Winches Anybody want to donate a winch?

[Highbeam]

Good news and bad news.

The good news is that it only costs 30$ to purchase a new hydraulic filter mount. Supposedly 3-5 days for shippping.

The bad news is that when a curly-Q cedar limb reaches up and grabs your hydraulic filter, then snaps it off the mount you lose the ability to raise the loader and the 3pt, you lose the ability to steer (not even manual steering with the wheel), and you lose the ability to move the tractor if you have an HST tranny. The only thing that works is the PTO spinning the mower blades.

As I sat there on the tractor with the lovely smell of used hydraulic fluid wafting up from the soil I thought to myself about how the heck I was going to get the dead tractor up onto my trailer. The property is remote and I have had hooligans trying to steal my stuff before. I didn't want to leave it out there.

I'll post more with pictures tonight. Not to worry though, I did get it home.

 

[Iowachild]

Is it just me, or should filters be located where they are very difficult to have anything reach out and snap them off. But than Old Murphy is always around somewhere!

 

[Highbeam]

Yes, the filter is a low hanging part. One of the lowest hanging things on the tractor. Seeing how damage prone the filter was I actually bought a spare to keep at home just in case I crush it and need to be working real soon. Trouble with this oopsie is that the actual mount broke along with the filter. I had a brush mowing job lined up this weekend for my boss at work. Had to cancel it.

 

[Inspector507]

Yes, the filter is a low hanging part. One of the lowest hanging things on the tractor. Seeing how damage prone the filter was I actually bought a spare to keep at home just in case I crush it and need to be working real soon. Trouble with this oopsie is that the actual mount broke along with the filter. I had a brush mowing job lined up this weekend for my boss at work. Had to cancel it.

Sorry to hear of the bad luck, but at least the hooligans can't steal it in that condition

 

[Highbeam]

The Kioti was almost out of fuel too, I was taking a victory lap after a full day's work and making sure the hog was working well for the paying job. I looked over and saw a leafy plant that had to be destroyed and that's when it happened. I am sure the tractor would have made it one night. Heck, I once sank my bulldozer to the belly pan out there and left it overnight mired in mud until I could think of a way to get it out.

This marked the first time I ever wished I had purchased a gear model. Nah, I like HST but with a gear drive I could at least move the machine.

 

[DrewL]

"This marked the first time I ever wished I had purchased a gear model. Nah, I like HST but with a gear drive I could at least move the machine."


my guess is far more than 100 to 1. I keep an old filter for just this scenerio to limp back

 

[Highbeam]

As promised, the rest of the story with pics!

So here is a pic of the damage, #1. See how the filter pole vaulted off of a three foot cedar branch fragment on the ground. The branch was laying flat when I went over it. The nipple for the filter snapped and the rest of the mount is fine.

So then after a brief pondering I decided to get the trailer as close as possible to head on and near the tractor. Luckily this went pretty well though the trailer was much higher than the tractor which means the ramps were pretty steep.

Then I retrieved the trucks scissor jack to raise the bucket enough to get a chain under it and also to curl the bucket enough to prevent the bucket teeth from hanging up on the ramps.

Pic #2 is after I ran the (Grade70!)chain around the nose of the tractor frame and began winching the tractor onto the ramps with a come-a-long. A 2-ton cheapy model that performed adequately for this task. Note the lumber for skids and also I discovered that as the bucket goes up you must relieve the hydraulic pressure to allow the bucket to raise without the front end of the tractor also raising. As I winched the machine towards the trailer I had to steer the wheels by grabbing a tire and turning it. Thank goodness the tierod keeps them aligned. Also note the bent rear rubrail since the chain links would grab as they slid over the steel at that point.

Pic #3 is a trailer deck view of my winching setup. This manual winching is work. Note how when you are winching that you are very much in harms way if a chain or cable were to break. I reset the winch three times as I ran out of cable and needed to take another bite.

Pic#4 shows her coming up and about to break over the top. I had to be sure to let the mower go up as high as it could which happens at the same time the rear tires hit the ramps. Then I locked the 3ph drop so that the mower would stay up and not slow the climb down. Note that it is getting dark here and I was running out of beverages.

Pic #5 shows the tractor up on the deck and about to be tied down. Thank goodness for the LED headlamp I keep in my pickup. It was dark, I was thirsty.

All in all I was pleasantly surprized at how prepared I was. I had extra lengths of chain, a hand winch, headlamp, and just enough knowledge to get it done.

Thank goodness the tractor brakes did not need hydraulic power.

So has anyone changed the filter mount? Is it hard? I have new O-rings and the parts blowup looked real simple. Maybe I should have bought two!

Oh and one more thing if this happens to anyone else. When I got the tractor in position on the trailer I lowered the loader and the mower. I expected and got a decent squirt of hydraulic fluid. Maybe a pint on the deck. By the time I got home after 50 miles on the road the puddle under the tractor was all the way out to the tires so 5 feet in both directions and left a 6 inch puddle on the asphalt while I opened my gate for about 5 minutes. This means that somehow hydro fluid kept running out of the shut off machine and giving cars behind me a nice shower along the way. I have no idea why the fluid began and continued to drain after shutdown but it was messy. No honkers or middle fingers though.

Thanks for looking.

 

[IslandTractor]

Looks like quite a bit of work getting the tractor back to civilization. Good thing the cedar branch did not take out the beer can holder too. At least Kioti put that in a safe place.

 

[VictorW]

I also keep an extra filter around. I dented mine this past winter running over a hard snow pile. Maybe time to keep a filter mount on the garage shelf too. Another member had posted a picture of a nice skid pan running from the loader brackets to I think the rear axle. It looked good but wouldn't help those of us that have a BH. After seeing this mount break and filters dented on members tractors, it might be time to figure out a steel cage of some type to protect the filter and mount. Time off from work next week and will add this to my honey do list.

 

[Highbeam]

I think RedRocker had posted a skid plate that turned out real nice and actually mounted to his backhoe subframe. It had a special extension to protect the loader valving but I am not sure if there was anything special for the hydro filter.

You can bet I was thinking about that skidplate while I was winching.

I got so thirsty that I actually drank the water from the wash jug. That water in a half gallon reused jug that I use to rinse the mud off of myself and out of my eyes before I come home so that I don't scare the kids when I arrive. It bounces around in the bed of the truck and gets all hot and icky.