komatsu pc200 digging modes

[Cowboy Billy]

I am renting a older PC 200 w/ manual thumb from local farmer. There is no operator manual for it. I tried looking one up on line but didn't have any luck. There is five or six programed digging modes selected by left/right arrows on the gauge panel. I was wondering if anyone could tell me what the abbreviations mean. One was B/O. I went through and tried them all but they all seem slow to me but then again I am used to running a 345 Cat.

I am going to be using it to clear the woods 40x100 area behind my barn and cut out 6' of soil to make a parking turn around area.

Billy

 

[chevota84]

That's newer than the junk i run, but is there a power set as well? On the lc5 you could change the digging mode but there was also h-s-l for power.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Thanks Chevota84
There may be if its at the bottom left side of the gauge panel. I thought it was for track speed and set it in the center one. It sure would have been nice if they had labeled it better. I am paying $40 a hr for it according to hr meter and I think thats a good price. But I want to get as much work as possible out of the hour!

Billy

 

[John C.]

As I recall the four modes are HO, SO, LO and FO. Just below those on the left side there are three modes as stated, H, S and L. The HO mode pulls the most horsepower out of the engine makes the hydraulics work the fastest. The rest of the modes are somewhat slower as you move down. You should be able to hear a difference in engine speed when you shift between modes. There will not be much difference between LO and FO modes as that basically dropped out the two pump function for the stick.

Good Luck!

 

[ilikecheese]

probably h/o, g/o, l/o, f/o b/o. heavy op, general op, lifting op, finish op, and breaker op. Run it in h/o and it should speed things up quite a bit for you.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Thanks John and IlikeCheeze

That will get me going! I did notice that when I shut it off the restarted it always reset to g/o. I have always been one to read the manual so I knew what was the best mode to select for what I was doing and to know if there was something to make my job easier or safer.

Its interesting how different manufactures look at things. I was trying make sense of it according to the way Cat does things. Where I had a mode for trenching which would give me more power on the stick and swing. And loading trucks mode where I would get faster boom lift.

Thanks again

Billy

 

[chevota84]

Did you get a chance to see if that helped?

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Hi Chevota84

Not yet. I live 350 miles from the property I am working on and won't be UP for another week or so. I wasn't expecting it last weekend but the owner had it close so he dropped it off. We have 120 acres up there and it was all woods when we started working on it. I had to build a 1/4 mile road across my uncles property just to get to it. Its all off grid no power or water. I have forklift battery and 5000 watt power inverter that I can run the place off of for three days the fire up the generator for five hrs and charge it back up. I have two small wind generators I am going to set up this year to charge the batterys and hopefully not have to run the generator.

Billy

 

[chevota84]

Good luck! Keep us updated.

 

[Dr Komatsu]

ilikecheese is spoton with the mode selection,is it an Active model as the Active mode button makes a difference or does it have the swing acceleration button instead ?

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Thanks Chevota84

Will do!

Howdy Dr Komatsu

I don't know. It was dropped off and I ran it 1.5 hrs moving brush and digging a ditch to drain the 3' of water out of the low side of my gravel pit. Without the operators manual I did not know what the abbreviations meant. But I will look closer next time I go up and use it. I will also find out what - number it is so if I have any more questions I can tell you what series it is.

Billy

 

[John C.]

I didn't see the photo link you had in the first post. You have a Dash 6 machine and I gave you the modes for the Dash 5.

 

[Cowboy Billy]

Thanks again John

I haven't figured out how to post a picture and make it show up yet. I should have found out more about the machine before I started asking questions about it.

Billy

 

[Tony]

Cowboy,

That Komatsu is a Dash-6 series machine and has the following work modes shown horizontally across the center of the monitor panel just below the LCD screen:
HO GO FO LO

HO: Heavy Operations. As stated, gives the fastest speed and most horsepower
GO: General Operations. Gives the best of power and fuel economy. The machines are set from the factory to default to this mode on startup. That default can be changed, but most leave it in this default and change the mode manually.
FO: Finishing Operations. Slows down the stick speed so that it is easier to finish a grade with. Kinda useless of you have enough seat time in the machine.
LO: Lifting Operations. Increases pump power and slows down engine to give you fine control for lifting and craning with the machine.

You'll probably want to run it in HO mode for the most part, as that will help you move the most material.

Enjoy it!

Best,
Tony