Steve, the very nice sales guy from Poston, came up a second time to let me try the 2450 w/remote. The previous reported problems were fixed, sort of. More on that in a minute. We cranked it up and headed to the first stump. nice travel speed. Adjusted knob for nice slow creep speed needed for grinding, and nice slow swing speed. Start cutting and power is great, however 2 rather annoying characteristics show up. As soon as I moved the machine ahead a couple of times to advance on the stump, the wheels quite moving the machine. It just stalls against a small pile of chips that had formed behind the wheels. To get it to move, i had to adjust the speed knob for faster travel. Now it moves, but it moves to fast into the stump and stalls the machine. I back off the knob slightly and machine travel stalls. This does not seem right. with a lot of constant stopping to adjust speed, we continue the cutting and machine does have plenty of power.
Next problem involves the other adjustment knob that slows the swing. At full speed, the swing slams the cutter into the stump, stalling the machine. This is not good for the belts and bearings, so the knob should slow the swing, and it does. Nice slow swing to the left, but wow, it is much too fast going to the right. Ok, slow the swing to the right, Now, swing totally stalls going the other way, it just stops swinging. There seems to be no way to even the swing speed from one side to the other. This is not good, but I learn to live with it. We did grind 4 good size stumps, but working the controls was a real chore.
One other feature on the remote that seems like a good idea, at first, is a control the allows you to set how much the cutter drops down each time you bump the control switch for the raise/ lower feature. It is actually very annoying, as you can not overide it. So, every time you want to change the cut height while cutting, it only allows the exact amount of lowering each bump of the switch. I want total control of this feature and do not want the machine to limit me to the exact same inches of drop each time I hit the switch, as stump conditions often vary with each pass of the cutter wheel.
One other feature this machine lacks, is a temp. gauge. I feel it is important to moniter the engine temp constantly in our hot summer weather conditions.
Ok, I still like the way it cuts and the design. I can not live with the quirks of the hydraulics. The salesman checked and says the travel will stall out in slower speeds, and the swing will vary from one direction to the other in the slower cutting settings. This rules out the remote control model for me. However, I am actually leaning toward the lever sontrol model.
So, salesman is going to bring out a 2450 with lever control for me to try. It has a big block gas engine, but that is ok, as I already know that the 44hp performs well. I need to see if the levers allow for more precise control of the various functions.
All this may make me sound picky. however, if I am going to invest in a $30,000 machine, I want it to operate exactly as I expect, and I expect a lot for that amount of money.
I can not stress enough how good the salesman, Steve, has been to work with. I like the folks at Poston, and I hope the 2450 lever control does not have the hydraulic quirks that the remote has. Hoping the levers allow for feathering out the flow of the hydraulics. We will see, probably on Friday, and I will report back.
Jeff
