canoetrpr
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Aug 7, 2005
- Messages
- 2,382
- Location
- Ontario, Canada
- Tractor
- Kubota M7040 cab/hyd shuttle - current, Kubota L3400 - traded
Good day friends. I haven't been on here in a while. I hope that this experience I have had will save someone else the hazard.
I purchased my Meteor 75" pull type snowblower with my Kubota M7040. As luck would have it I never got to use the blower last year as we had such a mild winter. This winter, we just had a storm worth blowing and I was thrilled to go out and blow this morning.
About half way through I noticed that the blower was bogging up. There was just over a foot or so of snow. I went to lift the blower but realized that it was no longer blowing any snow. If you have ever had a PTO shear pin break on you - it was just like that. I figured that one of my dogs must have done what they often do and left a piece of firewood that they steal from the wood pile on the driveway. I look behind the cab as I normally do in such instances just to confirm what the status of the shaft is expecting that it just would not be spinning and WHOA! My shaft has been torn off into two pieces. The one attached to the tractor is spinning all over the place and not only that, the wildly spinning around tractor end of the shaft is on FIRE!!!
I stop the tractor, run in the house and grab a fire extinguisher that we bought some 7 years ago upon the recommendation of our insurance agent when she was doing an inspection. I was able to put the fire out quickly with no damage to the tractor. It was the grease on the shaft that was on fire.
As I suspected, when I took the shaft off the blower, I found that the shear bolt was still intact and some IDIOT who had put the shaft together had put a GRADE 8 bolt on for the shear bolt!!. I cannot still get the tractor end of the shaft off. I normally slides right off when the collar is pulled forward but I wonder if it may have something to the heat but it is not sliding off. I will have to go work on that another day.
I called my dealer and unfortunately the owner and service manager are out. They have been nothing by great with my tractor thus far on the couple very minor things that have come up. I'm sure they will be appalled to hear about the shear bolt. I talked to a guy at the parts counter and he was surprised to hear it and confirmed for me that the shaft comes totally assembled from the blower manufacturer and they just put it on. I'll be advising my dealer that they ought to check all the shear bolts to ensure this is avoided.
So far everything seems to be in working order. I have no idea what the shock has done to my driveline but it seems to be spinning the shaft fine.
My suggestion to my fellow tractoring friends.
1. Go out now and check any shear bolts on your implements which have not been install by you yourself. It will only take a few minutes but it will save you a lot of trouble if someone made the same mistake.
2. Purchase a fire extinguisher for your tractor. I did not have this and I don't want to know what would have occurred if I was far away from the house and this was a mower on a hot dry summer day rather than a blower. I will be getting a few right away. One for each tractor, one for each floor on the house.
I purchased my Meteor 75" pull type snowblower with my Kubota M7040. As luck would have it I never got to use the blower last year as we had such a mild winter. This winter, we just had a storm worth blowing and I was thrilled to go out and blow this morning.
About half way through I noticed that the blower was bogging up. There was just over a foot or so of snow. I went to lift the blower but realized that it was no longer blowing any snow. If you have ever had a PTO shear pin break on you - it was just like that. I figured that one of my dogs must have done what they often do and left a piece of firewood that they steal from the wood pile on the driveway. I look behind the cab as I normally do in such instances just to confirm what the status of the shaft is expecting that it just would not be spinning and WHOA! My shaft has been torn off into two pieces. The one attached to the tractor is spinning all over the place and not only that, the wildly spinning around tractor end of the shaft is on FIRE!!!
I stop the tractor, run in the house and grab a fire extinguisher that we bought some 7 years ago upon the recommendation of our insurance agent when she was doing an inspection. I was able to put the fire out quickly with no damage to the tractor. It was the grease on the shaft that was on fire.
As I suspected, when I took the shaft off the blower, I found that the shear bolt was still intact and some IDIOT who had put the shaft together had put a GRADE 8 bolt on for the shear bolt!!. I cannot still get the tractor end of the shaft off. I normally slides right off when the collar is pulled forward but I wonder if it may have something to the heat but it is not sliding off. I will have to go work on that another day.
I called my dealer and unfortunately the owner and service manager are out. They have been nothing by great with my tractor thus far on the couple very minor things that have come up. I'm sure they will be appalled to hear about the shear bolt. I talked to a guy at the parts counter and he was surprised to hear it and confirmed for me that the shaft comes totally assembled from the blower manufacturer and they just put it on. I'll be advising my dealer that they ought to check all the shear bolts to ensure this is avoided.
So far everything seems to be in working order. I have no idea what the shock has done to my driveline but it seems to be spinning the shaft fine.
My suggestion to my fellow tractoring friends.
1. Go out now and check any shear bolts on your implements which have not been install by you yourself. It will only take a few minutes but it will save you a lot of trouble if someone made the same mistake.
2. Purchase a fire extinguisher for your tractor. I did not have this and I don't want to know what would have occurred if I was far away from the house and this was a mower on a hot dry summer day rather than a blower. I will be getting a few right away. One for each tractor, one for each floor on the house.