Need help with a Hydro-Ax

[Virginia Farmer]

Yesterday I went and looked at a Hydro-Ax 311B, 1986 vintage. Have never seen one in person before, started cutting logs with a single horse, then moved up to a JD540 skidder and now would like to mechanize some of my work. The owner said he bought it from Ritchie Brothers auction 8 months ago and at first they "cut a few pines" with the machine then it turned into his "brother drove it around a bit". The machine has a shear head on it and I could not get the main lift arms to lower under power nor could I get the shear or accumulator arms to function. The arms would lift fine, the shear would tilt up and down just fine and the main arms would gravity down when the machine was off. I noticed a 3/4", maybe 7/8" hydraulic port on the shear, sort of a junction box, well one had a hose and the other was capped. There was a hydraulic line coming off the lift boom that was capped as well, common sense tells me these two should be connected?? There also was a 1/2" hose and port that were capped and not connected either. So my gut tells me this machine has not cut any pines since it landed at the sellers place, but I don't know how these are supposed to be hooked up for sure. Can anybody tell me if I am right with my thinking on these lines? The machine has a fresh coat of cheap paint so I suspect the shear was removed for the paint job based on the new, unpainted bolt heads around the top of the junction box.

Second question, what do the button controls on the joystick normally do? There was a rocker switch on the top of the stick and a push button on the front of the stick. I also noticed a two wire, low voltage, line zip tied to the hydraulic line up by the end of the main lift arm, I am guessing that ties into a hot saw head tach?

I have a Kohering Waterous hot saw head I would like to put onto a machine and was trying to see if this one would work. I appreciate any input.

 

[redprospector]

I've got a 311C. I don't know too much about it, but I'll try to get some pictures of how the hoses are hooked up. Hopefully they are the same.

The biggest red flag that flew in my face was the owner saying that he cut some pines, and then it turned into his brother drove it around a bit. If a man will lie to sell you a piece of equipment, what will he not lie to you about? Personally, that would be a deal killer to me.



Andy

 

[Virginia Farmer]

Thanks Andy, I appreciate any help, I agree with you on the lack of honesty. In the ad he said he was "finished cutting his wood", when I got there he told me he sold the stumpage to a contractor instead and they were going to start in a few weeks. I told him as far as I was concerned from what I observed the machine is not functional and the price would have to reflect that, now I need to figure out what one would need to do to make it functional.
Thanks again.

Jim

 

[redprospector]

Ok, after looking at your description the 2 machines may not be configured the same. But here are a few pictures anyway. I hope you can make heads or tails of them.

This is the tag on the shear. They could be different.


There are 2 blocks, one on each side of the shear.



This is where the lines come out (up by the cab). One large line, and one smaller line go down each arm (I didn't think to take note of where the other 2 lines went).



Andy

 

[redprospector]

There's another block up by the bunching arm.


A view from the top (as if that would help).


My joy stick only has 1 switch, it controls the bunching arm. There are 2 pedals on the left of the floor that operate the shear, and the main arm.


There were no ports blocked, or plugged on the shear head or the machine. There was 1...maybe #10 JIC that didn't have anything connected where the lines come out up by the cab. I'm going to have to look into that.

Did I mention that I know where you could buy a pretty nice 311c worth the money?

Andy