RK55 110 Front end loader

[Johnny D]

New to the forum, this may have already been addressed.

First off, must say, to date I am happy with my RK55. The tractor has achieved any task I have put it thru.

My concern is the amount of movement in the connection points for the FEL. I'll call this the cradle and pin. Putting pressure down on the bucket there is approximately 1/4 to 3/8 inch movement up and down. Anyone else seeing this?
I pulled the FEL off yesterday to do some measuring. The pin is 1 3/32" the hole in the FEL arm is 1 1/8", stands to reason. The hole in the sub frame (cradle) 1 3/16". I know this is only 3/32 and with the lateral movement in the cradle, movement is significantly noticeable.

Though about getting some shim material to tighten things up. That type movement, in a connection point, seems to me could cause wear and tear.

Checked out my neighbors Kubota FEL and very minut movement at the connection point.

Thanks for listening

 

[DonRybak]

Johnny D, is this the area you are referring to with the movement? Is this on both sides of the FEL?

Is this a new RK55 and have you contacted the store where purchased?

 

[Johnny D]

I will attach photos of the specific area.

Yes, both sides.

Yes, I bought my tractor at the RK in Zanesville, Ohio March 2021. I have not contacted the folks, Vince, or Lenny, about this issue. I was going to see if this was a common thing

, before bugging them.

You can see were it moves laterally. Shim washers will stop that


I've put shims in other areas to reduce what I call lateral movement.

Thanks

Johnny D

 

[Johnny D]

The movement is also up and down with putting downward pressure on the FEL.

Johnny D

 

[sengli]

The only thing I have noticed about my FEL, was how tight the pins were to remove and re-insert. The framework that the FEL attaches to isnt as rigid as the attachment points were on my SOB tractor I had before this one. First time I tried to remove the FEL on mine for mowing, I had to use a hammer to get one of the pins out and the opposite side fell out?

 

[DonRybak]

Johnny D, what ever happened with this? Curious if you contacted RK...........

 

[sengli]

This isnt a new issue with the RK tractors. The most noticeable thing was the bucket on the FEL wouldnt lay flat. One side was off the ground by an inch or so. I had a conversation with the local service guy right after I took delivery. He actually came out to my house and took some measurements. Seems as if he found there was a alignment issue, from his measurements. Ended up we did nothing. I put a 650 pound snow push on the FEL last year for the winter. That spring the FEL seemed to be aligned okay?

 

[DonRybak]

Sengli, I do think this is a new issue. I was the first to bring up the issue about the uneven bucket a couple years ago but I don't have the sloppiness in my FEL pivot points that Johnny D says he has. After I made the post several RK owners chimed in that they had the same issue with their bucket but nobody ever mentioned having excessive play in the FEL. If memory serves me correctly, you are the only one that even mentioned having the unlevel bucket that has a machine that wasn't assembled at the Williston, FL location.

 

[sengli]

Yes I am aware this is a new issue. I was a fan of your posts on this issue. I am not sure where mine was built. Obviously the pins binding is a symptom of the FEL brackets not being aligned correctly.

 

[gunny0628]

I’ve had this issue for some time and it just got lost with the repair folks. The bucket wasn’t level and the first time I took the entire FEL assembly off it was a disaster. The pin on the left side was wedged so tight I had to put a shim under the bucket on the opposite side to counter it. It’s never been fixed and honestly I’ve just given up. Nobody really seems to care if the bucket isn’t level and if this problem exacerbates anything else like the pins and arms being off.

 

[sengli]

Unlike a lot of other guys, I take my FEL off during the summer as I use the tractor mostly for mowing. The alignment is always been off since day one. I have read what everyone else had to say, and the local service guys from RK were a bit amazed how far off mine was when the measured it one day. They acted as if they hadnt heard anything about this ongoing issue. And they really didnt know what to do about it.

 

[DonRybak]

Good morning sengli.......... I probably already know the answer but did the RK folks mention if they were going to mention the bucket issue further up the food chain?

 

[sengli]

well is been a solid year since they were out to my place to look at the tractor for the FEL issue, and a leak I had. They ran it up the ladder to the zone lead tech (covers multi states) and none of them seemed to acknowledge they had heard of heard of the issue before. And nothing ever came of it. I just gave up. They did measure the FEL and the mounting points with a tape measure, and did determine something was off. Kinda suggested that I loosen the bolts on the FEL bracketry and retighten. But I dont know the torque specs for those bolts and there are quite a few.

 

[DonRybak]

I thought you were talking recently about them looking at it. I have mentioned a couple times in the past about trying to align my FEL but like other things it keeps getting pushed aside. Looking at the loader manual it appears there's a left and right frame mount along with a cross brace between them. Those are mounted to the tractor with 4 bolts on each side prior to the FEL.

I'm thinking that if those 8 mounting bolts are loosened slightly with the FEL raised a little off the ground that maybe using a level on the front of the FEL things can be corrected by raising the low side with a bottle jack under the frame mount. Once level then everything can be torqued back to specs. There's a torque chart in the loader manual. Any thoughts?

 

[Johnny D]

Johnny D, what ever happened with this? Curious if you contacted RK...........

---

I went to the store where I purchased my tractor and checked out another RK55 and it had the same movement as mine. Tech said it was like that so it would be easier to remove and install. (Not in my opinion)

I'm going to do some type of shimming and tighten things up. When it warms up again.

 

[Btown]

What amazes me that this is the same loader and tractor as the TYM and I have not seen one complaint of the loader level being off. They are the same tractor, just final assembly by 2 different companies. Odd. RK has to correct the issue. I don’t think people are expecting the loader to be completely level, but pretty close.

 

[DonRybak]

Btown, I don't think RK has any plans on doing anything to fix this. I'm pretty sure that the warranty on the loader is only one year and I bought mine in 2018. There are two assembly facilities for RK and everyone that has complained about this, except for sengli, are located in the south where the assembly plant is in Williston, FL. Not sure where sengli's was assembled at. To me that pretty well confirms that it's an assembly issue at that facility. I haven't noticed any new owners chiming in recently with the issue so I'm not sure if they just aren't mentioning it or if maybe the issue has been resolved.