You knew it couldn't last

[LoneCowboy]

This reminded me of the comment in an earlier post of having a part that would break before damage to the tractor. Makes since to me and sounds like a good idea.

They are definately cast. Wife let the batteries run down in the camera, i'll try tomorrow, only one of the arms came in today.

But
if they were really meant to break, you would make the BOLTS, you know a $1 part breakable, not the $50 part. It's a poorly casted part, it broke right at it and the other one bent from the extra stress.
It's not supposed to break, if it was, any competent engineer would make the bolt the shear point.

 

[MikePA]

It's not supposed to break, if it was, any competent engineer would make the bolt the shear point.

Are you an engineer? Just wondering how you know the design was bad?

Perhaps with the new arms, you should not use the pins and use Gr 2 bolts instead.

 

[LoneCowboy]

Are you an engineer? Just wondering how you know the design was bad?

Perhaps with the new arms, you should not use the pins and use Gr 2 bolts instead.

Go back and reread my posts.
I'll wait.
[taptaptaptaptaptaptap]
Did I say anywhere the design was bad?
No
I said the part was bad and unlike someone else who claimed that the part is supposed to break, I disagree and say if it was supposed to be the weak link, it would be designed to fail at the bolt that holds it on, not the actual part failing. But it's not supposed to fail, except this particular one has a flaw in it and it broke.
Not once did I ever say "pins" either I said bolt, specifcally.

 

[MikePA]

Go back and reread my posts.
I'll wait.
[taptaptaptaptaptaptap]
Did I say anywhere the design was bad?
No
I said the part was bad and unlike someone else who claimed that the part is supposed to break, I disagree and say if it was supposed to be the weak link, it would be designed to fail at the bolt that holds it on, not the actual part failing. But it's not supposed to fail, except this particular one has a flaw in it and it broke.
Not once did I ever say "pins" either I said bolt, specifcally.

Part of the engineers design is what breaks under stress. Part breaks or bolt breaks. They picked the part, ergo, bad design. No, you didn't use the word design. The conclusion is the same. Simple.

Maybe once you post a picture [taptaptaptaptap] everyone will know exactly what broke.

 

[dknarnd]

Attached is a photo.

Of course, if they made this stronger, something else, something more expensive , would break. People would whine about that. They'd make that part stronger, then something else even more expensive would break. The same people would probably whine about that. Pretty soon, the tractor would be made of titanium, cost a bazillion dollars and people would whine about that.

Mike...yep that is what they look like. I'm curious to see the broken one also (taptaptaptap).

 

[geedub]

I understand designing a less expensive, easy to replace part that will fail before more expensive parts.

I also understand the concept of using a bolt or pin (cheapest part) that will fail before any other part.

One possible problem I see is that if you keep adding weaker and weaker links in the chain you end up sacrificing more and more performance. Maybe the engineers decided to make the arm the weakest link instead of lowering the threshold for stress more by using a shear pin. After all the arm is a relatively inexpensive part. This theory only works if the arm can take enough stress to make it practical to use.

Since I'm recommending a TC45 to my girlfriend I'm curious how often this part fails for other TC owners.

 

[MikePA]

Since I'm recommending a TC45 to my girlfriend I'm curious how often this part fails for other TC owners.

Since we aren't exactly sure what part failed (Brian has not confirmed the picture I posted was the part that failed on his tractor) and how, (waiting for a picture - [taptaptaptaptap]) you might be on thin ice recommending a TC.

However, while I have not read every post in every thread on TBN, I have read almost every post on the NH forums. I can not recall one person posting about a failure with any part of the 3ph on a TC.

 

[jinman]

There's so much "tapping" going on here that it sounds like a Sammy Davis Jr. impersonator contest.

Here's a couple of photos of both my stabilizers. They are the slickest stabilizers I've ever had on a tractor. After fighting and destroying several of the old style fixed stabilizers and the turnbuckle type over many years, these are easily my favorite.

Are they cast iron? No, not at all. Can they be damaged? Yes! Are they stronger than a similar sized Massey Ferguson? Don't know...maybe not. Do I love this design? You betcha'!

 

[have_blue]

I will take a picture tomorrow of the break after I take it apart (it's cold and rainy out today and I'm a wimp). Looks like a cheap metal toy that's broken in half.

Cowboy, the stabilizers are designed to keep implements centered, not to take high stresses. Any ground engaging equipment should be disengaged before turning the tractor, or it will stress the stabilizers (and the entire 3PH). Rubbing hard against trees while bush hogging can also stress the stabilizers.

I hear you on the low strength metal. Having spent a career dealing with metallurgy, I am often disappointed by the misapplication of metals. However, as someone mentioned, we wouldn't want this part to be made from 100K yield strength steel. We certainly wouldn't want the rear casting brackets to fail instead of the $54 part. Maybe the part was made from dead soft steel like 1018 CRS when it should have been made from a slightly stronger grade. I wouldn't be surprised, because I've been victimized by the inappropriate use of dead soft metal in a loader bucket.

 

[Roto]

i have a box scraper on the back of my tc33d with the same stablizers and i beat the death out of it backing up and destumping and pushing stuff backwards and pulling stumps out and huge rocks and beat it to death and my stabilizers look like new. A person would have to do way more then tractor was designed for to break one UNLESS it was a defective part which may have happend to LC since he has such bad luck. I think they are plenty stong and i have yet to bend or break one and i am hard on equipment.

Mike