[AT] 1970's farm equipment

[Cecil Bearden]

John:
That machine was an attempt to make a "Bush Hog"without the Bush Hog 
price....   I worked in a tractor dealership in the 70's where we sold 
both Bush Hog and Modern.   The differences between the 2 was night and 
day.  The price was less than $100.  However, at that time many folks in 
OK were only earning $125 a week.....
Cecil

On 10/20/2019 7:36 AM, John Hall wrote:
>  Seems a lot of you guys really like talking manufacturing farm 
> equipment, so here is one for you. Be it working on our stuff, which 
> everything we have now is OLD, or working on equipment for other folks 
> (which we have pretty much stopped doing in recent years), It is my 
> opinion that some of the worst engineering and manufacturing took 
> place in the 1970's. I've ran into a couple different things that were 
> hard to find parts for, even the old guys at the dealership could not 
> find it in the parts books, or the books were wrong. Then there is the 
> wrench turning where I just think what a bunch of idiots designed this.
>
>  Here is my latest adventure. I had one of the dual tail wheels on a 
> Mohawk rotary  mower to literally rust apart while using it last week. 
> It made it a long time, so no complaints there. My complaint is how it 
> was put on. Picture a typical fork arrangement with a segmented mower 
> wheel. Not this wheel is mounted on a 1" axle with a coarse thread 
> locking nut (not the kind with nylon either). Wheel has tapered 
> bearings and grease seals. Sounds quality so far. First issue is they 
> used 2 locking collars to set the tension on the wheel bearings. 
> Second, there is no spacer between the collar and the inside of the 
> fork. Now the axle is an axle, not a bolt--but it is only threaded on 
> one end. The other end is a fabricated head from a piece of 1/4" plate 
> with a hole punched in it, then welded to the axle. Too thin to hold 
> on the head with a wrench, the answer was to run a bead of weld on the 
> outside of the fork to provide a stop to rotation--this was factory. 
> The head is not welded to the fork. I could not get the cleat/bead of 
> weld to hold the head so I could remove the nut, nor could I get a 
> wrench of any sort to hold it. So I welded it to the fork. Then when I 
> finally got the nut to turn, it literally ripped the factory weld 
> right out of the head. Anyway, I got the repair done but all the while 
> thinking what a waste of design.
>
> This one particular machine has had a multitude of other issues, bent 
> tail wheel supports, 3pt hitch literally breaking, superstructure for 
> gearboxes cracking, splined couplers on gearboxes wearing out, 
> mounting bolts falling out of gearboxes---these are not from abuse 
> either, just poor design, had a neighbor with the same mower and the 
> same issues.  I told my father that afternoon that crap like this was 
> why the US was owned by Japan in the 7-'s and 80's.  My opinion is 
> based not only on farm experience, but 30 years in a machine shop.
>
> John Hall
>
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