u/WarmDragonfruit8783

Currently there is only one 1/14 scale grader being built from what I see and I hear it’s a huge POS and like one person has one. I’m putting feelers out there to see if there’s enough people interested to get a 1/12 scale cat24 grader made and put into production. I’m trying to stay at or below 5,000$. The current one is 30lbs and is about 6500$ and like I said I heard it’s a pos. I’d be shooting for 60lbs. I doubt we’d be able to get heavier but maybe. Anyways I know it’s far fetched, even for me to buy one, but it would be so friggin cool. If the hobby continues to expand the way it’s going, it’ll only be a matter of time.

I’ve been sick for a few days (health wise anyways) 😂 so here’s another video of me being pushed around.

Haven’t played in a minute, load in and I’m in the swamps. I hear some noises as I walk around and find a nice fireball. Then this happens and now I need new shorts.

It’s actually been awhile since I’ve done this, it took about 10 tries to get it smooth enough for a pass. I’ve been using the dozer more often lately.

Idk if that’s the right thing it’s either that or bdsm for the whole sound fettish thing. Anyways the first reservoir gasket failed, I got the right size this time, so second gasket ever cut by hand and the first one to work. I had to buy a fancy hole punched off amazon to make the holes for the screws. I cut the other holes with scissors and that probably didn’t help the first gasket. I also replace the main boom cylinders and some o rings in the fittings. The system sounds nice and healthy now.

Got a chance to put it on but not a chance to get it out, tomorrow looks better, the zoomlion is back together too I finished the refit. The heavier blade at 35lbs has caused noticeable drift in the right cylinder which I know is from the coupler quick fix. The small blade drift wasn’t as noticeable maybe 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch over a complete cycle. Now it’s more like 3/4 to an inch on the upswing, so it looks like I’ll be replacing that line probably Sunday. I’m going to take it out and test it tomorrow anyways because all work and no play makes me a dull boy.

I remove the pump and reservoir assembly by unplugging the fans and motors, 8 wires total, and I remove the reservoir lid that’s about 8 screws as well.

Opening the tank it’s kinda nasty, it appears the gasket was all shot out and showed signs of degradation and it also broke when I tried to clean it. I also noticed these little screen things and that one was broken, so I break it more and look inside and there’s some doo doo in there I assume from the seals chitting the bed so I begin cleaning out the manifold and letting it drain and i order the most expensive gasket material and after some time with chat gpt I find the filters, order them up on amazon and they came today.

I begin by swapping out the filters and I glue the old gasket back together with some probably illegal glue I found, so I can use it as a template to cut the new gasket.

Once I cut the new gasket I’ll reinstall the tank and begin to take apart the motor and pump assembly.

The further I get from where we drive the easier it’s getting to rip as expected, I’m able to bury nearly the whole tine. As I ripped closer to where I’m standing when I took this photo, after a few passes about 2-3 inches apart, I’m able to rip chunks of grass right out, but here beyond the parking lot line, the grass is just coming right up.

It wasn’t the motor like I thought, the planetary had a few grains of sand in it that bound it up, took it apart cleaned and repacked it.

I missed the bucket, I forgot it has to be extended out further, it’s been awhile since I’ve done this actually 😅 it’s fun to try and relearn this thing basically after using the hydraulic for a while, the fine tuning is non existent in swing so it’s all gauging where it might end up which is a part of that fun, but the servos are very responsive. This terrible operation I got going on here shows the movements pretty well, which was the idea 😂 then again I am operating it backwards and I really can’t see, once you get the hang of it, it is possible to be a little more smooth with it.

Reminds me of the frog from family guy, when Peter is trying to throw it out the window 😂

It’s 2 screws for the cover, 3 screws for the motors, reservoir and radiator to be detached, 6 screws for the valve assembly, 6 tabs for the dual motor wires and I’m down to the main block. I’m taking in air from the old boom cylinder I haven’t replaced yet(replaced 1 awhile back) this was after 3-4 hrs of ripping grass in 90 degree heat so I’m not surprised since the seals are old now, it still works if I don’t crank up the pumps but I like the power so it’s coming apart and I’m cleaning the entire system and checking all the seals, cleaning the tank, and it’s been awhile since I’ve serviced it anyways. I’m expecting new rams so I want to make sure the system is nice and clean for them.

I’m just showing this to display how simple these machines are.

I’m going to take the motor assembly apart to look inside the pump itself to make sure it’s clean, so I’m interested to see how it’s worn if at all after 2 years. I haven’t had any performance problems other than leaky seals which just makes it start shooting hydraulic fluid everywhere out of the cap when it gets really hot. Last time this was a thing I replaced the leaky ram like I mentioned before and it was good until now, so I just ordered a whole set. I’ll get two sets just in case but I have the old cylinder I’m trying to take apart to see if I can be remanned. I am not having any luck getting the top cap off though, but I got the bottom cap off and discovered a yellow film that solidified which indicated a melted seal 😂 it doesn’t appear to have gone past the cylinder but it prompted me to immediately take apart the machine even tho that replacement happened a long time ago and I’ve since ran it a bunch of times but not for longer than an hour at a time.

At this point everything is clear and I’ve found no impurities in the fluid so that’s great. I want to visually inspect the pump just to be sure there isn’t any film or something in there.

This is kinda neat because after taking apart the huina a few times over the years with all the little baby screws, this 1/12 zoomlion compared is nice and easy.

This grass field used to be a parking lot, it’s putting up a fight!

Things pretty heavy lol doesn’t like to move on the rug but this things got the right angle.📐

After a few different things I’ve come up with this.