3-Point Hitch How To Avoid Bending Lift Arm Adjuster ... (Again)?

[oosik]

JMHO - s219 has the answer. My big 'ol heavy rear blade is on the 3-point. I push the blade HARD to either side. The stabilizer on one side is in tension - opposite side is slack.

Proper adjustment is the answer - not going bigger. Going bigger is like putting a Grade 8 shear bolt on your PTO drive line when it should only be Grade 5. The bolt will not shear now but something else could likely break.

Another thing I notice. Where the stabilizer rods attach to your tractor is narrow - where they attach to your backhoe arms is wide. That is the direct opposite of how it is on my M6040. My stabilizer bar attachment points on my tractor are wide. Where they connect to the 3-point lift arms is narrower.

Put more plainly - your stabilizer rods are INSIDE your 3-point arms. The stabilizer rods on my M6040 are OUTSIDE my 3-point arms.

Will this make a difference - you betcha. You and I are on opposite ends of a rope. You space your feet only a foot apart. I space my feet at three feet apart. Who has the better "foundation" and can pull the hardest before they topple.

 

[Guidshir]

Related question: should the stabilizers have that slack or should they both be tightened so that the implement is fixed in place or should there be some play in the side-to-side?

 

[oosik]

My heaviest 3-point implement is my Rhino 950 - 8' wide - 1100#. I have it set up so that at FULL rise there is about 1 1/2" of slop to the left of dead center - same to the right. Full rise is when the stabilizer shackles would be at their greatest extension.

Again - if you adjust the stabilizers when at a position less than full extension - bad things can happen when you DO lift to full extension. My stabilizers are NOT like bungee cords.

I never tighten the shackles to dead-nuts full tight. No matter which implement I have on the 3-point.

 

[Guidshir]

makes sense. I always have slack in mine, but I always wondered if the abrupt swing to the side when turning would eventually harm. I did break one of the stabilizier arm links once. It was a solid, welded link between the tractor frame and the arm.

 

[oosik]

I'm always pretty careful with that big 'ol rear blade swinging out back there on the 3-point. That's an awful lot of force that can be generated if I should decide to go "hog wild" while traveling around the property. When I go over bumps - definitely know/feel that heavy blade out back.

With the blade on the ground - all the swingin' & swayin' are totally gone. And if I get too aggressive - a whole lot of grunt and the turbo will spool up.

 

[F3506]

Sometimes all the new technology forgets what used to work a long time ago. When you put it back together, put a couple of large links of chain at one end of the threaded rod so that the adjustment can only pull, not push. They used to use chains instead of solid rods for this very reason.

 

[chas0218]

Smaller length turnbuckle and add a couple links of chain that will allow for some slack but you will need to be careful swinging around you don't get it slamming back and forth.

 

[F3506]

You just put a few links of chain on so you can tighten both sides up, put tension on the arms, and stop the swinging. But if you back into something, the tension pulling on one side stops it from going further instead of an arm trying to hold it in place by pushing on the other side.