Need Foton Tractor Help

A guy I work with(Marv) who lives in the country, has a small acreage, likes to hunt, fish and trap. Last spring he got on this kick about needing a tractor and loader, wanted something small. He told me he was looking at a small ford 25hp diesel with a loader on it. He bought it and right away he started having hydraulic problems. The local jockey he bought it from told him that there was air in the hydraulic system and came and bled it and then it worked OK. Fast forward, now Marv says that sometime when he starts it, he has no hydraulics or steering. If he shuts it off and restarts it a few times, then it will work as it should. He said the last time he used it after a while, it started loosing the steering and then hydraulics. He asked me for help, so I told him to write down the model number of the tractor and loader and I would see what I could find out. He came to work today and told me it's not a Ford, it's a Foton Lovol model FT 254 and the loader has Spirit written on it. I'm guessing it is a gray market tractor. Does anyone have any experience with one of these or ideas of what to try or check?? I told him I have a guage that he can hook into the hydraulics when it's working and check the pressure. Any help appreciated, Chris

Not grey market, just a poor type of Chinese tractor. Good luck they show up for sale broken locally as the parts are a pain to obtain and real dealers won?t touch them as owners get mad at the dealer when they break again.

I don't have a clue about this machine, but start, stop, restart until Hyd. system comes alive, MIGHT be trash pulling up against pump suction tube/screen/ whatever, sometimes the backwash will clear things for a bit when it shuts down.

My first thought is clogged hydraulic filter/screen.