I’M Back!
So it has been a long time for a new post. Eye surgery, new R&D in the shop and yes, a bit of procrastination. But, I will do an update and address several calls that have come in of late.
The 620 is proving all that was expected and more. It has not been without problems that came in after many hours of use in the field, but we have addressed and solved those problems and for now, the 620 we are putting out today is a much studier machine with a couple of safe guards to protect the compressor as well as preventing the load geni from plugging up and causing operators grief in the field.
First and foremost is the pivot axle support on the walking beam tandem axle for both the 620 and the 412. We had several pivot shaft on the walking beam tandem’s on the 620 fail. We are putting 1.25″ shafts with a bracket that supports the end of the pivot axle. This is standard equipment and available to all 620’s in the field at no charge. We have also developed the same type pivot axle support for the walking beam tandem on all 412’s. New tandem’s will have the support and tandems in the field that are less than 90 days old can get the brackets at no charge. All new tandem’s will have the bracket as standard equipment. It is our conclusion that failures of the tandem axle pivot shaft were due to excessive speed over rough terrain like pivot tracks. With that said, it is also our policy to put units in the field that will exceed in structural strength any normal demands made of it in the field. We know that bouncing over a pivot track should be avoided but will happen.
The 13 hp motors have had a huge and warranted complaint over the oil drain plug. Spencer Lamb, shop foreman, developed a simple but effective solution. He drilled a hole in the existing plug, welded a 1/8″ pipe nipple onto it, threaded the end of the nipple to accept a 5/16 ” cap screw so now oil can be drained through a 3/8″ air hose into a bucket. Simple and inexpensive. The oil has to be warm to drain completely. To date, I can only offer this on new motors. I have tried and failed to buy new oil plugs that we can put the extension pipe nipple on.
I found an inline filter for the pressure side of the load geni. We are in process of developing how to mount the load geni because the inline filter is not strong enough to support the weight of the load geni. Also I need to put it on a local machine for field testing prior to sending it to customers.
The big news is that I recently purchased a hand held meter for carbon monoxide. It reads up to 10,000 ppm and above that reads in percent. Easy to use, and is giving us very important information. We are establishing a data base that will be important in diagnosing problems in individual machines in the field. At this time, we will not offer it (loan) to unit owners because of the risk in sending it back and forth. We are testing every unit we are selling and I proved to a local 412 owner that the reason he was not getting good kills on ground squirrels was not because the 412 was not putting out a very lethal level of carbon monoxide. (when we were in the field, a field mouse came out of the ground squirrel hole and flopped over dead)
I feel that after we have established base readings of CO, it will be of advantage for custom operators to purchase a CO meter to help remove doubt as to whether it is the field conditions, operators, or the actual CO production of the PERC unit that is producing results that are less than expectations.
That’s all for now, folks, I will be more diligent in my postings. Thank you,
Allen
Uncategorized | admin March 28, 2010
