Bruce's Journal

[Bruce]

Hopefully we won't have any significant snow for a couple of months Of course we could always get in some pattern and get snow and more snow and more snow. Probably will since I still have a fair bit of outside stuff to do.

We actually get a fair bit of winter blue sky other than November (which technically isn't winter). DW calls it the brown and gray month. No leaves left, lots of cloudy days, not much snow.

 

[RollingAcres]

Bruce are you getting this Nor'easter rain? It's cold and rainy here today, right now 37 degrees. Will be raining all weekend, pooey! I've things to get done outside .

 

[Bruce]

Yep our rain started around 2. Now it is "confused", doesn't know if it should rain or snow. There is a good chance of rain until Tuesday, then again on Wednesday.

What do y'all think about these 3 bolts that were holding the rear wheel on the tractor?


Yeah me too!!! Sure dodged a bullet there. Got the new bolts yesterday, installed this morning with blue Loctite. They all threaded in easily so the threads in the hub are undamaged. Here are the holes in the rim and yes it does look like some are elongated a bit. @greybeard how bad are they, what do I need to worry about?
The first 3 are the ones where the bolt was missing.




And here is the new splitter in its crate. I have since put the tow bar and table on it. Generally looks OK but the instructions show two places to grease with a gun. Figured it wouldn't hurt to make sure they have grease before I use it so I took off the plastic "case" and did one. The other is physically impossible to get to. Not sure what they were thinking. Probably the classic case of someone building one part not knowing what it will be put in to.

 

[greybeard]

@greybeard how bad are they, what do I need to worry about?

Not too bad.
2 things keep a wheel in place so it doesn't slip on the hub..

1. The wheel's center hole that fits pretty snugly over the shoulder on the hub (or brake drum). If you have 2 opposite located bolts out of 6 that are tight enough to keep that wheel on the shoulder, it isn't going anywhere.

2. There is as a matter of course always a little clearance between the bolt's OD and the hole's ID, so there has to be something to prevent the wheels surface from moving within this clearance and that is also the most important aspect of torquing the bolts.... The bolts' torque results in a metal to metal clamping action keeping the wheel's ID against the flat hub surface. It's this clamping action, similar to how a disc brake pad works..that actually keeps the wheel in place. As long as you keep the bolts torqued to specs from here on out, you should have no trouble.

I have looked hard and tho I did find a similar report on a specific model JD tractor, and Kubota compact tractors are notorious for a 'clacking' noise coming from the rear wheels because of loose axle pinch bolts, I have not seen any indication that this is a widespread problem on your brand, tho it can happen on any make tractor. Everything needs to be checked after the first few hrs of operation. Temperature changes during first few hrs of operation alone can cause bolt elongation and consequent loss of torque. The wheel bolts thread into the end of the axle. The axle is inside a housing filled with oil, which gets pretty hot pretty quickly. The heat is transferred to the bolts. Heat equals expansion and expansion=elongation.....you get the picture.

 

[Bruce]

Thanks @greybeard, glad I don't need to replace the rim! In the future I will be checking wheel bolt torque far more often than the 100 hours the manual says! Probably never find a loose one again but I'm not taking chances! This one was too close - 1/2" of thread on 3 bolts, no good.

 

[Bruce]

Exciting day today. OK, not so much. Made French Toast for breakfast. Waited for it to stop drizzling which it did about 2 PM. Got the tractor out, stuck a pallet on it and loaded DW's snow tires, the torque wrench, impact wrench and compressor from the workshop and the jack from the drive bay. Took them to her car along with an extension cord for the compressor, got the pressure gauge from my car. Definitely better than carrying all those things individually.

Started getting the tires ready by airing them up. The two I wanted to put on the front had 32 PSI so I upped them to the desired 38 PSI. First rear tire ... ZERO PSI One expects some loss over a many month period but not zero. Sure glad I hadn't started taking tires off the car first. Put that one in the back of my car to take to Bill tomorrow. Other rear tire was at 28 PSI, upped it to 36 PSI. Got the front snows on the car. Also checked DD1's car, she aid her tire light was on. Front right was a little low at 35 PSI, right rear was only 27 PSI. Wondering if that is the one that had the sharp rock that caused a leak earlier this year. Will watch it and take it to Bill when I put the snow tires on her car later this month ... er next month.

Figured I should check the tractor tire pressures since I had the equipment out. Fronts should be 40 PSI, rears 30 PSI. Had to add some air to the fronts and the right rear but not too much. Left rear, the one that the bolts came out of, was at nearly 40 PSI AND even though I had the valve at TDC, when I was letting pressure out (the gauge has an air release) I got a lot of whatever they loaded the tires with. I don't know what it is but it isn't Rimguard. Had to put the gauge on one of DW's summer tires to blow the salty water out of it then put more air in that tire for winter storage.

Put all the stuff back, got the empty wood drying/storage rack from the work shop and put it out by the stacked wood. left it and the pallet forks there and got the FEL. Filled that twice and deposited it on the porch racks that I had been pulling wood left over from last year and then I was out of time for the day. If it decides not to rain tomorrow I'll get another load in the bucket for the 1/2 filled 1/2 run rack on the porch then swap the forks back on and fill the empty drying/storage rack with stacked wood and stick it on the porch landing. Thus will begin the testing of that system. I did finish the roof for which ever rack happens to be sitting on the porch landing but I suspect I'll need some sort of wind screen to keep snow from blowing into the rack. Still need to make at least 1 more rack for this year, 2 would be better, so I have somewhere to put the logs I have already brought in from the woods when they are blocked and split.

 

[Rammy]

Arent tractors nice? Makes life so much more fun.

 

[Bruce]

There are certainly things that I can do now either much more easily or would not have done at all.

I likely wouldn't have brought out the tractor for the tire change bit if I didn't also plan to move wood. Doesn't make sense to get the tractor all warmed up just for that.

 

[Mike CHS]

I have a bunch of slabs that probably weigh 500 lbs that would still be sitting beside my driveway if I didn't have the tractor. They obviously wouldn't fit in the FEL so I couldn't pick them up but I was able to push them down the hill.

 

[Bruce]

You need pallet forks Mike! You could easily pick up those slabs with forks. I am referring to standalone forks, not the bucket attached ones. Too much weight on those and you bend the bucket. Does your tractor have skidsteer quick attach on the loader arms?