Cautionary tale. Check your Shear Bolts and get a fire extinguisher for your tractor

[aczlan]

Might be worth putting in a #5. Wont hurt anything and you can see if it breaks too often for your tastes.

Aaron Z

 

[RFB]

Which raises a question that may seem stupid, but I have that tee shirt so here goes:

Are all 5's equal, or must it be a bolt that is classified both as a "shear bolt" and in a hardness of 5?

 

[aczlan]

Which raises a question that may seem stupid, but I have that tee shirt so here goes:
Are all 5's equal, or must it be a bolt that is classified both as a "shear bolt" and in a hardness of 5?

The only difference in a "shear bolt" is that it often has a groove cut into it (such as for a snowblower to match the shaft-auger spacing)
I use regular grade 5 bolts for shear bolts in our bushhog and tiller.

Aaron Z

 

[cheoah]

Drawbar length is definitely a dynamic situation. Some implements have very specific lengths for end of PTO shaft to drawbar hole on center. Some implements present unique issues and drawbar better off removed or retracted as much as you can if that works. Sounds like snowblower is one of them.....I wouldn't know.

ice here today

 

[canoetrpr]

I have also been using normal grade 5 bolts as shear bolts on my equipment. That's until this blower of course which calls for a grade 8 bolt. I still scratch my head about that.

 

[Soundguy]

yep.. while you might buy the specific length shear bolt from the dealer for a couple $ a pop.. a handfull of hardware store bolts of correct size and grade should be fine.

 

[NH-Rob]

Glad to see that you got it figured out. I did something similar at work once. Except it was with a wagon towed off of the draw bar and when I turned a corner too sharp the 3pt hitch arm hit the shaft and bent it causing a crease making the shaft unmovable. I straitend it the best I could and ordered a new shaft. lesson learned.
Robbie

 

[jimainiac]

Glad you got to the cause of the problem, and glad there's nothing wrong with the snowblower. Going forward, this would be a great time to do a test to see how a grade five bolt would work for a shear bolt. It would be interesting to see how long you could go without it snapping, and I don't think you'd be out anything but the time to replace it. It would satisfy the curiosity factor once and for all.
I think I remember that you said you bought the tractor and the snowblower at the same time. Did the dealer set it up for you, or did you put it on for the first time? The reason I ask is, if the dealer installed it, they should have caught the clearance problem, and also, the first hook-up is the time to make sure the PTO shaft is the right length, as tractors differ in lower arm length, etc.
I had a similar situation on our tractor after I put a 2" trailer ball on the end of the drawbar. It interfered with the PTO shaft of the bushog. Had to remove the ball, as our tractor doesn't have the swinging drawbar feature.
I also hope that there was no damage done to the PTO of your tractor. Were they able to give you any assurances about that?

 

[aczlan]

I had a similar situation on our tractor after I put a 2" trailer ball on the end of the drawbar. It interfered with the PTO shaft of the bushog. Had to remove the ball, as our tractor doesn't have the swinging drawbar feature.

We have to flip the drawbar with its mounted ball on our B7500 before connecting the tiller or bushhog as otherwise it gets a little too close for comfort.

Aaron Z

 

[jimainiac]

Doesn't seem like it would be asking too much for all tractors to come with a swinging drawbar as standard equipment. I don't think it would bother for towing a trailer if it was off to the side, and then you wouldn't have to worry about interfering with PTO shafts.