Soundproofing the B3030 Cab and found something interesting

[Rmart30]

I saw on one of the weekend "hot rod shows" a sound deadening product in a spray can that "deadened" body parts from drone and vibration.... it sprayed on like auto undercoating and was under $20 but i dont remember the name of it.

 

[srs]

My Dynamat Xtreme is supposed to be here Tuesday - everything else for the soundproofing is on-hand.

I ordered my stereo receiver & speakers today, so once those get here, I can get started on the stereo install.

Bandit, looking forward to your Dynamat and stereo/speakers install. Please keep us posted with plenty of pictures too! Both you and WaxMan are doing a great job!

 

[bandit67]

After some disassembly what I found was the whole weight of the Seat, Operator, Floor and Fenders rests on top of the transmission, metal to metal. (no wonder all the transmission noise in the cab)
If you look at the first picture the sound proofing was flatten to nothing you can see the outline and because of a weld not being ground off it was hitting the floor causing a worn out mark in the metal floor.(metal to metal)
Also the heads of two bolts were grinding into the floor as pointed out in the photos.

Waxman,

I'm not sure this was the actual design of the cab floor. In taking mine apart, I did not find some of the same issues as you did, most likely because my machine only has 40 hours on it. My transmission hump cover is not sitting directly on the transmission. The floor panels, seat pan, rear cab enclosure pan, and fenders all interconnect, and appear to be supported only by the cab frame, essentially suspended above any of the transmission housing below, not directly coming in contact with it.

You can see in my picture, the foam has not compressed at all from the bolts, transmission housing, etc. That is exactly the way it looked immediately after I removed it, so I don't think the foam expanded back into shape after being compressed.


I've attached some pics of the front cab mounts for you to compare to yours. I wonder if, with the number of hours on your machine, the rubber bushings have compressed enough to allow the cab to drop enough for the tranny cover sheet metal to come in contact with the transmission housing?


I am going to re-assemble mine, once I add all the sound deadening/absorbing material, minus the rubber isolation pad that you added on yours, because at this point, it doesn't appear that any of the sheet metal is resting on any of the transmission.

 

[WaxMan]

It sure looks like the foam is compressed in your photo, Looks like at least an 1/8 of an inch, it time it will be down to nothing like mine in the second photo. You can clearly the outline started in yours. If your foam went the whole way I'm sure it would be more. Looks like they left the foam out in the top flat spot so it would not touch. See how my foam is different in the second picture.
That is the only spot that holds up the middle of the floor. If your that far along I would put in the mount. 40hrs is nothing, testing time around the yard. 80 ,90, 200,00 hrs it will touch. If it was not touching at all as you say there would be no outline shown in the first picture which is your picture. That outline of yours in the first picture shows me it is touching Now, in time it will look like the second picture. Then it will be metal to metal just buzzing . The more bumps you ride over, bam, bam, bam, the floor ends up resting on the transmission. I have 759 hrs, 230 lbs in the seat. maybe it's my fat ***.

 

[WaxMan]

Waxman,


I've attached some pics of the front cab mounts for you to compare to yours. I wonder if, with the number of hours on your machine, the rubber bushings have compressed enough to allow the cab to drop enough for the tranny cover sheet metal to come in contact with the transmission housing?



Bandit I don't think my four cab mounts in the four corners sagged. I think in the almost 3 ft unsupported span of the floor across the transmission (between the side mounts) the floor sags over time and rests completely on the transmission.
Yours with only 40hrs definitely shows signs that it is compressing the foam. That is only after 40 hrs. If yours was not touching there would not be that tell tail sign of the impression in the foam. It would look like the rest of the foam in your picture, untouched. I wonder if you can post another picture showing the depth of the indend.

 

[bandit67]

You're right Waxman, there is a slight outline in the foam where that tranny mounting plate is touching the foam. I honestly don't believe the design is for that floor plate to sit on the tranny housing, but I do believe your're correct that over time, it will probably sag.

I'm going to try something a little different. The rubber isolation mat I have in my shop is 1/2" thick, and the foam under that pan is only 3/8" thick. It looks like the area that is touching that tranny plate got compressed 1/8"-3/16". The floor mat I got to go under the rubber mat is 1/2" thick overall, with 1/8" thick vinyl adhered to a high density foam. I think I'm going to give that a try vs a rubber mat and see how that works. That way, at least for a while, the tranny plate is still not supporting the floor plate.

In time, I suspect the foam backer will compress, but I'm thinking it would take a while for the vinyl to rub all the way through if the floor pan continued to sag. I guess I'll find out somewhere down the road, and expect it could be quite a while, but at that point, I may need to install a rubber pad to support the floor pan. Until that time, the stuff I plan to use should give me a decent sound buffer, since the floor plate won't be supported by the tranny plate.

I'm only considering doing it this way because I want to keep those 2 steel parts separated for as long as possible. If it took 700 hours and 230# to get those 2 plates rubbing the way they did, then I think I have a little time to go before my sub 170# a** can do enough damage. I kind of want to see what "pans" out (pardon the pun). It'll be a good experiment, and hopefully by the time I may have to address it, I won't mind pulling a few of the floor plates apart to fix it.

At that point, you can say "I told you so".

I pulled one fender off, since I plan to coat the wheel well with liquid sound deadening. Didn't get warm enough to do it outside today, so I left the other fender on. I plan to also coat the outside of the rear panel that holds the tool box, since that's like a snare drum also. May do that piece while it's on the tractor, so that way I can do one fender, re-install it, and then pull the other fender. Fenders will definitely be easier to prep & coat while off the tractor.


Just hoping we don't get a big snowstorm before I finish. Waiting on some more foam to show up that I want to stuff into various crevices, and a few channels that I found, and I don't know if that will even make it before the weekend. And of course, after looking like it was going to be a nice weekend, now it seems a storm may be moving in.

Oh, and good to know the rubber mounts are still in good shape with nearly 800 hours. :thumbsup:

 

[Nooodles]

bandit, regardless, that factory foam is no good. I hope you plan on sound proofing like Waxman is doing. it will be a world of difference. I don't own this machine but I know the automotive sound proofing material such as dynomat or whatever brand you chose is night and day. that foam crap they put on there from the factory is garbage

 

[WaxMan]

If it took 700 hours and 230# to get those 2 plates rubbing the way they did, then I think I have a little time to go before my sub 170# a** can do enough damage.

Bandit I bought my tractor with 90 hrs on it, I'm sure it was touching then. Because I heard that grinding noise from day one when traveling down a dirt driveway to my dump,as the tractor would rock back and fourth, or side to side the grinding would be on and off. I have listen to that noise for 660 hrs, it's now gone.

 

[RFB]

Is there any possibility to fabricate a metal "bridge" to span between the mounts, giving the pan a support structure?

 

[WaxMan]

Is there any possibility to fabricate a metal "bridge" to span between the mounts, giving the pan a support structure?

The bridge would have to be less then 3/8 thick if you want it to clear the transmission. Unless you put it on top the floor above the hump.

Easy answer........the 3/8 waffle pad ...........and it works.