BondoNJ
Member
A couple of weeks ago I drove my 1999 Skytrak 10054 to a job site (20 minutes by Skytrak travel speed), used it for a weekend (2 hours run time). On my way back to the shop, I was driving and it was a hilly set of roads to the job site. The machine decides to just shutdown and lock up. This was not on a hill, flat paved road, running 3rd gear 3/4 pedal. When it shutdown, the battery light was red and dimmed out so I assume it is an electrical issue. No warning lights were on prior to shutdown. It did not want to immediately restart, turned the key and seemed to have no power. After about 20 minutes with no tools, it decided it wanted to start again. I drove about 40 feet and it shut down again. Same issue, battery warning light was on and dimmed out (not on prior to shutdown as I watched it). It decided to come back on in about 3 minutes and I was able to drive it the 12 minutes back to the shop in 3rd gear. All fluids are filled, hydraulics in retracted moving position obviously. Fuel filter is fine.
Yesterday, I used it and the issue happened again. This time, I was able to restart it in less then 30 seconds. I am going to look at it soon, but I wanted to ask for help about it.
When it shuts down, it is a complete lockup of the system. Not just a stall and drift. There is no spitting/sputtering like a fuel issue. The machine. finally, starts again, it fires right up so it isn't flooded or starved. I will state that during the first shutdown, I found out that the employee of mine who did this, used the cheapest battery terminals he could get. Both positive terminals were loose. When I was troubleshooting it with no tools, I was able to somewhat tighten the terminals. The negative are on tight.
History of machine - I purchased this machine about 3 years ago from a equipment dealer/renter. 3rd purchase from the same company, so pretty ok company. No complaints about running their equipment into the ground. The machine doesn't run often at our shop. This is a our heavy/long mover and runs maybe 2 hours a month. Never had any issues before this point.
Modification to machine - We did add a second battery to the system. We connected it in parallel, so it has the same voltage, but double the amps. We did this because it did not ever want to start. The battery - even a brand new battery - just didn't have the ass to start the machine like it should. It could take 1 minute to start the machine until second battery was added.
Thank you
Yesterday, I used it and the issue happened again. This time, I was able to restart it in less then 30 seconds. I am going to look at it soon, but I wanted to ask for help about it.
When it shuts down, it is a complete lockup of the system. Not just a stall and drift. There is no spitting/sputtering like a fuel issue. The machine. finally, starts again, it fires right up so it isn't flooded or starved. I will state that during the first shutdown, I found out that the employee of mine who did this, used the cheapest battery terminals he could get. Both positive terminals were loose. When I was troubleshooting it with no tools, I was able to somewhat tighten the terminals. The negative are on tight.
History of machine - I purchased this machine about 3 years ago from a equipment dealer/renter. 3rd purchase from the same company, so pretty ok company. No complaints about running their equipment into the ground. The machine doesn't run often at our shop. This is a our heavy/long mover and runs maybe 2 hours a month. Never had any issues before this point.
Modification to machine - We did add a second battery to the system. We connected it in parallel, so it has the same voltage, but double the amps. We did this because it did not ever want to start. The battery - even a brand new battery - just didn't have the ass to start the machine like it should. It could take 1 minute to start the machine until second battery was added.
Thank you