[cornerstone]

Originally Posted by Killer Bee

yes Larry, OE batteries are often the best choice and almost never a bad choice.. even though we have to accept low bid most of the time we do specify OE or specific aftermarket like Odyssey or Trojan for certain applications where replacing house label east penn batteries every 6 months hinders our operations.. so yes, that's sound advice to buy OE unless you have specific personal knowledge or experience otherwise..

I actually have decent luck personally with interstate and costco warranty is solid for the price point but I have seen other brands perform longer.. I'll give any wet cell battery a gold star if lives past the 5 years standard expectancy.. costco is just a no hassle go-to for me, I replaced 7 12v batteries this year, 3 in one shot in indep, mo last month.. and none of them are making me any money

and speaking of wet cells, make sure your machine's charging system is set up to maintain an AGM if you decide to go that route.. AGM batteries perform as advertised if kept at the design voltages..


indeed Brian, that is a nice looking machine all cleaned up, I like it! keep it clean, lube and inspect daily, operate it within its design limits, and it'll give you many years of reliable service..

I also highly recommend going through the machine tip to tip and replace all fluids and filters with OE brand everything regardless of when it was claimed to have been done last.. we had our 886 hydraulic drive replaced a couple years ago at a VERY reliable and trustworthy local shop.. well, not 5 minutes after delivery and the driver was out of sight, boom, no hydro.. turns out they forgot to replace the filter and clean the screen everyone makes mistakes and all was forgiven when they immediately corrected the issue the next day on site.. point is, do it yourself or use your own known trustworthy mechanic if some of the maintenance is out of your wheelhouse..

speaking of which, I highly recommend a good cordless grease gun.. I put these in all of my shops and the guys love them and more likely to use them

grease or rather the lack there of can be the demise of any heavy machine and guaranteed expensive repairs to follow.. can't express this enough to operators and field mechanics, grease, grease, and grease.. not globs hanging off of every pin once a year but proper amounts daily and a good purge at PM time, flush that old stuff out and verify completely flooded.. your machine will thank you

www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4xj5-L4mdM

That's a lot of great info Killer Bee! Thank you.

Currently it has a group 24 auto battery in it and it must be outgunned. The battery box on the left side looks like it could hold a couple of group 31's. I used the hoe for a couple hours digging up a 30" oak stump and just as I was filling the hole back up the alternator light came on. I parked it in the shade, shut it off, and tried to restart it. It cranked slow and didn't fire. Before I left for work I removed it and put it on the trickle charger. I'll throw it back in and test the alt. output after its running again.

It came with a manual so I'll give that a good read and make sure not to miss any lube points. I'll make a list of fluid amounts required and get them bought. I know it's not gonna be like changing the oil on anything else I own that's for sure... I think I saw somewhere it takes 21 gallons of hydraulic fluid! I just check on the filter combo pack and that's $170. That battery powered grease gun sure is cool, and if I end up using this machine as much as I'd like to, it may be a sound investment. I found that particular gun for $232. At this point I'm in it at 14k, so even if I spend another 600 or so on initial maintenance I still think I did pretty well.