M135X with front suspension??

[GinNB]

rjkobbeman, I meant the option, not the whole tractor. thx though.

slowzuki, I mean the sprayer slamming sideways on the 3pt as the tractor rocks back and forth quickly. It's hard to get all of the slack out of the sway links and lift pins, although I put washers on the pins to remove some of it. That is mostly caused by rear axle movement, although hits on the front end can rock the tractor as well. When the rear axle rocks quickly, the sprayer swings, bangs, and causes the booms to fold. It'd be nice to replace the lift arm adjusters with something threaded, like I've seen on New Hollands. That way they could be drawn tight and eliminate the play.

 

[slowzuki]

My MF has threaded adjusters too, you can jam it tight to get rid of a lot of movement and has hammer tabs to slack it off when unmounting the equipment. I do that with my mounted mower conditioner so it cuts straight. My 50 hp kubota you can get some slack out like you say but its still loose. I hate it wandering when snowblowing, hard to steer straight when the chute in in your field of view. I also hate when I'm logging as the winch slams back and forth driving down skid trails.

I'm sure you could fab up something quickly with some rachet type chain binders to take the slack out. I don't think the front suspension is going to help you much. I wonder if you could attach a shock between your drawbar and one of the arms and let it soak up the sway?

 

[GinNB]

Ooooh, trust me- the front end sees its share of banging too, but until they offer rear suspension it's the closest I can get!

I've thought of rigging up something with, say, two toplinks instead of the telescoping swaybars with pins for slack removal.

 

[slowzuki]

The problem you'll find is the tractor is actually tossed side to side pretty roughly on bumps. When I have my big mower swung to the rear, with the stops tight, it either tosses the front end sideways or if I have enough weight on the front end, it quite roughly swings the mower side to side with the rear tires squirming like crazy. I would think it would fold your booms up even worse if its fixed rigid. I'd suggest some kind of damper in place of the stabilizers with a bumpstop at the end of the travel so it doesn't slam.

 

[GinNB]

Best tractor I've ever had for spraying quickly relative to size was an old Ford 3000 that used chains to restrain the lift arms. The Ford design tightened the chains as the 3pt was raised, so with the exact right length chains I could raise the sprayer and have it tighten up solid. Marshmallow 11L15 tires on the front and 14.9x28s soft on the back and it'd fly over rough stuff. The only thing holding it back was tractor weight. 100gallons was a big sprayer for it even with a loader on. Went to an M9000 Kubota with 200gal sprayer at the same time and I was surprised at how much slower I had to travel. Part of that is boom design, and another part is the additional slamming. Oh, plus a change to sitting down. I can't stand in a cab and the old Ford would rock and roll quite nicely underneath me when standing. I don't miss spray drift on an open tractor though. A hard hit like you get when a short swing gets stopped suddenly will fold the new booms because the jolt overwhelms the hockeypuck and spring on the boom pivots. Added lots of spring preload and even added washers to tighten it up and it helps but still not perfect.

I think something like a threaded sway preventer with, say, a shock or maybe a superstiff rubber dampener inserted somehow would be ideal. As I raise groundspeed again with sprayer and linkage improvements it'll make tractor suspension and tire cushiness improvements even more important.
I'll be widening the rear track over the winter to reduce rocking and allow lower tire pressures. Didn't want to do that before because my float was 96" wide, but I've widened it to 102" so I can widen the rears a little more without worrying about falling off or wide loads.

I hear you on your mower problem. They're a LOT of weight way out from the lift pins.

 

[slowzuki]

Hmm, I know my MF has an optional set of holes on the hitch that does the tighten when raised, its normally used for big 3 point hitch plows to stop sway when raised. I'm sure others have this.

I wonder if a rubber bump stop or timbren might insert in somewhere to help.

 

[GinNB]

I'm going to run it by my dealer this winter and maybe take one of the telescoping sway-stoppers off the tractor and spy on the New Hollands to see if their parts are interchangeable.