shear pin

[TVZ]

My backblade takes a bolt dropped through holes to adjust the angle side-to-side. It's 5/8". I imagine it's supposed to serve as a shear pin if I smash into something with one end of the blade. I do manage to eventually bend them when I use regular bolts. Should I use a hardened one, or would that be too strong?

 

[Dunk]

(quoted from post at 22:59:00 02/04/09) My backblade takes a bolt dropped through holes to adjust the angle side-to-side. It's 5/8". I imagine it's supposed to serve as a shear pin if I smash into something with one end of the blade. I do manage to eventually bend them when I use regular bolts. Should I use a hardened one, or would that be too strong?

I find very few bolts that will survive that life for any time at all.

I would say use the hardest ones you can come up with.

 

[Dell (WA)]

TVZ.......use the SOFTEST shearpin you can ...ie... GRADE-2. Why? 'cuz it is cheap and protects yer blade and tractor. 26hp and 2500# can do alotta damage. BUST that shearpin and replace it $50c (cheap) ......Dell

 

[Tom N MS]

One says hardest, one says softest....I'd say do what you been doing unless it has been breaking really regular and causing lots of downtime....

 

[Dunk]

(quoted from post at 23:46:14 02/04/09) One says hardest, one says softest....I'd say do what you been doing unless it has been breaking really regular and causing lots of downtime....

Head bolts out of an engine won't last 2 minutes in mine.

I had to find the one that came with it, and weld a washer to the top of it, cause the top broke off.

It is a hard pin.

 

[Bill(Wis)]

What you're using is most likely a standard grade 2 bolt. Try a grade 5 bolt if you want to avoid the bending problem. That'd be one with three marks on the head like a "Y". I doubt that you'd need a grade 8 and I'm sure something would break on the N or hitch or plow before the grade 8 bolt would shear assuming it's a fairly tight fit.

 

[Bill M (OH)]

My old backblade has a solid steel L shaped pin in it, which I don't believe you could ever break. That said, we don't get enough snow down here to ever have to operate it backwards (pushing in reverse), so I don't worry about it at all. I don't think you can hurt anything on the tractor by pulling it forward - I just put'er up in 4th and go like mad.

 

[old9n]

I have to agree with Dell on getting a soft pin.
I think the pin should be the weak link in the system, or you will end up bending or cracking something else.
My Dad tells me often, of his friend and how a plow hung up on a root and the tractor climbed up and flipped over trapping him under the turning wheel.
I'm not saying anything other than a ROPS and seat belt would have prvented this.

 

[Anonymous-0]

Use a Grade 2!! I broke my first one (looked like the origonal from 1960) then put in a Grade 8 cause I was mad it broke. Plowed the drive the next day, misjudged where there was a small stump next to the drive. Needless to say my right lift arm wasn't strait anymore! It was in the shape of a U. Grade 2 bolts are cheaper than new lift arms! Use Grade 2!

 

[bmack95hd]

Only had 3 jobs in my life, all for bolt and nut companies. Either use a low carbon pin or a Gr.2 Hex Head {307A} Bolt. Every year we go through the same song and dance where someone uses a heat treated Gr.5 or Gr.8 and damages the snowblower or other implement. Only my 2 cents, I'll sell you whatever you ask for.