I have a JD 4720 Tractor that I use to do heavier work around the 5 acre yard. I have a loader on it and I use a 6 way blade to move snow come winter.
This past May, one of the two blower fan motors quit working while clearing the last snowstorm. I could smell the angry pixies blowing out the magic smoke inside the cab and then it quit altogether. My cab windows frosted over very quickly and I had to finish with the heat off and the door open to prevent the frost build up.
I put the repair off for the summer and finally got around to trouble shooting and getting parts for the repair about 2 weeks ago. I needed to remove the cab roof to get at the motors. After looking up the part number from JD, those blowers are $500 a piece. There has got to be a better way.
I tried to locate the 3 speed resistor, (.75+ .75 216/22) used for the motor. JD does NOT sell them. They are unavailable anywhere on the North American continent. But I could try and get one from the factory in Italy, or oddly enough Ukraine. Not likely.
I could actually take the resistor apart very easily by removing 2 tiny screws. On the inside, there are 2 resistor coils and with some serious searching and a couple of dumb questions ID’ed as a thermal fuse soldered in to 2 terminals. I got a good lead to DigiKey and I found the correct one under mini fuses. I ordered a pack of 5 pieces on Wednesday. Got them this morning and had one soldered into the resistor before dinner. And everything reinstalled and buttoned up 2 hours later. Everything runs like new again.
I changed what was a $500 repair down to an .83 cent repair. And yes, there is a pour of well earned bourbon today.
It wasn’t the digging that caused it. The welds failed right from the factory.
I’m in a very hilly area and tracks are kind here. I’m looking to get a skid as if I don’t go slow everywhere with the tractor I’m getting bounced around and it’s not fun. So slow is fast unfortunately.
A skidsteer is worse for being a rough backbreaking ride.
Wheeled skid steers yes. Tracked ones no, they roll over dips and ditches and smooth out the ride a lot.
I’ve run those too. They still pitch and roll a lot more than something with a longer wheel base. And tractors are bad enough.
The two I’ve used here had a long track base, and they where like a Mercedes vs a yugo when comparing between my tractor (which does have a smaller wheel base and smaller tires, than a larger tractor). All I know was that the skid felt way smoother than the tractor.