MT357 bending parts on 3pt

[Cycledude]

Pete thanks for posting about the issues. I have a very similar Dixie Cutter, bought it new back in the eighties, so far I haven’t noticed any bent parts on my XR 4155 but after hearing about your issues I definitely will be taking a closer look, have mowed with the adjustable arms in the locked holes and also the free play holes, prefer the locked holes but both ways seem to work about the same. I believe hitting something while backing up is most likely what caused yours to get bent. Not sure what kind of differences there might be between our two different LS tractor models.

 

[Oz_Kioti]

I found Oz_Kioti's post on these being chains interesting. What brand of mower is that?

I've had this one for about 20 years now. It's super heavy duty, and was made by an engineering firm about an hour's drive away. As you can see, the head-stock pivots so there's absolutely no stress on anything when going through a dip, or when pushing it backwards up a slope.

By adjusting the top link as required, you can have the chains as tight or loose as you want. I leave them with some slack on level ground, such that when doing sharp turns, I raise the 3PL, which lifts the front of the slasher off the ground and the rear pivoting wheel takes the weight so the back edges of the slasher don't dig in.

In practice, I have it all adjusted such that on the level the side skids are always just clear of the ground.

I ran it behind a 47hp LG (now LS) for many years. There was a fair bit of gear changing involved depending on the slope & amount of grass to be slashed. But since getting the 76hp Kioti three years ago, slashing is now a breeze!

 

[ptsg]

Over here you won't find a single brush cutter without those chains either. Honestly, I can't see a single reason as to why they put flat bars on those US cutters.

 

[5030]

Because they can...lol I keep my 84" Landpride in the sliding part of the stabilizers as the backend of the slasher can impart a huge leverage strain on the lift arms and stabilizers. My Landbride uses an articulating upper mount as well. The Bat wing don't.

 

[PeteN]

Here's the part I originally bent after I straightened it out. Note the wear pattern on the center of the pin. More than I expected for the low hours on the tractor using the 3pt. I decided to drill the holes necessary to install a grease zerk to hopefully lower the wear.

 

[Bobrown14]

I thought your bars look different than mine so I went out and took a pic. Looks like my bar ends are beefed up as you can see there is a steel square tube they are inside of. I have a similar size 72" rotary cutter that I beat the crap out of doing brush 10' high.

Here's what my arm looks like

 

[ptsg]

I thought your bars look different than mine so I went out and took a pic. Looks like my bar ends are beefed up as you can see there is a steel square tube they are inside of. I have a similar size 72" rotary cutter that I beat the crap out of doing brush 10' high.

Here's what my arm looks like View attachment 810339

Those are the lower/draft arms. The OP is talking about the telescopic stabilizers.

 

[PeteN]

I was at the local TYM dealer and was looking over their tractor line. Seems to be fairly well put together. One thing it is beefier on is the telescopic stabilizer links for the 3pt arms. Much heavier and a better design than the LS. I didn't get a pic but did find this on their website. It has a cast part at the lift arm instead of the bent flat plate so the forces go into the lift arm instead of bending the plate like mine did.

 

[Typhoon]

I had this issue as well. I bent and broke the links a couple times, then took them off and replaced them with class zero telescoping threaded links (same design as 3ph top link, but smaller). Problem solved, no problems since. Obviously you have to install class zero hitch pins in the 3ph lift arms to make this work. They fit perfectly.

 

[PeteN]

Interesting. I assume the down side of using threaded links is the adjustment time to fit various implements. The design they have on this tractor seems to be very weak.