Now I have really gone and done it

[MossRoad]

I'd cut the cylinder mount brackets off the broken plate, square up the edges of the hole wider than it is now, weld in some thick plate and weld the brackets back on.

If you are not comfortable doing the repair yourself, you could at least tack the broken piece back in place to get it on a trailer.

Be sure to clean out all that grass and debris before you weld, though... and have a hose standing by, too.

 

[woodlandfarms]

I have tacked it up for the run into town.. I think it will hold.

If I was a better welder this would be a simple fix like you suggested. A quick few cuts and lay down some rod / wire.

But, I am not a welder. I still have not mastered vertical welds (and my horizontal ones, well. 2" of good looking welds and then 8" of disaster is how it usually looks).

So, drive it into town tonight. Will see how that all goes...

 

[KentT]

If nothing else, this post should serve to remind us of the "harnessed" power of hydraulics. To rip that steel the way it is ripped took some force...

I think I'd ask your welder to shape and add a reinforcement plate to the back, and perhaps also a strap to the front, above the cylinder's mounting point. Welds are brittle, in comparison, and will crack instead of flex the way the steel apparently has been doing to weaken it....

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Carl,

This break was not your abuse. Your hydraulic system should have reliefs built in to bleed off excessive pressure which would cause this. Your cylinder rods would also have bent before this steel would have broken. That type of cylinder mount is not meant for that application. It is too square. I'm no engineer, but I'll give this a shot. The load needs to be spread out in a linear fashion rather than spread over a plane. Looking at your pic, there is very little vertical loading, it's all horizontal. They should have used a clevis on the cylinder and welded a single piece of steel about twice the length of the current one to the tractor frame to distribute the load over a longer length rather than over a square plane. Maybe I am wrong, it surely would not be the first time. I am merely going by what I have seen. Hopefully Spyderlk or 3rrl sees this and can explain it better.

I tell you what, it's going to get mighty boring in the PT forum when you get back to work.

Andy.

 

[toy]

Woodlandfarms in post #3 you mentioned one steering cylinder opperatted and then the other if I understand what you are saying with both cylinders hooked up to hydroulics when you started turning the steering wheel one cylinder would extend and retract before the other would start moving. If that was what you were saying, I would say that the cylinder that wasn't hooked up to the machine because the mounting point broke would be the cylinder that would extend and retract first, if that is the case that was because it had less resistance to overcome because it wasn't doing any work the one that was still hooked up had all of the resistance. If you had plugged both hoses going to the broke cylinder then the other cylinder would have worked as normal but with the exception it was doing all of the work so there would be more strain on it since the other cylinder was brook loose. you wouldn't have had to made the extra turns on the steering wheel to make the turn. Imagine having to bring the machine out with a total loss of all of the steering circuit, it could be done but unless you had another machine to pull it with you would have had to used scotches to get it to turn the way you wanted it to go that would be fun.
.

 

[Rara Avis]

I have a Lincoln AC/DC Tombstone but I am really not very good at welding. I have a lot to learn.

I probably could do this... But as I want it done right once I am going to try and get the guys to get it done this week...

OK...I think I'm beginning to understand...I remember the thread that said you had to own a welder to buy a PT...I missed the fact, that you don't have to BE a weldor to own a PT...

I think you should designate your place: PT - Destructive Testing Site - West

I hope this will be the last I hear of you having something fail on your machine...

 

[Sedgewood]

If you had plugged both hoses going to the broke cylinder then the other cylinder would have worked as normal but with the exception it was doing all of the work ...

I'll vouch for that - having broken a steering cylinder hose or two out in the field. Capping/plugging the offending cylinder off works fine - you end up steering with one cylinder. It takes twice the effort but you get home ok. Maybe at the risk of tearing the other cylinder off since it's doing all the work. Hmmm... maybe Previous Owner did just that and set up those crack traps for ya.... Maybe I've set up some crack traps of my own...

Sedgewood

 

[woodlandfarms]

Thanks for the info on the cylinder. Will keep that in mind, but hopefully there is no next time.

Drove the tractor into town on the weld I did last night. Turn while you are moving, not stopped. That was the motto.

Interesting to drive this thing in town. Lots of looks and questions. But everyone thought it was a logging vehicle of some sort...

 

[cqaigy2]

They probably thought it was some kind of skidder.

 

[Wayne County Hose]

Another update.

Well, the local welding shop sold its remote truck... Grumble....

You should have bought it.