M7040 skid plate

Finally almost finished with fabbing up a skid plate for the M7040, working around brush and roots and sticks we've sheared off pretty much all the lines underneath at one time or another and the main line twice once with a stick and once with a snowbank. Also have dented both hydraulic filters as well as tweaked the rear brake linkage. Used a 2x2x 3/8 thick angle iron that runs from the front to rear of the tractor, it has a notch where it goes past a high spot in the transmission and its bolted in six or so places using the 16mm bolt holes, tapped out one hole on the transmission to 16mm and cleaned out the rest. Put some tabs on the angle iron and fitted 1/4 inch steel plates, the plates are small enough to remove. Its bolted solidly along the spine, and so far tied into the flimsy guard under the hydraulics and with a heavy strut anchored to the rear axle, using the plate where the rear sway links hook to the rear axle. Will have to get some pictures but this should protect all the hydraulics and filters.

Will try and get a couple tonight, last final bolting that needs doing and welding on one more tab to finalize it. Get everything painted and so far looking good.

Skid plate built and completed, The tabs point away from the fuel tank, two holes to the right hit the two forward 16mm bolt holes in the case, the third hole back hits a 14mm bolt hole. All the small holes are 10mm tapped into 1/4 thick 2x2 angle bits welded onto the main bracket



Rear half of the main bracket, the notch clears the hump in the transmission, the second to the last bolt is right next to the drain plug, 14mm x 1.0 The last hole is an untapped hole in the transmission/axle that I ran a tap through. Gussets to reinforce around the notch.




Forward plate, lined up on the main bracket and all holes drilled through first, tapped. then threads drilled out of the plate to make the bolts a snug fit with very little play, the relief was cut on both sides and across the middle then hammered into a gentle ridge about 3/4 inch deep to clear one stupid hydraulic line that hangs way down close to the main engine case. Slot for drainage and leak detection. Rear tab is a piece of scrap 1/4 inch plate welded on, holes drilled and 2 10mm nuts spotted on the back to join the plates together.



Rear plate section, narrow part aims rearward, plates are 22 inches long, no threaded holes in this one, made in small pieces for easy removal.




Rear gusset/bracket, remove one forward bolt on the lower arm bracket where its clamped around the axle housing, that bolt goes through the large hole, bracket hangs down, reinforced with a 1x1x1/8 angle iron, one bolt attaches to the main runner and two nuts spotted for the tail of the rear plate.




Skid plate installed, front half, tire chains installed!





Looking at the rear half, should protect the filters valves hoses and linkages!!

I'm thinking one more brace up to the trans case about mid way down should make it more than strong enough in case of high centering on something, present config should keep all the brush and branches out of the vital bits.

Call it a slightly up-armored Kubota. I don't understand why big orange put the main bucket and auxiliary valve where they did. There is a loaf of bread sized hole directly above, in line with the top of the trans, lots of room for hoses and valve stacking and easy cable adjustment access. The relief bulge in the forward plate clears one vital part by 1/2 inch or less, that hose had been removed several times by small and moderate branches. Poor little hose being the absolute lowest part of the tractor besides the tires.

just for fun drove slow over a frozen ice bank, the plate sheared a chunk of ice off and did a great job protecting the hoses and valves. Hopefully this will be the end of having to replace random hoses down below!! Awesome!

gpreuss said:

You've got to be running over heavier brush than we have around here... I think we call stuff that would drag off hydraulic hoses "forest".
Great looking skid pan!

Click to expand...

Well, sticks around an inch in diameter can weasel up in there and use leverage to snap off fittings and bend linkages as well as crack the filters. Yeah, its heavier than scrub

That looks nice and yeah, not sure why any sane engineer would put all that stuff on the bottom anyway

Seems like it'd be a good idea if engineers were like folks in a machine shop, you start doing the finish work, to see what a good deburring job looks like, then move up to deburring to see what good machining looks like. then up to machining to know how to make a good part that doesn't require a lot of work. So an engineer should work in a kubota repair shop for a couple years to see what problems arise in day to day use and all the repair difficulties.

They should follow the lead of another black and orange (Harley) company, Sell the average product and then have a massive inventory of accessories and such, of course it'll hurt Tractor Supply, Kubota's go-fast store.