I worked the machine for about an hour or so - dug out a tree and then started grading a pad for a barn. I headed down the hill to get a load of fill dirt, shifted gear to get there a little faster. Went to dig into the dirt pile and shifted into a lower gear. Suddenly, I had a major power loss. Pedal floored, the engine maxed out at 1650RPM, and dropped quickly to 1600. Any ideas where to start looking for the problem?
I will ask the obvious.... fuel in the tank? If there is a fuel/water separator, is it packed up with dirt? Fuel filter clogged? Hydraulic fluid reservoir tank full?
Looks like the fuel filter was clogged. Replaced it this morning and it's been running fine.
If I had to guess, going fast jarred a lot of the crud in the tank loose and then got sucked up into the fuel system.