MT160D

[Capricious]

I have throught about enclosing the I-beam with some expanded metal or something, for holding small objects, but other than installing the slip clutch (and shortening the PTO shaft to suit) I think i am about done putting work and money into this machine for the moment until I see if it is going to hold-up under a load.


Once the clutch and shaft are done, I need to load the thing onto my trailer and see how it is going to pull, as I am bumping up against the limits of both my trailer and truck. I have already weighed the empty trailer on a truck scale, and will weigh the loaded trailer and the loaded truck/trailer combo.

 

[Capricious]

Received the slip clutch on Monday







I assume the "over-hanging" load will not be an issue with the gearbox bearings




That's a nasty-looking chunk of steel to have spinning @ 9 rotations per second. Perhaps a guard could be cut out
of a 5 gallon bucket



The slip clutch adds about (5) inches to the driveline, so the shaft will need to be cut down (5) inches for that, and it
wouldn't hurt to cut a few more inches out of it, as it is almost too long as is.




EDITED TO ADD:

Checking out slip clutch adjusting:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/119531-how-properly-adjust-king-kutter.html

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...920-pto-driveline-slip-clutch-adjustment.html

 

[Capricious]

No work on the tractor last night (Tuesday). Had to go vote, but as i got home before the wife did, I took the bathroom scale out to
weigh the kubota model 342, 42" rotary cutter.



385 lbs, with PTO shaft, slip clutch & limit chains. The shaft will need to be shortened about 5 inches to allow for the clutch in the driveline, and as the shaft was a bit long to begin with, I will probably shorten it about 8 inches or so. Since one side of the shaft is a solid square steel bar, that will reduce the weight by a few pounds.

 

[Capricious]

Ran into an issue with the PTO shaft when i went to shorten it to allow for the addition of a slip clutch:

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/319182-shorten-pto-shaft.html#post3859537

Hope to resolve that issue this week.

In the mean time, actually tried to use the tractor for something useful on Saturday. The wife and i do volunteer work for
a charity, and they have a couple acres out back that they would like to put a walking path on, either gravel or mulch. In order to contain the fill I suggested trying to grade a shallow trench with a vertical outer edge on each side of the path,
and crowned in the center. An issue is being able to run mowers over the path, especially since I have been the one doing
the mowing.

Used the repaired angle blade, tilted and angled, and cut a "test" path in a secluded area of the property:



First grading I have ever done.

Found out that the 4 wheel drive does, indeed, work. Had one front wheel spinning and both front wheels spinning at different times when i went too deep with the blade. Found out the diff. lock does not work, but in playing with it afterwards I think the problem is the pedal out of adjustment.

Tractor seemed to run OK, but it was only about 30 minutes of work so not a real long test.

 

[techwrtr2]

Little beast will be earning its keep for you doing projects you didn't know you had.

 

[Capricious]

Loaded up the tractor & rotary cutter and headed for the truck scales




According to the scale, the loaded trailer weighs 2780 lbs.

I had already weighed the empty trailer- 1020 lbs including a 3 ft gate, which I have removed, and excluding spare tire, which I have added. Does not include the ramps I made, which were in the truck.




8 chains, 8 load binders and one winch cable. Load is secured. The cutter does hang off the back a couple feet.







Mama's bathroom scale sez about 250 lbs tongue weight (Mama wasn't home). Could maybe use a little more tongue weight, but the hitch says 300 lbs max, unless a weight distributing hitch is used. No indications of any fish-tailing on the highway.

 

[skylarkguy]

Have a safe trip. Looks good to me.

 

[Capricious]

It'll be at least another week before I hit the road for the first real test of this thing in the field.
But I wanted to make sure I wasn't overloading my trailer, or my tow vehicle, and i was able to wrangle free use
of a truck scale for a few minutes, so I made good use of it.



I ordered a new PTO shaft (story here :http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/319182-shorten-pto-shaft.html )


The shaft just showed up 5 minutes ago, but i had it delivered to work, and since the weather is nice today I rode the bicycle to work, so I sitting here wondering if I can get this shaft home on the bike, or just wait until Monday, when it is supposed to rain and I will probably drive to work.

Agri supply had a good price on it; about 90 bucks (plus shipping). I think I was able to find exactly the same shaft elsewhere on the net for over twice the money.

 

[techwrtr2]

Nice on the shaft. I've looked for one to put on my old Woods mower to make selling easier and it hasn't exactly been successful.

 

[284 International]

That's a really good looking load! Threads about "how to secure my ______ " always seem to bring out vast amounts of criticism, but that load is well secured, carefully managed, and attentively driven, by the sounds of things. Well done! I really like that you have secured the machine so well. Extra time securing things down is nothing compared to the time spent cleaning up a mess! I have found that a motorcycle tiedown can do well to ensure chain overrun or a bit of slackness is kept taut, but it doesn't look like you have any need of that. Again, bravo!

I have really enjoyed reading your writeups about everything, and the excellent pictures. I love bringing back abused and neglected compact tractors into service, and I expect this one will serve you well now.