Catastrophic Hub Failure

[Lil Foot]

Working up at the cabin, I used the BH to pull out 30-40 Gambel Oaks, ranging from 18" to 7ft.
(forgot to get a before pic) This area needed to be cleared for a future fence line.

 

[Lil Foot]

Then I moved some rocks:

 

[ken erickson]

Sorry Lil Foot, jumped in too soon.

 

[Lil Foot]

It was then about time for lunch, so I thought I'd put the tractor away for the day, and headed back towards it's home.
I was running slow in 1st gear high range 2wd when the right rear dropped out from under me.

 

[Lil Foot]

A quick look showed this:

 

[Lil Foot]

I used the outriggers to jack it up & block it with 4 x 4 & 2 x 4.

 

[Lil Foot]

Thankfully, I had a couple of worn out, old hubs that NIW gave me a while back. Thanks Sean!
But they had no studs, and I have no hydraulic press at the cabin. So I found some suitable o-rings to center some 1/2"-13 bolts in the hub holes, and did a temporary fix just to get it put away.

 

[Lil Foot]

Fender straightened pretty well with some muscle & a 2x4.
I inspected the other hub with a mirror, and it looks good, but we shall see.
Hub appears to have been cracked for a long time (years?) before letting go.
Two new hubs on order.
Depending on the condition of the other hub, I may have to reconsider all that cast iron wheel weight.

 

[Lil Foot]

Oh yeah, this little guy wandered thru the repair area where I had been sitting just as I stood up to grab some more tools.

 

[Lil Foot]

Sorry Lil Foot, jumped in too soon.

Yup, more to come!

 

[Lil Foot]

Yeah, I don't type or think as fast as I used to, plus I had a lot of pics to sort thru.

 

[85Hokie]

Bill,

sorry to hear of your extremely bad day - but, I am very glad you were not hurt by the tractor OR your little friend!

Tractor will be new again I am sure!

 

[Lil Foot]

One thing that seemed odd to me was that there was absolutely no indication of impending failure.
Everything felt (and sounded) completely normal. I had just started a slight right turn when it dropped.
Thankfully, I had no load in the bucket and was not on a side hill.
(both of which I had been doing 5 minutes previously )

 

[kubotasam]

I had the exact same failure of the old style hub about 15 years ago. It was soon after I bought my first B7100. I replaced both hubs with the new style cast hubs. No problems since then. I still have that broken one somewhere in my collection of Kubota parts.

 

[S-G-R]

Perfect time for it to break. Glad you and weren't injured and the tractor wasn't dinged up too bad.

 

[WFM]

12 ga #6 shot for your little buddy there...
CaBOOM...

 

[GreensvilleJay]

I was wondering if the hub IF the hubs ARE rated for all that extra weight ?

 

[Trimley]

That hub looks like it could be welded back on, maybe for a spare.

 

[lugbolt]

you wouldn't believe how many times I've seen that happen. Dumb design, worked for a tractor but when you put implements and / or attachments on it, they break more frequently. The new hubs are a little stronger but still kind of a crap design, IMO.

 

[GrizBota]

Good ingenuity figuring out a back to the barn fix. If there’s no rust on the failed surface, I’d think it was pretty fresh. Doesn’t seem like it’s take too many rotations for the wheel to exit stage left once the hub failed.