Front wheel bearings failed L5740

[buckeyefarmer]

That just shouldnt happen....

 

[Oldpath05]

What pictures I was able to find on the L5740, the front end looks heavy duty compared to my L3400 with knuckle spindles. No one works a tractor harder than I do, mine has 1000 hard hr on it and front wheels are still tight but guess that could change quick if I dont keep an eye on it. How many hr now on your tractor since the last time the bearings went? I see the first time was around 500+ and that was way to early IMO......

 

[Complete Turf Care]

How many hr now on your tractor since the last time the bearings went? I see the first time was around 500+ and that was way to early IMO......

It is at about 1350 hours now.

 

[repete]

I spent all day loading big rolls of sod into the planter. I estimate these rolls weigh about 1000-1200 lbs each. Hopefully, I didn't break any more bearings.

I did seem to feel a 'chatter' from time to time. I'm thinking that may be the gears that were chewed up pretty good on the first side that I changed.

Well, more work for the tractor today.....I hope it holds up.

View attachment 430516

I used to go through a lot of bearings then I took a serious look at the bearing loading when my wheels were in the "reverse" position to make them wider. I realized that in the reverse position I had basically moved the forces from bearing on both bearings to be being supported by mainly the outboard bearing and the inner larger bearing was put in more of a position of balancing the load as opposed to bearing the load. I have had no issues after placing the wheels back in the narrow position.

I am no engineer by any means but having a L2550 for over 5000 hours of hard use has taught me a lot of things in an expensive way. I used to keep a stock of both sized bearings and a seal on the shelf for this. Now the bearings just sit and gather dust.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

Well.....it happened again. A few days ago I noticed the seal was leaking on the left side. I went ahead and ordered bearings, seals, and the o-ring for both sides and changed both sides today. The left side outer bearing was bad and probably would have failed catastrophically in a short time. All the other bearings were still in good condition.

I'm just glad I noticed the leaking before the wheel fell off this time.

By the way, I now have 1844 hours on the tractor. So the front bearings have failed at roughly 500 hours, 1350 hours, and at 1844 hours. Maybe I should trade this tractor???

About a year ago, i purchased a skid steer and use it for most of the work I was doing with the front end loader on this tractor. However about a month ago, I did use this loader to load a pretty heavy roller onto my trailer. I assume thats what caused it to fail this time.

 

[amhicks21]

ive had front axle bearings fail on 3 of the 6 kubotas that ive run over the years despite them all getting their proper fluid changes. The 2016 l6060 had the bearings go out under warrantee and was traded in at 2200 hours and the 2020 l6060 that i run now had the front dif blow up suddenly and without warning at 50 hours. aside from that ive had to do bearings on a b2920 with less than 500 hours and an l3540 with around 1200. im convinced that kubota front axles just dont stand up to the kind of use that contractors put them through. For us, I think climbing curbs with a full bucket is a big culprit. fortunately they're pretty easy to fix if caught early.

You may not want to trade it right now unless you know they have a replacement in stock. My boss ordered an lx3310 months ago, and they have the tractor in stock but are saying the loader wont be here before winter and the closest dealership with one that has a loader wants 4500 bucks more.

 

[MHarryE]

Well.....it happened again. A few days ago I noticed the seal was leaking on the left side. I went ahead and ordered bearings, seals, and the o-ring for both sides and changed both sides today. The left side outer bearing was bad and probably would have failed catastrophically in a short time. All the other bearings were still in good condition.

I'm just glad I noticed the leaking before the wheel fell off this time.

By the way, I now have 1844 hours on the tractor. So the front bearings have failed at roughly 500 hours, 1350 hours, and at 1844 hours. Maybe I should trade this tractor???

About a year ago, i purchased a skid steer and use it for most of the work I was doing with the front end loader on this tractor. However about a month ago, I did use this loader to load a pretty heavy roller onto my trailer. I assume thats what caused it to fail this time.

Engineering wise - bearing life calculation has one factor load cubed. That means as you reach the highest loads, bearing life drops like a rock. Improved lube will help during normal operation but in high load apps, bearing life plunges. I consider high load as carrying heavy bucket loads with no or little ballast behind the rear tires. I can’t draw a vector diagram for you, but wheel weight like cast iron or liquid does nothing to reduce front tire load. It only keeps the rear tires down to increase stability. Getting ballast behind the rear tires works as a lever to unload the fronts.

My bearing failures were while snow plowing, but after a summer of lots of load and carry moving dirt 100 yards, many tons.

I can scan vector diagrams from my engineering references, but the bottom line will be the same. Keep replacing bearings unless you rebalance your machine. Don’t widen the front tread. Keep spare bearings. Make a YouTube video of how you do it. Sell your YouTube time to pay for parts.

My dealer confirms to me he has many customers who know about when to expect failure, remove the entire assembly and take it to his shop to repair. Kubota probably has lots of failure data - when does it pay to redesign? If redesigned, will our fabulous turn radius turn to intolerable? My M7 has large planetary front finals. My turn radius has to be 3 times that of my L6060, or maybe even more.

My L6060 solution has been to buy a SVL-75-2. So I haven’t failed bearings on the SCU.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Thanks for documenting this, just in case I need to do it one day on my L3940.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Well.....it happened again. A few days ago I noticed the seal was leaking on the left side. I went ahead and ordered bearings, seals, and the o-ring for both sides and changed both sides today. The left side outer bearing was bad and probably would have failed catastrophically in a short time. All the other bearings were still in good condition.

I'm just glad I noticed the leaking before the wheel fell off this time.

By the way, I now have 1844 hours on the tractor. So the front bearings have failed at roughly 500 hours, 1350 hours, and at 1844 hours. Maybe I should trade this tractor???

About a year ago, i purchased a skid steer and use it for most of the work I was doing with the front end loader on this tractor. However about a month ago, I did use this loader to load a pretty heavy roller onto my trailer. I assume thats what caused it to fail this time.

Have you researched whether there is a higher load rated low speed bearing in the same size package?

 

[deezler]

Interesting that it keeps happening. I'm doing this repair on one side of my Cub Cadet right now at ~780 hours. I sure hope it doesn't happen every 500 hours, but I probably won't be the owner of it by then anyway.

You should probably jump out of the L5740 before it happens again.... Something dimensionally must be off just enough to cause this, that you aren't going to find or fix.