Komatsu PC130

[WoodChuckDad]

This is the only excavator I have ever operated. Can't make a comment about how much power it should have. I can tell you that I have been impressed with what it can do. And I have been able to get some stumps out of the ground that are ridiculously large.

 

[EddieWalker]

How are you filling the holes after you remove the stumps?

 

[WoodChuckDad]

How are you filling the holes after you remove the stumps?

Knocking the dirt off the stump, smooth in over the hole with the excavator bucket and moving on to the next one. When we finish with the stumps I'll use the tractor and box blade to tear out surface roots and make things more uniform.

 

[newbury]

Are you keeping track of your cost per stump?

Like for every $1,000 you spent (and continue to spend) divided by the number of stumps you've done.

/edit - It looks like with the amount and power you are clearing with it costs less overall than my B7610 .

 

[japody]

View attachment 461548

Man, that looks like fun!!!!! :thumbsup:

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Are you keeping track of your cost per stump? Like for every $1,000 you spent (and continue to spend) divided by the number of stumps you've done. /edit - It looks like with the amount and power you are clearing with it costs less overall than my B7610 .

I'd like to say that I am not, but my mind works like that. I will calculate the total area we stump and then divide that into the total cost ...sale price plus fuel plus maintenance. I'm not sure how I will figure the roads and bridges and foundation work I will do with it. Maybe as a value added figure. In that area, hiring someone to pull stumps runs between 3 and 5 thousand per acre.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Man, that looks like fun!!!!! :thumbsup:

It is fun, but that is my 16 year old at the controls. I am grateful for the help, and was hoping he would pitch in, but he doesn't want to get out of the seat. Worked all day Saturday and most of Sunday....I had to bribe him out of the seat by reminding him that we just got a canoe for the pond.

 

[farmer2009]

It is fun, but that is my 16 year old at the controls. I am grateful for the help, and was hoping he would pitch in, but he doesn't want to get out of the seat. Worked all day Saturday and most of Sunday....I had to bribe him out of the seat by reminding him that we just got a canoe for the pond.

Be glad you're 16 year old enjoys something like that, and is willing to work. Also nothing wrong with having a heavy equipment operator in the family.

 

[EddieWalker]

Knocking the dirt off the stump, smooth in over the hole with the excavator bucket and moving on to the next one. When we finish with the stumps I'll use the tractor and box blade to tear out surface roots and make things more uniform. View attachment 461626

The reason I ask is because when I first started clearing my land and digging out a few stumps, I didn't do a good job of filling in the holes. After a big rain, I found that they turned into quicksand traps that swallow up anything that drives over them. You can walk over those areas without knowing where they are. Grass will grow and blend them all together. But after enough rain, those holes get saturated at the bottom and with more rain, it just gets worse. I got stuck in one that I had dug out several years early while out mowing an area that I had mowed multiple times before.

Now I make it a point to get a bucket full of dirt, or two, and really pack it into each hole. I dump the dirt in, then drive over it with my front tires again and again until it is solid. Then I build it up higher then the surrounding land to force water to go around that spot. Since doing it this way, ant taking the time to do it right away, I've never had another problem.

I also found that if it rains before I can fill a hole, that I either let it dry out, or I scoop out all the water, and all the loose mud before filling it up again. Another lesson learned the hard way. It is impossible to fill a stump hole with dry dirt that is full of water. You just end up with soup that never dries. Guaranteed to swallow anything that drives over it in the next year!!!

 

[gghb]

X 2 on what Eddie says make sure they are over full and well compacted.

greg

 

[WoodChuckDad]

I appreciate the heads up on compacting the soil in the holes.. I have been doing that since reading it here. I have several weekends of good work in now. I have had to replace a few bolts, that held pins... but, the excavator has performed very well until this evening. I had a sudden loss of poser. The sound of the engine changed as well. I stopped and turned down the throttle..it sounded like it was going to stall. I let it run for a minute to cool down and the idle returned to normal. my fuel gauge was showing low (3 bars) so I set off to get the aux tank on the pickup and fueled it up. when I started it back up it ran fine and felt fine for about 5 minutes then the power issue returned. I shut it down again. I'm at a loss. all my fluid levels are fine. It is behaving as though it over heats. It felt hot when I opened the engine compartment, but I didn't see any problems or smell anything. I am not a mechanic...and certainly not a diesel mechanic, so I will be calling the dealer I bought it from in the morning and trying to get some help with troubleshooting, or preferably, getting a skilled mechanic out there to have a look at it. This is a bad time for me to have this happen. I took the whole week off to work on getting the land ready for apple trees.

 

[farmer2009]

Change the fuel filter.
Sounds like you could have a restriction. Fuel filter symptoms can be sudden.

 

[gghb]

Change the fuel filter.
Sounds like you could have a restriction. Fuel filter symptoms can be sudden.

fuel filter keep spares. find the valve on tank bottom sometimes there is a screen there.
Hreg

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Thanks, guys, I'll change the fuel filter first thing in the morning. And I will buy spares.

 

[redman135]

Hello WoodChuckDad, if you are going to do much stumping then I recommend a 1 or 2 shank ripper/pick. The resulting holes are much smaller, with far less ground broken. Also you can break the stumps down to a size convenient for your tractor. Quite useful if you use the stumps for firewood. Some of the stumps pulled out of peat left a hole that would bog a 20 ton digger. The ripper quickly broke these stumps down to size.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sounds like fuel issues to me too. I'm pretty sure your fuel tank is metal. What I was told is that since we never keep the tank full all the time, moisture builds up on the inside of the tank and over times, rust scales off of the metal and gets into the fuel. Mostly it just sits at the bottom of the tank, but when you get low on fuel, it's more likely to get sucked up. At least that's how my dealer explained it to me.

I don't know your engine, but in both my backhoe and my dozer, there is a fuel pump with a screen in it that gets plugged up. It also has a glass bowl so you can see into it. Mine gets dark when it's full of debris and it needs to be taken apart and cleaned out. I use a rag to get most of it, then a can of carburetor cleaner to get it spotless clean. I have two fuel filters on both of my tractors, and a water separator. These don't get plugged up very often, but still need replacing from time to time. If your haven't' done it yet, you might as well.

I also have had good results using my air compressor to blow out my fuel lines to the tank. When it was really bad for me, I removed my tank and got it as clean as I could using water and then letting it sit for a day in the sun to dry out. I should have used something to coat the inside of the tank, but guess that will get done the next time it gets real bad. You will be surprised at what you find in there!!!!!

I also added a clear plastic inline gas filter before the fuel gets to everything else. It's a cheap Fram filter that I replace a couple times a year. You can see into it and tell when it's getting dark. Since doing this, I haven't had any more fuel issues. Depending on usage, I tend to replace it every other month. I don't know if they make them for diesel specifically, it doesn't matter to me. The gasoline filters do a great job of pre filtering what comes out of the tank!!!! I probably have five or six of them sitting on my shelf right now.

 

[farmer2009]

Thanks, guys, I'll change the fuel filter first thing in the morning. And I will buy spares.

I take it you're back up and running.

 

[WoodChuckDad]

Well, I changed the filter...had to go out to the machine first to get the part number and serial number and model number of my engine. And it seemed fine for about an hour, then it started creeping again. The temp scale was 4 out of 9. I checked the coolant reservoir and it was between the high and low, closer to the low, but it was cool to the touch. I could even touched the radiator and it wasn't burning hot. Nothing smelled hot. It just didn't have any power. Oil level is good, gear oil is good, hydraulic level is full. The air filter is clean. There is no secondary fuel filter that I could find. I'm baffled and so are they The old filter did't look funky...I poured the fuel out of it into an empty gatorade bottle and it was clear and pink and looked absolutely fine. So I drove to the dealer. None of the mechanics were there today. They gave me a fuel treatment to put in and run...told me if it didn't fix it to call back in the morning. It didn't fix it. I topped off the coolant resevoir...opened the radiator and checked that. Everything was good. And it ran well for 20 minutes, then started acting up again. I opened the fuel tank to make sure I didn't have a vacuum lock that was causing it not to flow...It made no difference. I ran it for a full hour...stopping from time to time when it was dragging, and then it would sound normal...toward the end it started to just plain drag, I would stop doing anything and it would get back to sounding normal, but any load put on it made it drag again just before I shut it down , I saw a puff of whitish blue smoke from the exhaust. I don't know if that means the volcano is about the erupt. I shut it down and went and lit a fire with my boys by the pond and ate pizza. I will be calling in the morning.

 

[Cataclysm]

Still sounds like fuel. Look into the tank for anything or a lot of trash that could be covering the outlet. Disconnect the fuel lines and blow them out and confirm there is no blockage. I'm betting on something or trash in the tank covering the outlet.

 

[farmer2009]

Ok. Without being there its super hard but if you're sure there is no chance of a fuel restriction. Even if it means draining the fuel tank and removing the shutoff valve to make sure there isn't a 2" stick stuck in it. Experience. Dozer. I'd say somebody probed the tank and lost a little bit.

Then start checking fuel throttle linkages. Make sure all are good. By the sound of things I'm wondering if there isn't a problem in the injector pump. Like a governor spring. If you do end up with a pump rebuild have the injectors tested. Be sure to number the cylinder they came from. If ok you don't want to mix them up. If they need rebuilding it won't matter. Last thing you want is to be down twice. I hope I'm wrong and it may be worth a mechanic checking it out before you do anything.