Mowing NH 489 Haybine - tongue removal and replace

[Sawdustsmb]

I need to transport a 489 haybine about 100 miles. Rather than drag it down the road I would like to trailer it - requiring removal of the tongue. I've heard it is a bear to reassemble the internal pto shaft. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you, Bob

 

[aczlan]

I havent had ours apart, but it appears that the joints are splined connections with rollpins through them and possibly setscrews to hold them solidly. Do you have a manual for it? That should have directions to pull the tongue.

Aaron Z

 

[Sawdustsmb]

Unfortunately I don't have a manual.

 

[RickB]

The rear U-joint yoke floats on the slipclutch input shaft splines. To reassemble the tongue/shaft, remove three bolts retaining the front bearing housing in the tongue. Shove the shaft further into the tongue so enough sticks out to sling with a piece of wire or twine. Feed the tongue/shaft into the trailframe and connect the shaft to the slipclutch. Remove the sling, install the upper & lower pins & retaining hardware. put the shaft back in position (don't pull it too far!!!) and reinstall the bearing housing retaining bolts.
Back off the flotation spring tension prior to removing the tongue.

 

[Sawdustsmb]

thank you, Rick. Sounds very doable.

Bob

 

[SLHawkins]

SawDustMB,
What size trailer do you have? It does indeed sounds like an easy job to remove the tongue. However, after several hours of trying to remove the tongue off of my NH492 when I moved it from my uncle's farm to mine, we finally decided to just angle it on the trailer and get on down the road. It was a little over a hundred miles. There was some over-hang. Though close, we did not exceed 10' and definitely were well within 12'. We hung a red flag on the tongue and were homeward bound. The 489 should have a few inches on the 492, so it should actually fit better with less over-hang. We brought this load off the farm through a goat trail, down some back country roads (1-lane), through town, over state roads, and up I-95 without any issues. One thing I didn't realize is just how heavy this piece of equipment was until we tried to get it up on the trailer. But, that is another story...:confused2:

Good luck!

Hawk

 

[Sawdustsmb]

My trailer is 8 X 14 and that is an interesting concept. It would seem to make it a bit more difficult to load (from the side) but if that tongue doesn't want to come apart..... I'll do some measureing tomorrow. I could deal with 10 feet!
thank you
Bob

 

[Sawdustsmb]

Hawk
I thought the 489 and 492 were pretty much the same except for paint scheme. You are right they are a heavy machine - pulling it through the mud last fall was interesting at times.

bob

 

[RickB]

Hawk
I thought the 489 and 492 were pretty much the same except for paint scheme. bob

They are. I seriously doubt that you will measure a 3" difference anywhere between the two unless one has a flat tire. 1465 is no different either.

 

[SLHawkins]

Hawk
I thought the 489 and 492 were pretty much the same except for paint scheme. You are right they are a heavy machine - pulling it through the mud last fall was interesting at times.

bob

Sawdust,
That could be. I was just making an assumption. Like you, I did not have a manual at the time. Is your trailer a deck over? If so, load from the side. The drop deck we were using definitely came in handy. To load and unload, we just placed some boards off the side and backed it onto the trailer, anchored one wheel in place, and swung the haybine around until we positioned as much of it as possible on the trailer as we could. That sounds a whole lot easier than it actually is (you can never have too many chains, straps, and load binders :laughing. And, it is definitely a 2-3 person job. Fortunately, there are banks on both my uncle's farm and my place high enough to be almost level with the trailer.

I'd be interested in hearing how it goes for you.

Hawk