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Anyone know JCB telehandlers? Steering problems....

It’s been a long time since I used one of those, I think steering select was a dial to the right side of the steering wheel. I could be off a few years, may have been a three way lever behind the seat. The jcb’s I used like that were always customer provided so I never worked on them. They all seemed to have steering problems and all seemed overly complicated compared to other manufacturers. They had features the others of that time period didn’t but seemed to develop problems sooner. That was mostly on rental stuff that was abused and neglected though.

Somebody mentioned swapping hoses to make it permanent four wheel steer. You could do that for a little while but the front and rear axles don’t stay aligned together. Eventually you’ll end up with catty whompered.

If it’s that good a deal and what you need get it. It’s not that hard to figure out.
 
Oooh ooooh! I know exactly what it is. I had to fix ours at work (and boy what a pain to track down) the steering switch could be bad, the solenoids could be bad, the Centering magnetic pickup could be bad, but the likeliest culprit is the steering control module (inside the dash, behind a little door) about a 5x5 box with a weatherproof plug and six? Wires running to it. You'll have to pull the module number off of it and give it to a jcb parts dealer. That will fix it. They go bad every few years. I tried all the other (cheaper) fixes first.
 
Yotota said:
That looks like a sweet little telehandler. I saw quite a few with buckets too which would be super useful - it could be worth finding a used bucket if you have a need for it.
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I'm probably going to make a skid steer quick attach mount for it so I can run a bucket and a grapple on it. It has aux. hydraulics so low flow attachments will work on it. They aren't really made for digging, but they'll handle a bucket for scooping and transporting stuff like mulch and topsoil.

JD Mark said:
I always wanted one of those small ones, just couldn't justify it.

I already have too much equipment not being fully utilized.
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I've wanted one of these little guys for a long time, but small and cheap ones like this are really hard to come by. I'm kicking myself for not jumping on a smoking deal on a Genie 844 a few years ago.

Plan is to buy this for for under $10k and sell my unnecessarily big Deere 5045 tractor for about $30k since all I really use it for is forklift duty.

71PA_Highboy said:
So what is the reach on this unit?
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Straight out, I think only like 10', and vertical lift of about 16'. Should be ideal for handling logs on the sawmill.

Gbkeith said:
It’s been a long time since I used one of those, I think steering select was a dial to the right side of the steering wheel. I could be off a few years, may have been a three way lever behind the seat. The jcb’s I used like that were always customer provided so I never worked on them. They all seemed to have steering problems and all seemed overly complicated compared to other manufacturers. They had features the others of that time period didn’t but seemed to develop problems sooner. That was mostly on rental stuff that was abused and neglected though.

Somebody mentioned swapping hoses to make it permanent four wheel steer. You could do that for a little while but the front and rear axles don’t stay aligned together. Eventually you’ll end up with catty whompered.

If it’s that good a deal and what you need get it. It’s not that hard to figure out.
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A lot of the ones I've seen for sale were former Sunbelt units. I'm guessing they ditched them when they started acting up. If all else fails, i'm sure i can rig up something to semi-manually operate the valves.

1Sinner said:
Oooh ooooh! I know exactly what it is. I had to fix ours at work (and boy what a pain to track down) the steering switch could be bad, the solenoids could be bad, the Centering magnetic pickup could be bad, but the likeliest culprit is the steering control module (inside the dash, behind a little door) about a 5x5 box with a weatherproof plug and six? Wires running to it. You'll have to pull the module number off of it and give it to a jcb parts dealer. That will fix it. They go bad every few years. I tried all the other (cheaper) fixes first.
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That's reassuring. Most of those parts I've seen online and weren't horribly expensive. Haven't found the module for the 520 yet, but the 525 one is like $150. Looks like if all else fails I could replace the entire extent of the steering electronics for well under a grand.
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Well, looks like I own a basketcase telehandler. Yay me. :laughing:

$8700 delivered to my door. Comparable machines in this condition (that don't have steering problems) go for $15k, minimum. Give it a Ritchie Bros. tune up (i.e.: shitty paint job) and it's a $25-30k machine. So I've got a decent cushion to fuck with it.


Not the prettiest whore, but neither am I. Once I get the steering worked out, I'll do a little cosmetic work on her.
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bgaidan said:
Well, looks like I own a basketcase telehandler. Yay me. :laughing:

$8700 delivered to my door. Comparable machines in this condition (that don't have steering problems) go for $15k, minimum. Give it a Ritchie Bros. tune up (i.e.: shitty paint job) and it's a $25-30k machine. So I've got a decent cushion to fuck with it.


Not the prettiest whore, but neither am I. Once I get the steering worked out, I'll do a little cosmetic work on her.
1710182401193.png

1710182411634.png

1710182420359.png
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Was this the better of the two :lmao:? :flipoff2:
 
ThePanzerFuhrer said:
Was this the better of the two :lmao:? :flipoff2:
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Probably could have lull for about the same price....but I really wanted one of these compact guys. They were both "mechanic's specials". :laughing:

Haul company already called me so it sounds like I may have it by the end of the week.
 
bgaidan said:
Probably could have lull for about the same price....but I really wanted one of these compact guys. They were both "mechanic's specials". :laughing:

Haul company already called me so it sounds like I may have it by the end of the week.
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arse_sidewards said:
Hang some more counterweight off that ass.
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For real. I think they do a better job of weighting the newer ones, but on those if you’re scoped out sort of on the edge of the chart and step out it’ll tilt. Your ass is part of the counterweight.
 
arse_sidewards said:
Hang some more counterweight off that ass.
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Gbkeith said:
For real. I think they do a better job of weighting the newer ones, but on those if you’re scoped out sort of on the edge of the chart and step out it’ll tilt. Your ass is part of the counterweight.
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I could do some type of removable weight.

The good thing about this one is that it weighs right around 10k so I can (safely) haul it on my 16k trailer but there's not a whole lot of headroom...too much more weight and it starts creeping up on CDL level and probably more than I should be putting behind my current rig.


It's also kind of the trade off with the small machines. Shorter wheelbase is nice, but it also means it'll take less to lift those rear tires off the ground. :laughing:

But overall, newer machines are definitely more efficient. You're in the 10-12k+ territory now before you really start seeing outriggers. Seems like all the 6 and 8k machines used to come with them. And one of my requirements is no outriggers.
 
bgaidan said:
Well, looks like I own a basketcase telehandler. Yay me. :laughing:

$8700 delivered to my door. Comparable machines in this condition (that don't have steering problems) go for $15k, minimum. Give it a Ritchie Bros. tune up (i.e.: shitty paint job) and it's a $25-30k machine. So I've got a decent cushion to fuck with it.


Not the prettiest whore, but neither am I. Once I get the steering worked out, I'll do a little cosmetic work on her.
1710182401193.png

1710182411634.png

1710182420359.png
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I buy “mechanic specials” all the time. Good luck with it.
 
WTF? said:
I love a mechanic special as much as the next guy, but buying a mechanic special from a shop filled with mechanics is some next level shit..
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Have you seen how stupid people get around here when business is involved?

I can 100% believe they'd forgo a huge payday for convenience.
 
WTF? said:
I love a mechanic special as much as the next guy, but buying a mechanic special from a shop filled with mechanics is some next level shit..
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I can easily see a shop seeing no return on investment paying one of their mechanics to fix that when they could be billing them out hourly on a customers project. Better off letting someone get it out of the yard and play with it at home.
 
Tin Roof said:
I can easily see a shop seeing no return on investment paying one of their mechanics to fix that when they could be billing them out hourly on a customers project. Better off letting someone get it out of the yard and play with it at home.
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I believe that's what happened here. They primarily deal with warehouse and yard type lifts and took those two telehandlers in on trade. Kid of sounded like high mechanic dropping dead on him and not having a suitable replacement yet left him in a bind and any labor he does have probably goes toward the shit that actually makes him money.

I did a quick search of his company and didn't find any red flags saying they were complete scumbags, so I'm at least a little optimistic that they aren't just dumping a complete basket case on me.
 
IH Man said:
I’ve worked on several telehandlers and other crab steer equipment. That model doesn’t ring a bell, and I’m not recalling any of the specifics of JCB’s steering system from 23 years ago.

Steering type is an electronic selection. (Unless that machine predates that, and it shouldn’t.) It’s nothing a service manual with a wiring diagram can’t fix. This dealers mechanics must all be under 30 if they can’t figure it out. That or idiots.

There are no sensors for “center”. No sensors at all on the steering. Just an electronic valve body to choose the mode, attached to a basic hydrostatic power steering system. Easy peezy.
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There are auto steer options on JLG/CAT machines I would assume others.
If it has steering sensors then its possible they are a problem. We have some problems with the JLG's where they configuration gets corrupt and the ECM thinks its in AUTO even though there are no AUTO components.
 
bgaidan said:
I believe that's what happened here. They primarily deal with warehouse and yard type lifts and took those two telehandlers in on trade. Kid of sounded like high mechanic dropping dead on him and not having a suitable replacement yet left him in a bind and any labor he does have probably goes toward the shit that actually makes him money.

I did a quick search of his company and didn't find any red flags saying they were complete scumbags, so I'm at least a little optimistic that they aren't just dumping a complete basket case on me.
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my comment was mostly joking, but it's also undeniably kinda like you just picked up a busty redhead who drives a green saturn; it could/should be a lot of fun with a tad bit of drama for a little while, but there's an implicitly accepted outside chance you'll get stabbed in your sleep.

i think it's no secret that JCB is about on par with BMW/Audi in terms of their reputation for electrical reliability. And it could easily overwhelm young guys who don't get a thrill out of diagnostics on something less common to their shop bays.
And for home/farm use where downtime isn't terribly costly and the hours between breakdowns won't accumulate rapidly, it could be a great value for your application.
It's always been amazing to me how much value a running telehandler holds even in completely hammered to shit condition.

p.s. Where is this shop located in case someone were interested in the redhead green saturn Lull?:homer::grinpimp:
 
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Tin Roof said:
I can easily see a shop seeing no return on investment paying one of their mechanics to fix that when they could be billing them out hourly on a customers project. Better off letting someone get it out of the yard and play with it at home.
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See, this is exactly what I mean. :flipoff2:

There's a LOT of potential upside if they had fixed them.

How many jobs are you actually gonna forgo by making someone competent spend a day on it (half a day now on diagnosis, half a day later on fix)? Probably less total amount billed than you'll make flipping the machine even with a low effort flip (auction).

Seems like it was worth it until their competent guy croaked and it became a "well this thing is taking up bay space Jimmy Numbers could be using to change brake pads" situation.
 
CarterKraft said:
There are auto steer options on JLG/CAT machines I would assume others.
If it has steering sensors then it’s possible they are a problem. We have some problems with the JLG's where they configuration gets corrupt and the ECM thinks its in AUTO even though there are no AUTO components.
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I’m pretty confident that on the model that is in the discussion, none of that exists.

Why would a telehandler need an auto steer function anyway?
 
IH Man said:
I’m pretty confident that on the model that is in the discussion, none of that exists.

Why would a telehandler need an auto steer function anyway?
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It's for auto centering, not really auto steering.
I think it would be handy if a guy needed to switch between crab and 4wheel or 2 wheel or whatever but completely not needed in practicality.
 
CarterKraft said:
It's for auto centering, not really auto steering.
I think it would be handy if a guy needed to switch between crab and 4wheel or 2 wheel or whatever but completely not needed in practicality.
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Auto center, not auto steer. Gotcha.
 
arse_sidewards said:
See, this is exactly what I mean. :flipoff2:

There's a LOT of potential upside if they had fixed them.

How many jobs are you actually gonna forgo by making someone competent spend a day on it (half a day now on diagnosis, half a day later on fix)? Probably less total amount billed than you'll make flipping the machine even with a low effort flip (auction).

Seems like it was worth it until their competent guy croaked and it became a "well this thing is taking up bay space Jimmy Numbers could be using to change brake pads" situation.
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Again, you should start your own business. It seems you’d be a billionaire. Why haven’t you yet.
 
CarterKraft said:
I was just pointing it out so its a step one check to verify that's not the problem.
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I get it. But again, 2001/05 machine. I’ve worked on newer that didn’t have auto center. I highly doubt this one does.


Two second glance would tell us. Not hard to determine. Still highly skeptical.
 
IH Man said:
I get it. But again, 2001/05 machine. I’ve worked on newer that didn’t have auto center. I highly doubt this one does.


Two second glance would tell us. Not hard to determine. Still highly skeptical.
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I still haven't found much info on this particular machine. I'll likely have to pony up a couple hundred bucks for a bootleg copy of the service manual once I get it in my possession. The little bit I have seen, it looks like it does have a sensor for centering, but nothing auto about. I'm guessing it just feeds a light to tell you its centered and/or tells the computer that it's centered and to engage whatever steer mode you selected.
 
Tin Roof said:
Again, you should start your own business. It seems you’d be a billionaire. Why haven’t you yet.
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We've been over this. If I were doing something that had a much lower pay ceiling working for someone else I'd consider it but as it stands I'd have to be pretty stupid to raise all that capital to start a business just to work 80hr a week for the next dozen years while making about what I'm currently making.
 
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