Just bought a new 2013 Brutus today. It has a top seed of only 20mph on flatr road in high. Maximum rpm is 3500 and barely makes it up hills in low. I was told there is a service bulliten for comand lever replacement horse power control adjustments. Could this fix my problem?
Lack of power and speed
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Sounds like classic command lever problem. Also make sure your hydraulic oil has had time to warm up for best performance.
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I just bought mine a few days ago and as soon as I got to the farm and went up a hill I noticed this. could not believe the lack of power. of course this was completely unnoticeable at the dealer test drive as there were no hills. this was a horrible disappointment as the main reason I went for the diesel HST was the power. my closest Polaris dealer is a hour away and the dealer I bought the machine from is 4 hours away. is there a way to fix this myself without hauling to a dealer? or at least see if it is supposedly set properly now?
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Anybody have a copy of the Service Bulletin?
I do not think this is a DIY-able fix, but I haven't seen the official service bulletin. The old thread has a picture of the stock command lever.
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I contacted the dealer and they ran the vin and said there was no recall on it. he did give me a team tips service bulletin that lays out the procedure to make sure everything is set properly. kinda a lot of run around but nothing major. iv got through the first part already with no issues found. I have to get it on level ground and still check rpms and such at certain speeds and adjust each time to set rpm's. id post the bulletin but of course it is copyrighted and such. not sure I can post it.
i'll be sure and come back with the final results when I get through it all.
i'll be sure and come back with the final results when I get through it all.
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just got through the service bulletin and it made a huge difference. of course it was the last step that seemed to be the issue. the bulletin said it should go at least 8mph in reverse, in high range. mine was doing about 14-15mph. had to adjust the travel control cable quit a bit but got my revers speed down to about 9mph. this made a huge difference in my up hill speed. top end got to 26-27mph or so. also had to go back and adjust the command torsion bolt to bring the rpm's back up just a hair. pretty happy with the results.
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do you have a pic of the new command lever to compare to the one I have? while I am pretty happy with the result of the tune, I still think there is improvement to be had.
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I just bought a brutus myself and it's great for my snow removal business but that's only part of the reason I purchased it....the other was to go into my woods on the logging trails and retrieve firewood and the **** thing is supposed to have a this power and I can't make it up the hills very disappointed. ...I spent 24,000 for a glorified golf cart I don't know what I can do about it but going up hill is impossible
Bushwacker the new command lever looks identical, it is only a 1/16" or so difference. We compared it at the dealer, but it needs replacing and I can't for the life of me figure out why Polaris and Bobcat won't fix them unless someone complains forever about it, because once fixed the machines work great.
Steelersfan, I had the same problem as did many others, it was due to the command lever being manufactured slightly wrong by the company that made them for Bobcat and Polaris. After the command lever is replaced under the free field repair they have to adjust the hydrostatic system. It is a very exact adjustment process, and when done right you will like your Brutus again. My dealer ran my vin # and said mine didn't need the fix! after several months of complaining I printed out several of the forum things talking about the fix for going slow up hills and having no power when mowing. They called there bobcat rep and he said their was a fix, after a couple of weeks wait for the part, they replaced the command lever and adjusted the hydrostatic cables all for free. The 30 mile drive home on the trails was a dream come true. Instead of struggling to do 25 mph, it now did 25 mph effortlessly. The big very steep hill on the way home that I used to do 3 mph up in low, now went 10 mph in low and it didn't struggle. I even did 32 mph on a level part of the trail at full throttle. Search the the forum for more threads like this and print them off and being friendly ask them to fix it, I don't think your local dealer is trying to pull one over on you, from what I've read here most dealers don't know much about the machines and rely on there rep to fill them in.
Please keep us informed about how it goes.
Steelersfan, I had the same problem as did many others, it was due to the command lever being manufactured slightly wrong by the company that made them for Bobcat and Polaris. After the command lever is replaced under the free field repair they have to adjust the hydrostatic system. It is a very exact adjustment process, and when done right you will like your Brutus again. My dealer ran my vin # and said mine didn't need the fix! after several months of complaining I printed out several of the forum things talking about the fix for going slow up hills and having no power when mowing. They called there bobcat rep and he said their was a fix, after a couple of weeks wait for the part, they replaced the command lever and adjusted the hydrostatic cables all for free. The 30 mile drive home on the trails was a dream come true. Instead of struggling to do 25 mph, it now did 25 mph effortlessly. The big very steep hill on the way home that I used to do 3 mph up in low, now went 10 mph in low and it didn't struggle. I even did 32 mph on a level part of the trail at full throttle. Search the the forum for more threads like this and print them off and being friendly ask them to fix it, I don't think your local dealer is trying to pull one over on you, from what I've read here most dealers don't know much about the machines and rely on there rep to fill them in.
Please keep us informed about how it goes.
My Brutus is at the dealer having the command lever replaced. I will be very upset if that doesnt make a major improvement. I hope to pick it up Friday, if I do I will post some feedback. I dont understand how Polaris released this vehicle with such a major performance issue for so many machines.
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just got off the phone for the fourth time with my dealer. they insist that the vin shows no recall and that everything should be fine. I went ahead and ordered the recall kit myself and will have them install it. $48 bucks for the kit and an hour labor. I asked if this solves the problem if they will then treat it as a recall, and they said no. don't suppose anyone knows how to get ahold of Polaris on something like this? whats frustrating is that there doesn't seem to be any way whatsoever of telling which level I already have short of installing a new one. they are just telling me that if it is a 14 model than the computer says it is the new lever.
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got ahold of the dealer where I purchased the machine and they were much more informative. said they had ran into similar issues with other Polaris machines. said he would be happy to put it through the paces if I wanted to bring it in. of course im not in a hurry to drive 4 hours to take it back to him. but, he said to resolve it I would need to ask my dealer to file a "ask Polaris claim", which would accompany a slew of tests the dealer would run. he said there was a good chance that Polaris would still deny the claim for the fix, or may only pay for parts. in which case he said I would have to call Polaris myself with the claim number and "let em have it". the conclusion is that I will just save myself the time and headache and pay the $130 and be done with it. really hoping that brings the machine up to par with what others here are saying they got out of it. it will be several weeks before I can get the machine to the dealer but will repost an update when completed.
Upadate: just got my 2013 Brutus back from the dealer after the command lever was replaced. Initially it did not seem much improved for power or speed. Still had a top speed of 20mph. I told him about the adjustment results people had on this forum. He said it was like all the rest. I told him there is no way i could push snow or do any work with it that way. I let him "play" with it for an hour and he made a big improvement, not great but much better. Top speed is now 25, but it seems to have much more power than before. I have it home and will have torun it a little more to know for sure.
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