3-Point Hitch Bent Telescopic Stabilizer using box blade

[RDrancher]

I cut drainage swales in reverse all the time. I take smaller "bites" and run the tractor in 2wd.

 

[s219]

Then I adjusted the top link so the box was level with the ground from front to back. This worked real well and I had no issues cutting dirt and moving it around the road to make it more level. I have another 3 days to get this done.

Tweaking the top link is the secret to using a box blade with dual cutting edges like you have. Shorten the top link to make the front cutter bite and dig in. Lengthen the top link to bring the front cutter up and feather the rear cutter for smoothing or distributing material. (all of this assumes you're going forward -- would be opposite for going in reverse). There are multiple settings for different jobs. Once you figure out how awesome that is, you will want a hydraulic top link, though on the 2650 you can probably reach the current top link and adjust by hand without too much trouble.

 

[Jay4200]

Yup - Turf tires. The wife convinced me to get those instead of R4. I have to drive through the yard to get to the back of our property. When you have the 4x4 engaged it can make a mess of grass even with turf tires. Also - the ground is not too wet and had some gravel on it. I had good traction most of the time. The road is also a little down hill when I had the box blade down. On the bent stabilizer - I'm almost convinced I did this going in reverse with the rippers down. No more of that. As a far as heat and strength on the steel - if I heat and quench it right, it can actually make it stronger. I'm not convince I want to do that (make it stronger). I suspect they are designed to bend. Better that than breaking an axle or something more expensive. Whether I do the steel conditioning correctly or not depends on how much I educate myself on that. Maybe a torch would be better than a bead of Mig Weld. I'll probably get a replacement anyway.

Personally, I'd just take off the stabilizer, slide it apart, then pound the bent piece flat with a hammer. If I saw any evidence of cracking, I'd buzz a low-penetration weld across it and grind it smooth. Piece o' cake.

 

[Porchfan]

@Jay4200 - that's essentially what I did. It's been fine all day today. The key for me was to align each on the same hole and not cut backwards. Today I made huge progress.. (the wife was at work - funny how you get more done without anyone around you that you have to deal with). I cut a high side swale & crowned the road a bit. It looks good. Tuesday, it's time to dig two or three culverts & lay drain pipe under the road at the low spots. Then rip rap and gravel. Hopefully I can get it done by Thursday when we expect rain. Below are few pics of the progress. Aside from the bend in the stabilizer on day 1, the tractor has been flawless. :thumbsup:

 

[Porchfan]

Update on this post: I've been using the stabilizer I repaired 8 months ago with no issues. The road and backside of our property has been transformed well by the B2650. Here's a pic of the road and new gate. Even so, I finally got around to buying a new stabilizer plate after I found one for only $30 at Messicks. I found the parts breakdown from them and ordered on the spot after seeing the price. $23 for the part and $6.95 for shipping. Here it is with corresponding part number. I'm impressed by Messicks. There's more info there than on any Kubota site I could find.. I'll probably just keep this in the shop and only use if I bend the original one again.

 

[CalG]

Late to the comment's section, but if I may add one comment regarding sway links.

The link you showed in the original post failed in compression. That is, a side load on the BB pushed the bottom arms off to one side. The Adjustment failing on your part was not setting the sway link on the other side to come under tension before the link that failed was called on to carry the load in compression.

Clear as Mud?

It really doesn't matter if there is "slop" in the side to side clearances of the sway links as long as the links are positioned to come in tension and not compression. This takes observation during mounting the implement. That's about all. Adjusting the links just snug as the lift passes through the tightest spot in it's arc will do the job. But tight in a slack position will fail the link pins in tension when moving through the tight spot. Does the BX have it's sway link pivots coincident with the lower arm pivots? IF so, then there are no tight or loose spots in the lift motion.

Boils down to "correct adjustment", as been advised in earlier post.

As mentioned also, the 3ph is not made for compression, this is especially true of the sway links. I'm brutal on the rest of the parts though. Pushing stuff all the time! Heck I use the scraper blade in reverse about 60% of the time. But I set the sway links with care! ;-)

 

[Porchfan]

The stabilizer bar bent when I was running backwards with the rippers all the way down and I hit a big poplar root. It's not a good idea to run the 3 pt backwards with that much load. As far as the adjustment holes on how they were set up, I may have had one in a slot. I'm not sure. There may have been some slop. Either way, I have run the tractor hard for 6 months or so with no issues in this area after fixing the bar and not running it backwards anymore unless I'm pushing a small amount of dirt or gravel and the rippers are up.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Late to the comment's section, but if I may add one comment regarding sway links.

The link you showed in the original post failed in compression. That is, a side load on the BB pushed the bottom arms off to one side. The Adjustment failing on your part was not setting the sway link on the other side to come under tension before the link that failed was called on to carry the load in compression.

Clear as Mud?

It really doesn't matter if there is "slop" in the side to side clearances of the sway links as long as the links are positioned to come in tension and not compression. This takes observation during mounting the implement. That's about all. Adjusting the links just snug as the lift passes through the tightest spot in it's arc will do the job. But tight in a slack position will fail the link pins in tension when moving through the tight spot. Does the BX have it's sway link pivots coincident with the lower arm pivots? IF so, then there are no tight or loose spots in the lift motion.

Boils down to "correct adjustment", as been advised in earlier post.

As mentioned also, the 3ph is not made for compression, this is especially true of the sway links. I'm brutal on the rest of the parts though. Pushing stuff all the time! Heck I use the scraper blade in reverse about 60% of the time. But I set the sway links with care! ;-)

The stabilizer bar bent when I was running backwards with the rippers all the way down and I hit a big poplar root. It's not a good idea to run the 3 pt backwards with that much load. As far as the adjustment holes on how they were set up, I may have had one in a slot. I'm not sure. There may have been some slop. Either way, I have run the tractor hard for 6 months or so with no issues in this area after fixing the bar and not running it backwards anymore unless I'm pushing a small amount of dirt or gravel and the rippers are up.

Backing up is not the key issue with the sway links, as it surely is with the lift arms which simply must take compressive load when pushing. OTOH , pulling or pushing, the telescopic links can be set up to limit sway when they are in tension, as CalG says, or by different adjustment, when they are in compression. Flat strap stock just isnt very resistant to compression.

 

[David_Kb7uns]

Be lucky the brake housing where the three point arms attach did not break. Somebody did that pushing a load of logs with a box scraper.

David

 

[rScotty]

I disagree with some of the adjustment methods here. I cannot see how a pair of rigid stabilizer links can both be set so that both sides will be in tension rather than compression. It looks to me that when the implement is loaded from the side, the stabilizer link on that side will be in tension and if the other side will either be too loose or in compression....probably too loose so that the second side isn't in compression. But if that is so, what happens when the load is shifted to the other side? Then that first stabilizer bar has to be in serious compression.

I suppose one could very carefully set both stabilizers up for nearly zero side play of the implement. Then the inevitable compressive loads on a side wouldn't be enough to fail that stabilizer before the tension ability of the other side came into play.

The solution would seem to be to use sway-reducing chains instead of rigid bars.
luck, rScotty