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Backhoe won't start

D

Dodge2500

New User
On the ranch that my wife and I manage, we have a John Deere 310 backhoe that serves as our primary snow mover. Well, it's been sitting for about 2 weeks and I needed it to move some snow that's drifted in front of a hay stack. There's no heater, so I plugged in the battery charger. It ran for about 4 hours before I went out to start it. The temp outside was in the mid 20's. It only gave me about 5 cranks before it died. I then tried various combinations of battery charger, jumper cables, and ether. After an hour I gave up. My boss claims that the batteries are shot after less than two years. I'm wondering if maybe the electrical system needs some work. You guys have any thoughts/advice. Like I said, this is our primary snow mover and we get plenty of snow, so it'd be nice if it started reliably.

Thanks
 
Check the voltage in the batteries. If they are fully charged make sure they are at a minimum CCA rating for the tractor. Check all of the connections to make sure they are clean and tight. How old is the starter? It could be going bad. If the battery system checks out then that would be the next thing to check. Have it bench tested. Some auto parts places will have bench testors or try an auto electric repair shop. Most of the time they don't charge much if anything to test them.
 
When cranking over, push the clutch completly to the floor, even thou it is out of gear. Pushing completly to the floor disengages the hydraulic pump which helps it turn over much easier. This trick does help with mine.
 
If you don’t already have one, get an electric block heater and plug it in about 3 hours before you need to start it. It’s nothing more than a little water heater, which ties in thru a freeze plug or water hose to preheat the engine. All the other advise is crucial as well. Also somewhere on the dash there may be an ether connector. My old Massey 1100 has one which connects via a tiny tube to the intake manifold. A little goes a long way.

My Brother Dave who farms a mountain top in central Vermont regularly deals with below zero temperatures and he keeps block heaters on all his equipment. Another trick is park the tractor under shelter out of the wind. Tractors have feelings too.
John
 
The best thing to do when its cold outside (35F or below) an equipment is gonna set longer than two or three days is to take the battery out an put in a warm place Cold weather is h*#! on batteries I got a 310C but mine has a block heater on it
 
Two years on a set of batteries in a machine that doesn't get run all the time is pretty good. If you ran the machie every day you might get more life out of them but the combination of sitting and the cold will kill them sure as anything.
 
My JD310-D uses two 12 volt batteries in parallel. Still has the batteries that came with it when I bought it 7 years ago. It starts easily without block heater or ether, although mostly a "cold" day is around 40 here in western Oregon. Still, it has started just fine the few times I've tried in 25 degree temps. The Deere engine has no glow plugs,

I would suspect your battery clamps or cables are loose or have a high resistance somewhere, or the batteries are indeed shot.
 
You cant beat heat,,I use a torpedo heater, it blows heat on the motor,and do push the clutch in. you can get heaters that stick to the oil pan, they stick with a magnet.
go luck
 
My truck was doing the same thing, and it turned out it was a bad battery connection. Take all of the cables off, take the batteries inside, let them warm up for several hours, then attempt to charge them. Then clean all of the posts and terminals really well and clamp them back down. I'm sure it will be much happier.
 
(quoted from post at 23:40:14 01/25/10) Two years on a set of batteries in a machine that doesn't get run all the time is pretty good. If you ran the machie every day you might get more life out of them but the combination of sitting and the cold will kill them sure as anything.
Click to expand...

As long as the batteries are charged, cold does no harm. Heat kills batteries, cold makes them weak but does no damage. I have several machines with 8 + year old batteries that work fine. They typically sit unloved and untouched all winter, but fire up in spring
 
It'd be 24 volt if those batteries were in series but he said they were in parallel so he's actually got 12 volts with twice the capacity as well as twice the amperage.
It's a better setup...thats why highway transports use that set up
 
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