TheTreeAmigos
ArboristSite Lurker
I have a 2007 Vermeer 1800xl with the 170hp Cummins option. Bought it a couple months ago with about 3300 hours. Ran great for about the last 30 hours. Started to notice that I could very slightly hear the turbo during high idle. Really went down hill the last couple weeks. Ran great one day and left me hanging the next day. Couple saturdays ago it ran almost perfect. Heard it bog down on a couple branches that caught our attention but finished the job no problem. The next day, Sunday, I transported it from the yard to the clients house a couple miles away and it started to die down on the first few branches. Had to call it a day after about 15 minutes. While it was at high idle, I could hear the turbo kicking in and out. But when introduced to a load, it was dunzo. Brings it gradually down from high idle to low idle where it would maintain a steady low idle, while still set on the rabbit setting. It does try to put up a fight and get back on top but continues to head down.
This is where it begins to get frustrating. I took it to the mechanic shop on the following Monday and it performed almost flawlessly. I could hear the turbo playing around a little bit on high idle in front of the mechanic and he plugged into the Cummins port and it read -70 fuel pressure. They kept it for a few days and ran it periodically with and without chipping and it ran perfectly. I even came over with a trailer full of logs and really put it to the test and it ran as good as it ever has. I left from there and went to a customers house that was willing to be my guinea pig and it only chipped a couple branches and died down on me again. Talk about steamed. I took it to a friends house who is much more mechanical savvy than me to show him the issue and guess what, it ran like a scalded gorilla making a liar out of me once again. My buddy also has an 1800 and said the last two times it gave him issues he had to rebuild the turbo one time and drain and clean his fuel tank the other time. I was clever enough to capture video of it behaving improper and showed it to the mechanic shop where they all agreed it was starving for fuel. They at least made me feel better that it wasn’t the fuel pump because of the way it works really well and then dies sometimes. They said if it were an injector or fuel pump it would just go down and not come back up. Had a look in the tank and it looks relatively clean but there is some rusty scale on the walls. Going to pull the tank tomorrow and replace the battery to see if I get lucky again. I did cut my filters open yesterday and they were relatively clean as well. Definitely not plugged up. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. This machine seems to only like to go down on me when there are paying customers involved.
Also, forgot to mention that when I take the gas cap off, most of the time it takes a deep breath of air. Does anybody know if that is typical or if maybe my cap is not venting like it should. I thought about that shortly after it started goofing up yesterday. I was hoping that while my friend was looking at it yesterday, I would be able to mimic the problem and remove the gas cap to see if that was the Issue, but of course it ran flawlessly in front of him and has ever since. I will definitely be checking it the next time it gives me trouble. Included are a couple videos from different days of it running poorly and going down.
This is where it begins to get frustrating. I took it to the mechanic shop on the following Monday and it performed almost flawlessly. I could hear the turbo playing around a little bit on high idle in front of the mechanic and he plugged into the Cummins port and it read -70 fuel pressure. They kept it for a few days and ran it periodically with and without chipping and it ran perfectly. I even came over with a trailer full of logs and really put it to the test and it ran as good as it ever has. I left from there and went to a customers house that was willing to be my guinea pig and it only chipped a couple branches and died down on me again. Talk about steamed. I took it to a friends house who is much more mechanical savvy than me to show him the issue and guess what, it ran like a scalded gorilla making a liar out of me once again. My buddy also has an 1800 and said the last two times it gave him issues he had to rebuild the turbo one time and drain and clean his fuel tank the other time. I was clever enough to capture video of it behaving improper and showed it to the mechanic shop where they all agreed it was starving for fuel. They at least made me feel better that it wasn’t the fuel pump because of the way it works really well and then dies sometimes. They said if it were an injector or fuel pump it would just go down and not come back up. Had a look in the tank and it looks relatively clean but there is some rusty scale on the walls. Going to pull the tank tomorrow and replace the battery to see if I get lucky again. I did cut my filters open yesterday and they were relatively clean as well. Definitely not plugged up. Any insight would be greatly appreciated. This machine seems to only like to go down on me when there are paying customers involved.
Also, forgot to mention that when I take the gas cap off, most of the time it takes a deep breath of air. Does anybody know if that is typical or if maybe my cap is not venting like it should. I thought about that shortly after it started goofing up yesterday. I was hoping that while my friend was looking at it yesterday, I would be able to mimic the problem and remove the gas cap to see if that was the Issue, but of course it ran flawlessly in front of him and has ever since. I will definitely be checking it the next time it gives me trouble. Included are a couple videos from different days of it running poorly and going down.
