Why am I destroying tail wheel forks?????

[ArlyA]

10 dollars says its being smacked down and damaged when you are on uneven ground.

 

[Redlands Okie]

Are you missing this flexible link at the top where the brush hog attaches to the 3 point top link ? Or..... Some will use chains “as seen in post number 6” instead of that “A” frame seen in the pictures that goes from the top link to the back of the brush hog.
When you go into a ditch or low spot and do not have the ability for the back of the brush hog to rotate up then things get over stressed.

 

[CMV]

Nope, have flex link. And it's in straight line on flat level ground so it can swivel. I'm not installing the flex link in a bind.

I have an area with a short but steep bank. Maybe 3' elevation change. Crossing that might be the issue - or coming down off it. Will pay attention there next time & see

Also will set as described.

 

[Bavarian]

One more thing. How tight are your sway bars at the lower 3 pt arms? If your tail wheel hits the ground and is not in line, it might want to push the mower to the side for a momemt. If the mower can't give in, the wheel might be overstressed.

 

[WranglerX]

You may have flex link, but it may not allow enough motion if you have really uneven terrain... Still think chains may give better relief...

 

[Gee Ray]

Remove the top link. If you want to pick the hog up use a piece of chain instead of the top link. This will prevent the loading of the tailwheel when you cross the ditches.

 

[hosspuller]

Henro 's post # 7 has the problem nailed. You're loading the tail wheel in the dips of the ground. The top link or the cutter structure MUST allow the tail wheel to float up. Otherwise the wheel is supporting the whole weight of the tractor, like a wheel barrow

 

[S-Engines NW]

One more thing. How tight are your sway bars at the lower 3 pt arms? If your tail wheel hits the ground and is not in line, it might want to push the mower to the side for a momemt. If the mower can't give in, the wheel might be overstressed.

As "Bavarian" says, the mower will want to move slightly sideways, it you have bottom link stabilizers on your 3-point that are rigid (solid) you should replace them with a flexible setup or make sure you have some slop in the setup. One iof the easiest ways to do this is to use chains and leave them just a little bit long (just enough for the wheel to caster around fully without reaching the limits of the chain). However, you do want to keep the chains just loose enough for the caster because the bottom link stabilizer does serve a purpose, it prevents the top and bottom links from bending sideways in a turn.

You may have flex link, but it may not allow enough motion if you have really uneven terrain... Still think chains may give better relief...

Remove the top link. If you want to pick the hog up use a piece of chain instead of the top link. This will prevent the loading of the tailwheel when you cross the ditches.

As "DL Meisen" and "Gee Ray" said, the flex link has a limit to its range of motion. when you are mowing, you don't have any reason to need to keep the mower at an exact height, instead you want it to "float" with the terrain to provide you with a smooth finish cut. You set the tail wheel to the height that you like and the bottom link set will support the front. chains will allow you to pick up the mower for transport, obstacles, or other reasons, but allow the mower to float when in use.

Henro 's post # 7 has the problem nailed. You're loading the tail wheel in the dips of the ground. The top link or the cutter structure MUST allow the tail wheel to float up. Otherwise the wheel is supporting the whole weight of the tractor, like a wheel barrow

"hosspuller" has a really good example. If you pick up on the wheelbarrow handles, you are acting as the front wheels. The wheelbarrow wheel is the mower tailwheel. The wheelbarrow legs are acting as the front wheels. Because the link (the handle between the wheelbarrow wheel and its legs) is solid, it cannot allow the rear wheels of the tractor (wheelbarrow legs) to maintain ground contact. This causes all of the weight between the handles and the front wheel to be suspended. The tail wheel is not designed to handle this load. In order to fix this, cutting the wheelbarrow handle between the legs and wheel and installing a hinge would prevent this overloading and keep the tail wheel from having to support so much weight.



Also to note:
- How does the mower store? That's right! On the tail wheel! the tail wheel is designed to fully support the mower, but not the tractor.
- If the tail wheel is taking the weight of the tractor, that indicates that the weight is being transferred all the way through the mower deck. This stress can over time cause the deck to flex and crack prematurely and cause issues.

So the lessons to learn:
- Use a flexible top link (chain or some other freely movable link).
- Keep a rigid bottom link, but allow a small amount of movement in the bottom link stabilizers.
- The mower deck isn't designed to support the weight of the tractor.
- The tail wheel isn't designed to support the weight of the tractor.

 

[jcman]

OK.....I'm doing something wrong.....way wrong.....and about to install my 3rd tail wheel fork on a 6' Bush Hog BH6 that's almost 3 yrs old. I figured the first one was due to the hydraulic top link failing, leaking down before I noticed, and i was just loading it up too much. But most of last season, I used the standard top link and this failure/damage happened after switching so that's not issue.

As far as I know, I'm not turning and smacking it into a tree, fencepost, some hard object. I have some hills, dips, ruts, and will occasionally dig a front corner into the dirt, but nothing so bad it should be loading up the tail wheel, but all I can think is a small ditch-like area I go over must do it.

I set to cut pretty short - about as high as a typical homeowner riding mower would cut at it's highest setting - 4.5" maybe?. At least i think that's short for a bush hog. On flat level ground the front of the frame (closest to PTO) is about 3" high. I adjust toplink so the back end (tailwheel end) is about 5-6" high. I think I'm doing that right - the rear slightly higher than the front. So maybe I'm overall just too low (I want about a finish mower height, but need something that can stand up to the occasional baseball-sized rock my land likes to just magically sprout). Maybe I need more of an angle and should have the back end more than just a couple inches higher? Not sure....I thought it was just supposed to be a couple inches higher to make it want to discharge rearward vs any random direction.

Anyway for standard cutting on fairly even ground the tailwheel doesn't touch the ground. Only inclines, ruts, hills, etc. I never really notice it loading up on the tailwheel, just that sometimes it does what it should and keeps the back end from dragging on uneven ground.

Your tail wheel should support that back of the mower, and the lift arms the front. On my brush mower the toplink connects to a pivoting U bracket and I keep that so it is vertical when mowing. Basically the mower should float on the front with the lift arms supporting it and allowing it to rise and fall if there is a large obstruction being run over. If I need the back lifted higher to get under it to work on the blades or if something gets tangled in it I adjust the top link to be rigid pulling the pivoting U bracket toward the tractor making a somewhat rigid connection. Put it back in the center position before mowing again. I've ruined at least a couple forks by backing up the far side of a ditch without lifting the whole mower. The far side of the ditch is too steep to allow the wheel and forks to pivot enough when backing.

 

[RancherGuy]

... It's like the fork was smashed straight down from the top. Wheel spins freely, shaft pivots freely.

When I got my first 3 point shredder, I noticed immediately that 'something ain't right'. The shredder's connection to the tractor 3 point was rigid. What I call a standard, rigid, pyramid. As other have mentioned, there needs to be give when the shredder tail wheel rises.

So many others here have mentioned removing your toplink. Poor suggestion in my eyes. You did not buy a hydraulic top link, or even a manual one to be taking it off and on. In my situation, it was only the shredder that had a problem so I modified my shredder. Each one that I have owned. On mine there were two steel bars that extend from the top link connection point to the back of the shredder. For each of these bars, I cut out approximately 2 feet. In their place I added a heavy (3/8") chain. You can either drill and bolt the ends to the remaining bar or you can weld. Be careful to make sure the length of each 'bar+chain' are equal in length. This way your toplink does what you want it to do and never has to be removed.

 

[BeezFun]

I put my hydraulic top link in float mode when I'm mowing. That allows the tail to move up and down as much as it needs to. When I'm transporting, I lift the tail wheel with the top link.

 

[Gord Baker]

OK.....I'm doing something wrong.....way wrong.....and about to install my 3rd tail wheel fork on a 6' Bush Hog BH6 that's almost 3 yrs old. I figured the first one was due to the hydraulic top link failing, leaking down before I noticed, and i was just loading it up too much. But most of last season, I used the standard top link and this failure/damage happened after switching so that's not issue.

As far as I know, I'm not turning and smacking it into a tree, fencepost, some hard object. I have some hills, dips, ruts, and will occasionally dig a front corner into the dirt, but nothing so bad it should be loading up the tail wheel, but all I can think is a small ditch-like area I go over must do it.

I set to cut pretty short - about as high as a typical homeowner riding mower would cut at it's highest setting - 4.5" maybe?. At least i think that's short for a bush hog. On flat level ground the front of the frame (closest to PTO) is about 3" high. I adjust toplink so the back end (tailwheel end) is about 5-6" high. I think I'm doing that right - the rear slightly higher than the front. So maybe I'm overall just too low (I want about a finish mower height, but need something that can stand up to the occasional baseball-sized rock my land likes to just magically sprout). Maybe I need more of an angle and should have the back end more than just a couple inches higher? Not sure....I thought it was just supposed to be a couple inches higher to make it want to discharge rearward vs any random direction.

Anyway for standard cutting on fairly even ground the tailwheel doesn't touch the ground. Only inclines, ruts, hills, etc. I never really notice it loading up on the tailwheel, just that sometimes it does what it should and keeps the back end from dragging on uneven ground.

You are expecting Finishing Mower height from a Bush Hog. It should be 5-6" off level ground .
Carry most of the weight with the 3PH. Tail Wheel off the ground most times.

 

[jfh0jfh]

Same problem here w/ 5-year-old Land Pride medium-duty 6' I'm on my 2nd one and the fork needs replacing again. I think

1. Cheaper materials - thinner and lower-grade steel
2. When I back into multiflora or other brush, I'm hitting obstructions I don't see/ feel.

The tailwheel fork on my previous unit lasted 20+ years - and I bought it used.

I bought mid-1990s a 7' SQ-84 twin gear-box Bush Hog w/ a > 1' offset. I used it for ponds, fence-rows. A friend bought one on my reccomendation ~2015. He broke welds and joints 1st season. We put his and mine side-by-side. His was noticeably thnner and less well-made.

 

[TGD]

We always used a chain for the top link and no issues.

 

[Diwali]

My 5ft brush cutter never had a tail wheel from new. It has substantial runners on either side and runs quite happily even on rough ground. It is 6 years old and still going strong cutting mostly hay but occasionally gorse bushes and reed beds.

 

[CMV]

So I fixed it after work today and got to looking at it & just don't see how to use a chain in place of toplink????? How do you adjust the front-to-back angle? Or do you run the toplink in and just use a section of chain from it to the bush hog? Almost seems like you'd have to jack up the rear to attach/disconnect the bush hog or else have such a long chain it isn't doing anything except keeping the rear of BH from dropping like if you backed over a drop-off or something, but on level ground it would be slack? Feel dense, but couldn't picture how it works.'

Also I have top & bottom holes where the toplink attaches to tractor. I had the non-working hydraulic toplink in top hole tied up and the standard one in the bottom hole. Could that have been part of problem too having toplink attached at lower hole? I removed the hyd one tonight & put the regular one back up top.

 

[Redlands Okie]

The chains usually have nothing to do with the top link when I have seen them used. Look at post number 6 and you will see where chains are used. Chains used in this configuration allows the deck to pivot up a LOT. But your still able to lift the deck up and tilt it up if you wish.

 

[CMV]

Those pics are the yoke replaced with chains, not the toplink replaced with a chain. Am I misunderstanding?

 

[WranglerX]

Huge misconception here on what top link is....Top link is from tractor to top of vertical part (bars) of cutter.... It is 3rd connection of 3PH, not part of implement (in this case cutter) ...... Chain goes from top of vertical part of cutter to rear near tail wheel.. As shown in post#6... ON some cutters the part you should change out for chains may be called a "Stiff Arm" (name might be brand specific) ....

These would be bars you change out for chains....

 

[dirttoys]

So I fixed it after work today and got to looking at it & just don't see how to use a chain in place of toplink????? How do you adjust the front-to-back angle? Or do you run the toplink in and just use a section of chain from it to the bush hog? Almost seems like you'd have to jack up the rear to attach/disconnect the bush hog or else have such a long chain it isn't doing anything except keeping the rear of BH from dropping like if you backed over a drop-off or something, but on level ground it would be slack? Feel dense, but couldn't picture how it works.'

Also I have top & bottom holes where the toplink attaches to tractor. I had the non-working hydraulic toplink in top hole tied up and the standard one in the bottom hole. Could that have been part of problem too having toplink attached at lower hole? I removed the hyd one tonight & put the regular one back up top.

Good question, make a chain the length of the top link (including a clevis at each end). Replace top link with chain. Attaching the shredder will be the same as with a fixed top link. The chain will raise the shredder when you lift the 3 point, but, not put any down pressure on the tail wheel when it bottoms out (the chain will go limp).

Yes, having two top links could have contributed to the bind, depending on how the uncoupled one hangs when not in use.

Best,

ed