Having busted several clevises on my Caroni 1900 recently during an initial lot clearing, I discovered the sticker shock of buying parts from Agri Supply for this implement. Querying here for options resulted in the sad news known to many of you - nobody seems to have found an alternative for the ridiculously priced $7 metric clevis. That didn't sit well with me...
I may have found a solution. I say "may", as I've not actually tried it yet - but once I've used up the last of my four spare metric clevises from Agri Supply, I'll give it a try and report back if nobody else has given it a whirl.
I got the idea from
Island Tractor's post, wherein he gave the info on cheaper blades from Flailmaster.com. I picked up a bunch of those, and they do indeed work fine. However, he also mentioned an SAE clevis - Flailmaster part #M-100761. This clevis is too wide to fit between the ears of the Caroni drum. However...I was able to easily tweak it to fit. Pic:
I simply took one of the M10x80mm bolts and a nut, and pressed the SAE clevis together. It deformed as I expected, such that the ears are no longer perfectly parallel - but that doesn't seem to matter. The assembly shown above still moves easily on the stock M10x80mm bolt, swinging back and forth with no interference. The clevis modification takes all of a minute or so.
Some caveats:
- You'll likely want to replace all of your metric clevises if you go this route - not just the broken ones. This SAE clevis is indeed beefier than the metric one, and weighs more. I'd be concerned about proper balance mixing them up.
- The entire assembly is just a tad longer than stock - perhaps 1/8".
Here's a breakdown of current pricing from Agri Supply vs. the sources I used for the entire assembly:
Agri Supply
Clevis: 6.99
2 x Blades@ 3.49: 6.98
M10x80mm Bolt: 3.49
M10 Nylock nut: 1.49
Total: $18.95
Elsewhere
Clevis M-100761: $2.80 (flailmaster.com)
2 x M-108381 blades@$1.54: 3.08 (flailmaster.com)
M10x80mm Bolt: 0.46 (nutty.com)
M10 Nylock nut: 0.13 (nutty.com)
Total: $6.47
Yup...almost 1/3 the price. And, based on the sturdier appearance of the SAE clevis - my guess is, the cheaper assembly will hold up to more abuse.
Again - untested, but looks promising.