SmallChange
Platinum Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2019
- Messages
- 743
- Tractor
- New Holland WM25 with 200LC front end loader, filled R4 tires 43X16.00-20 and 25X8.50-14 (had a Kubota B6200D with dozer and R1 tires)
I have a heavy urethane edge I put on my FEL bucket to save scraping on my asphalt driveway during snow removal. My question could be about a broader range of applications, though, for example including tooth bars or edge tamers. I can install the 1/2-13 bolts from the bottom and put the nuts on top, or vice versa. Which is better?
It's important to protect the 2 or 3 exposed threads so I can disassemble at the end of the season. If the nuts are on top they are exposed to whatever rough stuff is going into the bucket. Life is much rougher on the bottom, scraping over gravel with the bucket weight crushing against the driveway, but the urethane bar is on the bottom, and it has deep counterbores that hide and protect the nuts and exposed threads pretty well I think.
I always use purple Loctite, the weakest one, to avoid loosening. It amounts to a bit of sealant in the exposed couple of bolt threads where they disappear into the nut, to help prevent fine sand or grit getting into the threaded joint. Early on I had one of these seize while unthreading, and the rattling loose nut got so tight breaker bars with added pipe couldn't budge it and I had to cut the whole mess out with a right angle grinder. In this case the nut was on top. If it had happened with the nut on the bottom I'd have destroyed the urethane edge to cut it apart, so that's an argument for nuts up. Of course, for all I know, the seizing wouldn't have happened at all with the nut on the bottom.
So, what do you say???
Thanks!
It's important to protect the 2 or 3 exposed threads so I can disassemble at the end of the season. If the nuts are on top they are exposed to whatever rough stuff is going into the bucket. Life is much rougher on the bottom, scraping over gravel with the bucket weight crushing against the driveway, but the urethane bar is on the bottom, and it has deep counterbores that hide and protect the nuts and exposed threads pretty well I think.
I always use purple Loctite, the weakest one, to avoid loosening. It amounts to a bit of sealant in the exposed couple of bolt threads where they disappear into the nut, to help prevent fine sand or grit getting into the threaded joint. Early on I had one of these seize while unthreading, and the rattling loose nut got so tight breaker bars with added pipe couldn't budge it and I had to cut the whole mess out with a right angle grinder. In this case the nut was on top. If it had happened with the nut on the bottom I'd have destroyed the urethane edge to cut it apart, so that's an argument for nuts up. Of course, for all I know, the seizing wouldn't have happened at all with the nut on the bottom.
So, what do you say???
Thanks!
