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Quad track transmission

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,350
Location
North Dakota
Hoping a few of you out there have ran quads on pans. My main tractor is Cat 95E with JD pan. Main work is cleaning drainage ditches. Have more work than know what to do with so we rented 18 yd Ashland direct mount hooked it behind our 2010 485 quad. I see all sorts of quads pulling tandem pans, our tractor the trans wants no part of shifting with one pan. Have had it calibrated twice. Seems to work better for a few hours then same stuff. It feels like it is slipping almost every shift. Hoping someone will shed some light.
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,350
Location
North Dakota
No never get it down to second sometimes third depending on how soft or sticky ground is. Every time out of the ditch though if its not flat or downhill it's that awful clunk and almost but not quite screech as it shifts. Seems to be the worst from 5th to 6th.
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,350
Location
North Dakota
It just kind of sucks because my Cat 95E I can grab, grab, grab, and so on all the way to 7th with full load. Did that for 5000 hrs with a 75C (that had 4000 when I got it) and have put 1000 on my 95 that now has 7000 hrs on it. Not to mention cleaning ditches I probably do that at least 150-200 times a day. I know the quad will never be the scraper tractor the Cat is but we're not asking it to just hoping it could help for couple hundred hours.
 

Killbox Alpha

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2014
Messages
85
Location
DFW
Is the quad track set up for scraper application? If not, that may be your problem. You have to remember, the later model Cat 75 & 85 we marketed to construction companies for dirt moving applications. They were used on farms but they were designed for earth moving. The Cat row crop, 45 & 55 were designed for farm work. I also know that when the tractor/scraper thing begin to get big 10 or so years ago, Deere had alot of problems with the 4 wheel drive tractors due to the heavy duty cycle. We saw broken draw bars, broken pivot pins, tractors were literally being pulled apart not counting the numerous transmission failures. Even saw transmission cases were the green paint had turned color from being so hot. Deere now sells a "scraper" tractor which if I'm not mistaken, have a quad transmission. I don't think they offer a powershift in the scraper tractor set up.
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,350
Location
North Dakota
Are the trans different in a scraper tractor? I never heard of them being different. Heavier art. joint, axles, different drawbar, all these I know. Maybe the trans is modulated different? I ran a STX 485 a few years ago with a 28 yd. K-TEC. That tractor seemed to handle the load better.
 

ShaneK

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2012
Messages
83
Location
Canada
Are the trans different in a scraper tractor? I never heard of them being different. Heavier art. joint, axles, different drawbar, all these I know. Maybe the trans is modulated different? I ran a STX 485 a few years ago with a 28 yd. K-TEC. That tractor seemed to handle the load better.

Perhaps the issue isn't with the Tractor - Maybe the design of the 18 cubic yard scraper you are pulling loads harder than the 28 cubic yard.
 

Mjrdude1

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 2, 2012
Messages
168
Location
Wichita, Ks
We have a pair of 9520 Deere 4wd tractors that are "Scarper Specials", all sorts of extra beef in the drivetrain over a standard 9520, plus heavier axles etc. Both have power shift transmissions in them and after 4000 hrs are working great. We do monitor them very closely through oil samples.
They pull a pair of 18yd Deere scrapers.
 

Richardjw~

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
319
Location
South Devon, U.K.
Hoping a few of you out there have ran quads on pans. My main tractor is Cat 95E with JD pan. Main work is cleaning drainage ditches. Have more work than know what to do with so we rented 18 yd Ashland direct mount hooked it behind our 2010 485 quad. I see all sorts of quads pulling tandem pans, our tractor the trans wants no part of shifting with one pan. Have had it calibrated twice. Seems to work better for a few hours then same stuff. It feels like it is slipping almost every shift. Hoping someone will shed some light.


when you calibrated it did you have the transmission oil hot, like over 40c?......or maybe the trans temp sender has failed and this is causing the slippage in shifts

have you been in the trans view and checked the regulated pressure?

any error codes showing?
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,350
Location
North Dakota
Richard, thanks for coming on here. Finally someone who seems to know something about this tractor. We had Case come out to calibrate it, the mechanic checked the pressure and for codes. No codes and pressure check was OK. Calibrated and was fine for few hours. Two days later I pryed the procedure out of him and did it again. Same thing, ran a couple hours, seemed pretty good, then back to slipping. Waited another day, did it one more time. The last time it was about 80°F out and I had a pretty substantial cut to make so I worked it as hard as I could for over an hour, let it idle for about a minute before I shut it down to go into cal mode. That time it made no difference. After talking to a tech at a dealer that specializes in maintaining scraper tractors we have decided that we're going to have them pull the trans and take it apart. They rebuild all their trans in-house so other than getting it out, it's really not a big deal, other than the bill. He figures about $15,000 since it's still working(sort of). Sounds reasonable since Case wants $35,000 JUST FOR a rebuilt trans.
 

Richardjw~

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 14, 2007
Messages
319
Location
South Devon, U.K.
out of interest have you got hy-tran or equivalent spec. oil in the trans?

what does 15$k get you on a trans rebuild?
there were a few issues with the 1st, 3rd & output speed sensors breaking down, inc. poor internal solder joints that could lead to poor shift quality.......anyway I guess if the quad-track scraper guy is aware of this
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,350
Location
North Dakota
Yes, hytran oil. $15,000 quote was for remove/reinstall and $9000 in parts. The parts quote is based on his experience in these trans. He said if it's worse than what he thinks, which is not very likely, bill could go to $20K. He very highly doubts that though because it still works ok for the most part. I will make sure to ask him about the speed sensors. I appreciate that bit of input.
 

Kman9090

Senior Member
Joined
May 2, 2010
Messages
273
Location
Everywhere
Quads are known for eating transmissions around the 3500hr mark. We had 8 of them and between 3000-4000hr all 8 went through a transmission. We usually pulled three pans with them though.
 

dirtpig

Active Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2008
Messages
36
Location
grandfield, okla
Occupation
truck manager
On the agtalk forum Fla vegetable farmer gave some tips on making those tranniees live. Memory says 5 extra gallons of oil at 1500-2000rpm and put pressures around 275. This is from memory and I have slept numerous times since he posted the info.
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,350
Location
North Dakota
Well, we don't run under 1500 rpm. Usually 1600-1800. The pressure thing, that's something that the shop has to set?
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
4,350
Location
North Dakota
*UPDATE* Got the call today the tractor is done in the shop. $19,400. Transmission rebuild, drive motor for engine fan, new valve cover w/ overhead, new load checks in the remotes, belt alignment. The guy told me that getting that trans out was a good plan. One of the gears on the third shaft was about ready to fall off and play plinko through the rest. Also needed several clutch drums. Can't wait to see how awesome it shifts.
 
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