Rookie snowblower (buying?) mistakes

[JCA]

Thought I'd pass along a caution in the hopes of saving some of y'all some time and money. Last spring I bought a front-mount snowblower (used) as part of a package with my (new) Kubota tractor (B7510). Bought it at the dealer so I didn't check it out that thoroughly; assumed it would be okay. That was way back in March. So I recently put it on my tractor, lubed it up (found it was missing a grease nipple, had a broken shear pin, and needed some crank-case oil), and set to work. At about the 1 hour mark, something stopped turning. The main crankshaft housing and ripped right off the subframe. So I bought another housing; comparing the two it was clear that the old one had been repaired before with a not-too-professional weld job. I bought the new part ($89) and I'll be repairing it this afternoon. All the other parts SEEM okay, though I'll see for sure soon enough.

Not sure what the problem was, but I've learned a couple of lessons. The first is that the bolts were missing, suggesting that the problem was that the bolts holding the housing to the subrame had vibrated lose--probably what caused the failure. I made sure my own bolts--the ones I installed--were tight, but this piece was already installed; it didn't occur to me to check them for tightness.

So I guess there's a couple of lessons: always check and tighten ALL bolts, not just the obvious ones, and always check an attachment over carefully, even if you buy it off the dealer's lot. (On the other hand, this was my first 'blower, so I might not've even known what to look for.

Cheers,
Jim

 

[JDFANATIC]

JCA,

Didn't the dealer offer any support/warranty? Even for a used piece of equipment, I would think they should have at least checked it out. At my local Deere dealer, they had a used Befco 3PH spreader I was interested in. The salesman and I struck up a deal, but the service department nixed it, when they found the gearbox was close to being shot.

Hope it all works out.