pclausen
Veteran Member
I was driving down a blacktop road and then I hit a transition to gravel and there was a little bump (I have driven across this transition dozens of times with various implements). This time I happened to have my stump grinder attached. I was going maybe 10 mph.
Here's what happened to the top link:
Not sure if you can make out the letters, but is was a forged eye.
The stump grinder dropped to the ground and was coasting on the cutting wheel until I came to a stop to investigate what happened. After pulling over, I walked back to the shop and got my manually adjustable top link and was back in business and the stump grinder still works fine. Whew.
If I had had my 2200 lbs chipper mounted on the back when it let go going down the road at speed, that could have been really bad.
Was this likely due to metal fatigue of some sort, and would it be likely to happen again if I replace with the exact same make hydraulic top link?
Here's what happened to the top link:
Not sure if you can make out the letters, but is was a forged eye.
The stump grinder dropped to the ground and was coasting on the cutting wheel until I came to a stop to investigate what happened. After pulling over, I walked back to the shop and got my manually adjustable top link and was back in business and the stump grinder still works fine. Whew.
If I had had my 2200 lbs chipper mounted on the back when it let go going down the road at speed, that could have been really bad.
Was this likely due to metal fatigue of some sort, and would it be likely to happen again if I replace with the exact same make hydraulic top link?