Menu
What's new

Guys, Meet Bob.

Wahoo!

Well, I got up this morning and started up Bob. Decided to do a little maintenance so moved him over closer to the house and tools. Then made a list of things I needed and ran to the local auto parts store. They had hydraulic fluid in a 5 gallon can, so thought, what the heck.

I did not really think that it would need that much. After pumping some in and not seeing any fluid on the dipstick, I got sharon out to hold the funnel and ended up pouring the whole 5 gallon buck in! :rolleyes: Well, that did it.

Then I thought I'd go ahead and change the oil, but needed to warm it up first. I could not get it started. The starter worked, but everytime I tried it sounded like it was trying to start with a load on the pump. Spent several hours getting very familiar with the manual and all sorts of areas of the machine I'd never thought about.

Ended up that I had played with the 'parking brake' switch and had managed to engage the parking brake. Add to that the fact that when the steering levers are in neutral, that it wants to run left, well, that was the problem. All I had to do was hold the right lever back a couple of inches when starting with the parking brake on to get it to go...

So then I started having fun. I spent a couple of hours fooling around. Even tried to grade the driveway...

Sharon snapped this picture with her cell phone...

Good times... :thumb:


attachment.php
 

Attachments

  • 377955_2749884199396_1626341507_2439860_2012691133_n.jpg
    377955_2749884199396_1626341507_2439860_2012691133_n.jpg
    54.8 KB · Views: 88
5 gallons of fluid.....where did that which was supposed to be there prior go???? Are seals shot somewhere is it leaking fluid all over 5 gallons thats a lot of fluid to be missing surely?

Brent are you wearing ear protection? Whats the noise like in the cab?

You should run a tab for a while and see how quickly it pays for itself. Thats gonna come in so handy.


from my MB860 using Tapatalk
 
Rob Keeble said:
5 gallons of fluid.....where did that which was supposed to be there prior go???? Are seals shot somewhere is it leaking fluid all over 5 gallons thats a lot of fluid to be missing surely?
Click to expand...

My thoughts Exactly... Not sure how it works exactly if they used other attachments and such? I'll be keeping my eye on it.

Rob Keeble said:
Brent are you wearing ear protection? Whats the noise like in the cab?
Click to expand...

Pretty darn quiet to tell the truth. My little craftsman garden tractor seems louder.

Rob Keeble said:
You should run a tab for a while and see how quickly it pays for itself. Thats gonna come in so handy.
Click to expand...

That's a great idea. I should come up with some kind of hourly rate, or job related numbers...
 
I almost missed this one Brent. I see that you seem to be drifting from ww to trench digging or sorts, enjoy it, moving dirt is much more fun with those than with a spade and a wheelbarrow.:rofl:
 
Toni Ciuraneta said:
I almost missed this one Brent. I see that you seem to be drifting from ww to trench digging or sorts, enjoy it, moving dirt is much more fun with those than with a spade and a wheelbarrow.:rofl:
Click to expand...

You've got that right Toni. I've dug a bunch of holes around here manually and it's not any fun at all. This coming summer we have some landscaping projects coming up that will require building and filling in behind retaining walls, planting trees, etc... I could have either hired it out or get one of these. This is more fun!

Add to the fact that the driveway tends to develop huge ruts in it pretty regularly, this will be a big help around the place...
 
Dumping in a 5 gallon bucket is not much. it's just like adding a quart of oil to your truck:thumb::thumb:
Your truck hold what 5 or 6 quarts of oil right well that hydraulic tank holds 4 or 5 of them 5 gallon buckets of oil.:thumb::thumb:
Not so much of a problem if it's not leaving big puddles of oil and needing one of them buckets every day.
 
I hear ja Chuck but this is hydraulic fluid, In a car engine we know it gets burned and spewed out but this is not the case in hydraulics. So you saying it leaks fluid from the seals continously in small amounts and it all adds up. Just what sort of consumption of fluid should be expected then. Keen to learn about them critters.
 
Jim C Bradley said:
That is really cool. You might hear from Glenn on this. His first real job was at a rental yard. He has more than a nodding acquaintance with Bobs (no that is not a typo...it is a plural).

JimB
Click to expand...

I've loaded more than a few Bob's onto trailers while working in a Rental Yard too.

1 - Always make sure you have the trailer PROPERLY secured to the Ball hitch BEFORE loading Bob. That trailer tongue can do some damage to a tailgate. Your jack stands will help with this. This didn't happen to me but it did to another guy in the yard.

2 - If you are piling up snow (not sure if it applies in your case) don't lift the bucket way up high before dumping - most of the snow will end up on your lap if the wind blows the wrong way.

3 - Don't trust the tow hook welded to anything if you are winching Bob onto a roll back truck. I had Bob up on the truck with the bed pulled up onto the rails and slightly tilted back while I was getting ready to chain the rear. The tow hook broke off and Bob started inching back towards the 36 inch drop off of the back of the rollback. I was able to scramble up and set the brake - and then took a quiet moment to breath again.

4 - Keep a watch on your trailer tires - pressure and treadwear. You do NOT want to lose one at any real speed.

Cheers and have fun with Bob

Jim
 
Well Rob every cylinder has a seal that pusses oil not much but some. Every cylinder is covered in oil some of that get wiped off every time the cylinder is drawn in and a new coat put on every time it goes out. Every hoes has a fitting on each end that weeps oil. Not a lot but enough that in a dust environment you will notice that the dust builds up and is wet with oil at each fitting. Add to that if you have attachments that run off the hydro system every time you hook and unhook them they spill a few drops of oil. This doesn't seem like much but on a machine that gets used every day to have the need to put 5 gallons in a month would not be reason for alarm. on a home use 5 gallons a season might be a good bench mark. And with hydro systems when they spring a leak you know about it. They don't really leak per say they squirt.:thumb::rofl::rofl:Break a major line and a machine can pump out 10 to 15 gallons before you can get it shut down.:eek:
 
Jim Mattheiss said:
4 - Keep a watch on your trailer tires - pressure and treadwear. You do NOT want to lose one at any real speed.
Jim
Click to expand...

Thanks for making me breath easier, Jim :rofl::rofl::rofl:

I at least brought up the subject of a spare tire before he took off. Fortunately, he was able to raid one from the sailboat trailer.

Fortunately, now that "Bob" is home, its just a 30-40 mile trip to town for any repairs. The big trip is over. :thumb::thumb:
 
A front fork on a motorcycle is much like a hydraulic cylinder, when I used to run off road bikes all the time, in a season we would check the fork oil at least twice and usually have to add a bit of oil each time. These are very well sealed units, but they do use oil. I know from running my uncles cat that we kept hydraulic oil in big drums around the farm and used it fairly regular. Hydraulic oil is NOT like engine oil, if you are down a quart of engine oil a month, something serious is wrong, either your engine is worn out, or you have a leak, a similar percentage of hydraulic oil in a cat a month, no big deal, regular use type of thing, YMMV :D

Brent, congrats on Bob, they are real workhorses! :thumb:
 
Thanks Everyone. It's been a bit of fun already. But There are a few things I need to work on with it. Kind of like an old car. What's great is he's running, and the engine really seems to be doing quite well. I think there are a few other items that need to be addressed, but he's definitely usable at this point...

He does have a few stickers on him indicating that he did get some sort of semi-regular maintenance in the past, but for the price I paid, I didn't exactly expect a pristine unit...

Already the driveway is much nicer to drive on. Just need to get a tooth bar to dig things up a bit to really get the ruts out and not just cover them up with gravel...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top