3-Point Hitch 3pt draft arm broken-3720

[beenthere]

They for sure are not designed to push but only 'to pull'.
And you are probably correct that better to do damage to the arm than a casting.

Deere seems pretty good at replacing, even tho suspecting it is likely abuse.

-sideline-
That knowledge of replacement goes back to when I was a lad and my father, as an Engineer for Deere, traveled a fair amount. In the late 50's, he was asked while on a trip to New Mexico, to check in on a rancher who kept breaking the front pedestal of his tricycle tractors. They kept replacing them and wanted to know why this particular rancher had such a time. Dad reported back that on his visit the rancher was moving in high gear, going cross country and bouncing into prairie dog holes.

Deere added a test at their test farm site, as my girl friends father reported one of his routine tests was to space railroad ties at certain distances apart and driving numerous times across them to get the front end bouncing up and down in an attempt to break that pedestal. He said it was very boring and a rough ride.

 

[KennedyDiesel]

I guess my point was that the original broke w/o any bend. Simply split. The replacement at least flexed. Might be a matter of a material hardness change in an effort to add some resilience.

Aside from trying to pull too much, I figure the mistake that I made was to have the one rear tractor tire against a tree. As it pulled the blade was in the ground and the force twisted the winch against the tractor. Add to it the slight side hill. One arm bent like a boomerang and the other (tree side) bent just a bit and was easily pressed straight.

Next round I'll be more careful and if I try anything as big as this I'll run down to the lower pulley. Having the winch pulley up high like it is plus the blade digging in puts a pretty fair compression force on the draft arms.