Blade bolt advice needed...

[erkme73]

I was helping to clear some <2" pine trees for a neighbor for the last two days. At some point, the hitch bar on my tractor worked itself loose, lost the pin, and dropped into the mow area. I saw the shiny round hitch ball and thought, "That's an odd place to put a Christmas ornament."

Stupid. I should have stopped to investigate. Instead, shortly afterward, I noticed a horrible, thrashing, out-of-balance wobble. I immediately shut down the PTO and engine. Raising the bush hog, I found only one blade attached. Following my path, I found the blade, the blade bolt, the nut, and about 10' further down, my hitch bar/ball - pretty gouged.

So, it would appear the 1" thick bar knocked the crap out of the blade/bolt/nut, and caused it to come off. The bolt was stripped to some degree, and the nut had no threads left. So, this may have been happening for some time before hitting the bar.

In either case, the bolt is labeled BB55K. It is 3 1/16" overall length. The threaded bolt is 1 1/8" in diameter. The shoulder portion is 1.5" in diameter. And the head is 2.5" in diameter.

I've found several bolt kits that match these specs on Amazon - but lead times are crippling. My TSC store shows they have "CountyLine 4-6 foot rotary cutter" bolts which look identical to what is on my cutter - I don't know the brand, but I'm certain it's not CountyLine.

Short of taking my calipers to the TSC store (which is about 1.5hrs RT), does anyone have the specs on the TSC bolts?

I will be replacing both bolts. Don't feel like tempting fate with the other one...

 

[RickB]

A dealer for whatever brand your cutter is (you did not bother to include that important information) would be the logical place to buy replacement blade bolts.

 

[Diggin It]

First off, County Line is a label and color, not a manufacturer It could be made by King Kutter, Taylor Pittsburgh, Rhino or maybe a couple of other manufacturers. Your's may be the same manufacturer as the CL, in which case the bolt should fit. Determine that and you'll be better off. The parts diagrams will have the bolt details ... usually. Often these are specialty parts that have to be ordered from a dealer, but not always.

All that said, I'd be looking deeper at the spindle, bearings and the mounting points to the deck. A strong impact can cause internal damage or bend the deck surface taking the whole spindle assembly out of alignment.