GA Groundcare

Flywheel bearings on the way out. Rumbling at idle is often the first sign. You want to take the belts off and get a proper length lever bar down the side of the flywheel checking for any play.

Fair enough. The new Evo 165 models are as follows. EFI Petrol, 750kg, single piece heavy duty chassis, metal bonnet, 70kg flywheel, cable throttle. Kubota 25.5hp diesel, 950kg (approx) weight, heavy duty chassis with adjustable height drawbar, folding chute, 101kg flywheel, metal bonnet, electric throttle. Both have led lights, locking hitch, 3 year parts and labour warranty (unlimited hours), no stress, letterbox style horizontal feed rollers, "floating" stop bar. The feed roller box location has been moved from the conventional 6 o'clock around to 9 o'clock. This allows more time for the material to exit on its first counter clockwise pass and less recycling of chip around the drum. Quicker processing and quicker discharge resulting in ultimately quicker feeding of fresh material. 70kg flywheel on the petrol may sound on the face of it a bit light, but the Arb 130 /150 models weigh in around 50kg. The Arborist 130 (23hp Honda), Arborist 150p (37hp EFI) and Arborist 150 (25hp Kubota diesel) are all 750kg and all still available. I have a 2019 Arborist 150 with 250 hours coming in next month which boosts the old 34hp Kubota turbo diesel engine. It still has 18 months manufactures warranty and I can stick it through on GreenMech finance if required..

Towing with auto is a dream for sure. I had a D3 Commercial a few years ago and towing was effortless. I know i'm towing in the Defender Puma these days, it's like a work out.... But I also find it fun. It can be dangerous towing in a powerful smooth auto, the speeds you can be doing with 3T on the back without realising! It seems a bit backwards for them to bang on about being this cheap rugged 4x4, with beam axles, the answer to the true Defender owner blah blah blah yet only offer auto. For example a sheep farmer plodding around his livestock will want a 5/6 speed manual. He'll also stick with a jap pickup because of this? The Ineos will make a good tow vehicle. But then so does the Disco and new Defender... I have my eye on the 6 cylinder Defender 90 Commercial. That'll be a great truck for hauling chippers about.

The Evo 165 petrol is now a 750kg machine... Chris Murphy, are you restricted to 750kg?

Exactly, price is everything on this to make it successful. Why add a 8 speed complicated expensive box if your target market is apparently farmers / workers? Isn't the idea of it that it can be repaired in the out back and beyond with minimal specific tools?

We can do you a good price on a new one.

Being a GreenMech dealer, if this was a GreenMech and you had used genuine blades, bolts and a torque wrench (even using an uncalibrated torque wrench is a massive step to show you’re carrying the job out correctly) I would be opening a warranty job card and shovelling it through as warranty unless evidence was found during the repair of improper fitment or use. I don’t mean this reply as a “you should of bought a GreenMech” Professionally detail to the supplier what you’ve done prior to the fail and the fail itself. If it’s falling on death ears look to get an independent engineers report?

The M16 bolts are £2 something, nuts are 60p and nordlock washers about £1. Genuine new blades are £39.50. As the blade sits in its own pocket in a GM the bolt doesn’t really take any of the load. If it’s a machine we look after half the time we just replace the washers & locknuts so the nylock is fresh. If it’s a used machine / Part ex that we have never seen before we’ll always stick new bolts on.

Blade change including swapping for sharpening? I prefer a blade that seats itself rather than the full load going through the bolt.

Is it a Jensen or Forst? 300+nm does always seem very tight for a M16 bolt.

Lubricated threads and dry threads torqued to the same setting will give a different tightness. But not to the effect of snapping blades. If that’s correct they should 100% have a decal saying only torque dry, that commonly chosen method of lubricating threads shouldn’t carry a risk of killing someone / damaging the machine.

Just seen this thread. I will send a new inner filter free of charge if you're still using the old one? Got them in stock here.

Super easy to test your torque wrench. Put it in the vice, add a chosen weight, say 50 lb at 1 foot away from the drive, set it to 50 lbft and if it clicks, jobs a goodun.

Personally cant really see the market for it. Late Defender sales were low, folk / farmers had already moved to Pick-ups and a new ones can be had for 20k. This Ineos is rumoured to be starting at 35k. I good truck no doubt and could be a great tool for a tree surgeon when second hand. Largely the style of person who likes beam axles, external door hinges and basic mechanical vehicles likes to repair it themselves. A BMW unit with a 8 speed auto box isn't to be messed with by a hobby driveway tinkerer and isn't usually spending 35k upwards on a brand new vehicle. They're happy cruising around in a 1995 Defender. It maybe basic, functional and easy to repair all over the world. But they'll need a fast worldwide parts supply to compete with the likes of Toyota. Interested to see how it pans out for them.

As Pete says, really check the parts offering to support your import. The local cricket club in our village have a grey import tractor. It looks like a New Holland TC27D. But its something weird. Literally cannot get one specific spare for it apart from matching up filters and tyres, perhaps. If you find a tractor, ring where you would intend to buy the spares from and sound them out... Resale value maybe non existent too if its undesirable, could easily loose more in depreciation than a more expensive main stream tractor.

Trouble with the MI16 XU9 engine is oil surge, it did have Stihl Magnesium rocker cover though! They like to go bang with any type of track / race work, especially if using slicks and decent suspension. Folk spent many years adding larger capacity sumps with baffles etc. Never really sorted the issue. Ok on the road though. I used to have in my 205 an 1.9 MI16 on mapped ignition ecu with twin Weber 45 DCOE's. Made about 190hp on the rollers. Now I run the XU10 iron block from a 306 GTI-6 with proper fuel injection. It's a bit heavier but a much better starting point with less design issues. 230hp at the flywheel. Weighing in around 750kg with the multi point welded in cage.

What a beast the old XU series engines were. The diesel XU was in some large Toro commercial mowers back in the day. Bombproof. I have an XU engine in my 205 track car. Steel oversized crank from the 1.9TD, oversized pistons, uprated cams, custom conrods, head work, individual throttle bodies, 8 injectors, dry sump etc. Just had the engine out to do cambelt and some other bits. Here’s a photo from Saturday morning ?

Stress control runs off the alternator, like on most Kubota engines. First check, fan belt tight? We’ve been out to multiple chippers over time with reported bogs out on anything 4”. It’s usually blocked fuel tank / pipe work / filters causing a lack of supply. Enough fuel to run on low revs ok... Where are you based, we charge £10 plus a blade to sharpen.

Possibly biased as we are a Bob-Cat Zero Turn Dealer. But, take a look at them. The CRZ model will be the one to suit you and is available in 48", 52" and 61". Side, rear or mulch decks. We sell loads to farmers, large private users and smaller contractors mowing up to 20 hours a week... 5 year warranty. Where are you located?

Whizz the starter motor off, it sounds like that's your trouble if you're getting 12v down the exciter on crank. Bench test it, quite simple to do. You'll need a set of jump leads, a short length of single core cable and a loose battery. If you aren't sure how to do it, lightly clamp the starter motor in a vice. Stick the positive jump lead onto the positive of the starter motor, earth the starter using the negative jump lead by the starter body, connect the positive and negative leads onto the slave battery as usual, then add 12v using your small single core cable from the battery positive to where the exciter wire fits. If nothing, then new starter motor time. Looking at the photos I can see its a 2010 machine so could well be 10 years old...

Do you know if you're getting 12v on the small exciter wire when you've got the ignition on crank? How old is the machine?

Can you remove and bench test the starter motor?

Little tip on the above is to run the machine at idle for 15 seconds or so prior to turning it off. It reduces the air that the drum creates and any tiny debris will get chipped. Turning the machine off directly can leave little bits being held up the infeed which then drop between the blade / anvil when coming to a stop. Or, whack a back pack blower down the infeed to clear it...

C200206 is £116.97 ex vat. They aren’t cheap I’m afraid. (Just pulled up an invoice off my phone)

The little 90 degree on at the bottom of the fuel tank? Often forgotten and usually gunked up as you’ve found!