Newbie mistakes costing much $$ and headache

[hondarider]

So I just purchased a used Terex TX650 Skip Loader with a gearmore 4G4 Series scrapper and ripper.

http://www.gearmore.com/partsbooks/4G2A_4G4ABook.pdf

YouTube - Ripper ARM Broken TX650 Terex Hydraulic (showing the results)

I'm trying to see if someone can heat and bend the "ears" back and possible well it back to the cylinder arm. But I may have to buy a new cylinder though.

I have no idea what I did to cause this but I"m sure it was my driving and messing around with the ripper.

The question is is....what are my options? What's the best way to go about fixing this at the lowest cost?

 

[gpflepsen]

It looks like the main locking pin wasn't engaged to prevent the ripper arm rotating "up". The weld repair on the arm off the top of the ripper arm may have been mis-located, or I'm thinking an errant lever or leaking cylinder allowed the main pin to retract. That ripper assembly has a ton of mechanical advantage over the cylinder, if the main pin isn't out and enaged, I can see this being the end result.

On the repair, I'd guess a machine shop could fab a new rod or repair the old. They should be able to straignten the tabs too.

That's a nice blade, looks sturdy as heck!

 

[hondarider]

No piece of equipment can withstand the limitless power of a clueless tractor driver at the wheel.

By the way, I'm trying to remove the cylinder. What's the procedure to removing a hydraulic cylinder?

 

[J_J]

If you had the ripper shanks down when it broke, then I suspect you caught a large root or rock, and that put to much force on the end piece.

Just about anything can be repaired. Pull the pins to take the cylinder loose and remove the hose, and connect them together with a coupling so fluid will not drain out.

 

[jinman]

Hondarider, I looked at your photos and briefly at your movie. There are two major things I see that really have me curious.

1st: Your damage is not the first damage to occur to that ripper actuator. The actuator arm has been broken and rewelded. It was probably cracked by the previous owner who got it repaired. That must have stressed everything in the actuator mechanism to have broken that arm. The attachment to the hydraulic cylinder and the driven pivot with the grease fittings surely were stressed when the ripper actuator broke.

2nd: When you are pulling the blade with the rippers down, the stress transmitted to the actuator is in the opposite direction to the stress that broke your cylinder/pin, and bent the fork. When digging with the rippers, I believe the force should have been pulling against the cylinder rather than pushing it upward. Your damage occured in the upward direction as if you were trying to retract the rippers and something like a big rock was behind them, stuck between the rippers and the back of the boxblade. I guess it could also occur if you were blading in reverse and hit a rock or something hard with the rippers.

Can you tell us what you were doing? I sense you are embarrassed by the tone of your statements in this thread. Did you hit something while backing up or try to retract your rippers when something was behind them? There is nothing there that cannot be easily fixed by a welder/fabricator in a short period of time. The blade has certainly been repaired before, so you don't have anything to be embarassed about. You have just learned what not to do when you get this fixed.

 

[hondarider]

By the way, it was my first time operating a tractor when all of this happened.

Let's see what I did:

1. Going backward with the scraper and ripper all the way down
2. Going backward with the ripper halfway in between up and down
3. Going forward while adjusting the ripper up and down
4. Going forward and turning with the ripper and scraper down.
5. Going forward with the ripper down and running over a tire, metal debris hidden under the weeds, etc....

Yup.....all stupid newbie mistakes.

 

[banjodunn]

G'day hondarider you have just been unlucky there are prob hundreds out there that have done similar things when they were newbies they were either lucky or did not tell anybody, make aquaintance with your local machine shop/ mechanic i am sure that you will need them later on as the years go on just put it down to a learning experience




Jon