Rotary Cutter Check all your bolts...!!!!

[brin]

After all these years I have learned the hard way but got off easy..Last week I bush hogged 14 acres and just now was servicing the tractor and stopped as was looking over the bush hog...I was surprised to see I am now missing two key bolts and nuts...one going to a side arm support and one going to the tail wheel assembly...the adjusting bolt and nut...I drove 5 miles back on the highway like that...next time I will check all bolts before I leave to go to the farm and before I leave the farm on the return 5 mile trip on the county road..Would not be too good to be going 13 MPH down the county road and have the bush hog fall apart behind me..I'm just passing my error on.....

 

[RoyJackson]

If you review your tractor and implement manuals, I think you'll see the requirements to check fastener torques at specific intervals.

 

[MESSMAKER]

I would like to tell you I check all the nuts for tightness but I just do it after something comes loose.

 

[RoyJackson]

I would like to tell you I check all the nuts for tightness but I just do it after something comes loose.

You mean after your tractor rolls over due to a wheel coming off?

I don't do this (since I check bolts with a torque wrench), at least stripe the bolts. Striping is making a mark across the bolt to the adjacent surface (using a paint marker for maximum durability). That way, a visual check is quite adequate. If the line across the fastener and adjacent surface do not match, your fastener has loosened.

 

[RTII]

You mean after your tractor rolls over due to a wheel coming off?

I don't do this (since I check bolts with a torque wrench), at least stripe the bolts. Striping is making a mark across the bolt to the adjacent surface (using a paint marker for maximum durability). That way, a visual check is quite adequate. If the line across the fastener and adjacent surface do not match, your fastener has loosened.

Roy,

Good idea on the stripeing. I'm gonna do the same on appropriate bolts. Thanks for the tip.

Reily

 

[Thomas]

I carry asst. of bolts w/washers and nuts plus pins just in case,also vice grips just in case.

 

[Ken45101]

If you review your tractor and implement manuals, I think you'll see the requirements to check fastener torques at specific intervals.

True, but I figure that section is written by the lawyers. "Check before every use. Check every ten hours...."

Ken

 

[SPYDERLK]

True, but I figure that section is written by the lawyers. "Check before every use. Check every ten hours...."

Ken

Yes! Specd fasteners assembled to full design torque spec will not loosen unless there has been subsequent damage to the assembly.
larry

 

[RoyJackson]

Yes! Specd fasteners assembled to full design torque spec will not loosen unless there has been subsequent damage to the assembly.
larry

These fasteners are subject to a lot of vibration which can loosen even torqued bolts and nuts. Bolts torqued into blind holes would be most susceptable, I think. Bolts with lock nuts would be least susceptable to loosening.
As an example, the Woods 5000 Chipper manual states not only to check the fasteners, but to not operate the chipper on a hard (paved or compressed gravel) surface due to increased vibration.

I'd like to take credit for that striping suggestion, but that process has been around for a long long time.

 

[SPYDERLK]

These fasteners are subject to a lot of vibration which can loosen even torqued bolts and nuts. Bolts torqued into blind holes would be most susceptable, I think. Bolts with lock nuts would be least susceptable to loosening.

Properly torqued joints dont move. Thats why they dont loosen under vibration. If you have things loosening short of damage to the clamped part then the design is faulty.
larry

 

[BTDT2]

I try to use lock-nuts in place of nuts that I have found were loose, and I add thread-locker before tightening loose bolts.

Given the amount of 'stuff' with nuts and bolts that I have collected over the years, I could spend most of my life just looking up torque values and re-torqueing nuts and bolts, "in accordance with manufacturer's recommended service intervals".

PS I'm the same guy that skipped reading the two pages of safety warnings on wife's new vacuum cleaner, but please don't tell anyone. Especially the guy with the antlers!

 

[BTDT2]

Properly torqued joints dont move.
larry

Just like the IRS is here to help, and the check is in the mail........right?

Properly torqued bolts can, and will, loosen- Murphy's law!:laughing:

 

[Egon]

Properly torqued bolts can, and will, loosen- Murphy's law!:laughing:

So true!

I started off with all the nuts tightened right up but folks be saying lately that I might be be working with a few loose one's!:laughing:

 

[brin]

" PS I'm the same guy that skipped reading the two pages of safety warnings on wife's new vacuum cleaner, but please don't tell anyone. Especially the guy with the antlers! "

Roy said they are horns....I think he gets pretty upset if you call them antlers...:laughing:

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Just cross thread them and tighten them with a 3/4 drive socket set.

They will never be tight but the will never come loose either. Not sure how my FIL did that but it seems to still be working.

 

[Ken45101]

Properly torqued joints dont move. Thats why they dont loosen under vibration. If you have things loosening short of damage to the clamped part then the design is faulty.
larry

I believe they safety wire many of the nuts on jet engines. I doubt that the design is faulty.

Just cross thread them and tighten them with a 3/4 drive socket set.

They will never be tight but the will never come loose either. Not sure how my FIL did that but it seems to still be working.

Just put a few drops of battery acid on the threads before tightening up. That should secure the nuts ;-)

Ken

 

[SPYDERLK]

I believe they safety wire many of the nuts on jet engines. I doubt that the design is faulty.
Ken

That is to show that attention was paid to that fastener. If it is not fully tight at least it wont loosen by unscrewing. Basically done to lessen the effect of human error. If those fastened joints are moving they are loosening by wear and problems are brewing that the safety wire only forestalls, while at the same time preventing checking the fastener. It would be interesting to know whether the safety wire has come into play at disassembly or if its just thru the hole sitting idly as it would be in a proper design properly assembled.
larry

 

[RoyJackson]

Properly torqued joints dont move. Thats why they dont loosen under vibration. If you have things loosening short of damage to the clamped part then the design is faulty.
larry

Well, I disagree with you...and I think most Mechanical Engineers would disagree with you....undoubtedly Deere disagrees with you...but you are welcome to your opinion.

Place I work at rebuilds bus transmissions and assembles train couplers for light rail. Every torqued fastener is striped.

 

[RoyJackson]

I believe they safety wire many of the nuts on jet engines. I doubt that the design is faulty.

Ken

Yes they do safety wire most fasteners (nut as well as bolts) on jet engines as well as many other aircraft components. I did a bunch of safety wiring when I was in the Navy.

Any assembly moves...any assembly (next time you fly, watch the wings). That movement as well as heat expansion and cold weather contraction can cause fasteners to loosen up.

Automotive engine heads are a bit of an exception. Head bolts or studs are designed to "stretch" which results in constant tension, thus maintaining the torque.

 

[RoyJackson]

" PS I'm the same guy that skipped reading the two pages of safety warnings on wife's new vacuum cleaner, but please don't tell anyone. Especially the guy with the antlers! "

Roy said they are horns....I think he gets pretty upset if you call them antlers...:laughing:

Well, who ever saw antlers on a bull?