I'm new here and have two RTV 900's I maintain; or should I say try to keep functional for a dairy. Both RTV's have around 6000 hrs on them. Their main purpose is to carry milk bottles and feed to calf's. The condition of the RTV's are shocking, then again they drive through mud and crap back and forth all day long.
I've been turning wrenches for this dairy for 4 months now and last week both machines were down. I got one going again after an oil change, fuel filter, and cleaning the linkage for the throttle and HST.
The other is about to loose the front left wheel. I noticed on both machines the drive shaft to the front axles were missing, my boss told me that they removed them after replacing them a couple times. Operators were told to stay out of the mud. Theory is, you don't have 4wd so stay out of the mud. So far I have yet to see one stuck anywhere.
Back to the RTV's with the front wheel; I tore it down somewhat yesterday. The half shafts from the front axles are still in place. I would like to further this 2wd conversion and remove all unnecessary components hoping to minimize front bearing failures. I notice that mud builds up around the front half shafts and eventually the moisture gets into the bearings and well the wheel bearings fail. I could replace the axle shaft boots, which I believe keeps the moisture out but it's just an additional cost. The front shafts are just an unnecessary moving part in my opinion that can cause potential failure. Any suggestions on how I could convert these machines completely over to 2wd?
The main problem with the two RTV's is people who don't care. We have gone through numbers of employees who treat our equipment poorly, it's frustrating on my behalf since I have to repair them. We have even gone as far trying to slow them down by welding a plate in the "H" part for the gear selector blocking of High gear. They have still managed to run these machines into "who knows what" bending the brush guards into the hoods.
The 2wd conversion is the my main focus as of right now, but from what I have been told, both machines go through wheel bearings and u-joints very quickly. Now that I have found this forum I hope to find some ways to repair the premature wear part issues.
However, in spite of all the issues I am impressed that both machines have lasted this long.
I've been turning wrenches for this dairy for 4 months now and last week both machines were down. I got one going again after an oil change, fuel filter, and cleaning the linkage for the throttle and HST.
The other is about to loose the front left wheel. I noticed on both machines the drive shaft to the front axles were missing, my boss told me that they removed them after replacing them a couple times. Operators were told to stay out of the mud. Theory is, you don't have 4wd so stay out of the mud. So far I have yet to see one stuck anywhere.
Back to the RTV's with the front wheel; I tore it down somewhat yesterday. The half shafts from the front axles are still in place. I would like to further this 2wd conversion and remove all unnecessary components hoping to minimize front bearing failures. I notice that mud builds up around the front half shafts and eventually the moisture gets into the bearings and well the wheel bearings fail. I could replace the axle shaft boots, which I believe keeps the moisture out but it's just an additional cost. The front shafts are just an unnecessary moving part in my opinion that can cause potential failure. Any suggestions on how I could convert these machines completely over to 2wd?
The main problem with the two RTV's is people who don't care. We have gone through numbers of employees who treat our equipment poorly, it's frustrating on my behalf since I have to repair them. We have even gone as far trying to slow them down by welding a plate in the "H" part for the gear selector blocking of High gear. They have still managed to run these machines into "who knows what" bending the brush guards into the hoods.
The 2wd conversion is the my main focus as of right now, but from what I have been told, both machines go through wheel bearings and u-joints very quickly. Now that I have found this forum I hope to find some ways to repair the premature wear part issues.
However, in spite of all the issues I am impressed that both machines have lasted this long.
