Broken Lift Arm - Fix or Replace?

[tlb]

Found a good welder today and took the beast to his shop. I told him I wanted to reinforce the tilt arm (see the attachment). He talked me into a different method, one he felt was better. However, when he was measuring the clearance for the brace he did not realize the lift arms can go below grade and pick the tractor off the ground. Needless to say the first time I tried to move the lift arms all the way down it bent the arm that tilts the quick attach plate. Lucky it hit this before the lift cylinder! So back to the shop I go!
-Tim

 

[tlb]

What I really wanted was this. Anyone care to comment on whether this flange welded on the pivot arm would be effective? The welder did not think so.
-Tim

 

[stray]

Wow I don't think the welder understood the problem. Those brackets added won't hurt any thing but I would just add something like yours as well. Tomorrow I will try to illustrate what I plan to do if I have more trouble with this.

 

[catsco]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( What I really wanted was this. Anyone care to comment on whether this flange welded on the pivot arm would be effective? The welder did not think so.
-Tim )</font>

The flanges would add some stiffness, but the bending force on the shaft is 90 degrees from where you show those stiffeners.

There is very little space to add a stiffener along that axis, but a little bit goes a long way decreasing the bending and subsequent failure of the assembly. The new rollover assembly I had welded in had a tube wall that was thicker to counteract the bending that is perpendicular to the arms of the rotating part of the rollover.

Mark H.

 

[stray]

With a configuration like this made of ¼” metal on this side and the side opposite, you should never have trouble with this pipe breaking again. The arrows indicate where welds should be. This shows 3 individual pieces. Altogether 6 will be needed the other 3 of course for the other side. Anyway this is what I plan to do if another failure occurs.

 

[J_J]

The center bar can not be there, the tilt shaft has to lie in between the tilt arms. Look at earlier pictures. His tilt arm is different. His tilt arm has two cross tubes welded in.

 

[stray]

JJ I guess my drawing wasn’t very clear. The new repair center pieces should lay here and the opposite side. The tilt bar or cylinder ram doesn’t come close. If this is what you mean?

 

[J_J]

Thanks, that picture shows more detail. I think I would do both vertical and horizontal bracing.

To those that have bent the tilt arm and pin, is the bend perpendicular to the tilt arms, or vertical to the tilt arm? It would be interesting to know where the force is coming from to bend a 2 in steel pin , inside of a 3/8 thick tube. How ever, 5000 lbs of force pushing on the center of a mass that is approximately 24 in wide gives one thought.

 

[J_J]

Your bracing idea looks good, but I would also beef up the vertical plane. A 6 in triangle,using 1/2 in steel on the outside of the tilt arms, top and bottom. Across the length, I would use 1 in wide steel, 1/2 in thick. I believe most of the flexing is coming from the center of the tilt arm, which is used as a fulcrum. Are the holes in your tilt arm equal from the center? If they are, it is set up for the bottom of the tilt arm which is attached to the cylinder to apply the same force to the top of the tilt arm, and then down through the tilt bar to the quick-attach. I believe that some of the tilt arms are unequal.

 

[stray]

Goodness JJ between you, me and the rest of us how much is this modification going to weigh? LOL /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif