How to **NOT** crack tractor in half..........

[jimmysisson]

#2 on regularly checking all the loader bolts. I think that's the main cause after abuse of cracked iron.
Jim

 

[MHarryE]

We cracked our Farmall H but caught the crack before it completely broke. Cause was loader work, old style transmission, and having to get a real run at the bank when loading gravel. If reaction time was too slow, the tractor would raise up at the front and when you stepped on the clutch it would crash down. Enough times and it started to crack. The old Farmall loader had only single acting cylinders - it could lift but lower was gravity - so there was no raising the front tires off the ground other than by momentum. You should not have a problem unless you let it crash down like we did with our H. Still that tractor took a heck of a beating before it finally started to crack, and you would never believe the amount of nickel rod (used to weld the cast iron) we used keeping it together before the tractor finally caught fire and burned.

 

[ghenges]

Owning a New Holland Boomer 30, I have seen locally somone with 30 hrs crack their TC30 which is a very light duty tractor. The boomer 30 seems more rugged by the naked eye.
I like to plow snow with my FEL and use a back blade to scrape extra good right down to the concreate. Sometime I like to lift the front tires off the ground with the FEL to help scrape the driveway. The neighbor told me not to do this ever, as this will destroy the tractor.
What can I do during operation that would crack my tractor? I want to make sure I do not do any activity that could cause this. In the 1950s when tractors were actaully overbuilt, this would not happen. Today everything is engineered just a tad under so companies can profit extra and the CEO's can have one more vacation home out of the 7 they already own.

It all depends on how and where the loader is attached to the tractor.
If the attachment point is at a weaker point on the tractor's frame there might be problem.

Hopefully with a factory designed and installed loader one would expect the engineers would have considered the possible stresses involved and to seek an attachment location that would mitigate those stresses.

Your neighbor's concerns do have some validity. Hitting a solid obstruction with the bucket puts extreme stress on the tractor frame.
For example, even with a spring protected moldboard, a pickup truck with a snow plow mounted to the front frame rails will bend the whole front frame down with the continuous beating.
We always attach our plows to brackets on the frame just to the rear of the cab. 2 parallel cross braced pieces of 2"x3"x1/4" rectangular tubing run to the front mount. The front frame rails merely provide a point to lift the plow.

My advice would to study the loader mounting and try to determine the stresses.
But, it would be prudent not to subject the bucket to situations that create high stresses.

My suggestion for plowing snow is to replace the bucket with a power angled spring protected moldboard plow like those used on pickup trucks.
My brother in law plows his lane with a Bobcat skidsteer, it almost looks ridiculous, the backing twisting and dumping. We clean our longer lane in a tenth of the time and do a better job at it.
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A good engineer used to be one that could design an item to last, and to be easy and inexpensive to maintain.
Today a good engineer is one that can get the item to bust 30 days out of the warranty period.