[SteveKickert]

I had an interesting experience today. I was mowing the lawn and all of a sudden the tractor started beeping and the dash says stop, engine overheat. I looked at the temperature gage and it was just touching the red. It is 91 here today and very humid. I was a bit surprised as IWould have thought that the tractor could have stayed cool enough in 91°. I got out and looked and there was not much grass on the front of the tractor. So, I shut it down and let it sit.

Anybody have an experience like this?

 

[SRG]

Did you happen to check your coolant level at the overflow/expansion tank?

Does your machine have a screen that you can pull up from in front of the radiator?

Are you able to blow compressed air of the radiator fins to try and clear dirt off of it?

 

[johncanfield]

You are mowing a lawn with a tractor?

 

[Fercik]

We had this problem quite often with 3045R while mowing thick grass during summer. The usual culprit was air filter.

 

[JDLTG]

If your grill screen is not plugged with grass, then you probably have buildup between the hydro cooler and the radiator. You might be able to rinse it out with water from the fan side by removing the side panels.

Here’s another thread that may help you.

Clean 3039R radiator

I had the hood open and side panels off on my 3039R to blow out what I could in front of the rad/oil cooler/condensor. My brother came over and said what are these? There are latches for the grille that the lower front of the side panels cover. With the grille lifted you can clean between the...

www.greentractortalk.com

 

[myrna]

Not mentioned yet, what gear range were you in and how fast were you mowing? My 1025R will run hot if I mow tall grass in high range. The fix is to mow in low range and slow down.
Of course you have to check and clean the filter screen and the hood area where the air enters to the radiator. I carry a paint brush in my tool box to clean the screens. When I mow, I always keep a sharp eye on the temperature gauge to prevent the tractor from getting that hot. When the gauge starts raising, that is the time to stop and clean the screens before it gets overheated.,

 

[Vern3039r]

@SteveKickert Before I was mowing with my MX5 and the temp gage was almost in the red, I had to keep turning off the a/c to keep it out of the red. JDLTG linked my post about finding the latches to remove the grill. When I did that the lower part of the radiator (can't see from the top) was coated/covered in dust and I couldn't see the fins. One of the pics in the post you can see my brother with an air nozzle blowing it out.

Check your overflow tank just in case like SRG said.

For others that don't have a 3R tractor there is no screen in front of the radiator you can pull out to clean.

After cleaning it I haven't had it get near the red on the gage. Earlier in this week I was raking hay and straw for a couple of days and the a/c was on the whole time. It was in the 80s with high humidity and I never got hot in the cab, I would adjust the vents to blow on me or away if I wanted to be cooler or not.

@myrna I don't think the range he was mowing in would cause his tractor to overheat, it could cause it to slow down or stall but not over heat. I was pulled two kicker wagons with my 3039R in B range at about 8mph, the wagons had about 135 bales of straw each. Not sure what the wagons and straw weighed (a lot) but I could have pulled in C a little faster if the dirt road wasn't so rough.

 

[jasper04]

You are mowing a lawn with a tractor?

Did it for a while with my 4720 and 72D MMM. Used too much fuel (but the AC was nice) Then bought a bat wing finish mower. Bought a 2032R mainly to cut lawn, and have another loader.

Allen.

 

[ddinham]

You are mowing a lawn with a tractor?

I mow my lawn all the time with my 4066R and 110 inch finish mower. Much faster and definitely cooler with the a/c.

Dave

 

[johncanfield]

You guys must have turf tires, I've got ag tires on my 4720. I've used my ZTrack to mow a couple of acres of pasture when I'm too lazy to hook up the MX6 shredder.

 

[quackaddict]

So, I shut it down and let it sit.

When a diesel overheats its best to remove the load and let the machine run at fast idle. Shutting the engine off can result in the block temps increasing as you are removing the cooling. You want to remove the cause of the heat (PTO Load) but keep the coolant flowing to cool things.

I would echo what other people are saying, I would bet there is material or dirt in the radiators.

 

[ddinham]

R4 tires. Best combo as I use it for many other things too. Most of the summer, my 110 inch RFM is on the tractor, which at 1500#, gives me more ballast than I need. Then, I might need to drop it and hook up the Rhino 3pt 10ft brush hog, or any of several other rear attachments as listed in my signature line. Nearly everything has been modified to fit my iMatch if it does not already fit.

Dave

 

[jasper04]

You guys must have turf tires, I've got ag tires on my 4720. I've used my ZTrack to mow a couple of acres of pasture when I'm too lazy to hook up the MX6 shredder.

R4's, Turfs, and working on a set of Nokians. Been watching a set of R1's too. Iwant to end up with just the Nokians, and R1's.

Allen.

 

[Vern3039r]

Is this a post on how to help a guy with a tractor that overheated or is it about mowing your lawn with a tractor?

@SteveKickert Did you find out what caused your 3046R to overheat?

 

[sty of the hog]

The screen doesn't catch everything. I had that same issue. I found my radiator plunged with gunk. It's very dusty here. Got the hose after it and all is well.

Sent from my SM-G998U1 using Tapatalk

 

[Fastrunner08]

100% need to blow out the radiator. They tend to build up dust/debris between the radiator and the hydro/oil coolers. When I am doing heavy brush-hogging it needs to be blown out about every 2 hours to keep it from over heating. They didn't put a good screen system on these to catch that stuff, but an air compressor and blower attachment goes along way.

 

[SteveKickert]

Well, I figured it out, or better yet several of you called it correctly. I had an embarrassing amount of buildup between all the radiators. I also would like to thank "quackaddict" for the advice on what to do when it is overheating. I should have known better about both these things.
It is a fairly new tractor (100 hours) and even newer to me. So, I suspect that it came with a decent build-up prior to my purchasing it.
One thing that I am realizing very quickly is that this is not a garden tractor and requires some regular care/maintenance. I have a 425 that is like the energizer bunny. It is a 1996 model and is still running strong.

Everyone, thank you again for all the feedback.

 

[MLW]

Yes the debris buildup on all three or four of the heat echangers can be a issue. My 3046 with about 1900 hours was overheating and when that happens the AC out put drops off. Cleaning it out requires removal of the side panels and front grill to gain access. I don’t think compressed air from the front is the way to clean rhe debris. I made a tube using 1/4” copper tube bent is a sharp 90 degree connected to a garden hose nozzel to force the dirt foward. This works to get around the fan blade and also goes in between the radiator and the AC heat exchanger. The water flow directed foward fron the AC exchanger willl also cleane the next two coolers at he sane time.attached is a photo of th improvised cleaning wand.

 

[MLW]

The photo.

 

[Kennyd]

The photo.

Nope...don't see it.