A friend has a burned up Gehl 5640 that needs to be moved around and eventually loaded on to my deck over trailer. I don't know much about the machine and it's not local so I am unable to look at it ahead of time prior to going to load it up. Do the 5640's have a built in release for the drive system or is my best bet to pull the drive chains off or the axles out of it?
If it has oil pressure release for the brakes, which may look like a 1/4" Aeroquip hose oil line going into the top of the chaincases, one of which will have a tee, you can release the brakes in one of two ways: 1) Hook up a portable compressed air tank with about 60 psig in it, remove the oil supply line at the tee, connect the air tank and turn on the air. This should release the brakes. 2) Where the oil lines go into the chaincase, remove the lines and insert a 1/8" rod (I used brazing rod) down to where it bottoms out, add 1/4" to the top of the rod and cut it there. Then you will need a threaded cap to screw down over the fitting and push the rod against the pawl to release the brake. Do this on both sides. In either case you may have to rock the machine back and forth to remove any pressure being applied to the brake discs Disclaimer: These work on my Mustang, and Mustangs are/were made by Gehl, so maybe it won't work for you.
I appreciate the help, hopefully one of those two ideas works. Those two ideas sound a lot less involved then some other ways of making it move/dragging it
Do you have to free wheel it? You could call a local towing company to bring over a wrecker and lift it on your trailer.
There is no local towing companies where it's sitting, heck even to get to McDonalds it's a 20 mile drive. It's farm country at it's finest. I have a 12k winch on my trailer along with a Gehl 7800 and a Bobcat 864 where the 5640 is sitting to help with loading. Getting it on isn't the problem, getting it off and moving it around once it's off my trailer is where free wheeling it around would be nice. There is a Case 1845c and I have a Tak TL230 to get it off the trailer with but both of those would get a work out moving the 5640 around if it has to be slid.