radara4077
Member
I should begin this post (and really every post I make on here) by sincerely thanking everyone who contributes to the wealth of knowledge on the YT forums. Without you guys over the last few years, I would have been up the creek many times, and my pocket book would be much thinner than it already is.
I've actually been dreading making this post. I've spent a good deal of my time on here defending the "Mannheim Monsters" as I'm sure some of you would like to refer to them as. I grew up on and around them (830, 2630, 2040, 2350 2WD open station, 2350 FWD SoundGard, and a 3255 FWD SoundGard). Cut my teeth on them, so to speak. We farmed with other colors, too (as did our neighbors), but nothing else in those tractors' classes could compare in terms of versatility, reliability, and just raw pulling power (except with the 3255--our pair of 4230s could easily keep up, even with 2WD).
All that being said, I've read for years on here about the pitfalls of the Mannheim lot. Ten-thousand dollar hydraulic repair nightmares, for instance. Poor interpretation of the SoundGard design. Et cetera. I had hoped to avoid all that, but I think I may be forced to eat some crow.
We bought a JD 375 baler late last fall, and just this spring had a chance to get it in the field with our 2550 FWD open station with a 245 loader. Baler did great! However, after a hot day in the hayfield, as I was putting the baler in the barn, the steering would barely respond, and the loader would stutter (but still work, albeit slowly) any time I tried to move it. This started happening any time the tractor got "hot," and would especially be exacerbated any time the tractor did anything which required the hydraulics (including using the PTO).
As I try to make sure I give everyone all the facts, we discovered before baling for the first time that one of the two rear hydraulic remotes for the tractor doesn't function correctly. The "outside" remote (furthest from the seat) does fine--it wound up hooked up to the gate on the baler. The "inside" remote, right next to the seat, will make the twine tie arm absolutely FLY in one direction (to the point that it's almost too fast to properly control), but will BARELY move it in the other. Hook it up "backwards", and it will FLY in the other direction, but will not move the tie arm at all in the first direction. It won't lift the baler's gate at all if hooked to it in either direction.
We tried every possible hook up combination, and that's the only one that would even "sorta" work (the outside remote on the gate, the inside remote on the tie arm, hooked up in a specific way). We tested the tie arm by hooking it to the "good" remote--worked fine in either direction. We even switched out the connector ends on the hoses--no change. The issue seems unaffected by whether or not the PTO is on. Also, we tried adjusting the "Rabbit/Turtle" knob on the remote boxes. The "good" one adjusts just fine. The "bad" one won't budge.
Could this issue be causing the oil to heat up, causing the stuttering/steering issues, etc.?
Then there's this:
https://youtu.be/d99jFLf8pmU
It doesn't translate very well on the video, unfortunately, but there is a "knocking" coming from the front end of the tractor. This knocking is very apparent at any RPM above 10,000, hot or cold engine. We noticed this knocking this summer, not long after our first baling experience.
Could the knocking the the cause, as in the hydraulic pump "going out," or is it a symptom of the main issue?
We also spent an afternoon with the hood off very thoroughly blowing out both the engine and hydraulic radiators. Dad also completely drained the hydraulic reservoir (replaced with Deere HyGard) and replaced the filters. Both these separately seemed to slightly lessen the stuttering and steering issue, but didn't eliminate it entirely.
Dad has spoken with a few machinery mechanics, old buddies of his from the highway department. They seem to think it could be related to the power steering, rather than an overall hydraulic issue. I'm not so sure, but I figured I would include that here, too.
Given all this, is there any narrowing down you all think we could do before we start tearing into the hydraulics?
I've actually been dreading making this post. I've spent a good deal of my time on here defending the "Mannheim Monsters" as I'm sure some of you would like to refer to them as. I grew up on and around them (830, 2630, 2040, 2350 2WD open station, 2350 FWD SoundGard, and a 3255 FWD SoundGard). Cut my teeth on them, so to speak. We farmed with other colors, too (as did our neighbors), but nothing else in those tractors' classes could compare in terms of versatility, reliability, and just raw pulling power (except with the 3255--our pair of 4230s could easily keep up, even with 2WD).
All that being said, I've read for years on here about the pitfalls of the Mannheim lot. Ten-thousand dollar hydraulic repair nightmares, for instance. Poor interpretation of the SoundGard design. Et cetera. I had hoped to avoid all that, but I think I may be forced to eat some crow.
We bought a JD 375 baler late last fall, and just this spring had a chance to get it in the field with our 2550 FWD open station with a 245 loader. Baler did great! However, after a hot day in the hayfield, as I was putting the baler in the barn, the steering would barely respond, and the loader would stutter (but still work, albeit slowly) any time I tried to move it. This started happening any time the tractor got "hot," and would especially be exacerbated any time the tractor did anything which required the hydraulics (including using the PTO).
As I try to make sure I give everyone all the facts, we discovered before baling for the first time that one of the two rear hydraulic remotes for the tractor doesn't function correctly. The "outside" remote (furthest from the seat) does fine--it wound up hooked up to the gate on the baler. The "inside" remote, right next to the seat, will make the twine tie arm absolutely FLY in one direction (to the point that it's almost too fast to properly control), but will BARELY move it in the other. Hook it up "backwards", and it will FLY in the other direction, but will not move the tie arm at all in the first direction. It won't lift the baler's gate at all if hooked to it in either direction.
We tried every possible hook up combination, and that's the only one that would even "sorta" work (the outside remote on the gate, the inside remote on the tie arm, hooked up in a specific way). We tested the tie arm by hooking it to the "good" remote--worked fine in either direction. We even switched out the connector ends on the hoses--no change. The issue seems unaffected by whether or not the PTO is on. Also, we tried adjusting the "Rabbit/Turtle" knob on the remote boxes. The "good" one adjusts just fine. The "bad" one won't budge.
Could this issue be causing the oil to heat up, causing the stuttering/steering issues, etc.?
Then there's this:
https://youtu.be/d99jFLf8pmU
It doesn't translate very well on the video, unfortunately, but there is a "knocking" coming from the front end of the tractor. This knocking is very apparent at any RPM above 10,000, hot or cold engine. We noticed this knocking this summer, not long after our first baling experience.
Could the knocking the the cause, as in the hydraulic pump "going out," or is it a symptom of the main issue?
We also spent an afternoon with the hood off very thoroughly blowing out both the engine and hydraulic radiators. Dad also completely drained the hydraulic reservoir (replaced with Deere HyGard) and replaced the filters. Both these separately seemed to slightly lessen the stuttering and steering issue, but didn't eliminate it entirely.
Dad has spoken with a few machinery mechanics, old buddies of his from the highway department. They seem to think it could be related to the power steering, rather than an overall hydraulic issue. I'm not so sure, but I figured I would include that here, too.
Given all this, is there any narrowing down you all think we could do before we start tearing into the hydraulics?
