Help I broke my tractor in half!!!

[Diesel Dan]

If you wish to know the brand it is Ferrari and is available 46 to 92 hp

 

[Art454]

That cast is just crap cast iron is all....All the junk steel we send overseas and the melt it down and come up with this crap....Have seen it before.
I think they use more sand than cast iron...

Sorry about r luck tho I no it hurts...

Art

 

[rangerdave]

Had I been able to get another Pasquali imported I would have gotten it - cheaper... BCS and Ferrari I think are owned by the Pasquali corp... just marketed differently and with different color schemes and flair.... I even looked at them side by side at every opportunity when I was in New Zealand and thought I had made a good decision. ...
But as the saying goes - You can't polish a turd!

 

[Art454]

I have seen red color in a cast iron or cast steel or whatever the crap they use...but never seen sliver like r picture showed....anywho I would have done the same thing u did make one outa steel plate to fix it.
Very very good job u did on it.

Art

 

[jleal]

I own a mahindra and I have had lots of stuff breaking on it. The metal on it looks pourus like what you have but aparently that is cast iron on yours. Take up welding and learn to fabricate like I have. I have pretty much modified my tractor that it is not a mahindra anymore. A good welder can fix that if you take it apart. Cast iron is a little less warranted for holding up after being welded. Good luck

 

[rangerdave]

I own a mahindra and I have had lots of stuff breaking on it. The metal on it looks pourus like what you have but aparently that is cast iron on yours. Take up welding and learn to fabricate like I have. I have pretty much modified my tractor that it is not a mahindra anymore. A good welder can fix that if you take it apart. Cast iron is a little less warranted for holding up after being welded. Good luck

While I thank you for your interest, I am perplexed as to whether you actually read the thread....

I am a good welder and we have a whole machine shop at our disposal - I fabricated the entire rehab of the machine....

I am horribly aware that the scab job in joining the two "cast iron???" pieces together are just a glorified spacer. The issue is that there is no consensus as to what the metal is actually made of (and this is from the manufacturer and dealers) and we are leaning toward some sort of cast iron pot metal...

Short of spending $$$$ on a complete metal analysis, we tried about 25 methods of joining the pieces of cast together. A couple worked minimally acceptable, the others were incomprehensibly failing - we could not even get a standard brazing rod to adhere to it!!! It would bubble off like the metal was made of Teflon.... We even did the same thing with 3 other versions of cast iron and cast steel that we had to see if the brazing rods were bad and the brazing was normal????

I am happy that you got your tractor going. Dealing with the company always seems to be a PITA...

 

[rangerdave]

OH - and by the way, IF we could have easily taken the entire center section out we would have. We then would have built an entire new center section out of steel!!!! But in order to get the front half of the center section out, we would have had to remove the loader, engine, transmission, final drives .... etc. in order to get to the 5-6 bolts that hold it on...... just stoooooopid - fix it in place and if it goes again, I'll do something more drastic...

 

[coadan]

I decided to learn to make the unbreakable or easy to repair with local materials tractor.
Look at this fantastic group to join: articulated or skid steer. And there is MORE to excite you all. Some might never leave the shop.
http://opensourceecology.org/wiki/LifeTrac

Build the Global Village Set

 

[mf1017]

MF-471 Tractor Split in Half

First off, I have been following Rangerdave's story and I want to say again that I really feel for all the headaches you've had to endure.

Also, I know this is an old posting but I have a client who was injured badly when the same thing happened to his MF-471 tractor. He was preparing to help a friend shovel snow using a bucket loader attached to the front of the tractor. With the loader about 2 inches off the ground and with nothing in it, the bellhousing broke in half and he was injured.

I would really like to speak with anyone who has heard about this happening or has had this happen with their tractor, specifically with MF tractors and preferably with any of the 400 series. Also, if anyone is or knows an engineer, has worked in the tractor manufacturing industry, worked in the tractor dealership industry, or just has a lot of experience with tractors, I am very interested in talking to you or them.

Please contact me through email at mftractor1017@gmail.com or PM me on here and then we can either talk on the phone or stick to email. Thanks to everyone in advance for any information you can provide and I look forward to hearing from you!

 

[coadan]

The Open Source Ecology has all the videos on
http://www.youtube.com/user/marcinose#p/a
At Ted Talks Marcin shows a picture and cause of setting up Global Village Construction Set. ... The MF SNAPPED!!
See here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/marcin_jakubowski.html

 

[BADGER69]

All the Mechanics, Distributors and Engineers in the skid steer and tractor business I spoke to had over 240 years experience. 8 castings came to mind in that time that had snapped.
If it is on the increase the foundries are doing something different or the designers are. The end users are doing the same old tasks.

All the Hill Tractors brands had Pressed Plate Steel housings until recently. Only the A.Carraro brands transmission casing that slide into each other snap. The other brands from on factory have a milled surface to take the stresses and are bolted together differently.
M research shows that all tractors with FEL should be build like the JD 6000 series. Two strong rails form the chassis (like trucks have) onto which the engine etc. is bolted. All stresses are taken up by the chassis.

I am planning on building a Hill Tractor on the Open Source Ecology , Lifetrac system.
This is where consumers take back their power.

 

[Peanut]

thats whats bad about cast iron.at times it's really strong but if you so much as tap it at the wrong time or put it into a bind in the wrong place it will snap and shatter like glass.when i was scrappin iron we would take a small claw hammer and hit them old claw foot cast iron tubs and shatter them into small peices so we could carry them alot easier.it would be hard to find a defect in the metal.if them bolts was loose i can bet thats what broke it one good jolt and it's a gonner.i don't know why they didn't make them out of regular iron instead of cast iron.cast iron is alot cheaper to make all they do is pour the molted iron into a mold and do a little bit of machineing.if they would use a solid block of iron then they have to machine out all the metal to cut it down and thats alot of work the good thing is maching it from a block of iron is a solid chunk of metal that will last along timecast iron is full of microscopic air pockets and that ain't no good.

 

[Oldpath]

I never even heard of the Antonio Carraro tractor until last month. I went on YouTube looking for 20-25 hp. small tractor, I happen to see the AC Tigre 3200 with big wheels on front and thought that would really work good hauling my small firewood trailer.
So I been looking in to buying one of these until I run across this forum, and since I live in Maine where there are no AC dealers, I guess the nearest one is in New Hampshire, a 5hr. drive, I don't dare to take a chance running in to this headache!
In my 40 year experience and opinion, if a tractor or any machine is built right it shouldn't brake like that, and bolts do not fall out or loosen up with a lock washer or thread locker on it period. I bought an [07] Kubota 3400 with loader and Fransgaurd farming winch, now has 400 hard hrs. on it, and not one bolt no where is loose, but I haven't taken the motor apart yet to se if the bolts on the main bearings are loose yet.
I have lifted big rocks so the rear wheels come off the ground, I lifted the tractor with the bucket lots of times, bucket after bucket of dirt, hauled out firewood/logs at times the front wheels come off the ground, and sofar no bolts loose and nothing broke. I've even added accessory's on it with lock washers, and they haven't loosen up or broke.
So I guess that leaves me to buy an ATV to pull my firewood trailer, the only thing left with big wheels on front.

 

[bczoom]

So I guess that leaves me to buy an ATV to pull my firewood trailer, the only thing left with big wheels on front.

Welcome to the forum. Hop over to the RTV section of the forum. A lot of us are using Kubota RTV's for hauling our firewood.

 

[Oldpath]

Welcome to the forum. Hop over to the RTV section of the forum.

Thanks for the welcome! I'm not sure if RTV will work for me, but might be worth a look. Problem is, I haul my cut&split firewood in my basement and my cellar door is only 5' wide. My tandem wheel trailer is 46" wide and my ATV I used to have [before it burnt up, another story] was 50" wide, 8 cord=around 20 trips.
And that is why I was looking up everything I could on the AC tractor, one of their small tractors are 4' wide with big wheels on front. Now that begs the ? of, WHY are all other well known compact 4X4 tractors have small/tiny wheels on front? I looked at another Kubota 20-25 hp, the rear tires are big enough, but the front tires are tiny, which is ok if all one does is ride around on the lawn, but at 12k + no thanks. I have till October.

 

[Doc]

WHY are all other well known compact 4X4 tractors have small/tiny wheels on front? I looked at another Kubota 20-25 hp, the rear tires are big enough, but the front tires are tiny, which is ok if all one does is ride around on the lawn, but at 12k + no thanks. I have till October.

I've wondered that also. Some of the CUT front tires seem to small to be effective, but I'm not an engineer. I suppose they know what they are doing, but all the same I've wondered why so small.

 

[al b]

A wild guess. I think it has to do with turning radius. The bigger the tire the less clearance.

 

[Oldpath]

Turning radius might have something to do with small front tires on compact tractors, but if that's the case, ATVs turn pretty good. As for what I need, I'd sacrifice tight turns for more traction, but if I was using a small tractor for mowing lawns all the time, I'd rather have a tight turning radius. It would be nice to have the option, or at least a tire that is not so small on front like on the Kubota BX series, if that tractor had a bigger tire on front, I'd buy it yesterday. Now BCZOOM on this thread has got me interested in side by sides, and now looking for the narrowest one.

 

[grapefarmer]

Another problem with Carraro and their service

After reading much about your problems I decided to start a new thread so we can make others aware of Carraros service. Please see under Carraros front window 'disintegrating'. Different problem same attitude to service. And mine is still under warranty!!

Like to new thread: http://nettractortalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16292

 

[silverstreek]

I totally agree with Mith! I take my tractor to my dealer according to the maintenance schedule. Actually I have to because otherwise I risk to lose warranty coverage according to my dealer! But also look closely at the maintenance schedule as it does demand quite a number of regular checks, like on any type of equipment. My brother, who studied engineering is pretty good at this though. I just bought my third AC tractor this week and they even include a 4 year/4000hr warranty now.

I don't want to underestimate coadan's expertise, which certainly sounds to be on a very high level. I'm not an engineer but just trying to think logic. I called my good friend in Switzerland who is a AC dealer in Central Switzerland since 20 some years and sold in the meantime 1600 AC tractors. I'm operating mine in cold temperatures too, but those guys back in Switzerland do a bunch of snow removal with these machines!
Therefore I believe something else must had gone wrong other than a straight material failure. That's why I think Mith's statement seems to be more of what might have happened.

I was curious about rangerdave's comment about a new housing coming out and asked my friend who's got excellent contact with the factory and he told me that the new machines coming out in the fall 2009 will have some updates but more in the lines of PTO and then a new design with new features. The PTO they are updating because with the new Series they want to go up to 120HP.
Again, that is the information I've got from him and I thought I'll share with you guys as I found it interesting since it's not yet officially published here in the US yet!

I told him about this case and he said it's definitely very unusual and it does not sound to him like a material and design problem. Her suggested that rangerdave gets in contact with his dealer who he bought the machine from who should be able to help him with a special price on parts or something else just because of good customer relation.

Good luck!

In the US. Unless a manufacturer provides free service and parts for the warranty service intervals? No manufacturer is able to say the warranty is null and void if you do the service yourself and don't take it to them for the work. A consumers warranty is covered by the Magnuson-Moss act of 1975.