Rotary Cutter Land Pride rotary cutter blade does not rotate

[jlyrintzis]

I'm a city boy, who a couple of years ago bought some acreage, and I also bought my first tractor last fall (Kubota B2310). I'm a total newbie when it comes to tractors, and I'm not mechanically savvy. I have a Land Pride RCR1248 brush cutter, which worked just fine last fall, but now that I tried to use it for the first time after winter, the blade doesn't rotate at all, even though the driveline is rotating on the rear-PTO. After doing some online research, I found out that it has either a shear pin/bolt or slip clutch to protect the gear box. I'm hoping that the culprit is one of these instead of the gear box itself. But how can I tell, which one I have (shear pin or slip clutch) ? Do you guys have any suggestions on how to tackle this ? Thanks in advance.

 

[AaronS]

A shear pin will be a soft bolt (grade 5 if I remember correctly) that connects two parts of the pto shaft, while a slip clutch will look like two metal plates inline with the pto shaft near the gear box. I would bet good money it's one of these, and with your model I'm betting a shear pin. If you Google shear pin and go to Images, you'll find it.

 

[Baby Grand]

Slip clutch:



Shear pin:
The shear pin has the nut attached to it in this type.


You will (should) find one of these on the rear-most part of the PTO shaft, right where it attaches to the cutter's gearbox.

 

[jlyrintzis]

Thanks for the quick reply and help guys! It is indeed a busted shear pin, I was able to tap it out. A call to a local Kubota dealer revealed that they don't have a replacement in stock, would any hardware store or similar carry these ? I understand it cannot be a regular bolt. Thanks again!

 

[xring100]

As aaron mentioned this is usually just a standard grade 5 bolt from your local hardware store. They will have 3 lines on the head. Do not use grade 8 hardened bolts as a substitute.

By the way Welcome

 

[xring100]

Link to images and how to identify bolt grade if your interested i

https://www.google.com/search?q=bol...v&sa=X&ei=Sdh2U4G-Ao6QqgbL-ICgDw&ved=0CEQQ7Ak

 

[GreenWannabe]

According to the parts manual for your mower, the shear bolt is a 1/2-13x3 grade 2 bolt. You can download operator and parts manuals here: RCR12 Series Rotary Cutters | Land Pride

 

[jlyrintzis]

You guys are awesome! I found a correct bolt and I'm back in business! Never have had an ear-to-ear grin before when mowing fescue! What started as me picturing having to spend hundreds or dollars to gear box repair or replacement, turned out to spending $1.25 for a new shear bolt! Thank you all for your help!

 

[CowboyRon]

You guys are awesome! I found a correct bolt and I'm back in business! Never have had an ear-to-ear grin before when mowing fescue! What started as me picturing having to spend hundreds or dollars to gear box repair or replacement, turned out to spending $1.25 for a new shear bolt! Thank you all for your help!

It's a good idea to buy a few of those shear bolts and keep a couple of them handy.

 

[Gary Fowler]

TO avoid shearing the shear pin, don't engage the mower when the tractor engine is running at high rpm. You should have it just fast enough so that the engine doesn't stall when it is engaged. If your tractor has they type PTO that you can engage slowly using the clutch, that is better but I see most of them now have an electronic clutch that is either on or off and it engages hard, so keep those RPMs low. It may take a few tries with it stalling the motor before you find the correct speed, but if it stalls, just increase by 100 RPM and try again, shouldn't take more than 1200 rpm to start it turning then you can rev it up to full PTO throttle speed.