By Bill cripe (Bcripe) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Well my Max II is now running great. I have it at our hangar and the guys want to use it to run around the airport. Will running it on asphalt and concrete be too hard on it? I dont want bearings and chains to be ruined. I could air up the tires to 5psi so that the contact area is much less. What do you guys think?

Thanks,
BC

By Fred Sowerwine, Montana's Max dealer (Fred4dot) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Bill, I don't think you will hurt the chains and bearings running on asphalt and concrete, but you will eat up the tires in pretty short order. Turning from a stop will put extra wear on your tranny bands and your drive belt.

Skid steers are not the right tool for hard surface operation. More PSI in your tires won't make much difference because you will be riding on the lugs (when the lugs are gone, more PSI in your tires will cut contact area a smidgeon, but you will wear through the carcass pretty quick).

By Bill cripe (Bcripe) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Thanks Fred, actually I dont mind eating the tires. They are very full of plugs so I probably need new tires eventually anyway. Will the tranny wear out? I dont mind wearing out the belt. I am running 1.5 pounds in the tires now. They are the Rawhide IIIs.

It actually runs pretty darn good now. I am amazed at how well it steers and how crappy it was. The tranny fluid was dark, dark red almost black. We sucked the old oil (14 ounces) out with a electric airplane fuel pump. The chains were out of adjustment, several bearings bad, new spark plugs (+4 style), new right front axle, new throttle cable and lever (very nice aluminum BMX brake lever), new oil and filter, hour meter, and took the governor apart and cleaned up all the sticky places. It was just generally in bad shape. I highly doubt it had the 12 hours on it that it was advertised with.

But bottom line is now it finally runs really good and steers very easily. Maybe all you guys that love these things are right :-). I was starting to think you were crazy;-)

I still have to figure out how to get it registered.

BC

By david berger (Davidrrrd) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

bill maybe were right and also crazy!

By Fred Sowerwine, Montana's Max dealer (Fred4dot) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Bill, Good to hear that you have it working well. Running on hard stuff is only extra work for the machine when you are turning and if you have motion when you turn it will not be much different than on dirt (except for the tire wear).

Have you checked with your Department of Motor Vehicles to inquire what you have to do to title it?

yup, skid steer machines grow on their owners. If all is working well, the more you use one, the more you like it. And when you get in the terrain they are made for (and nothing else will go easily) you will really begin to appreciate it.

By Bill cripe (Bcripe) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

I had it out in the desert this past weekend and was running up and down some washes/canyons all the way up until there was just rocks. It really handled well. Only once did I think I was stuck and that was in soft sand. I backed out before digging myself too deep. I doubt it would be very good in sand dunes. I climbed and went down some pretty steep hills. I found going down the hills to keep the sticks forward and the motor would brake the machine pretty well. Almost screwed up on one hill and tried to put it in reverse. Then I remembered what I read on here and just kept it in forward. I would hate to be strapped in my five point harness heading downhill fast! It rides alot smoother than I thought it would with the tires at 1.5 psi. It even turned really easy in a rock bed similar to a river bed. I think I would like to figure out how to easily temporarily bypass the governor so that it will go faster for travelling up and down dirt roads. Its pretty slow if you need to beat feet. Then reconnect it in the rough stuff and concrete/asphalt.

Sure seems like there should be some sort of tow hook on the front. Is it even possible to tow with the motor off?

Thanks,
BC

By david berger (Davidrrrd) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

BILL BE CAIRFULL WITH YOUR GOVENER!!!
THE ARM ON THE POST COMEING OUT OF THE BLOCK MUST ALWASE BE UNDER SPRING TENTION TO PRVENT THE INTERNAL COMPONETNS FROM BECOMEING LOOSE OBJECTS IN YOUR CRANK CASE AND SUBSUQUENTLY BLOWING OUT OF YOUR BLOCK!!
YOUR BEST BET WOULD TO COMPLEATLY BYPASS THE GOVENER AND HOLD THAT ARM UNDER SPRING TENTION, SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE TEMPTED TO UNATACH AND REATACH IT AND POSABLY FORGET TO REATACH IT IN YOUR TEMPORARY FASHION,
NOTHING WRONG WITH ALL THE POWER ON TAP WHENEVER YOU NEED IT,
THIS BY-PASS IS SAFE JUST AS LONG AS IT IS NEVER REVED WILDLY WHILE NOT UNDER A LOAD.

By Fred Sowerwine, Montana's Max dealer (Fred4dot) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Bill, When you have the lugs about worn off your tires, keep them for using in the sand. It is the lugs that dig the holes. A max will climb a dune moderately well, but remember to stop the wheels when the machine stops. You should be able to back out of holes you dig when going up. You don't have the speed to give you the momentum or wheel spin that is required to climb the real long, steep dunes. Several years ago, now, I played around a little on the dunes west of Yuma Arizona with a Max IV with 26" tires. I went almost every place I wanted, but I did dig a few holes that probably screwed up whomever tried to follow my tracks.

With all that has been wrong with your machine, you should check your clutches and make sure they are opening up all the way and make sure you have the right belt on (should be a Dayco #15252AA). The drive belt should ride pretty close to the outer edge of the pulley and the driven clutch should rotate under spring load to give you torque. Also, belt dressing on your drive belt will prolong its life and ensure you of top performance all the time. If your drive belt is too long, you will have reduced top speed. The more hours you get on your machine, the faster it will go. Low pressure in your tires will also slow you down a little (but to me the advantages outweigh the speed loss).


If you have to tow it, tow it from the back in neutral unless you want to fabricate a tow point in front. That could be a winch plate or an eye hook with a metal plate backing. You can use web strapping between the body halves using big washers and knots on the inside to keep it from slipping through the crack. You can make a tow bar with hooks that go over the axles allowing the axle to turn within the hooks. You can have a bracket made that fastens to the bearing flange bolts. There are lots of ways to skin that cat. The lower your point of attachment, the easier a max is to tow.

When going down a really steep hill, you will need to ride the tranny brakes because engine braking won't keep you going slow enough and you want to make sure you have control so you don't start bouncing. Need to practice and have smooth steady hands.

By Bill cripe (Bcripe) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Hi Fred. Maybe that is the case. How can I check the clutches? The belt wasnt slipping. On a couple of hills I tried to go up the max would pretty easily spin out and dig holes. I didnt go down anything too severe since it was really my first trip out with it. The steepest hill I let the engine brake it from about halfway down to the bottom. I was picking up speed but not alot. I did do a couple of small drop offs. Only maybe 24 inches max and I used the brakes on them. I did notice that it doesnt have near the power going in reverse that it does going forward. I would have to really pull back on the sticks if I wanted to climb anything in reverse. What do you think that means?

Can it be steered while towing it? Maybe leave it in gear and use the sticks? Somewhere I thought I read that if the engine dies you have no control. What gives on that?

Thanks,
BC

By tropicjungleboy on Unrecorded Date: Edit

HEY FRED:

you forgot to mention when going down on a really steep hill to do three major things as follow:
a) to push yourself back again the bench seat by pressing hard with legs on front bottom of aatv so you can pull the levels back to aplied brake as needed.
b) to shoud "geronimo"!!! during bouncing action and
c) to secure balls on scroto so cannot travel up to throat and cause sofocating action!!!

after properly management of avobe recomendations you should have a lot of fun going down the hill!!!

By David Keeso (Argomag) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Tropicjungleboy- Well put- thats likely the main problem we men face while in really rough terrain. NOt only to prevent suffocating but also to prevent qualifying for the girls choir (ya know, the ones with the shrill high pitched voices)

By Fred Sowerwine, Montana's Max dealer (Fred4dot) on Unrecorded Date: Edit

Isaac, I stand corrected.

Bill, From the fact that you spin out going up hill and dig holes, that tells me your driven pulley is working fine. To check the drive pulley, have the tranny in neutral and watch the pulley on the engine; when you rev up the engine, the drive belt should ride up on the sides and come almost to the outer edge of the pulley.

The laterals have to be all the way back with enough force to fully engage the tranny bands to have full power in reverse. If you don't have the levers all the way back, the tranny bands are just partially engaged and it is not that you don't have equal power, you just aren't using all the power. As long as your machine is in gear, you have complete braking action engine on or off.

Towing while in gear will take a lot of pulling power and I suppose you could turn while being towed. It would make more sense to me to hold the laterals in neutral while being towed letting one or the other levers go forward to create drag to instigate a turn and using the tranny brakes only to stop.