DieselBound
Elite Member
Had the 3pt stabilizer arm plate break while mowing: pieces got chucked back into my flail and made quite the racket). Local dealer failed to get back to me on ordering a replacement part so I had someone fabricate a new one. While cleaning up the tractor a bit I spotted this on the other side:
Chipped away the paint to expose what is clearly a fracture. There's likely a bit of stressing/flexing going on and that results in the paint cracking and water being trapped.
Here's what the original from the other side (which, obviously, broke) looked like:
Metal between the bolt holes had long ago been compromised and then the outer ears finally broke.
Poor metallurgy? Poor design? Bad/inappropriate paint? Or just too much stress? (<- at 1k hours the tractor has seen a lot of work, 1200 lb box blade and 1200 lb flail mower [<- side shifted and being pulled through heavy blackberries])
Keep a close eye on paint cracks like this!
Chipped away the paint to expose what is clearly a fracture. There's likely a bit of stressing/flexing going on and that results in the paint cracking and water being trapped.Here's what the original from the other side (which, obviously, broke) looked like:
Metal between the bolt holes had long ago been compromised and then the outer ears finally broke.Poor metallurgy? Poor design? Bad/inappropriate paint? Or just too much stress? (<- at 1k hours the tractor has seen a lot of work, 1200 lb box blade and 1200 lb flail mower [<- side shifted and being pulled through heavy blackberries])
Keep a close eye on paint cracks like this!