TuffLine not so Tuff!

[SCDolphin]

Frame on my Tuffline HD disc broke today. I went out this afternoon for a light day of disking. I hooked up my disc and pulled it up on a my trailer to take a picture. I did not notice anything abnormal but even with the disc all the way up it scapes on the ground when I put it on the trailer or take it off. I started disking with the disc level and at 70% deep cut. Later I backed off the rear disc to the flatest angle and from to about 20% of its adjustment. I was going to take some disking pictures but later when I unhooked my new TUFFLINE I realized that the frame was broken at both corners! When I looked at the picture before I started disking while on trailer I magnified the picture and I could see that the frame was already bending.
I am very careful with my equiptment but I have already had t have my QA modified.................and now this ARRRRRRRRRRG.
Anyone seen this before???

 

[MrJimi]

looks like it broke backing up?
That can be fixed with some jacking, not easy but can be done

 

[SCDolphin]

If I broke it while backing off the trailer would not the frame be bent in the othe direction?? I am dislexic so sometimes I see things backwards

 

[MrJimi]

It looks like the 3 point hitch points at pushed towards the disc area and not pulled away, that why I would say damage done backing up
I good welder/fabricator and metal man will be able to fix that, the cost may be high because there is lots of labor and metal bending involved

 

[Farmwithjunk]

When a 3-point disc is in the RAISED position, the weight of the disc would have the lower link mounts in compression (pushing forward) (And tension on the upper link mounting point) I'd think that's when and how the bending took place. From my experience, probably 90% of the frame damage to a mounted disc is the result of even the slightest hints of turning while the disc blades are in the ground. That puts tremendous stress on the frame.

That didn't "just happen". There was probably some cracking taking place for a while and it just finally broke out completely. It would have taken quite a shot to break that all at once.

There is an example of why there aren't a lot of GOOD older used 3-point disc's on the market. They take a thrashing even in routine and carefull use.

 

[Blagadan]

That sucks.
If you're going to repair it yourself, make sure you put in some gussets to strengthen up those corners. That is a critical point in the frame, I'm surprised there wasn't extra support put there by there by the manufacturers...

Have you thought about sending your pics to tuffline to show them the damage?... I'll bet their engineers would really benefit from seeing what happened. Those are good quality photos, be a shame not to show them to the manufacturers...

I agree with the guys above, looks like torsional damage for sure, repetative twisting of the frame. That could only happen over a long period of time, not instantly... How old is that disc?

Git out the welder SCDolphin!!!

 

[Skyco]

That didn't "just happen". There was probably some cracking taking place for a while and it just finally broke out completely. It would have taken quite a shot to break that all at once.

If you look close at some of the cracks you can see rust on part of the crack and shiny new crack edges on other parts of the same crack...so I agree this didn't ALL happen at once..

 

[Redbug]

That's ashame. How would you bend the frame back before welding? Jimi mentioned jacking. Just thinking out loud...I guess if you have it attached to the 3 point and use opposite force from the bend to bring it back in line? But you would put too much stress on the tractor's 3 point hitch. Probably not a good answer. Maybe using chain, chain rachet and sledge to pull things back in line? That ought to do the job...

Gussets and thick angle iron to go over the bad spots, after initial welding. That's a well made disk. Lots of heavy metal. That's obviously is the weakest portion of the disk. FwJ and Skyco made a good point...

 

[bjcsc]

Bummer. If it was me, I'd take the link pin brackets off, cut the angle out (looks to be 2x2), replace it with tube and then weld the brackets back on. How are your welding/cutting skills?

 

[SCDolphin]

What real bums me out is that I disc in really soft soil and "Redbug" can testify, I am really careful with my equipment. I wonder if the weight of the disc was just too heavy when bouncing across a field in up position.

Thanks

 

[john_bud]

What real bums me out is that I disc in really soft soil and "Redbug" can testify, I am really careful with my equipment. I wonder if the weight of the disc was just too heavy when bouncing across a field in up position.

Thanks

I'd say that there is about a 99% chance that is the root cause. The 2x2 angle is not strong. Cut it out and replace with thick wall square tube or even 2x3 tube. Don't forget to gusset the areas too.

jb

 

[Ken Cunningham]

If you can straighten out the bent pcs, then you could just cut some angle to box in the existing angle and weld away. Just had to do some sledging and welding on a 5ft box blade i bought for 250 dollars that was used. All of the bars that run up to the top link attachment points were bent, except one. Also the bottom was bent were the draft arms hook up. After using some angle to strengthen everything it looks pretty solid. Probably be around long after im gone.

 

[N80]

Hugh, I'd still take this issue up with Tuf-Line. A quality product should not fail this severely under typical use. Only you know if the disk was abused, and it sounds like it was not. Any 3 pt implement should be able to withstand some bouncing while in the raised position. Its the nature of tractors and 3 pt units. You might not get anywhere with them, but I'd still mention it to them. And I'd mention that there are thousands of people looking at pics of your not-so-tuf-line disk on the internet. I still think Tuf-Lines higher level disks look (and cost) as good as you can get, so maybe they will stand behind the product. Worth a shot. Keep us posted.

In the meantime I intend to baby my Leinbach, especially when it comes to turning, as FWJ mentioned. It is easy to get sloppy at the end of the row and let it drag a bit through the turn.

 

[Wall]

I could fix that in about an 1 hr.

 

[N80]

I could fix that in about an 1 hr.

Hugh (SCDolphin) might be interested in your hourly rates.

 

[bjcsc]

I could fix that in about an 1 hr.

Me, too. That's why I inquired about his ability to fix it. He's 1 1/2 hrs from here and if he wanted to haul it we could knock it out...

 

[Redbug]

If it broke because of driving around with it raised and bouncing that could do it. But, Hugh has not hardly used this disk at all. It is almost new. He has not driven around much at all with it. I can attest that he is sometimes overly careful with his stuff. Much more so than I. Maybe a couple bad welds, (along what Skyco pointed out), which caused the thing to come apart...

 

[Ken Cunningham]

SCdolphin

Is that angle on it 2x2 or 3x3? We have some angle laying around at work and i could cut ya two pcs to box it in with. Its loacated on veterans rd near the VA hospital, is that near you? The two pcs that run up to the toplink will probably be the hardest to straighten out, I know because i just had to do that on a used boxblade yesterday. Of couse you would still have to be able to weld it up.

 

[builder2]

I can see that happening if you were or have been getting a lot of bounce and if there was additional weight added to make the disk cut in. It is surprising that they did not use box tubing as most of the rest of the disk is made that way. Definately would go with box tubing for the repair IMO.

Paul

 

[bjcsc]

The problem isn't how he used/transported it, the problem is that 2x2 (or 3x3 if that's what it is - looks like 2x2 though) angle won't do what they asked it to do. Can you imagine the torque? They knew they had a flex problem as that's why the flatbar is triangled in on the backside of the lower link brackets. Boxing it in would be fine if it hadn't already stretched, distorted and torn, but IMO it's a major waste of time straightening any of that. 15 minutes with a torch, 10 minutes with a grinder, 10 minutes cutting the tube, and 20 minutes to weld it up. Done.