TC45 Info needed

[Su7]

Hello all,

I am new to tractors and can’t say how much this site has helped the learning curve and have already benefited from the site by contacting Mike from PineRidge who was very helpful.

My reason for buying the tractor is that I’m about to build a house, on 15ac of land (80% open), this coming year and thought it could come in handy for that process. So after many hours of research and hunting I recently purchased a 2001 TC45D that had 172 hours and came with a 16LA FEL, Bradco 609 BH, Woods PHD, Woods 6' BB, Woods 6' RFM & 3PH T400 cement mixer all garaged and in excellent condition for $24,000. I thought it was a good deal but wanted to hear your thoughts on that for the record.

I want to perform the upcoming 200 hours service a little early to ensure everything is up to par. I purchased all the necessary fluids and filters from my local dealer – Krempasky in Honesdale PA. They seem to be very good but I haven’t really dealt with them much yet since I purchased the tractor directly from the original owner who had bought it from H&M out of Amsterdam, NY. I did speak with H&M prior to buying the TC45 who gave it a clean bill of health when they did the rear wheel loading and 50 hour service. I also asked about a title but they informed me that titles were not issued for tractors? Is this true?

Getting back to the 200 hour service, I was recommended to buy the NH oil which is “off road” rated for diesels or it would shorten the life of the engine. Is this the case and if so what is so much better about NH “off road” oil?

Additionally, I would like to add/change a few things. First off would be the FEL which did not come with a QA system so that needs to be rectified along with the pin on HD 72” bucket & bolt-on cutting edge. I did some research here at TBN along with many calls to various vendors and came to the conclusion that it would better to swap out the current bucket, keeping the cutting edge, and getting a new NH HD QA bucket along with the NH QA adapter. I have ordered both and will be picking them up this week from Charles Snyder(thx dknarnd) in Tamaqua, PA, who by the way is offering me a $500 trade in for my current bucket so I jumped at the deal. FYI – Since NH has changed over to the 200 series FELs it would behoove anyone interested in changing over to a QA system to do it now or have to go to an after market system, like the ATI quik-tak at twice the price I might add, before supplies run out.

I also want to get QA pallet forks and after reviewing many brands believe the Construction Attachments model CAL-48-HL or the wide frame 57” version vs the std 44” model which would give me the widest reach when carrying logs and timbers for my upcoming timber frame project. These pallet forks also seem to have one of the strongest looking spill guards, using two sections of square tubing that would lend themselves quite well to mounting a grapple to in the future. So does anybody have experience using these forks or similar and possibly even mounting a grapple on them? The grapple would be able to be removed via 2-3 pins and transferred over to a bracket on the front bucket. I have looked at grapples here at TBN and seem to think either the ATI or self-made model that PineRidge created would be the type I’m looking for.

The TNT would be very nice when using the BB that I’ve read so much about. I have a single rear remote now for the BH so I guess I could have a Top for now but would like to add an additional two to facilitate the TNT and use the third for the front mounted grapple. It seems that running the FEL attachment off the rear remote would be the easiest and cheapest way to accomplish this but am I missing something or are there any other drawbacks to using a rear remote to run a FEL mounted attachment.

Lastly would be a rear blade or york rake or both for the landscaping & driveway portion of the house building process but I'll save that for another post.



Thx for all your help!!

I know you guys like pictures so…..

 

[jinman]

I think you did fine on the price. That tractor and all that equipment was probably around $35,000 new. Considering it has less than 200 hours, I'd say you are stealing it.

Did you get the operator's manual with the tractor? If not, raise the hood and look at the service schedule. I think it's a good idea to change all fluids on the tractor just because they are so old, but according to the schedule, the transmission oil does not get changed until 300 hours. When you do change it, don't forget there are two drain plugs under the tractor.

I think you do not need to use NH engine oil. I use Rotella T in my TC45D. I would recommend using NH Transmission Fluid. I used another brand the last time I changed mine and I'm not really pleased with it. It's viscosity seemed to be heavier than the NH oil. I haven't seen and degradation in performance, but I just don't feel too good about the non-NH fluid.

Since you didn't mention cost as a factor, I'd definitely recommend adding the two additional remote valves. You will find many uses for them in addition to TnT. Some will say you should add a diverter and a button to your joystick for the third function. I find my remote works just fine for my grapple, but either one will give you great service. Yoiur choice of getting the QA and the $500 trade-in is a fantastic deal also. You are getting all the "goodies" up front.

Good luck with your tractor. I think you are going to really love it.

 

[kloswerkes]

I agree with Jinman, you snaked it.

I'm in the same situation for remotes (I only have 1).

Using the rear remote to run a front grapple or something is very common in this area of the country.

Please let me know what you end up doing. I can't seem to find the parts for two rear remotes for less and $1k ($500 ea).

 

[Doc_Bob]

Hello all,

My reason for buying the tractor is that I’m about to build a house, on 15ac of land (80% open), this coming year and thought it could come in handy for that process. So after many hours of research and hunting I recently purchased a 2001 TC45D that had 172 hours and came with a 16LA FEL, Bradco 609 BH, Woods PHD, Woods 6' BB, Woods 6' RFM & 3PH T400 cement mixer all garaged and in excellent condition for $24,000. I thought it was a good deal but wanted to hear your thoughts on that for the record.

Great deal!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bob

 

[SOS]

I just bought a 45a three weeks ago for 24-K without a backhoe.... You got a great deal as if I added HST and a backhoe, I would have been pushing 30-k plus. Good Deal.

 

[Su7]

Thx all I thought I did my homework and searched around for over 9 months until I found a good deal. I'll have to pass that info on to my accountant, I mean LOML so she knows my endless TBN readings are not in vain.

I actually bought the tractor off of fleabay and I have to say the transaction was a positive one although un-nerving sending that kind of money (1/2 for the deposit) to someone I had never met before or a tractor I had not seen other than via detailed pics, which I asked the seller to send me, along with maintenance records from the dealer he used for service. The tractor was actually 250 miles away but the seller lived only 50 miles (he used it at his vacation home) and ended up meeting me the next day to drop off the cement mixer which I couldn't get into the truck and trailer along with all the other components.

kloswerkes:

I agree the cost is a little overboard for the additional remotes, $200-300 I can see but $500 just for the parts is kinda steep. Good thing PineRidge did an excellent, step by step installation write-up on his website, so at least I’ll save the cost of installation, which I highly recommend and will use when I get around to needing/installing the remotes myself. I must admit I will have to a little more digging as to the proper routing to get one remote to the front grapple though.


Jinman:

I did get the operators manual with the deal and read that the HST fluid change is normally done at the 300 hour interval but I thought since I was at the NH dealer yesterday I would ask them their opinion. They said that 300 hours is the recommended service mark to change HST fluid but I may want to change it now, at my 200 hour service interval, given that the tractor has been through 6-7 winters and condensation may have built up to an undesirable level. Couple that with the fact the dealer has having an open house yesterday, and all fluids were an additional 5% off, the $94 for 10 gallons of 134 oil was cheap insurance to protecting my investment. Thx for pointing out the two drain plugs because I certainly want to make sure all the old fluid is removed during the change. I will use Rotella T in the future but since I was at the dealer and all fluids were “on-sale” I couldn’t resist.

The real reason I was at the dealer though was to swap out my old HD pin-on bucket with a new HD QA model and get the NH QA bracket at the same time. The dealer said he has done this a few times in the past so if anyone is looking to swap out your pin-on bucket for a QA model, and get a few bucks trade-in value, this may be the dealer your looking for and be sure to ask for Russell Snyder of Charles S Snyder in Tamaqua, PA since he was very helpful with all my needs and questions. In any case installation went well and I’m glad to say I’ve now opened myself up to the entire SS lineup of attachments and can’t wait to order up my CAL pallet forks.

I know I didn’t mention cost as being a factor but it certainly does comes into the picture. I’m of the thinking that why spend all the $$$ on a tractor and be hindered by not getting the right tools to do the job safely and efficiently and since I’m primarily a one-man-band time=money factors in as well.

Thx for all your advice and you are correct I love my new tractor and can’t get enough of this place!!!

SOS:
Thx as well and you certainly have a nice looking tractor there. BTW how did you end up operating the ATI grapple and why? If it’s from a rear remote, can you post some pics of how did you ran the lines?

 

[SOS]

Yes the Grapple runs from the rear remotes. I'll get some pictures tomorrow of the lines. But basically they come up the FEL side with the other lines (see black top lines). I'm not sure if they have a quick disconnect by the break peddle or not. They should so I can disconnect the FEL.

 

[Kubotasrking]

Hello all,



My reason for buying the tractor is that I’m about to build a house, on 15ac of land (80% open), this coming year and thought it could come in handy for that process. So after many hours of research and hunting I recently purchased a 2001 TC45D that had 172 hours and came with a 16LA FEL, Bradco 609 BH, Woods PHD, Woods 6' BB, Woods 6' RFM & 3PH T400 cement mixer all garaged and in excellent condition for $24,000. I thought it was a good deal but wanted to hear your thoughts on that for the record.



Getting back to the 200 hour service, I was recommended to buy the NH oil which is “off road” rated for diesels or it would shorten the life of the engine. Is this the case and if so what is so much better about NH “off road” oil?

Additionally, I would like to add/change a few things. First off would be the FEL which did not come with a QA system so that needs to be rectified along with the pin on HD 72” bucket & bolt-on cutting edge. I did some research here at TBN along with many calls to various vendors and came to the conclusion that it would better to swap out the current bucket, keeping the cutting edge, and getting a new NH HD QA bucket along with the NH QA adapter. I have ordered both and will be picking them up this week from Charles Snyder(thx dknarnd) in Tamaqua, PA, who by the way is offering me a $500 trade in for my current bucket so I jumped at the deal. FYI – Since NH has changed over to the 200 series FELs it would behoove anyone interested in changing over to a QA system to do it now or have to go to an after market system, like the ATI quik-tak at twice the price I might add, before supplies run out.

I also want to get QA pallet forks and after reviewing many brands believe the Construction Attachments model CAL-48-HL or the wide frame 57” version vs the std 44” model which would give me the widest reach when carrying logs and timbers for my upcoming timber frame project. These pallet forks also seem to have one of the strongest looking spill guards, using two sections of square tubing that would lend themselves quite well to mounting a grapple to in the future. So does anybody have experience using these forks or similar and possibly even mounting a grapple on them? The grapple would be able to be removed via 2-3 pins and transferred over to a bracket on the front bucket. I have looked at grapples here at TBN and seem to think either the ATI or self-made model that PineRidge created would be the type I’m looking for.

The TNT would be very nice when using the BB that I’ve read so much about. I have a single rear remote now for the BH so I guess I could have a Top for now but would like to add an additional two to facilitate the TNT and use the third for the front mounted grapple. It seems that running the FEL attachment off the rear remote would be the easiest and cheapest way to accomplish this but am I missing something or are there any other drawbacks to using a rear remote to run a FEL mounted attachment.

Lastly would be a rear blade or york rake or both for the landscaping & driveway portion of the house building process but I'll save that for another post.



Thx for all your help!!

I know you guys like pictures so…..

This setup looks a lot like a tractor I bid for on ebay. Same one? You got a great deal.!.! Add your remotes..they're great to have. You'll soon find infinite uses for your tractor besides the work you will do w/ it during your home construction. Enjoy your time in the seat!

It is true...no titles for tractors. You can read some amusing threads from folks trying to license their tractors for the road.

 

[IH3444]

You got a great bargain, and the best deal I've seen off of ebay. You're going to love the ergonomics of the NH's. I especially like the 4 banger NH engines, they are very smooth, and almost vibration free. Your engine is almost exactly as my TC48, except I'm sure for an injector change, and an injector pump tweeking. Congradulations on an excellent purchase, and having the coconuts to bid that amount on an ebay item.

 

[jinman]

Su7: That QA is the "cat's meow" for convenience. You will never regret having it. You need to be very attentive to keeping it greased. It works 10 times better when the lock plunger is greased. I can stand on one side of the bucket and pop both lock arms down. If it's not greased, I have to walk around and use both hands; big difference. And one more thing...
That bucket is way too clean. You need to get it working and rub some of that new paint off.

SOS: I looked at that third picture of your grapple and bucket. You need a critter-camera. Something has been walking on your bucket. Heeere kitty, kitty...