JCB 538-60
- Thread starter DCM
- Start date
Like you said before, you can see it most when there is nowt on, or a light attachment. What do you think of the cab now?
You would know if you had a twitch! Ours does it when you crowd the headstock. The headstock can move up to 25mm in a sideways movement and you can see/feel the boom do the same.Gotta ask what are you doing to notice this twitch ?
Ours is very rarely moving slow enough to see a little movement like that or is it just me that's not looking for it ?
Lakesdigger
Member
Are you deadending the bucket ram to get the twitch or at least crowding or dumping to the limit?
The twitch can occur in any position of the headstock. It will only do it when crowding down/away from the machine, again it does not matter at what position the headstock is at.
Ah, don't worry. Think mine was a Friday afternoon machine after a heavy night in the pub on Thursday. Now mine is home and working, I like it. Goes well, and awesome visibility. quick hydraulics. Health to wear with your new machine.
I am not convinced ours is a shim problem. I think it may be trapped pressure somewhere that then somehow gets released when you use the crowd and the compensation rams do something funny. Possibly linked to the boom suspension??? As @DCM mentioned the more weight you have on the front the less noticeable it becomes.
They are good machines. Which gearbox did you go for?
It's just a Agri super 6 speed ..Third secondhand JCB gradually getting newer .This one has 500 hours warranty still on it .
Lakesdigger
Member
There's a point when crowding headstock where weight transfer on compensation ram changes almost like a balance point you pass through. Depending on tolerances
this can give the twitch to a greater or lesser extent. Is it right or wrong depends how bad it is i guess. I suppose its a quirk of the compensation ram setup.
ACEngineering
Member
- Location
- Oxon
The comp ram will always twitch cause the oil in the tilt circuit has to build up enough pressure to open the lock out valve on the tilt ram this is typically around 110bar. Will twitch worse when you dead end the tilt ram, its how almost all of them are designed and your not going to change it. Wear to the pivots or lack of shims will make it seem worse.
Machines with twin rams either side of the boom like a TM for example wont have any sideways thrust at all as the pressure on both sides of the boom is equal, machines with a comp ram mounted in the centre line of the boom wont do have sideways thrust unless its slight off centre or rear pivot not centre to boom etc. All machines with a single ram on the side of boom will twitch sideways to some extent, manitou not too bad cause the width of the boom pivot on the 634 and 735 etc is double that of a JCB but the still do it a little bit, Matbro TS270 and 280 were quite bad for it as was the TR250 machines if there was play on the main boom pivot. Schaffer telehandlers were awful from new! the whole chassis flexed too, had the importer at the time come over from Ireland to look at one i sold along with the uk sales rep, we decided that was how it was and nothing could be done, schaffer put in writing that the chassis would be covered by free extended warranty and customer was happy ish, it was all okay, it flexed a lot around the boom pivot and had loads of sideways twitching/thrust especially when it got some play in the main boom pivot pins BUT its 13 years old now and over 10k hours and its still holding together
The only machines that i know of which dont do it yet have a comp ram off set is the manitou MLA and the redrock telehandlers, the reason for this is because they put the comp ram protection valves on the comp ram itself rather than on the tilt spool slice, this mostly prevents the oil taking the easy route to the self leveling ram before opening the 110bar lock out valve on the tilt ram.
Machines with twin rams either side of the boom like a TM for example wont have any sideways thrust at all as the pressure on both sides of the boom is equal, machines with a comp ram mounted in the centre line of the boom wont do have sideways thrust unless its slight off centre or rear pivot not centre to boom etc. All machines with a single ram on the side of boom will twitch sideways to some extent, manitou not too bad cause the width of the boom pivot on the 634 and 735 etc is double that of a JCB but the still do it a little bit, Matbro TS270 and 280 were quite bad for it as was the TR250 machines if there was play on the main boom pivot. Schaffer telehandlers were awful from new! the whole chassis flexed too, had the importer at the time come over from Ireland to look at one i sold along with the uk sales rep, we decided that was how it was and nothing could be done, schaffer put in writing that the chassis would be covered by free extended warranty and customer was happy ish, it was all okay, it flexed a lot around the boom pivot and had loads of sideways twitching/thrust especially when it got some play in the main boom pivot pins BUT its 13 years old now and over 10k hours and its still holding together
The only machines that i know of which dont do it yet have a comp ram off set is the manitou MLA and the redrock telehandlers, the reason for this is because they put the comp ram protection valves on the comp ram itself rather than on the tilt spool slice, this mostly prevents the oil taking the easy route to the self leveling ram before opening the 110bar lock out valve on the tilt ram.
- Location
- northumberland
Do any of your problem 538s make a squealing/high pitched noise every now n then when working it quite hard, almost like a hydraulic pump/motor topping out and releasing pressure, doesn’t stop anything working but just makes an annoying noise 
haven’t noticed any of the above twitching problems in our 600hrs of use yet tho
haven’t noticed any of the above twitching problems in our 600hrs of use yet thoDon't ask because this thread is turning into equivalent of a JD bashing thread !Do any of your problem 538s make a squealing/high pitched noise every now n then when working it quite hard, almost like a hydraulic pump/motor topping out and releasing pressure, doesn’t stop anything working but just makes an annoying noise
Not that I've noticed can't say that I've been working it hard thoDo any of your problem 538s make a squealing/high pitched noise every now n then when working it quite hard, almost like a hydraulic pump/motor topping out and releasing pressure, doesn’t stop anything working but just makes an annoying noise
Niteforce
Member
- Location
- East Yorks
Reading this thread with interest as i'm currently looking at updating our 08 536/70 xtra . this machine has been brilliant and am a bit reluctant to update to a new machine of any brand and be disappointed . Have tried a new 542/70 dual tech and wasn't impressed with the lift capacity . Referring to the boom issue in this thread i noticed that the new booms are upside down now compared to our machine .Is this a new thing ?Also any one else notice a drop in lift capacity on new models ??