How do I fix this???

[DougW]

I've bent the crap out of the front pin on my hoe attachment for my skid steer. Hoe was built for an average skid steer and mines one of the largest so I guess something had to fail taking out stumps. Once I get out the pin I think I can replace it with something stronger and just cotter pin each end. Ithnk I have to get a small bottle jack and straighten out the banana before I can get the pin out. Third pic is complete pin from other end of cylinder.

[khakis]

I'm guessing you won't get that straightened back out. 7" angle grinder is going to be the ticket.

[jongtastic]

I'm guessing you won't get that straightened back out. 7" angle grinder is going to be the ticket.

agreed, dont waste your time and just torch the fucker

[L7]

I read it as you plan to replace the pin. A torch and heating the shit out of the frame is going to help bend those suckers parallel again. Heat it enough and a big pipe wrench might be better to straighten each side equally as opposed to hoping the bottle jack and heat is equal so they both straighten the right amount. Is there a relief valve on the hydraulics you can tune down to avoid more of the same?

[pedalbiker]

1. Take a small hand grinder with a thin cut off wheel and cut the pin on the right side of the cylinder. Careful it will pinch and kick.

2. You may need to use a pipe wrench on the exposed end of the pin and twist it as you pull the short piece out.

3. Try a drift and see if you can drive the remaining pin out the left side. If not, use the cut off wheel and cut the pin again.
The cylinder should come out and you can get the rest of the pin out.

4. Before you put it back together you will need to straighten the plates, with a combination of heat and force.

5. To prevent it in the future the best would be to try and turn down the hydraulic pressure.

6. Some other options would be to put some gussets on the plates, possibly a stainless steel pin or a cold rolled mild steel should be
tougher than hot rolled.

[DougW]

thanks for the input.

would rather not reduce pressure as only use hoe once and a while , mostly use bucket

I think your right , the pin is quite bent so even with a bottle jack spreading plates will only help to create space to get in a grinder to cut pin. probably two cuts will be required.

What is a "drift" don't know that term.

For fix , replacement pin of cold rolled low alloy or higher grade should do it. I think I would weld a spacer between the plates to stop them from bending inward , above the pin toward the bucket. But the pin is the key as if it doesn't bend then the plates won't be forced inward. I'll check with the manufacturer what material the pin was to make sure I'm getting something significantly stronger.

[DougW]

some action shots of the beast in action





I think I'll have to be careful where I put that spacer so as to not interfere with the movement of the cylinder.

[Eldo]

Weren't you guys tying to leave more stump to get some leverage? That one looks kinda low to the ground.

[DougW]

That was one of the orginal cuts. Now if I need a tree down just knock it down with the bucket and cut off the stump on the ground. Or just back into it by mistake and there it goes.

The ones that were cut low you have to dig a bit first so the hoe is a lot better than the bucket. Also the cotton woods which have a huge root ball.

[splat]

drift is just a smaller radius pin used to drive it out with a maul, doug.
i think you're gonna have to cut it and drive both pieces out.

[DJSapp]

What splat said, and jiggle the bucket with the hydraulics as you're doing it. Bent pins are a pain in the ass. Good luck.

And for a fix, get the OEM part, as well as figuring out what pressure the hydraulic is supposed to be run at, then get a pressure reducer for it.

[L7]

Yea like above, a drift punch. Something fun to bang on when raw force is actually appropriate. Again as above the pressure reduction is necessarily all that permanent. You should be able to set up something you can reverse when you use the regular implements.

[Snow Dog]

I think you've exceeded the manufacturer's specs. Personally I'd use a cutting disk to cut the pin on both sides and I'd keep heat (like a plasma cutter) away from the piston since it's probably heat treated. Replace both pins if they're the same size.

[DougW]

Not sure if any specs on hoe. When I phoned manufacturer last fall he said he wasn't surprized as I have such a big machine. So plan is to beef up unit so it matches my skid steer. Actaully this is only part of the problem as I need to take off the pistion so I can flip it over to get to the welds that have cracked. Going to have rewelded and then weld on some flat bar to reinforce. Will probably add some thick angle iron gussets.

[khakis]

Wait are you using the hoe as a bulldozer blade; ie driving it into stumps instead of staying stationary and pulling the stump using the hydraulics?

The cylinder should have specs on how much pressure it's supposed to take, or you could find out from the hoe manufacturer how many ton cylinder it's supposed to have. If there's no labels on the cylinder anymore and you find out how many ton cylinder that tool is supposed to take, you could work backwards and find out how much fluid pressure you would need to feed that cylinder (based on ram diameter...1"?) to get the max force for the hoe

[DougW]

Wait are you using the hoe as a bulldozer blade; ie driving it into stumps instead of staying stationary and pulling the stump using the hydraulics?

no using bucket, I think I'm below the rating of the cylinder but not the force on the structure itself.

[Snow Dog]

If you dial down the RPM you'll have less hydraulic pressure to bend your equipment.

[DougW]

I haven't checked the operators manual but from service manual it doesn't seem like it is easy at all to change RV set on hydralics. Now do have a auxilary hydraulics valve to control flow so could use that to limit flow pressure by just not opening it as much.

[Snow Dog]

Turning down the flow just means it takes longer to reach full pressure. On the limited equipment I've used there's always a hand throttle that normally goes between idle and full RPM but you can set it anywhere you want. Or there's an ECONO mode which is really just a reduced RPM and reduced hydraulic pressure.

[DougW]

there is an engine trottle but again that shouldn't effect max pressure just time to get to pressure.

[Snow Dog]

I guess I wasn't waiting for the pressure to build.

[DougW]

pins out, cut on either side of the piston and it pretty quickly other than just had a 4.5" angle grinder so couldn't get the last bit. Tried to rotate the pin to cut more and ended up shearing both cuts. Pretty much popped out. The pin in the piston was where all the bending was which makes sense as most amount to clearance there. Bent the plates back into ~ position with heat and pipe wrench with snipe. Well good enough to get a new pin in with some force.

Next steep new pin and angle iron stiffeners welded on each side.

[DougW]

Pictures of with pin out, pin and after straightening. One side could do with some more straightening.