Tough day at the ranch yesterday with the 5093e

[hoffmtim]

OK, you can't make this stuff up. Got a call from my custom baler wanting to discuss when to bale. As we went through that conversation, he says to me he heard I had a little trouble with my tractor (his cousin is a good friend of mine and had responded to help me when the wheel nearly fell off). I said I did, at which point he said he was trying to be like me. Evidently while he was heading over to a field on the other side of town he was going down the gravel road and his rear tire fell off! I kid you not. Now, his tractor has been on the farm for years. I told him I was relieved this stuff didn't just happen to me. As he said, luck was on his side as he has to cross an Interstate over pass and run several miles of highway, all of which were areas that tire could have come off but it waited until he hit gravel. Too crazy!

 

[AKfish]

OK, you can't make this stuff up. Got a call from my custom baler wanting to discuss when to bale. As we went through that conversation, he says to me he heard I had a little trouble with my tractor (his cousin is a good friend of mine and had responded to help me when the wheel nearly fell off). I said I did, at which point he said he was trying to be like me. Evidently while he was heading over to a field on the other side of town he was going down the gravel road and his rear tire fell off! I kid you not. Now, his tractor has been on the farm for years. I told him I was relieved this stuff didn't just happen to me. As he said, luck was on his side as he has to cross an Interstate over pass and run several miles of highway, all of which were areas that tire could have come off but it waited until he hit gravel. Too crazy!

Ok... ok. Now, you got me a bit antsy! I'm gonna re-torque my lugs today!

AKfish

 

[prosperity]

After seeing the same thing happen to a brand new JCB backhoe (15 hours), I now routinely run the torque wrench on my tractor lugs. When a new tractor is at the dealer, they are supposed to do a pre-delivery check which includes checking all the lug nuts plus a bunch of other stuff. I've learned not to trust any or them and check stuff myself now..........not my backhoe by the way:

And to more prove my point - I wanted to reverse my wheels/tires on my 2520 when I first got it to the wide position. The lead "tech" and I were doing it together. We had to loosen the bolts holding the ROPS to do this. When he was tightening up the ROPS with a regular wrench, I asked him if he was going to torque them properly plus do the same with the wheels. His answer was "I haven't even got my torque wrench out of the box after being here for 3 years".

 

[PILOON]

"I haven't even got my torque wrench out of the box after being here for 3 years".

Fair enough. A real mechanic develops a feel for torque. I know that I do.
In aviation a mechanic is allowed to install plugs w/o torque but an owner must use torque.

The only times that I have stripped threads have been while using a torque,( and mine have been calibrated at that).
Providing I only use the same ratchet I am OK but switch to a longer one or use a breaker bar better look out.
Also when assembly is an everyday event you soon develop the 'feel' for torque, fingers are a real sensitive appendage.