S373 Beaver sway chain solution

[redalrt]

I was bush hogging the property with my S373 for the very first time today. It worked well until I ran into a problem. There is wayyy too much sway on the 4' Howse rotary cutter I was using.

When I lift the mower deck, the thing wants to sway to the left to the point where hardware on the left lift arm contacts the left tire. I had to stop for fear of puncturing the tire. What's the solution to this? I understand there are small sway chains that use turnbuckles. I'll have to check out TSC on that.

I can't remove a link from the chain because that would make it impossible to connect the chain. The weight and mass of the rotary mower really puts the stress on the sway chains. What are some of you other Beaver owners doing to avoid a similar problem. Thanks in advance...

 

[oliver28472]

Could you describe what you do have in the way of sway chains. I think your tractor came with them and they may have been removed. Your lower lift arms that have a swivel ball on each end and are pinned to the bush hog on one end and the tractor on the other should have a short chain with a turnbuckle bolted on about midway. The other end of the chain has a flat bar with a big hole that is pinned to the tractor at the same point as the lift arm. If you have this, the turn buckle is about 2.5-3 inches long. It give plenty of adjustment. I haven't seen a good replacment at TSC. One of my tractors has a 3ph added cause it's a grey. I had to improvise an adjuster from stuff from TSC but I have to remove a clip pin, make the adjustment then pin it back together. A true turnbuckle would work a lot better but I get by.

 

[AMP762]

This is the setup I have on my D1550 Mitsu

 

[redalrt]

Here is the connection between the left lift arm and a mounting lug on the left side of the tractor. You can see how the lift arm bolt has been scraping the left rear tire.

 

[redalrt]

Noticing the couple of pictures I've seen of other tractors, the sway chains are mounted on the inboard side of the lift arms, while mine are on the outboard side. From the looks of my picture, it doesn't seem like my chains can restrict sway very much at all. So how are they supposed to be mounted? I found some turnbuckle type chains at about the correct size. Expensive at about $50 apiece at a local John Deere dealer.

 

[oliver28472]

Yours are hooked up properly except it looks like you are just missing the turnbuckles. Mine is the same as yours. The tab on the front part of the chain is getting worn pretty much with an egg shaped hole. It doesn't hold as tight as it should but there are no longer any issues with the arms hitting the tires. If you have chains only, you don't have any adjustment to make. One of my tractors has homemade adjusters that I made with some 1/4" chain, a double clevis, some all-thread and a stack of nuts welded together. This arrangement is not as quick as a turnbuckle cause I have to take a pin out of the clevis to remove the chain so I can adjust in or out on the all thread. I have to learn how to post pictures.

 

[redalrt]

I located a local tractor dealer who twice told me he had the small turnbuckles I need. I know an excellent local machine shop that can reproduce the mounting hardware and add the links. Since this store is about 30 miles away, I called twice about the turnbuckes and each time, the owner assured me that he had them.

So I drive 30 miles to the store to get my turnbuckles. The guy reaches into a box and pulls out a beautiful anodized (I believe) turnbuckle, just perfect for my tractor. So I wait for the other one and the guy can't find it. Turns out he can only find ONE of them. Man, that was wack!

So he gave me two simple steel turnbuckles that I took to the machine shop. The shop is going to reproduce the tractor and lift arm mounting hardware and shorten the turnbuckles about an inch to make sure I can take up slack. It should work. Picking them up today with pictures to come.

I'm a little concerned about their strength, but they gotta be better than what I have now. I think I'll call this tractor place and have them call me if they find the other turnbuckle.

 

[gbirky]

I don't have photos of the latest set I made, but I have now fabricated 2 sets of turnbuckles. Well actually they are "half turnbuckles" since only one end has a threaded connection so that I wouldn't have to use any left hand threads. I have attached a photo of the first set I made - which ended up being too light and stripped the threads. The next set I made, I used larger bolts and nuts.

Basically, they're made from 1/4" thick 3"x2" rectangular tubing, with a hole drilled on one end to fit a bolt through loosely - this one just turns in the hole. The bolt is inserted from the inside, and a link of chain is welded to the threaded end. The other end of the rectangle gets a threaded hole, and a nut welded on the inside - in fact I think my second set had two nuts welded on top of each other on the inside. Then a piece of all-thread with another chain link welded to it is used. It works well, though it is slow to adjust.

Greg