MX condenser screen is worthless

[mcmxi]

@mxmci I’m amazed the AC wasn’t totally warm with that buildup. I guess it’s how clean the condenser cores are behind the cheesy screen.

I recently picked up the Milwaukee m18 blower…not impressed but will probably work for this purpose.

I think the fact that it was late in the day and the sun low in the sky helped a lot. I was cutting all day yesterday in the hot sun and it was up near 100F. I would have to stop and blow the debris out of the engine compartment every couple of hours or more. It's a tough task for the A/C to keep up with cooling inside that glass box with minimal insulation in the roof or the floor. For the most part I was comfortable but did have a couple of times at least where it was getting too warm in the cab.

No doubt a tint would really help but they look awful to me. I think that insulating the roof would be a great idea though.

The Echo was ok yesterday. I used it many, many times to blow debris off the screens and out of the engine compartment. A gas or battery powered blower really is essential for this kind of work. It was so dry and hot and I was concerned about the risk of starting a fire so didn't want vegetation building up under the hood.

I will say though, the MX was excellent yesterday working hard for 8-1/2 hours or so. I was running it at 540rpm PTO setting all day long, and the coolant temperature gauge never got out of the normal range. I did have one weird situation where the flail bogged down and the tractor shut off and went into a thermal protection mode and wouldn't start for a few minutes. I raised the hood and saw a small stream of coolant coming out of the overflow tank. I raised the hood, cleared the obstruction in the flail and by the time I was done the tractor started and ran without issue.

 

[troverman]

Thanks for sharing your experience with the MX. In my experience with all these Kubotas, by the time the coolant temp gauge is at the "3/4" position (still well in the normal range, but heading towards hot), in very short order the machine will overheat and may already be pushing coolant out of the overflow bottle. I monitor it closely because you don't want to just shut the engine off abruptly after running wide open for an hour - these things have a turbo that is only cooled by oil, from what I can see...and abrupt shut-downs can cause turbo bearing failure and coking of the oil. So the minute I start to see the gauge get above the 50% normal position, I'll finish my row, idle the machine for a couple of minutes, then shut down and clear screens.

One of my biggest complaints is not enough storage on these tractors.

 

[mcmxi]

Thanks for sharing your experience with the MX. In my experience with all these Kubotas, by the time the coolant temp gauge is at the "3/4" position (still well in the normal range, but heading towards hot), in very short order the machine will overheat and may already be pushing coolant out of the overflow bottle. I monitor it closely because you don't want to just shut the engine off abruptly after running wide open for an hour - these things have a turbo that is only cooled by oil, from what I can see...and abrupt shut-downs can cause turbo bearing failure and coking of the oil. So the minute I start to see the gauge get above the 50% normal position, I'll finish my row, idle the machine for a couple of minutes, then shut down and clear screens.

One of my biggest complaints is not enough storage on these tractors.

Oddly enough the coolant temp needle was horizontal the whole time. Even when the tractor shut down (stalled) the needle was still horizontal. Yeah, I wasn't happy about the unscheduled shut down given the heat but everything seems ok. I kept the engine running while blowing debris off the screens.

The coolant expansion tank was at the low level mark this morning so I topped it off. There isn't much room in the expansion tank from the max mark to the top of the tank.

I have to say though, this was a tough task for the MX and Del Morino mulcher. 4ft high, thick, green, woody stemmed daisies mixed in with thick grass was a challenge. I would love to have an industrial grade flail now given how amazing they are. A beast of a flail to pull behind the M6060.

 

[troverman]

One thing I've noticed on these tractors is that when the machine is brand new, the coolant bottle is at the full / max line. After using it for awhile, it drops low. The dealer told me these tractors are not shipped with coolant from Japan and they add the coolant, and that air bubbles inevitably get in the system and work themselves out fairly quickly, dropping the coolant levels. He also said the bottle is really just an overflow and that as long as the radiator is full, it really doesn't matter where the level in the bottle is. I don't bother topping mine off at this point. But you are right, there is very little room in the bottle for expansion when the engine gets hot.

I'd love to buy an Alamo flail - they are the best in my opinion. They make a rear mount model in 74, 88, and 96" widths. The small one could work behind the MX6000 and the larger ones could go behind your M6060, although the 8-footer might need a bit more PTO power to be truly effective.

 

[mcmxi]

One thing I've noticed on these tractors is that when the machine is brand new, the coolant bottle is at the full / max line. After using it for awhile, it drops low. The dealer told me these tractors are not shipped with coolant from Japan and they add the coolant, and that air bubbles inevitably get in the system and work themselves out fairly quickly, dropping the coolant levels. He also said the bottle is really just an overflow and that as long as the radiator is full, it really doesn't matter where the level in the bottle is. I don't bother topping mine off at this point. But you are right, there is very little room in the bottle for expansion when the engine gets hot.

I'd love to buy an Alamo flail - they are the best in my opinion. They make a rear mount model in 74, 88, and 96" widths. The small one could work behind the MX6000 and the larger ones could go behind your M6060, although the 8-footer might need a bit more PTO power to be truly effective.

Thanks for the recommendation. To be honest I can't really justify buying a commercial grade flail unless I intended to cut fields for money, but I like good equipment so you never know. The Del Morino is an excellent mulcher but it was annoying that the outer edge would pull up daisies and wrap them around the drum. I'm not sure how to fix that to be honest.

Running over grass or anything that mulches fairly easily results in an incredible finish, and the fact that the flail can mulch down 4ft high, woody weeds as well as leave a lawn grade finish is really something. After running the flail for 16+ hours I would sell the RCR1884 rotary cutter long before the flail.

 

[troverman]

The flail mowers are just not quite as rugged as the rotary mowers but otherwise better in every way, in my opinion