JWR, I know this is an old thread. Just wanted to let you know that my BH296 cutter has failed in the same place and in the same fashion. I own a fab shop so I have already repaired the casting with nickel rods but I can tell you and Bush Hog exactly why it failed...... Although, from the outside, the casting looks very beefy and thick, the lower side wall of the box is less than 1/8" thick in some places. Way to thin for this application!!! As you know, the base mounting flange on the gearbox is about 7/8" thick then it immediately transitions to 1/8" thick up the sides. When welding a crack in cast iron it is standard practice to drill a hole at each end of a crack to help prevent the crack from continuing on after the original crack is repaired. I was expecting the sidewall to be at least a 1/4" to 3/8" thick when drilling but the bit unexpectedly punched right through the side with no trouble. ...
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Mr. basicequipment -- that is a huge help on this issue !! Great work and thanks for taking time to let us all know. I would bet that Bush Hog themselves would really love to hear your story and what you found. When I had lots of contact with them in 2015 I think they genuinely DID NOT KNOW why the failures were happening. They told me then they had "seen this before" and neither they nor their supplier could explain it. I say you just explained it big time. In spite of the dealer (central WV) bad mouthing me and accusing me of abusing the hog, the company backed it fully and told me they would have backed it with this type of failure no matter whether it was under warrantee or not. I'd like to see you have a good conversation with them and explain what you found. I expect first, that they would thank you, and second that they would support the product long-term. If you do all that let us know. Contact at Bush Hog is Chris Cook at
chris.cook@bushhog.com email. You can message me through TBN with your email address and I'll be glad to send you copies of my correspondence with Chris Cook. Thanks so much for shedding serious light on this issue !
[By the way: After Bush Hog replaced the gear box I have put at least another 50 hours on it with no problems. At least not gearbox problems. I have had to tighten the big center nut holding the stump jumper on to the gearbox main output shaft a couple of times. I am generally clipping pasture fields and some autumn olive brush clearing but rarely cutting anything all that thick.]
