A little disappointed with Kubota

[ovrszd]

It looks like the wheels were tossed on close but not seated, and the fasteners were zipped on with a gun. The lock washers snugged and the surface paint cracked, then the wheel was slightly moved to seat fully (washers moved slightly) and the fasteners were fully torqued which cracked more paint. That's my take on this since there was no wheel movement and the wheel was still seized to the hub. This is the wheel we saw in the first pictures when there were suggestions that the wheels were cracked, holes were egged oblong, and the centers should be replaced, and Kubota should be held responsible. In the end it was all cosmetic on this wheel. What's the bad side look like?

Yep.....

 

[crazyal]

If the backside nut is the preferred solution to loosening bolts, the two studs could also be replaced.

It's my perception that two studs are only used to speed up installation.

I think the nuts aren't needed at all. There's both a flat and a lock washer on the bolts and studs. But I bought them and really have no use for the nuts so I put them on.

Have to agree. The paint in the hole is untouched. Either there was no movement at all, or it was so small the undersized fastener just rocked back and forth inside the hole without making contact anywhere. I find that highly unlikely.

The Lock washer could have splayed out on one side making it look like movement? They fail that way sometimes.

If you look at the first picture (post #2) you can decide for yourself if the wheel was moving or not. Both pictures are from the same wheel. What I can tell you is I checked the torque on the bolts about 6 months after buying it new. From then on I would do it between once and twice a year. When i say check it all I did was set the torque wrench to 160ft/lbs and made sure it clicked. Never had an issue until this year when one bolt on the left wheel started loosening up (got maybe an 1/8 of a turn out of it). After torquing the bolt back down to the Kubota specs I checked the right wheel, nothing was loose. About a month later the same bolt slightly loosened up again. That's when they all started getting loose and the bolt holes were ruined.

What I can tell you is that the very small amount of play between the bolt and the bolt hole on the disk is about an inch of movement at the tire tread. It seams like the disk is very slowly moving and that's why the paint isn't getting damaged. I'm wondering if I see it because I spend a lot of time going in reverse up hills for a fair amount of distance. If all I ever did was, say skid trees, where I'm only going forward there wouldn't be much force trying to rotate the wheel in the reverse direction long enough to make it move.

To be honest I still don't have an exact reason why one loosened up and the other looks like it's moving.

 

[JWR]

Do you do much transport running on pavement or other hard surfaces at fairly high speeds? Over the years some brands of cars (Chrysler maybe) used left hand threads on one side because long term motion tends to tighten lugs on one side while it tends to loosen them on the other. Never heard of that on a tractor and certainly never saw left hand threads on one.

I think all of us are very curious to see "what the bad side looks like."

 

[crazyal]

No real use on pavement but my driveway is almost a mile long all uphill to my house that's packed gravel (why I'm often backing up for distances). The bad wheel is just that. The holes started to get oblong shape. I think had I realized quicker that wheel would of been fine too if I had checked it after each use when the first bolt started loosening up but I made the mistake of thinking it was no big deal at first. The second time it loosened up I should have had a red flag go off but I didn't start checking them after each use. I waited another month or so and by then most were really loose and the holes were damaged.

I almost buying a replacement disk at the local dealership. But when I put one of the bolts in the bolt holes on the disk I thought that it was made with holes that were too large. So after deciding against buying it I found out that the dealership was charging me well over retail. I'm going to order one on-line when I get the chance. For now I just built up the worn parts of the holes with weld and ground the holes round with a die grinder. So there's not much to take a picture of. Since the bolts with flat washers are holding it firm I'm not in a big hurry. It just looks ugly as the only color spray paint I had that was acceptable was black.

 

[The Fred]

Al with the Canadian exchange rate you might consider going to Quebec.

 

[the old grind]

Al, if you wanted to appear 'younger enough' everything but the windshield would be painted flat black by now.

btw, I'm still laughing at how I, like several others, really thought you had much worse going on and needed more fix. ..

:salute:

 

[goeduck]

I happened to be standing next to my older Kubota yesterday and this thread came to mind. I am not sure why they moved away from this wheel style.