First time out......

[KRRZ350]

OK, so me and my friend went 1/2's on a MaxIv, and it finally arrived from Iowa yesterday, so we loaded it up on the trailer & drove out to some farmlands where everybody goes 'wheelin.

We unload it, I hope in the driverseat, and two other people hop in the back, we all throw the seatbelts on and take off down a nasty little road with farmland all around......

....As we are driving my buddy in the back says "Hey, before you try to go through anything crazy you have to let me out so I can get it on video"......

.....2 minutes later, we start passing through this area that had all these giant compost heaps in these big cement buinkers, some of them contained a pretty large amount of trash and rubbish, definitly some type of refuse from a landfill or something.....

.....And then, BAM, there it is! The "crazy **** that we just had to bomb this thing through" and see what it was capable of! It didn't look like anything out of the ordinary, just a giant mud puddle with some water, it was maybe 100' long with more road on the other side.... My freind hops out, runs along side a hill next to it, and breaks out his camera phone and starts recording, me and my friend (other owner) start going, full steam ahead.

Well we bombed into it full steam, and sure enough got a little stuck about 5 feet in....

About three seconds go by before we realized what we just did........

The water....turns out it wasn't water, that mud, turns out was not dirt......... It was the most disgusting, vile, fowl smelling, disgusting raw sewage I've ever smelled in my life!

Yup, that's right, here we are, 5 minutes into the first ride on this thing.... STUCK IN A LAKE OF LANDFILL SLUDGE! Pretend you took the water from the bottom of your trash barrel, but had enough to form a 100' by 8' puddle..... that's pretty much what we drove into.

So here I am, gagging, stuck, freaking out with the controls (Which at the time I was still new to), and my buddy is on a hill videotaping it all laughing his ass off.

Somehow I got it turned around and out without having to get out into that crap, but man, I was breathing into my hoodie except when I would come close to vomiting, it was insane.

I have some issues/questions about the machine as well (97 max4 w/vg 18), something was not right with it, but we need to fix some other stuff as well so it could be that. All in all I had THE MOST FUN I'VE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE! Was BETTER than anything, hands down. By the end of the day it was 3 wheel drive though. The right rear axle ate it's inboard bearing for lunch, which threw the middle/front chain off. We also got a flat with the middle left tire, which may have had something to do with why at a few points the left was not operating properly AT ALL and then would be fine, but I honestly think something more than the tire was going on, maybe something in the T20, because it was also having massive problems in reverse on the left side (Would click, not engage properly, etc)

I believe the linkage needs to be adjusted as well, in order to engage the tires in reverse you have to pull back on the sticks REALLY hard, and even then the left seems to have some difficulty (Sometimes grinds & doesn't go on the left side, and you can feel the sticks 'popping out' when it does so)

Also, was a little bummed out that the seller didn't mention the blue smoke on start-up, it's pretty excessive imho, and I am an auto shop owner who has ripped apart motors on several late model high tech sports cars for people that lived 10 hours away so I know my **** and then some, just would have liked to had a heads up that it needs to be re-ringed, but whatever, it is what it is.

Any ideas on the issues with reverse and the left side? I'll probably start a thread in the Max section once we rip the machine apart and figure out exactly whats bad for bearings and seals, asides from the one that grenaded, lol.

Sorry for such a long post, sure you guys know how it is after your first time And yes, I will get all the videos from my friend ASAP, not that the video does it justice, but you can see me just stop and start gagging and dryheaving 5 seconds into the "mud"

Kevin

[Roger S]

My group found a stinky hole once, made by cattle. It was bad, to put it mildly. You'll find everything you need here, in the max or engine section. If you get around to the engine, there's aftermarket goodies for the vanguard.

[6X6]

Hey, on the bright side, you didn't do the NewB thing and forget the drain plugs.
Those Briggs seem to run forever even if they are worn and smoky. If one side has issues going into gear, check the linkage, if one side is bent or more worn, it may not quite get the diamond shaped shifter all the way forward and/or reverse. If the linkage is good, you can take the shifter diamond out (Easy, see the T-20 How to article if you want but it's simple) and look at the shift pin on the bottom of it. If it's badly worn, it may prevent total engagement and cause skipping/popping out of gear. There's a photo here somewhere but I don't know where. But it's a hardened dowel pin, if it's not round, it's worn.

[LarryW]

Hello Kevin,
Congrats on your half of the new toy!

I love 6x6 stories, thanks! Sorry it was a stinky one, lol. But it could of happen to any of us. You will soon learn that most low swamp land has some pretty foul smells. Swamp gas or something. Mainly stagnant water holes with lots of rotting vegetation. Just ignore the smell and dont get any one you. Try to drive in a cleaner pond to rinse the crap off before going home and washing it.

I would follow 6x6,s advise. Making sure the linkage is adjusted correctly and go from there.

[TerryA]

Hey Kevin, This is one funny story! Most of us wouldn't have the nerve to tell it but I appreciate it. I can see myself doing something like that a few years ago. I'm sure you gained something positive from your experience.
Terry

[racerone3]

trust me... it doesn't get much better with time. just yesterday i was hit with a case of the stupids! i hooked the garden trailer to my wife's max and headed to the farm down the road to get a load of manure. somewhere in the course of hooking up the trailer, it dawned on me that i needed to air up the trailer tires. the next time i thought of it, i had 800lb of manure in the trailer and the tires were really flat on the bottom. the max strained a little to pull it over the flat pasture, but when i turned up the hill to the gate it was a no go. i set out on foot for the 2 mile walk home to get an air tank and my 12v pump. got home, filled the tank, but the pump was nowhere to be found. about half way back i began to wonder if the pump was under the tow straps in the back of the max? 4 miles of walking later, i found that the pump was in fact with the max the whole time. once i aired the tires it pulled much better

[mike bar]

[LarryW]

This stuff reminds me of this song! Warning with some language.

[racerone3]

that's one of my favorite songs Larry. it would be fitting, but in the case of yesterdays stupidity, the only ass to kick would have been my own!

[KRRZ350]

haha, I spent a little time on here before so I knew not to forget the drain plugs, but that was the FIRST thing I cussed, because we didn't check, luckily they were there, but I knew better

Also, wish I had given it a once over, the bolts for both rear inner bearing carriers were loose, that's why one grenaded, or at least that's what I'm thinking.

We fixed several issues, cleaned the tub (nightmare, UNREAL, sure some of you know) also got the most PERFECT sized springs at home depot for either side of the shifter linkage, makes it SOOOO much smoother. Bought a new grease gun, grease. Also got some rope caulk

Also found that the upper plunger on the passenger side stays stuck out because the rod (that runs the length) and attaches to the u-channel needs to be tweaked, will get to that tomorrow.

As of right now I have what's left of the original inner bearing, the one I got today is the wrong one, G1104KRRb does NOT fit an inner on a '97 MaxIV HELP ME PLEASE!! it's going to be gorgeous this weekend! Anyone have a bearing part# for me??

Oh also, what's the deal with the throttle on these? (18hp vg)Because I had someone pull the lever WOT But it only opened a touch over 1/2 way at the carb? Were we REALLY running 1/2 throttle yesterday? I can't even imagine what it would be like!

Still waiting on the videos We tried from my house today but no dice (I wrenched on it all day, but it's worth it!)