Max 26/later 28 backhoe seat.... seriously, what idiot thought this was a good idea?

[linuxman51]

As a preface: I have 13.5 hours on my max26, 10 of that has been clearing brush primarily with the front end loader after installing a toothbar. I've used the backhoe a grand total of about five times, including playing with it the night I brought the tractor home. It left a great impression by jamming after rotating 90 degrees. I chalked it up to operator error (as it is decidedly different from the seat my max 28 had on it), but really it was just a sign of things to come. It became extremely difficult to lift up and back past the 'peak', and anyone that's had the misfortune of dealing with one of these knows they have two spring-ball locks that I guess are there to make it easy to raise it up, spin it, and then let it settle down in the reverse-facing position (rather than the lift/spin and latch in on the older max 28 seats. A more robust design if not occasionally painful on the fingers if you didn't time things correctly).

anyway, tonight, while going over the machine following yesterday's debacle in the back 40, I discovered why it'd gotten more difficult to flip up and back..

the **** washers/shims/whatever literally get bent.

on the other side, it's starting to fold over, but hasn't quite gotten there

Also finally figured out why I had to have the seatbelt adjusted all the way out, apparently the straps go on the inside of the metal cage on the seat base.. mine were definitely on the outside and have been since the word go. This is nice because now I'll be able to wear it whilst digging with the backhoe.

 

[RJI]

ya not the best engineering went into that design...
I have the same machine, after about 10 times spinning it I got the hang of it... gotta find the sweet spot and it spins no problem...
have you destroyed the seat safety switch yet? that's next... all in all I am very happy with it, has done everything I've put it through... I'm not easy on equip
I've popped some boulders/stumps out I thought it would never budge...
good luck!

 

[linuxman51]

It's getting worked out and it's been far more maintenance/repair work at 13 hours than my max28 was from 0 to 70 hours (To be fair, I've also cleared more brush than I did with my max28, and that really seems to beat up the equipment and expose dangly things underneath). The issue with the seat isn't understanding the mechanism, as you can see in the pics, the washers by the snap balls (or whatever those things are called) are getting bent which then hangs the seat up either fully back or won't allow it to rotate up all the way.

I guess I'm lucky on the seat wiring so far, it's popped the grommet out a couple of times but hasn't shown signs of damaging the wiring. I should probably preemptively bypass it and tuck the wiring out of the way.