Pay Attention

[BrokenolMarine]

When you feel something might be wrong....

We just finished a second session of bushhogging the pastures. Miss Tina does most of that, but there are a couple areas where she allows me to run the tractor and bush hog. No, I don't surrender my man card, but SHE is the farm girl, and I have had a boatload of surgeries. The doc limited what I was allowed to do after the last few so she monitors what I can and can't...

When I was mowing the first of the three or four areas,

I noticed that there was a hard vibration when turning the tractor to the left. Bush Hogs vibrate, but this was a HARD vibration, only when turning left. Now that was odd? I started to look back at the bush hog and it was swinging more than I remembered, at least to the right during the left turns. I turned right. Not as much vibration. Not as much lateral travel on the bush hog. I finished the one section and parked the tractor, went in and had lunch. Tina was in her She Shed sewing. I told her about my concerns and then watched a bunch of videos on Tractor Mike's Channel on You Tube.

Bush Hog Set Up
Bush Hog Maintenance
Bush Hog Service
etc.

I suspected one of the adjustment arms for the bush hog was loose.

Brought the tractor and bush hog up and started to go through the various procedures.
Amazing.

Found a pin about to come out, the clip was missing. (Of course we had spares.)

The adjustment arm on the rear linkage was really loose as well. Got that all tightened up.

Checked all the Nuts and bolts on the bush hog, there are a number of them. Bush hogs vibrate during opertation. Found a couple that were lose, it happens. Tightened them up. You don't want to lose them.

Greased the bush hog and the tractor. There are a LOT of Zerk Fittings.

Checked the gear box on the bush hog. Gear lube was fine, at the proper level and clear and clean.

Blades were free moving and not beat up.

Settings adjusted, rear of the deck a bit higher than the front. Deck Level.

Back to mowing. NO vibration when turning and CUT a lot better. Will make sure to Check things more often.

Pay attention when something feels off.
What Tractor Mike warns?
That vibration can do, if it gets bad enough, is damage the gear box on the bush hog... or worse yet, be transmitted thru the drive shaft to the PTO on the tractor and damage the PTO or transmission on the tractor. Don't want that.

[daytime dave]

Very good observations Marine.
I rarely wear headphones while operating the machinery anymore. You can feel and hear so much that might not be normal.

[HenryFan]

Greased the bush hog and the tractor. There are a LOT of Zerk Fittings.

Grease is cheap, parts ain't.

I go thru' a lot of Lucas Red & Tacky and John Deere lithium every year.

[daytime dave]

I use Lucas marine grease on everything. So far it performs great.

[BrokenolMarine]

Yup, the videos I watched recommended high temp, high speed, tacky grease. Not cheap as noted above, but LOTS cheaper than parts. The few minutes preventative maintenance costs you is well worth it.

Our trucks are both more than a decade old, and around 100k miles. (2010 and 2015) Both look almost new, run great, and have needed very little work other than normal PM. We do the scheduled stuff, pays for itself over and again.

[HenryFan]

If you don't put service in, you won't get service out.

[Hatchdog]

John Deere Lithium is my go to grease. I use it on all my equipment not just John Deere stuff. My loader has 16 zerks.

[HenryFan]

If it is green, tractor or implement, it gets JD lithium.

If it is an orange tractor or an equipment trailer, utility trailer, boat trailer, non-green implement, it gets Lucas Red & Tacky.

No reason or explanation, it is just the habit I have gotten into over the years. My wife claims I have gotten peculiar in my old age. She is usually right.