Frame upgrade

[prondzy 3,883]

@WHX24 @Achto @PeacemakerJack @Shynon @Mikey the Monkey @Coulter Caleb my plan is to have everything fixed before i put it away for the winter that way I can rock n roll next season.

My plow tractor. It has seen many upgrades over the last 6 years, this year at Jims Plow Day i found the next weakness after years of use and abuse the gusset plate on my tractor was shot. When i lifted the plow off the ground  my hood stand would flex to the left about 1/2inch and the frame/transmission mount would buckle up and down i couldnt hold a furrow to save my life. 

So i cut out the bad parts,

you can see all the cracks

I couldnt not find a solid 3/8 plate without ordering one online for big $$. So i welded  two 3/16inch plates together dimensions 7in x 6-3/4in to make my new gusset plate. I drilled my pilot holes through one plate and added 9 extra 3/8 holes for spot welds to hold the plates together. Then drilled out the transmission bolt holes through both plates

 

Tacked the new plate into place and added another gusset to stiffen the twist at this plate under load.

Then finished burning it in and cleaning up welds

 

Next im going to add a skid plate to the underside to prevent trash buildup.

 

Edited November 8, 2020 by prondzy

[8ntruck 7,183]

Nice wields.  Using MIG?

[WHX?? 49,488]

I like it Mike ... thoughts on running struts from the bottom of the F plate to the frame? 

[PeacemakerJack 10,742]

Mike—thanks for tagging me on this one!  That is going to be a great upgrade.  When you have this finished, if you are willing, I’d like you to do a write up in the plowing thread.  Once again, I want to pool the plow dog resources there in one spot for those who would follow us and join in this craziness to see the strong and the weak from our beloved horses.  We push them to the MAX when furrow plowing (I.E. guys, think of a tractor pull that lasts for hours instead of seconds🤔😉) and we discover things that were done well from the factory and things that were fine for normal use but not for active furrow plowing that we expect of these dedicated plow mules!

 

I’ll sit back and enjoy this thread.  It is something that I’ll likely have to consider for GhostRider soon...

[prondzy 3,883]

20 minutes ago, 8ntruck said:

Nice wields.  Using MIG?

Yes sir

[prondzy 3,883]

16 minutes ago, WHX24 said:

I like it Mike ... thoughts on running struts from the bottom of the F plate to the frame? 

Thats exactly what my plan is to stiffen the chassis more. Have a few ideas in my head we'll see what happens then attach a skid plate to those struts to see if i can reduce trash buildup.

[Lee1977 6,872]

Here is a picture of that.. I have done it to two of my tractors. My rear frame plate was not broke so I didn't add a full plate. I did grind the edges to they would fit flat against the plate.

Edited November 8, 2020 by Lee1977

[ebinmaine 68,887]

VERY nice work. 

 

I'm looking forward to seeing what you do for the reinforcing/trash reduction plate. 

 

Forgive my lack of knowledge here. 

Why do you get muck in there?

Mowing?

Mud from fields?

 

[Herder 2,354]

9 hours ago, prondzy said:

@WHX24 @Achto @PeacemakerJack @Shynon @Mikey the Monkey @Coulter Caleb my plan is to have everything fixed before i put it away for the winter that way I can rock n roll next season.

My plow tractor. It has seen many upgrades over the last 6 years, this year at Jims Plow Day i found the next weakness after years of use and abuse the gusset plate on my tractor was shot. When i lifted the plow off the ground  my hood stand would flex to the left about 1/2inch and the frame/transmission mount would buckle up and down i couldnt hold a furrow to save my life. 

So i cut out the bad parts, 

you can see all the cracks

I couldnt not find a solid 3/8 plate without ordering one online for big $$. So i welded  two 3/16inch plates together dimensions 7in x 6-3/4in to make my new gusset plate. I drilled my pilot holes through one plate and added 9 extra 3/8 holes for spot welds to hold the plates together. Then drilled out the transmission bolt holes through both plates

 

Tacked the new plate into place and added another gusset to stiffen the twist at this plate under load.

 

Then finished burning it in and cleaning up welds

 

Next im going to add a skid plate to the underside to prevent trash buildup.

 

 

This is a great thread!!  Thank you.  But I have to say, I love the look of that plow rig.

[ebinmaine 68,887]

2 minutes ago, Herder said:

This is a great thread!! 

Agreed.

Maybe should be in Instructionals?

 

@PeacemakerJack because of the constant use like you mentioned above I'm using a complete separate subframe on the big wheel tractor. 

 

[prondzy 3,883]

2 hours ago, ebinmaine said:

 

Forgive my lack of knowledge here. 

Why do you get muck in there?

Mowing?

Mud from fields?

 

EB its not muck or mud, we call it field trash. Basically its the mower grass clippings equivalent of soybean plants after harvest.  Sometimes you can roll without issue and other times it balls up right in front of this plate like a pushblade and you have to get off and clean it out or you will high center the transmission on it. Im gonna try to add a skid plate to see if it will minimize the trash collected. 

[prondzy 3,883]

7 hours ago, Lee1977 said:

Here is a picture of that.. I have done it to two of my tractors. My rear frame plate was not broke so I didn't add a full plate. I did grind the edges to they would fit flat against the plate.

Lee,  my frame never had those thats part of the reason it broke the way it did. The struts we are talking about will run from the bottom holes on the outer gussets (visible from the side of tractor)  to the foot stirrup bars to aid the gusset plate strength

Edited November 8, 2020 by prondzy

[ebinmaine 68,887]

5 minutes ago, prondzy said:

EB its not muck or mud, we call it field trash. Basically its the mower grass clippings equivalent of soybean plants after harvest.  Sometimes you can roll without issue and other times it balls up right in front of this plate like a pushblade and you have to get off and clean it out or you will high center the transmission on it. Im gonna try to add a skid plate to see if it will minimize the trash collected. 

Oh oh oh oh oh ok I see. 

 

Me woods Bear. Not field Plow Dog. 

 

That's a new one to me. 

 

[WHX?? 49,488]

Real good idea. Be interesting to see how you plan to access the tranny to plate bolts.

[ebinmaine 68,887]

1 minute ago, prondzy said:

Lee,  my frame never had those thats part of the reason it broke the way it did. The struts we are talking about will run from the bottom holes on the outer gussets (visible from the side of tractor)  to the foot stirrup bars to aid the gusset plate strength

So that'll enable mounting a nice long low trash deflector as well. Nice idea. And the deflector could be part of the rigididididity. 

[ebinmaine 68,887]

1 minute ago, WHX24 said:

Real good idea. Be interesting to see how you plan to access the tranny to plate bolts.

Deflector to be a bolt on?

[prondzy 3,883]

Oh sorry and @pullstart, for the life of me i had a brain fart while writing  this last night, i knew i was missing someone!

[prondzy 3,883]

2 minutes ago, WHX24 said:

Real good idea. Be interesting to see how you plan to access the tranny to plate bolts.

Gotcha covered thee Jim, but yoir gonna have to wait for the next posts

[Mikey the Monkey 697]

This looks like a great improvement mike! You have a great mechanical mind!

[Lee1977 6,872]

I ran my braces with the belt guard as I still use a 48" deck on the tractor. Where the bars cut trough the frame is the weakest part of the frame.

If you are going that far I would go under the bar and bolt to the frame in front of the bar and weld another piece to the brace to bolt behind the bar.

 

While you are fixing the frame you need to fix the elongated hole for the front axle pin. Most likely a lot mort work up there. 

Edited November 8, 2020 by Lee1977

[PeacemakerJack 10,742]

1 hour ago, ebinmaine said:

Agreed.

Maybe should be in Instructionals?

 

@PeacemakerJack because of the constant use like you mentioned above I'm using a complete separate subframe on the big wheel tractor. 

 

Exactly!  It is hard to describe what constant bull work does to garden tractors.  They were built heavy enough initially to keep on going through whatever was thrown at them...however if that is done long enough, things are going to break. As my dad taught me so many years ago, “If/when you break something under hard use, time to build it stronger and then put it back into service!”

 

 

Eric—if you look in the plowing thread, I know we covered field trash in it pretty extensively.  It is crazy how the smallest protrusion will grab “stringy” soybean trash and collect it like Mike indicated until it lifts your rear axle up and leaves your tires spinning!  All stuff we flatlander plow mules have learned about the hard way😂😂😂

[Pullstart 63,204]

Sweet work Mike!

[ebinmaine 68,887]

23 minutes ago, PeacemakerJack said:

Exactly!  It is hard to describe what constant bull work does to garden tractors.  They were built heavy enough initially to keep on going through whatever was thrown at them...however if that is done long enough, things are going to break. As my dad taught me so many years ago, “If/when you break something under hard use, time to build it stronger and then put it back into service!”

 

 

Eric—if you look in the plowing thread, I know we covered field trash in it pretty extensively.  It is crazy how the smallest protrusion will grab “stringy” soybean trash and collect it like Mike indicated until it lifts your rear axle up and leaves your tires spinning!  All stuff we flatlander plow mules have learned about the hard way😂😂😂

I told Trina about this thread and your field trash this morning.

She has more general gardening experience in her past but it's all been done by hand.

Found it just as interesting as I did that you can ball stuff up under there like that and eventually be stuck in place.

 

Definitely agree with what your dad taught you about improving on a weak link whenever it's possible to do so.

It's been said that to some extent all you're really doing is moving the weakest link to a different point on the machine and that's definitely true.

What I've tried to do over the years with any given machine or mechanism I'm working on is ensure that the weakest link is stronger than the most powerful work that needs to be done. 

[Pullstart 63,204]

Has your dad figured out what broke in the 1054 Mike?  Ground clearance from a big wheel virtually eliminates the trash balling issue 

[prondzy 3,883]

39 minutes ago, pullstart said:

Has your dad figured out what broke in the 1054 Mike?  Ground clearance from a big wheel virtually eliminates the trash balling issue 

No he keeps saying he should take it apart, but i think hes sidetracked with other projects