Using a chain as top link with attachments

[rd_macgregor]

This is my Walco Whistler mower.


The top chain is standard, although I added the retaining bracket over the PTO shield and covered the chain with a bicycle inner tube. It is true that the implement can ride up a rear tire. This happened to me shortly after I bought my tractor, though I don't blame it on the chain; apparently a stick poked a bale clip out of a lower lift arm and the arm worked its way off the tractor, so when I turned a corner, the mower swung to the side far enough for the edge to catch on a tire lug. Take my word for it, it is exciting (and not in a good way!) to look back and see a mower riding up a tire toward your backside.
Having said that, there is a very good reason for having the chain, rather than a rigid bar, at least on my style of mower. If I start to mow with the chain tight (wheel on the ground), the wheel will lift off the ground if I head over a rise or over the lip of a swale. When the nose of the tractor is headed down and the tail wheel lifts, it (the wheel) swings around backwards, then slams down again as the tractor heads to the bottom of the swale. This forces the wheel to pivot back to the "normal" rolling position very abruptly and with considerable force on it. Before I figured this out, I seriously bent the tail wheel forks twice (the second time actually breaking a weld). Now, I turn enough slack into the top link chain so the tail wheel stays on the ground nearly all the time when I am mowing, regardless of how abruptly contoured the land is.
I found that a whole lot of slack in the chain could allow it to slip off and under the metal PTO shield, when extra slack was added going through the bottom of a dip, so I added the retaining bracket to the shield to prevent this from happening, and covered the (new) chain with inner tube so it wouldn't bang more paint off the shield and gearbox.
Bob

 

[Poopdeck Pappy]

One way to reduce this risk is to run the chain thru a length of pipe that's short enough to allow the amount of float desired without allowing the implement to lift too much.

That's a great idea.

 

[BalaamsJackass]

My Dad used a chain on the bush hog on our hilly area we mowed I always worried about it but it never broke and it never came close to the PTO shaft. It did a great job of keeping the whole hog floating with our ravines. Funny now I cant get some of my daredevil dirt bike riders to mow where I will still. I don't see a big deal with a chain unless you are going to snap load it all the time.

What size chain did you use? Looks like 1/4 inch will support over 1000 lbs.
Also, how do you hook the chain to the tractor and the hog?

 

[Gordon Gould]

What size chain did you use? Looks like 1/4 inch will support over 1000 lbs.
Also, how do you hook the chain to the tractor and the hog?

This is what I do. Not a bush hog but ....I use a short length of 5/16" chain with a logging choker hook on one end. I put the tractor top link pin through the choker hook. And put a keyhole slider on the implement top link pin. I can easily adjust the active chain length.

EDIT: I would not trust 1/4" chain. You can get quite a shock load if you go over a bump with the mower raised.

gg

 

[dieselscout80]

Some 8’/10‘ rotary cutters are semi mounted in that they’re only attached via the two low three point arms.

This does the same basic thing as a chain top link.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

A 4 X 4 pallet. I wonder if that was for a helicopter or maybe for the days where they had to push stuff out of a side door. In 26 years all I saw were 8 X 8 pallets.

I saw them too. But, maybe it wasn't from an APS squadron. Maybe a land based organization. Plus the big ones were aluminum and shallow.

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

Some 8’/10‘ rotary cutters are semi mounted in that they’re only attached via the two low three point arms.

This does the same basic thing as a chain top link.

But they have wheels.

 

[dieselscout80]

But they have wheels.

Don’t most bushhogs have a tail wheel??

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

I have chain top links well over fifty years old. Never broke. Used with five and six ft bush hogs, and used roughly. You could make a flex hitch on the implement side, like some bush hogs have. You could run two chain braces to rear of your pallet and let the hitch flex at the bottom.

 

[kneedeep]

I have used chain top links on mowers since I was 18 with no problems.
Im 65 today.