Constantly breaking shear bolts on my cutter....help?

[4x4moses]

I bought a standard-duty Titan rotary cutter with a grade 2 shear bolt. My Kioti DK4510 has an electic/hydraulic PTO clutch, so there's no way to "ease the PTO into gear." Every time I use the cutter, another shear bolt bites the dust. I cured that by moving up to a Grade 5 bolt. I still engage at the lowest possible RPM, then ease the throttle up to the desired speed. I've been told that this will void the warranty, but a cutter that eats shear bolts is useless to me.

 

[SplitHoof]

I bought a standard-duty Titan rotary cutter with a grade 2 shear bolt. My Kioti DK4510 has an electic/hydraulic PTO clutch, so there's no way to "ease the PTO into gear." Every time I use the cutter, another shear bolt bites the dust. I cured that by moving up to a Grade 5 bolt. I still engage at the lowest possible RPM, then ease the throttle up to the desired speed. I've been told that this will void the warranty, but a cutter that eats shear bolts is useless to me.

Yep, I’m not a huge fan of the electronic pto yet!

 

[ruffdog]

Yep, I’m not a huge fan of the electronic pto yet!

Same here....at least my Toolcat has a soft enough startup that doesn't sheer pins.

 

[SplitHoof]

Same here....at least my Toolcat has a soft enough startup that doesn't sheer pins.

As dumb as it sounds, turning the steering while turning the pto switch on helps reduce that initial shock.

 

[art]

One of the problems with shear bolts on older machines is the holes get egged out from being sheared. Just need to make the holes round again and the problem goes away. We have had issues with some pto designs on tractors that are not quite as good as marketed and do have issues with some pto machines. It could also be a tractor issue and to test on other machines could show that weakness. With the land pride units we have not had issues with shear bolts shearing as being an issue.

 

[Fallon]

As dumb as it sounds, turning the steering while turning the pto switch on helps reduce that initial shock.

It depends on where the hydraulic pressure is comming from. A good handful have a pump in the transmission to run transmission stuff. Kubota GST transmissions are this way. Steering wont slow that internal pump down or take any of its flow.

I havent had any issues with the electrohydraulic PTO on my Kubota L4060. It starts pretty smoothly.

 

[SplitHoof]

Well my pto starts pretty smoothly, but so does whatever its attached to it. Zero to speed in .25 seconds!! I miss being able to slowly ramp it up.

 

[RTBee]

I bought a standard-duty Titan rotary cutter with a grade 2 shear bolt. My Kioti DK4510 has an electic/hydraulic PTO clutch, so there's no way to "ease the PTO into gear." Every time I use the cutter, another shear bolt bites the dust. I cured that by moving up to a Grade 5 bolt. I still engage at the lowest possible RPM, then ease the throttle up to the desired speed. I've been told that this will void the warranty, but a cutter that eats shear bolts is useless to me.

I had the same issue with a 6' HD King Kutter. Warranty says you can use nothing but grade 2 shear bolts, but I had the same problem. Just engaging the PTO would shear the bolt. So I stepped up to a grade 5 and no problems since. Like you said, cutter is useless if it keeps shearing the bolt.

 

[Trophyduck]

Well I have tried the turning the wheels trick and I also make sure the shaft is at the correct, level angle. Now it starts up so smooth sometimes you can hardly feel or hear it engage.....go figure. It seems that if I don't have it just right, it will slam it.....At least I can now get a field cut without replacing a few bolts.
THANKS guys!

On a side note, I talked to my dealer again about it and he said to go up to grade 5 if I keep having issues....it will shear just fine he says...

 

[RTBee]

So was it the turning the wheel? or the angle of the shaft when engaging? Either way, glad you're back to cutting! It's frustrating when you want to do something that seems so simple and have problems like that.