Jay - sorry to hear about your ordeal and I'm glad that you are on the road to recovery.

Silly question - do you lift the hood and actually wash the radiator out - or just vaccuum stuff up?

canoetrpr:

You got me thinking which is usually dangerous

. In the past I would brush the debris off the cowling ports, lift the hood, brush debris off the radiators and then hose the radiators down. Thanks to you I am now thinking that I will brush everything off, then use my "shop vacuum", hose everything down, and then use my air compressor to blow the residual debris and dry everything out. Jay

jbrumberg · Sep 20, 2007

3RRL said:
Jay,
Some guys have put screens ahead of the grill or radiator to help. Anytime you brush hog there's so much debris in the air it will end up in your radiator. When you squirt it out of there, be sure to get to the corners of the radiator too. Sometimes it builds up and you lose some of the over all cooling surface. Another thing to watch out for is the air filter(s). They will get clogged quickly as well. That will make your engine starve for air and run hot.
Other than that, it's great to be out there mowing like that, huh?

3RRL:

My old Ford had one of those screen filters in front of the radiator. It was really easy to keep that radiator clean. Thank you for the recommendation to check my air
filter(s). I will pull it/them tomorrow and blow them out with the air compressor if needed. Jay

SkunkWerX · Sep 21, 2007

Jay,

This thread serves as a good reminder. It's the kind that makes me remember to keep an eye on the heat gauge and regularly clean out the grill, filter, etc.

It's also a good time of year to go over this topic, since this is time that the plants and weeds are giving off all the fuzzy, dusty things that most clog up a machine.

For cleaning, I try to use compressed air, first, and blow out grills, and the grill-screen/pull-out filter. After that, then I'll hit it with a hose. I figure the compressed air will dislodge most of the dry debris, before soaking it, and having it get stuck from becoming wet. That's just my thinking on the cleaning issue.

Hope you are feeling better, that respirator is probably a good idea for us guys with allergies, too!