The Kioti has landed.

[Jim_in_Omaha]

Got the LK3054 home today. Will soon be taking it out to our land to start development. 700 miles pulling trailer, 6' box, tiller, finish mower, and tractor/loader with an old 1500 Chevy /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. But she did fine.

Was wondering: Tractor has 42 hours and has not had anything done to it. The manual says 35 hours for the engine which is easy enough. I noticed that everything hydraulic was not working very good. Temp was around 45. The steering was very tight and could hear the hyd pump when steering and moving the loader. I did not force it. And this was after running it for 20 minutes.

The manual says to change the transmission fluid at 50 hours. 27 quarts worth. This must be used for the hydrualics also I assume?

I want to change all the fluids now before putting it to work. Any suggestions on the hydrualic fluid brand/spec?

Also the manual says to use straight 30w for warm weather running, I assume just to stick to the manuals specs?

Took me months to finally get a tractor and countless hours of researching.

Thanks for any input..
Jim

 

[DK35vince]

A tractor hydraulic transmission oil that meets of exceeds Kubota UTD requirements should be fine.
Be sure to change the filter or clean any screens.
For the engine I have been running Rottella T 5w-40 synthetic.
The Rotella synthetic oil smells real bad for the first hour of so, but the smell does go away.

 

[KiotiJohn]

Jim_In_Omaha. Congratulations on your new toy oops workhorse! I agree with Vince that the transmission/hydraulic filter(s) should be replaced or cleaned in the case of a metal screen. This could very well account for the sluggish hydraulics. At "42" hours though, this should probably not be a problem. Kioti recommends Shell DONAX-TD, DONAX-TM, Mobile Fluid 350, and Exxon Torque Fluid 56. These can usually be found in auto parts stores. I'd also go ahead and change axle fluids as well. Any SAE 90 gear oil should be fine. John

 

[KiotiJohn]

I just happened to think about the hydraulics problem you mentioned. If you have found that the fluid level was low, take a piece of paper and run it slowly over the hydraulic lines looking for any small leaks. These can be nearly invisible if they are small and you don't want to use your bare hand as this can cause injury/death from penetrating your skin. Sounds as though maybe the fluid was low? If no obvious leaks at the connections, do the paper test holding it close, but not touching the lines and make sure you cover all sides of the lines. John

 

[Jim_in_Omaha]

I worked on the tractor most of yesterday. I have not had a chance to change the hydraulic fluid. Need a bigger drain pan. But what I did figure out was after warming it up it seemed to work much better except for one thing.

It has a Buhler/Allied loader on it with a joystick. All functions work very good except for when I move the loader down (stick forward) the motor will drag down. Its almost as if its fighting itself with the hydraulics. Also, with the bucket pointing down and pushing onto the ground it will not lift the front of the tractor. But if I lower the bucket (with the bucket level) to the ground, then curl the bucket down, the bucket will lift the front of the tractor very easy.

It seems as if there is something not right with the valve control on the down movement. It has quick connects and I am going to swap the lift cylinders and the bucket cylinders to see if that will make a difference to isolate the valve.

thx
Jim

 

[mathey]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Shell DONAX-TD, DONAX-TM, Mobile Fluid 350, and Exxon Torque Fluid 56. These can usually be found in auto parts stores )</font>

If you can find these ANYWHERE, i'd be very surprised. I looked hi and lo for these products, to no avail... with the blessings of Kioti USA, i used the universal stuff from TSC.

 

[KiotiJohn]

Moving the stick all the way foward puts the loader in "float" position so that the loader arms can follow the land pattern as you're back dragging dirt, etc. Moving the stick forward "some" should make the loader lift the tractor just before going into float. If you use a quick motion for pushing the stick forward you don't have that problem, the bucket should just sink down to the lowest level. Usually, you may get a little engine drag anytime you're putting the hydraulics in a strain as in curling back with a load, or lifting, but putting the bucket down is not such a pressure activity that it should drag the engine down (also, you may just need to up the RPM slightly). Try just moving the bucket down by slightly pushing the stick forward at a medium tractor speed and let it hit bottom and let go. Then carefully add forward pressure a little at a time to see if it will lift the front end. No need to do this quickly and get a surprise when the front comes off the ground. If It won't lift the front, then you may have a clogged system or worse. You would then need to do a pressure check on the hydraulics. Stick forward should be the proper location for the hose to put the loader in down position. Good luck, John

 

[KiotiJohn]

Exxon Mobile 56 Distributors in Maryland:
Chesapeake Petroleum
16821 Oakmont Ave
Gaithersburg, MD 20877 301-948-3150 301-948-3208
Tilley Chemical Co., Inc.
501 Chesapeake Park Plaza
Baltimore, MD 21220 410-574-4500 410-391-6665
Exxon Mobile 56 Distributor in Omaha:
Sapp Bros Petroleum
9915 S. 148th St.
Omaha, NE 68138 402-895-2202 402-895-4253
Shell Distributor in Maryland:
Tilley Chemical Co.
501 Chesapeake Park Plaza
Baltimore , MD 21220
Phone: 410-574-4500
Fax: 410-574-3782

Shell Distributor Nebraska:
Allied Oil and Supply, Inc.
http://www.allied-oil.com/
2209 South 24th St.
Omaha , NE 68108
Phone: 402-344-4343
Fax: 402-344-4360

These distributors can tell you where to purchase
John

 

[mathey]

i didn't have luck with any of those places...again, none of those products listed are "READILY" available, at least in MY area...

 

[KiotiJohn]

I had no problem at all finding these, but the Shell Donax is nearly twice the price of the Exxon Torque fluid 56 at $40.80/5 gal. bucket! I couldn't find the TSC hydro fluid listed at the store here. Go figure. Regional things like this have always amazed and confounded me! John

 

[Jim_in_Omaha]

I posted this in regards to the loader problem in the attachments section of TBN.

I am going to look at that thing that appears to be some kind of flow control.

Also on the hyd oil. I bought some oil at TSC that matched the specs for Kabota UDT and several others. It was 25.00 for 5 gallons. I think it's called Traveller Premium Universal Hydraulic/Transmission oil.
thx
Jim

 

[clundog]

Not very familiar with that system , I had a similar problem the other day with another piece of equipment and it was just a bad quick connect.

 

[mathey]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Traveller Premium Universal Hydraulic/Transmission )</font>

thats the exact product i asked Kioti USA about, they said that was fine...

 

[KiotiJohn]

Thanks Jim and Mathey. Maybe I can get TSC to order that fluid for the store here. I guess we don't have enough tractor people in this area to stock it as they don't list having it at my local store. The price is cheaper than either the Exxon torque fluid and way less than the Shell Donax. John

 

[Jim_in_Omaha]

Forgot to feedback that I fixed the loader problem. It was the hex shaped thingy on the valve assemble. It was some kind of flow control. One direction would flow without restriction. The other way an orfice would move back into place and *greatly* restrict the flow. I took it off and the loader is happy now. It still will not lift the front of the tractor with the lift cylinders (I figured that thingy had nothing to do with that). I did get email from a rep at Buhler and he mentioned that in some case it will not lift the tractor because of the rod diameter limits the cylinder in that direction. My lift cylinders are 2" diameter with 1.5" rods. He went on to say that the bucket will lift it and mine does very easily. Needless to say the restrictor thing will not go back onto my tractor.

Thanks to all for information. Greatly appreciated being that I'm a novice at this Kioti stuff. Can't wait to get out to the land and use it. But everything is mud here.

Jim