Harbor Freight QH broke on me

[number9L]

I've had it little over a year now maybe and few days ago I was using the rear blade and heard a pop and looked back to find the mount for the hook had broken completely off the frame. It looked as though a weld was getting water in it and caused the eventual failure. Both my box blade and rear blade are #600+ and I use them a lot, so I am sure I've over stressed it on more than a few occasions.

Any way, just wanted to pass along so others can keep an eye on theirs. Luckily mine broke within 50 feet of the shop door

I welded back up and primed and painted it. Also added a strip of angle iron across the top and down the back to hopefully give a little more strength in this area.

ETA - I don't know why photobucket keeps failing on the first pic posted. I fix the link and refresh and it breaks again. I'll try attaching it to the post.
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[number9L]

Fixed the pic of the damage finally. Sorry about the lack of it.

 

[Guesseral]

Fixed the pic of the damage finally. Sorry about the lack of it.

What the heck were you doing when that broke? It looks like the one spot was cracked and rusted was it?

 

[sdef]

I broke my ASC QH a few weeks ago and ordered a HFT as a replacement. I find the apparent construction to be very similar between the too, from the parts I can see, anyway. For the record the ASC is wider at the lower mounting pins by 1/4" and the top link hook is set back another 3/4" or so.

I also have heavy implements but my breakage was caused by me. I had an extension added to the top link's TNT cylinder's ball end to allow the QH's top link hook to move backwards a bit more. And unbeknownst to be it was in a bind. When I raised the bottom links, the pent up energy peeled the top link mount back from the QH frame as it also whipped the entire mounted, unloaded QH back with terrific force from its top leaning forward position. Had anyone been at the rear of the QH when this happened, it would have been a serious 9-1-1 call and the morgue would have been a distinct possibility.

When removing the QH top hook assembly from the broken ASC unit to use with the HFT QH due to the ASC hook mounting 3/4" farther back in its mount, I discovered the top 1/2" pin mounting the hook was also bent and I had to drive it out with a hammer.

 

[PhysAssist]

Wow, you boys play hard with your toys.

That makes two HF QH's to SDEF's one ASC QH that I have heard gotten broken total.

I can't recall who it was that broke the other one, but he's an active TBN'er too.

 

[cartod]

first thing I did with my HFQH was open up the top hook more and weld it on.

 

[radioman]

Thanks for heads up. Didn't think it would break right there, but after seeing how thin the metal is, and all the twisting downforce it gets, I wonder if I should attempt to reinforce it now.

 

[sdef]

Thanks for heads up. Didn't think it would break right there, but after seeing how thin the metal is, and all the twisting downforce it gets, I wonder if I should attempt to reinforce it now.

It is thin at that point and I questioned it in the past. But once the hook is attached it apparently becomes much stronger. See my pics above where I tore the metal from the cross piece where the upper brackets mount, but not the upper mounts themselves. They were still pristine even though the upper hook mount pin was bent. The lower hook mount pin was NOT bent.