mower conditioner repair

vanderbadger

lads was cleaning the gear before putting into shed for winter, anyway after cleaning the mower i see a fair cut into bed, now i did hit a stone on the back row when doing a bit of 2nd cut at end of july, I didnt realise it had done so much damage though, its like the blade bend down and cut into bed or something, must take a picture this evening and stick it up, there was old grass and muck stuck into the cut and it smelt of oil when i pulled it out even though I cant se any oil leaking, could this be welded or how do you go about fixing them or would you have to replace bed, how expensive is that work? Its a maragon mower.

snowman707

most likely could be welded, stick up a pic & we see. depending on your location may be able to recommend a guy that would repair it without charging an arm & a leg

vanderbadger

here are pics

vincenzolorenzo

Yikes thats nasty. I'd imagine if you brought it to an engineering workshop they could sort it out for you. Drain out the oil in the bed and build it back up with weld. Maybe even plate it or something

Sisu200

That is nasty, bloody stones, as said she should be ok if it is welded up, it looks like a Kuhn bed on that machine? is there no protection guards that slip under that area or am I raving??

cjpm

As nasty as it may look, a good welder would build it up for you or weld in a small piece and work around it... Shouldn't cost an arm and a leg anyway

vanderbadger

Sisu200 wrote: »

That is nasty, bloody stones, as said she should be ok if it is welded up, it looks like a Kuhn bed on that machine? is there no protection guards that slip under that area or am I raving??

bought new probably 6 or 7 year ago at this stage, 8ft maragon mounted mower conditioner, only does our own, never had to fix anything on her except the original driveshaft gave trouble. Seems like very little protection between the disks as you say, they seem to be the same as JF mowers I have seen on internet, I find it a bollix of a thing to take on or off and she doesnt have a proper float mechanism when you lift so the end dips down, would prefer to pick up a trailed one sometime but it does the job away, will have to bring her in somewhere next spring.

Figerty

That is very repairable. What concerns me is the deep cut that's in the bed. How did that happen? You will probably have to grind that back to make a neat v gap for the weld.

Be careful welding this, you have a lot of bearings and gears in the body there. If there is a smell of oil this should be drained and cleaned or it will contaminate the weld. I don't see why there should be oil there. It doesn't look to be too close to the bearing and gear housing.

One thing. If you are going to weld it take your time and leave plenty time between runs. If you put too much heat in to the body, you may damage the bearings and seals. Take it slow and easy and it should be fine.

cjpm

Figerty wrote: »

One thing. If you are going to weld it take your time and leave plenty time between runs. If you put too much heat in to the body, you may damage the bearings and seals. Take it slow and easy and it should be fine.

Also make sure the earth is attached to the bed!! Wouldn't want the charge running through a bearing and potentially sparking....

vanderbadger

Figerty wrote: »

That is very repairable. What concerns me is the deep cut that's in the bed. How did that happen? You will probably have to grind that back to make a neat v gap for the weld.

Be careful welding this, you have a lot of bearings and gears in the body there. If there is a smell of oil this should be drained and cleaned or it will contaminate the weld. I don't see why there should be oil there. It doesn't look to be too close to the bearing and gear housing.

One thing. If you are going to weld it take your time and leave plenty time between runs. If you put too much heat in to the body, you may damage the bearings and seals. Take it slow and easy and it should be fine.

well I hit stone and when I looked it had broken off cutter from the last disk at the end of the mower, I didnt realise at the time but maybe the cutter somehow cut into bed before breaking, it worked away after wards just to finish the field, probably just as well there wasnt much left

Sisu200

I did the exact same with a vicon mower, clipped a stone and the blade started damaging the bed, got her stopped before it did any major damage, however I repaired a kuhn mower for a neighbour and noticed that alot of mowers have very similar arms, so at the ploughing last year I spoke to a guy on a stand and he told me that alot of arms for different makes of mowers are made in Denmark and assembled in Holland then distributed to manufacturers of mowers, I will take a few pics of the skids that can be attached to the Kuhn type arm (very similar to the one in the picture), it covers this area where the damage was caused to your mower, the old style vicon did not have these and the arm did not last pi$$ing time on it, bought a new mower 3 years ago and it is now fitted with the skids, really protects the arm from damage and unecessary wear

snowman707

can't make out from the pic, is that a round or an oval shaped disc?

generally speaking it is best to avoid the round discs

vanderbadger

snowman707 wrote: »

can't make out from the pic, is that a round or an oval shaped disc?

generally speaking it is best to avoid the round discs

ya suppose they look more round than oval

vincenzolorenzo

snowman707 wrote: »

generally speaking it is best to avoid the round discs

Just as a matter of interest, why is this? I don't think i've ever seen a disc mower with round discs. Whats the reason behind it do you know?

snowman707

vincenzolorenzo wrote: »

Just as a matter of interest, why is this? I don't think i've ever seen a disc mower with round discs. Whats the reason behind it do you know?

Personally I don't know but I remember a 'seasoned' contractor mentioning at one time, seem to remember he said they were more prone to stone damage & breakages than the oval or triangular, All I know is that he said stay clear of them.

Figerty

Two things really; the oval shape is probably stronger given that the blades are at the outmost 'point' of the oval.

Secondly and more importantly, the covers are at 90 degrees to one another when running so they can be closer together when running, which gives a better cut. In other words, the wide side of the oval passes the narrow side of the narrow ovals on either side as it rotates.

snowman707 wrote: »

Personally I don't know but I remember a 'seasoned' contractor mentioning at one time, seem to remember he said they were more prone to stone damage & breakages than the oval or triangular, All I know is that he said stay clear of them.

Figerty

This picture makes it very clear that it is very repairable. However something else came to mind looking at this. The recessed bolt is obviously there to keep the top and bottom of the housing together so there must be a seam there.

Obviously you musn't weld accross this seam or you will never be able to open the housing again if you need to do maintenance.

Unless it's leaking oil, i'd leave well enough alone. There's a good chance the smell you got was the belts slipping against the pressure of the bent blade. Happened me.

vanderbadger wrote: »

ya suppose they look more round than oval

cjpm

Figerty wrote: »

This picture makes it very clear that it is very repairable. However something else came to mind looking at this. The recessed bolt is obviously there to keep the top and bottom of the housing together so there must be a seam there.

Obviously you musn't weld accross this seam or you will never be able to open the housing again if you need to do maintenance.

Unless it's leaking oil, i'd leave well enough alone. There's a good chance the smell you got was the belts slipping against the pressure of the bent blade. Happened me.

Nail on the head!! Maybe should be left alone unless you could tilt the mower back and weld the top and bottom seperately, without taking them apart. I def would't go ripping it unless it's leaking oil.



Regarding oval vs round discs, due to the alternative arrangement of the oval discs they can be positioned closer than round ones thus more discs and blades can be used. This means you can mow heavier crops and drive faster.... Also get a cleaner cut as they are well overlapped....

vanderbadger

cjpm wrote: »

Nail on the head!! Maybe should be left alone unless you could tilt the mower back and weld the top and bottom seperately, without taking them apart. I def would't go ripping it unless it's leaking oil.



well i suppose i can ask the chap i bought from and see what he reckons, if you left that space in between the disks rough like that would it perhaps leave a rough bit of grass when cutting or would it have any bearing

cjpm

vanderbadger wrote: »

cjpm wrote: »

Nail on the head!! Maybe should be left alone unless you could tilt the mower back and weld the top and bottom seperately, without taking them apart. I def would't go ripping it unless it's leaking oil.

well i suppose i can ask the chap i bought from and see what he reckons, if you left that space in between the disks rough like that would it perhaps leave a rough bit of grass when cutting or would it have any bearing

It won't effect the cutting at all, the blades don't touch the bed normally (unless you hit a big object), if they did they'd wear the bed and get blunt themselves. The danger with yours is that it could start leaking if you were unlucky to hit something again at the same point.

vanderbadger

what do ye make of the linkage mowers anyway, I would never again go for one but having said that my tractor dealer was showing me a taarup linkage mower that looked a lovely job, he said you dont go near the lift when working it, all lifting done thru the spools

pajero12

snowman707 wrote: »

can't make out from the pic, is that a round or an oval shaped disc?

generally speaking it is best to avoid the round discs

Not really taarup mowers use round disks and there nearly the best to shave a field!All the contractors around here use them!

What shape are john deere Disks?

Colmm23

As pajero said all the current kvernland mowers are using round discs. The theory as I believe is that the oval discs can jam a stone between them due to their shape where as the round discs cause the stone to bounce away from them as they have no edge to catch a stone and jam it against another.(Hope thats explained ok).

To answer the question about JD mower they use oval discs as does Kuhn. The selling point of the oval disc is that it protrudes out over the front of the bed further than the round ones and that can give a closer cut, or so they say.

vincenzolorenzo

I think oval discs would be stronger than round too. I saw a feature in the journal earlier in the year about a new mower that had 3 blades per disc. Not 100% sure but I think it was a Krone. To me that sounds like a better job altogether as it'll give a better cut with less ribs than a dual blade disc

pajero12

I think there vicon mowers!Seem to be a good job too!You can mow alot quicker with them