Komatsu PC60-7: Yet ANOTHER Hydraulic Line Failure Today

[Mark A Weiss]

It was either that or back to sleeping in my car. I was in pure survival mode.
And yes, I paid in full for my property, so I have a reasonable expectation to use it.
I'm not sure what to make of the 500%. Grok research shows property values in my immediate area went up 350-600% this reval period. But the appraisal company said the average in my town went up 53%. Go figure.
And the assessor e-mailed me photos of a completely gutted out that went for $178K. It's insane. The only thing I can think of is the fiat currency system is imploding in realtime and inflation is going hyperbolic.

 

[Welder Dave]

Unfortunately you can't always do whatever you want on your property especially put up structures that don't meet code. I have a 1/4 section of land and have to pay over $20K to get it rezoned so I can have people come and ride dirt bikes. If I just have riders show up I don't want face big fines.

 

[AMBMike]

inflation is going hyperbolic

I'm not great at English so I'm not sure I understand what you mean by "inflation going hyperbolic"... Did you perhaps mean "hypergolic" /s

Regardless, there seems to be a fair bit of hyperbole here.

 

[Welder Dave]

I think he meant it's going ridiculously high.

 

[Acoals]

The 1970's was over 50 years ago . . .

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Well guys, the boom down stickiness was found to be a bad pilot valve. Mechanic believes that when first mechanic took all the lines out and left it for several months, dirt got in and ruined the value, which explains why the problem occurred after the initial repair.
Anyway, a new, genuine pilot valve is $1000. He said there's cheaper ones on ebay, and I found one for $128 on Friday Parts website.
Just wonder what the reliability of the after market cheaper parts is like? I'm tempted to just go with the $128 part, and his labor (2 hours) to replace it.

 

[HarleyHappy]

I have had great luck with Friday Parts and their services, if anything goes wrong, is top notch.

 

[BC Placer gold]

My buddy also gives good reports on Friday Parts; he has purchased several parts for his Cat 311.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Hopefully the part will be of good quality and will last.
I placed the order. Thanks for the votes of confidence on Friday Parts!

 

[Welder Dave]

The nice thing is it's a relatively low cost part if it doesn't work. You wouldn't be out thousands if you had to replace it. You have a good mechanic now too.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Had my hands full this month, but wanted to mention that the mechanic was finally able to get a break in the arctic weather and come out and install the new valve. The boom functions are smooth as silk with fine control now.
I gave Fridayparts a nice review and they replied with a thank you message.
I'm planning to have the main boom hydraulic piston rebuilt this spring. He thinks he can do the work on-site, which is great. Piston leaks pretty bad and has gotten worse over the past few years. I also know his associate who supplies high quality hoses, so I will use them from now on, and they're right in town.
The mechanic works for a materials company and can get me good prices on fill, which I need this spring to start my chicken run/coops setup. Fencing the whole thing in to protect from bears and foxes will be a challenge, but I figure 10x30 grazing area for 6 chickens and 1 rooster ought to be adequate.

 

[Homer Dokes]

Had my hands full this month, but wanted to mention that the mechanic was finally able to get a break in the arctic weather and come out and install the new valve. The boom functions are smooth as silk with fine control now.

That's great news Mark. Foxes are fairly easy to protect against... bears may be another issue. Having gown up with them I've come to understand their brute force and persistence. Just make certain you have a coop that the chickens can huddle up inside in at night.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

That's great news Mark. Foxes are fairly easy to protect against... bears may be another issue. Having gown up with them I've come to understand their brute force and persistence. Just make certain you have a coop that the chickens can huddle up inside in at night.

Back in the 1950s, we had a large number of chickens in Stamford, CT and we had a two story chicken house, heated by one big kerosene heater.

That was the back yard in winter. The small cottage at left was the chicken coop. The "maze" at right was the grazing area where we kept them segregated.
Now I'm going to do a much smaller scale this time with a small coop, an area lined with straw that they can huddle and an outside chicken run where they can eat grass, bugs, worms, etc. to produce good healthy eggs. I think when it gets extreme cold, I may just bring them in the house like some folks do.

 

[reganj]

Have you considered building a mobile chicken coop so they have different areas to peck around in assuming you have a fairly large area with decent terrain

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Have you considered building a mobile chicken coop so they have different areas to peck around in assuming you have a fairly large area with decent terrain

Gave it a brief thought and realized it won't work on hillside terrain that is rocky. I have 1/2 acre of land here. Much of it taken up with solar panels.

 

[Mark A Weiss]

Sunday was a good day on the excavator. Our private road, after this brutal freeze, was a continuous array of deep potholes. The road is a dirt road with packed millings for the surface.
Things reached a point where driving over the puddle-filled potholes at more than 1MPH was endangering the suspension of the vehicle. Seeing as my neighbor had 4-5 truckloads of millings delivered to the side of the road last summer, I decided to take it upon myself to fix this godawful road.
Naturally, I was nervous about driving the machine 1/4 mile from home, in case something else fails, but the weather was decent and I was feeling "damn the torpedos" so I warmed up the PC60-7, moved the daughter's car to the other driveway and proceeded to drive the machine out to the road, up the hill and onto the level where the potholes take up about 500' of road.
I noticed when driving on hard surfaces, there is a lot of vibration from the tracks through the car and house when using the high speed mode (the button on the floor). Everything inside was shaking and rattling! But I got to my first material pile and grabbed a scoop. It was still frozen inside, but I was able to break through. Filled up the bucket and drove to the first really bad pothole. Some of these were so deep that the entire 1/3 yard went to one hole!
I made countless trips back and forth until I got to the end of the road where it meets a town road and *traffic*. I had to be careful to look out for traffic before extending my boom/stick into the road as I pushed millings down into a deep hole where the pavement's edge meets our private road.
Lots of back and forth, and the final touch was to use the blade and very slowly backdrag the materials to make a smooth grade while not digging up any of the existing packed material. That took care and patience, but I got it done.
One neighbor passed by and gave me a thumbs up and a smile.
When I got done, my wife and I walked the length of the road and rakes a few spots to smooth any areas I missed.
Today, we all took a walk in the neighborhood (68 degrees and blue skies) and another neighbor slowed down, rolled down his window an thanked us for fixing the road. He asked if he could pay us something and I said no need. We needed to fix the road anyway. I'd been maintaining this road on and off for the past 60 years.
Anyway, we got to drive on it yesterday and it was 9000% better than the day before, when you had to just crawl over the potholes.
I got the job done and the machine didn't break. Yahoo!

 

[Welder Dave]

Go slow if you have to. Don't want to lose a track or break something if it's rattling and vibrating. Glad you found a good mechanic and can finally use your excavator!

 

[HarleyHappy]

Awesome . Now, you’re not going to get rid of it!

 

[Mark A Weiss]

I took it easy for the most part. On softer ground I can go faster without as much vibration. But 2-3 MPH is pretty slow. It took a LONG time to get to the end of the road. 3 hours passed by like it was nothing.

Thing is about selling is that I'm upside down now on the investment vs what it would sell for.

I'm thinking of asking my mechanic to install a thumb on it this spring, maybe that will improve the resale value. There's a few more pilot lines that I can see are in need of replacing, too.

 

[Welder Dave]

I don't think you'd get your money back if you installed a thumb. As far as traveling I have a track loader that will go about 6 mph in top gear but I never use the top gear even if I have to drive 1/4 mile or even half a mile. The undercarriage is too expensive to wear it out prematurely driving at top speed.