broken weld, tc24d

[horstuff]

Hi. I posted a few days ago about a broken weld on my tc40d, the range lever. NOW, there is a broken weld at the plate which fastens the bracket to the seat on my tc24d. Neither of these rigs have hit 50 hours, I weigh 200 pounds, I'm not partying on them or popping wheelies or otherwise misusing them. Just absolutely normal stuff (if anything, overly cautious, because they are both BRAND NEW). Well, I take that back - each one is about a year old now (2003 d's, not da's), but there were only about 2 hours on each when I got them. So, for all practical purposes, they are new, just been sitting around for awhile.

Am I in for a lifetime of welding broken doo-dads with these two? I love NH, the look, design, feel, etc., but are these things just prone to breaking? Maybe I got two rigs from a bad welding batch at the plant? Maybe I'm cursed?

 

[hazmat]

Sounds like you've got two machines that were both built on Fridays /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif.

The front hub on my TC18 broke - the casting, not a weld. Replaced under warranty. Other than that, it has been trouble free. Just hit 300 hours.

 

[PineRidge]

Horstuff if that is the extent of your problems then I would say "count your blessings". I have seen horror stories here at the TBN site form guys that have had one thing after another break on their tractors.

I think that most manufacturing defects are going to show up within the warranty period. Your covered without a doubt and I know it doesn't make the fact that you have these problems any easier to swallow but things could be a whole lot worse.

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Am I in for a lifetime of welding broken doo-dads with these two? )</font>

Horstuff, when I first read your post, I wanted to reply that you had just had a run of bad luck, but then I thought about my problems with the HST pedals early in the life of my tractor. That broken weld had me "pulling my hair out" for several weeks, and I was feeling the same way. After I got that fixed, I've not had any additional problems with welds. I've certainly had other things break, but none of the others have been weld related.

Maybe you'll get a lot of feedback from people who have had weld related failures. I suspect we are in a very tiny minority of NH owners. It does seem to me that things like controls and seats should have special manufacturing attention because they are used constantly during tractor operation.

I know it doesn't make it any easier for you to accept, but I think you've had a rare failure on both of your tractors. Don't go outside during a thunderstorm. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[reedfish1954]

Your problem is typical of cold Mig weld set-ups in a production environment. Weld looks real good but it had no penetration due to an inexperinced untrained welder which is typical if production Mig welders. The skill in Mig welding is in the set-up not in the welding.

 

[MikePA]

<font color="blue">to an inexperinced untrained welder </font>
Wouldn't you think this weld would have been done by a machine instead of a human?

I vaguely recall jinman indicating that the problem was that the weld should have been done completely around and not just 2 spot welds. IOW, the 2 spot welds were done fine, they simply were not enough for the use this part gets.