Chattering QA palte - One Fix

[SwampmanLA]

Someone posted a fix for the noisy chatter of the QA plate when mowing. That fix consisted of three bolts and tapped holes at the top of the QA plate. He said it worked fine to quiet down the chatter but was a little hard to switch between between attachments. Sorry but I can't find the link or remember who wrote it. Well that got me to thinking................

Why not use the locking dogs of the QA assembly to pin the QA plate tightly to the tractor. The dogs move out the way to provide clearance for swapping attachments and it works for all your attachments. So what I cane up with is two steel wedges welded on the dogs. Have a look as the work great.

Swamp

 

[BobRip]

Sounds like and looks like a good idea. I can't think of any negatives. Please update us as you gain experience with using it.

 

[kmaz]

Someone posted a fix for the noisy chatter of the QA plate when mowing. That fix consisted of three bolts and tapped holes at the top of the QA plate. He said it worked fine to quiet down the chatter but was a little hard to switch between between attachments. Sorry but I can't find the link or remember who wrote it. Well that got me to thinking................

Why not use the locking dogs of the QA assembly to pin the QA plate tightly to the tractor. The dogs move out the way to provide clearance for swapping attachments and it works for all your attachments. So what I cane up with is two steel wedges welded on the dogs. Have a look as the work great.

Swamp

Hey swamp, that was me. Ive since stopped using two of the bolts because it made it tempermental hooking up.
I did however take the same idea as you used except instead of rigging the quick attach , on each individual attachment i installed two 3/8" set screws through the attachment and then while the attachment is mounted, adjusted the set screws to take up slack pushing the quick attach tabs snug to the slots....tough to explain , idid it to the LMB and the mini hoe.
The reason i chose to work it on the attachment end rather than the quick attach end like you did is i didnt want to rely on every female attach plate being exactly the same.

Kris

 

[woodlandfarms]

That looks pretty cool. Where did you source the steel? Seems like thick piece....

 

[SwampmanLA]

That looks pretty cool. Where did you source the steel? Seems like thick piece....

I bought a piece of blade steel form Agri Supply for another project and used a bit of it for the wedges. ND72 NOBLE/JOHN DEERE 72 DO ALL BLADE - Agri Supply This blade was much larger than I expected but having some extra stock around is a good thing.

Swamp

 

[woodlandfarms]

I bought a piece of blade steel form Agri Supply for another project and used a bit of it for the wedges. ND72 NOBLE/JOHN DEERE 72 DO ALL BLADE - Agri Supply This blade was much larger than I expected but having some extra stock around is a good thing.

Swamp

Good idea. I got a stack of 3/8" blades off my hog... Will cut and weld this winter....

 

[ponytug]

Great job! I have the same issue and I had thought about doing this or putting a layer of industrial belting on the attachments that aren't snug.

I did have one concern about wedging the Q/A plates, which was that the wedges might loosen, because there would be active pressure driving the Q/A cams to loosen. What do you think?

Since you are doing the experiment, it will be interesting to see if it causes you any issues.

Thanks for sharing the fix; it is great to see these creative solutions!

All the best,

Peter

Someone posted a fix for the noisy chatter of the QA plate when mowing. That fix consisted of three bolts and tapped holes at the top of the QA plate. He said it worked fine to quiet down the chatter but was a little hard to switch between between attachments. Sorry but I can't find the link or remember who wrote it. Well that got me to thinking................

Why not use the locking dogs of the QA assembly to pin the QA plate tightly to the tractor. The dogs move out the way to provide clearance for swapping attachments and it works for all your attachments. So what I cane up with is two steel wedges welded on the dogs. Have a look as the work great.

Swamp

 

[SwampmanLA]

Sounds like and looks like a good idea. I can't think of any negatives. Please update us as you gain experience with using it.

I am happy to say that my PT mowing is MUCH less noisy. Matter of fact, now that the QA plate noise is gone I found that the spacer rings on the front wheels were almost as bad at making noise. That was easy, I took them off and stored them in the tool box, noise eliminated! For a quieter ride, something like this is a must do.

Swamp

 

[SnowRidge]

I wear shooting muffs when mowing. Don't hear a thing.

 

[Marks481]

thanks alot guys.

now I am embarrassed when I mow... never realized that all the clanging was due to the QA plate.

Drove by a neighbors house one morning at 0600, and someone (professional) was out mowing with a zero turn mower that was so quiet that I couldn't even here the motor from 20' away.

Guess I will have to unpack the welder, wire up some sort of outlet for it (ust moved), and work on that QA mod and exhaust mod. After I get the boat in the water (new house has a dock...)

 

[MuncyBob]

Shooting muffs and no neighbors works for me...seems like a good idea though.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Swampman. Can you keep us (me) updated on this upgrade. The only concern I have with it is that the wedges get stuck down in there if I am doing extreme pushing / pulling... That they settle down in there and won't come out. I guess the hydraulic ram there is pretty strong....

Thanks

Carl

 

[MossRoad]

I am happy to say that my PT mowing is MUCH less noisy. Matter of fact, now that the QA plate noise is gone I found that the spacer rings on the front wheels were almost as bad at making noise. That was easy, I took them off and stored them in the tool box, noise eliminated! For a quieter ride, something like this is a must do.

Swamp

What did you use instead of the spacer rings? Just curious.

 

[woodlandfarms]

Uhh. What are spacer rings on a 422? On the 1800 series it is what keeps the tires apart....

 

[SwampmanLA]

Swampman. Can you keep us (me) updated on this upgrade. The only concern I have with it is that the wedges get stuck down in there if I am doing extreme pushing / pulling... That they settle down in there and won't come out. I guess the hydraulic ram there is pretty strong....

Thanks

Carl

Yesterday, I used my mini-hoe to dig a 130' x 15" trench, installed some pipe, and covered it using the back blade. I had no trouble with the dogs sticking on either attachment.

 

[SwampmanLA]

What did you use instead of the spacer rings? Just curious.

Nothing. I have one spacer under the deck to raise the deck a bit. The other spacers were just sitting on the top jumping around making noise, so I took those off and put them in the tool box. The mower works the same, just with less noise.

 

[SwampmanLA]

Uhh. What are spacer rings on a 422? On the 1800 series it is what keeps the tires apart....

The spacer rings I am talking about are the height adjusting rings for the front wheels of the mower.

 

[SnowRidge]

The spacer rings being referred to go on the front caster wheel shafts to adjust the cutting height. Rings are placed either under the mounting tube or over it to set the height of the front of the deck. The rings over the mounting tube prevent the wheels from dropping down when the deck is lifted up

The rear wheels are bolted on and don't use spacer rings.