roofgunner
New member
I thought you guys would like this as everything turned out ok and I learned something. I know I'm not the brightest candle on earth and the TL80 is new to me and this shouldn't have happened but it did. I never had any problems with the lift arm adjustments on my AC180 so with the TL80 I didn't think much about it. For the first time I did some mowing with the Bushhog 3008 hooked up and mowed 40 acres of CRP which was, due to drought, rough and dusty and hot. NO fun. Anyway before I headed for the field I pulled the tractor/hog on the level driveway and noticed the left side was lower than the right and I thought I had adjusted it before. HHHHHmmmm? what's up? So I set it right and took off. The next day I go to leave again and the left side is down again and I readjusted it and I marked the lift arm adjustments with a marker. I said to myself: "Self, when one keeps making adjustments like this the adjustments will eventually run out and something will happen. But the only place that there could be change is the lift arm adjustments but how could they move because they didn't move on the AC180." Then, I like to keep everything lubricated and since I had been making adjustments on the lift arms I had everything greased and Amsoil metal protector on the screw parts of the adjusters so she was lubed to the hilt. So off I go the next day, partially fried brain, sore nose from sneezing and I wanted to get this done. When I do things like this I concentrate on the control panel temp gauge, guiding the tractor and looked at the hog and listening to the machine for sound changes, and a rock station out of Kirksville, MO. So it's about 1230 hours and I'm going along and I notice the hog's cutting a little low and I raised it and the next thing I know I get a sound change and look back and the only thing holding the hog on is the jockey stick and the drive shaft!!!!!!!!!!! I had gone 10 feet or so. I see that the lift arms contain only the upper threads of the lift arms, swinging in the breeze, and the lift arms are on the ground with the bottom threads! Then I say think: "Self, this is where the adjustment went." So I got off the tractor disconneted the shaft and stick, screwed the lift arms back together and left the field. My buddies friend had been working on his Kubota and I had him look at the NH and we discovered that the little metal nipples that are to keep the adjustment things from turning were gone on the left side. My tractor has these things that remind me of those post drivers that have handles on them. When they are all the way down they have a little u groove that is to fit into the metal nipple so they won't turn. So I ended up making some neat looking cable ties that hook through the handles of the adjustment device down through where the adjustment rod connects with the lower arms so they can't turn. I don't think they were right from the factory. No one would have ever known as I'm the second owner; the the previous owner only hooked a finishing mower to the tractor and ran it 131 hours in about 10 years and kept it in his garage in Tenn. Live and learn and I'm glad I didn't break anything!!
