And it gets even worse: Update on my Bushhog 286 repairs

[sandman2234]

I wandered back into this post to see if there was a picture of the top of the gearbox. Should have stated my reason I guess, to make it a little more of a priority. I purchased several rusted out bush hogs a few years back, just for parts. I haven't used but one of the gearboxes, and that was one that was already removed in the lot I bought. I also have a friend who is moving to Liberty, Tn who for a slight fee might be coerced into stopping by and hauling it north. It would be a chance that one of my gearboxes just might fit yours.
David from jax

 

[FTG-05]

I wandered back into this post to see if there was a picture of the top of the gearbox. Should have stated my reason I guess, to make it a little more of a priority. I purchased several rusted out bush hogs a few years back, just for parts. I haven't used but one of the gearboxes, and that was one that was already removed in the lot I bought. I also have a friend who is moving to Liberty, Tn who for a slight fee might be coerced into stopping by and hauling it north. It would be a chance that one of my gearboxes just might fit yours.
David from jax

My bad, I promised you a pic and failed to deliver!

I'll take a couple today and post them tonight, I promise!

BTW: I'm good. We rednecked engineered it. I can't believe how much better the BH runs and cuts now. A lot of that is the new blades, of course. But I'm taking about how smooth and so much quieter the BH runs now. I don't have to constantly look back to see how it's cutting now - I have to constantly look back to see if it's running at all!

One small issue: I deliberately loosened the slip clutch so it would slip while running. I was surprised by how much it would cut before it did slip (stopped cutting). I suspect that the SC has been pretty welded together for a while because it had no resistance due to no friction between the output shaft and the hub. Now it has a reason to slip and it does.

Thanks,

 

[TractorGuy]

BTW: I'm good. We rednecked engineered it.

Details? Details?

 

[radios1]

My bad, I promised you a pic and failed to deliver!

I'll take a couple today and post them tonight, I promise!

BTW: I'm good. We rednecked engineered it. I can't believe how much better the BH runs and cuts now. A lot of that is the new blades, of course. But I'm taking about how smooth and so much quieter the BH runs now. I don't have to constantly look back to see how it's cutting now - I have to constantly look back to see if it's running at all!

One small issue: I deliberately loosened the slip clutch so it would slip while running. I was surprised by how much it would cut before it did slip (stopped cutting). I suspect that the SC has been pretty welded together for a while because it had no resistance due to no friction between the output shaft and the hub. Now it has a reason to slip and it does.

Thanks,

slip clutches can only slip so much before they wear out!. keep that in mind!. it's only supposed to slip if a load of a magnitude that would damage the gearbox occurs!..

 

[FTG-05]

slip clutches can only slip so much before they wear out!. keep that in mind!. it's only supposed to slip if a load of a magnitude that would damage the gearbox occurs!..

Yea, I'll be replacing the slip rings at the end of this season. Keep in mind that for the first couple of runs, I deliberately wanted the clutch to slip. Once it did, I slowly and carefully tightened the bolts until it didn't.

Here are the gearbox pics:

Slip clutch:

And you can see here that the hub/outlet shaft worn out has occurred for a long time: This is what it looked like when I bought it in late 2013. That's how loose the stumpjumper blades were all this time.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Oh wow! I'm glad it didn't fly off and kill someone.

 

[radios1]

Yea, I'll be replacing the slip rings at the end of this season. Keep in mind that for the first couple of runs, I deliberately wanted the clutch to slip. Once it did, I slowly and carefully tightened the bolts until it didn't.

Here are the gearbox pics:

Slip clutch:

And you can see here that the hub/outlet shaft worn out has occurred for a long time: This is what it looked like when I bought it in late 2013. That's how loose the stumpjumper blades were all this time.

dolly, hammer, and oxy acetylene torch time!. this was seriously abused, to the point of being extremely dangerous!. how could someone be so careless?.. there's probably a good explanation from a quote from Beavis and Butthead though!.. this is in reference to the previous owner, of course!.. I'll bet a lot of metal was scraped away underneath, making this area very weak!..

 

[FTG-05]

dolly, hammer, and oxy acetylene torch time!. this was seriously abused, to the point of being extremely dangerous!. how could someone be so careless?.. there's probably a good explanation from a quote from Beavis and Butthead though!.. this is in reference to the previous owner, of course!.. I'll bet a lot of metal was scraped away underneath, making this area very weak!..

In the last pic, you can see one of the weld lines in the lower right. I welded a piece of 10 ga or so steel sheet underneath that entire tear. Sorry, no pics of the sheet. It was about 16"x36" or so. About as heavy as the original sheet metal body (which is pretty heavy BTW). Welding up that hole is probably one reason why the bushhog is so much more quieter than before.

I don't blame the previous owner all that much. I blame myself for not educating myself beforehand on rotary cutters and I blame the salesman for lying that "it looked just fine!" when he knew it wasn't. He used to own the tractor dealership, then sold it and stayed as a salesman. The place has since been sold to HR Agrisupply (or something like that). Last time I went in there to buy some part, the parts guy was openly derisive about the salesman getting fired. He said people would drive all the way into the Huntsville dealership (from Lincoln county, TN) just to avoid this guy. Openly derisive, right there in the dealership itself. Says a lot about him, IMO.

I'm not gonna hide it: It was the former Yearwood Kubota Dealership on the US Hwy 64 Bypass, Fayetteville, TN. Now H&R Agri-Power: H&R Agri-Power Announces Acquisition of Yearwood Equipment | Farm Equipment Publication

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

I would be p o'd if someone had sold me that thing....

 

[FTG-05]

I would be p o'd if someone had sold me that thing....

Well at least now I know why it was so cheap ($500). They go for $1200-$1300 on CL today, almost 6 years later.

Again, my fault for not educating myself as a new tractor owner prior to handing my money over.