I've been using my NH TC45 extensively for site clearing. I've been trying to be careful about stuff getting to the grill while removing brush, fallen trees, etc. Few weeks back, I had a limb push in the grill and knock the headlights out of their bracket, bending it. Fixed that. Then, last weekend it started overheating. Put some coolant in but didn't see anything on the ground or leaks. Well, the next morning, there was a puddle underneath it. Took a closer look, pulled the battery and found that something had pushed the grill in a little and pushed the battery back into the radiator, splitting one of the tubes.
Checked online, pretty expensive part. Took a wire wheel to it and it cleaned up well. Nice and shiny, thought it was aluminum as I know newer radiators are. Had some aluminum brazing rod.
Patched it up but had several pinhole leaks. Every time I fixed one, the heat opened up a new one. After about 3 hrs of messing with it on Sunday, I put it aside. Took it to a radiator repair shop near me Monday AM, guy said "$20 to fix it and oh, BTW, it's brass, not aluminum." :shock:
He unsoldered the ends of the rotten tube and resoldered the core there, didn't even try to fix my mess. It took about 5 minutes. Then he spent another bit of time cussing and swearing as he looked for small enough plugs for testing. Then more swearing as he tested it and kept finding little leaks on the adjacent tubes where the fins ripped out.
He was all smiles when he was done, no more cussing and swearing. I gave him $30 as it was obviously more trouble than he thought it would be. He even painted it black so it's not so obvious that it was repaired. Watching him work, I kept thinking "I could have done that". But it was well worth the money to get me back in business that day.
Not wanting a repeat, I fabbed up a couple of guards for the front. I'll post pix later as I don't seem to have them on my phone.
Checked online, pretty expensive part. Took a wire wheel to it and it cleaned up well. Nice and shiny, thought it was aluminum as I know newer radiators are. Had some aluminum brazing rod.
Patched it up but had several pinhole leaks. Every time I fixed one, the heat opened up a new one. After about 3 hrs of messing with it on Sunday, I put it aside. Took it to a radiator repair shop near me Monday AM, guy said "$20 to fix it and oh, BTW, it's brass, not aluminum." :shock:
He unsoldered the ends of the rotten tube and resoldered the core there, didn't even try to fix my mess. It took about 5 minutes. Then he spent another bit of time cussing and swearing as he looked for small enough plugs for testing. Then more swearing as he tested it and kept finding little leaks on the adjacent tubes where the fins ripped out.
He was all smiles when he was done, no more cussing and swearing. I gave him $30 as it was obviously more trouble than he thought it would be. He even painted it black so it's not so obvious that it was repaired. Watching him work, I kept thinking "I could have done that". But it was well worth the money to get me back in business that day.
Not wanting a repeat, I fabbed up a couple of guards for the front. I'll post pix later as I don't seem to have them on my phone.