Erickson little erick 2542

Hey everyone, I just aquired an Erickson skid steer that was my grandfathers. I have done some searching both here and around the web and cant find much about them. It is a model 2542 I believe around 1975. Only has 110 hrs on it with an Onan engine. Everything seems to be tight and in good working order. i just had a few questions about it.

1. It says to only use 10w 30 ms rated motor oil for the hydraulics. I know ms is from the old oil ratings, will any of todays 10w30 oils be sufficient?

2. Where might I be able to aquire parts for this machine? I would like to replace the packing on the rams.

Anyone with any knowledge about these machines would be a great help. Thanks in advance.

Today's 10w-30 should be fine. I would probably use a 10 or 20 weight hyd oil You should be able to get hyd cyl repair parts at any hyd repair shop. I remember them from back in the 70s. Can't remember who bought them out though.

http://www.crileindustries.com/ can repack the cylinders for you, or get you all the parts to do it. They are in my neighborhood. I don't know where you are from.

Erickson built these loaders for Ford, so most of the Erickson models have a Ford equivalent, which you can look up parts for, online, through New Holland. I don't know the Ford equivalent... might be a Ford CL20.

You can call Wellik Implement in Duncan Iowa. They used to sell Erickson skid steers and might be able to help you find parts. Otherwise, treat that skid steer gently. They weren't built very strong.

This place might have axles.
http://www.hermanmfg.com/axles.htm

I have a Gehl HL3030 that was built by Erickson but I think a notch up from yours.
Mine is quite a bit like a Ford CL30 with Wisconsin V4.
Parts are not a problem but you have to look.
Mine calls for 10-30 oil also and I used SN 10W30 .
Cyl packings on mine are common to other cyl and I purchased locally.
I think you can find packings in McMaster Carr catalog.

I have had a couple of them. Handy little machine. No dealers so you have to get generic parts. The cylinders use seals that are readily available at any shop that does hydraulic work. The axles are the big concern though as they will break. I found a machine shop in south central Mn that made the axles at one time and they still had a few left. Not sure if that is true anymore.
There are two filters that are under the square plates on top of the reservoir tank. One is a hydraulic filter and the other is the hydrostatic filter. You have to remove the plate then reach your hand into the tank and the filters are almost under the oil level. I found that this machine should be kept inside as water seems to permeate around the bolts that hold the top cover of the oil reservoir. When this happens you end up with water in the oil tank.

(quoted from post at 18:50:01 02/03/16) The axles are the big concern though as they will break. I found a machine shop in south central Mn that made the axles at one time and they still had a few left.

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Hey there, I know this is an old thread but figured I would ask anyways:

Do you happen to remember the name of this machine shop?

Thanks in advance.

Hello Joey welcome to YT! It looks to me like he may be referring to Herman Mfg. that Duner WI had a link to in his reply. I will post a live link here that goes to a current web page for them. They are in Wells, MN which is about an hour south of the Twin cities where I live. I know nothing about what their business offers. You are also in luck that jimwv is still posting here looks like his last post was in the Combine and Harvester topic section in late May.
https://www.hermanmfg.com/contact-us

Thanks so much for the reply and the welcome. I am not sure how I missed the business name in the earlier comment. Funny enough, I just got off the phone with the guys at Herman, which I ended up learning about via different comment on different forum.

I am in the market for a small skid steer for occasional stall cleaning and hobby farm putzting. Been looking at 310s/371s, etc. Neighbor of mine has an Erickson LM4D for sale. It is in good shape. My thought process has gone like this:

1. No way, no parts and no service.
2. As I learned more about the machine I thought "the tunnel of a 310/610 looks like a swiss watch compared to the log-splitter simplicity of the Erickson. Maybe the "not as much to break" outweighs the "hard to find parts" thing.
3. Ok, but what if something like an axel breaks?
4. Ok, I guess axels are available from Herman Mfg. And I think there are places that can rebuild the hyd pump if needed in the future.

So that leaves mostly generic and/or fixable parts. Last hangup for me is resale value is a fraction of bobcat. But I am planning on keeping it in perpetuity as my needs are not expected to change.

Sorry for the diary entry, and thanks again for the reply.