Stabilizer bars

Walkin Horse · Jul 23, 2015

A friend has a boomer 50 that he bends and breaks the stabilizers. He bought another oe set and when he breaks one he brings it over and I give him the spare and then fix the freshly broken one and save it til he breaks the next one. I have no idea how he breaks them. Question is. Does anybody know of aftermarket ones that will hold up. I know the principal of this. It's the weak link and saves breaking something important. I can't convince him that he needs to change his technique.

triptester · Jul 23, 2015

If the stabilizers are getting bent they are being adjusted wrong. The bar style stabilizers of today replace what were originally a piece of chain and a turnbuckle which pulled on the lift arms to hold them in position. Stabilizer bars are only meant to be used in tension never compression.
The main problem is smaller tractors with their narrow width puts the lift arm and stabilizer pivots to close together reducing their effectiveness.

Jkott · Jul 24, 2015

Can you post some pics of the Bent bars on the tractor so we can see what's going on? Especially one at the mount point at the axel.

Is it possible that they use the same wrong pins at the mount point on the boomer 50 that they use on my boomer 30? http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...258884-boomer-30-broken-stabilizer-mount.html

Baby Grand · Jul 24, 2015

You're a good friend to help you buddy, and you're right - he needs to change his technique, not his gear.
But then he wouldn't have an excuse to stop by ...

2 common ways that I can think of to bend stabilizer bars:
Overly aggressive use of a boxblade or rear blade in reverse gear.
Tight turning while a ground engaging implement is still in the ground.

Anything that puts big side loads on the 3pt hitch has the potential to bend stabilizer bars.

Another way is to not leave any side to side slack in the adjustment when hitching up a brush hog and then scraping the side of the cutter deck against a tree or other fixed object.

JD5210 · Jul 24, 2015

Consider reading this post, the problem here was the linkage was not installed correctly.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/341195-bending-lift-arms.html?highlight=tsc

Walkin Horse · Jul 24, 2015

After getting the picture I called him. I said are you sure you or one of the multiple people that use your tractor isn't pushing backwards? He said wasn't but that he did see somebody backing up with the box blade. I said you know that's the only way that could bend is pushing on it. And probably at an angle while turning. That's why I think he bends one at a time and not both at the same time.

Any ideas what I can do to fix this. Yes I know I can't fix stupid.

Sent from my iPhone using TractorByNet

Walkin Horse · Jul 24, 2015

If they do stupid again will that tear the castings off of the rearend.

s219 · Jul 24, 2015

Maybe show them a picture of a bulldozer and all the massive structure it has to enable pushing a large blade, and then look at the wimpy tractor 3-pt arms and stabilizers, which do great in tension but aren't worth much in compression.

I know a lot of newbies make the mistake of pushing a blade in reverse and bending something, but at some point the brain should take over and learn. Most people learn after the first time.

Jkott · Jul 25, 2015

Looking at your pic, my money is on this lynch pins, not operator. Read the thread I linked you to, and look at the picturesque my thread very closely.

If those pins on his rotate just a little when you try to lift the 3 pt, you bend it the stabilizer arm upwards, or break the mount on the tractor....