What weight breaks an H?

I fabricated a fork-lift attachment to use on the 3-pt on my H. I use it to move loads of firewood around. Naturally, this addition acquainted me with easy and non-existent steering. I've put a weight rack on the front and have just loaded it with 450 pounds of steel. I would imagine I'm within the limits of the tractor and I _have_ tightened the bolts on the bell-housing but it does raise the question, what weight breaks an H? I've heard of how one has to be careful but I haven't heard amounts.

Does anyone have estimates or stories of what was on the H when it was too much?

Dave: My dad broke an H while doing loader work. It didn't happen when he was lifting a huge bucket full. We determined afterwards the bolts holding torque tube to transmission were loose.

I think looseness of casting bolts is the key here, not saying it will break that day, might not even break until after they have been tightened. Probably a crack started when it was loose.

Thanks Hugh. I would imagine that story has been told before. I was wary before I started congratulating myself about how I could now effectively move heavy loads I didn't go down the path of breaking the tractor and moving nothing. I think if we collect these stories it'll be a help.

Are there techniques to telling if those bolts are loose - aside from the obvious gap along the seam where the housings meet? I've tightened them. I'd like to keep periodically tightening them and if I can do it without unloading the weights, all the better.

Dave: looking back at what I remember about the H, I think if one checks those bolts with a wrench every 6 months, and takes care to drive slowly with heavy loads on rough ground, he will not encounter much difficulty. Oh course the other unknown is what someone else might have done in the past.

I remember once breaking a front cast wheel because the rim was loose. Dad sent me off to a welding shop, he warned me, "the shop owner is going to give you a lecture for running tractor with wheels loose." Sure enough, dad was right, to start with the old guy was so drunk he couldn't get off a 5 gal. pail in his shop. He gave me a lecture, the likes of which I've never experienced since or before. He told me if the castings were all tight and had always been tight on a Farmall H, there was no man alive, tough enough to stay on the H long enough to break castings.

He told me to come back in 24 hours and the wheel would be fixed. Well, it was and he was still drunk, still on the same 5 gal. pail. I don't know if he sobered up for the welding. I can tell you 40 years later the wheel was still on the tractor. It had been broke in to the bearing.

I have a H in the yard right now that I bought recently,supposedly the extra steel rods running from the front frame rails to the rear end are holding it together,I have yet to remove them and find out,I do not see ant broken bolts,but who knows,it originally had a loader and I was told thats what broke it..Jim

My thoughts are that a forklift (rear) and loader (front) apply forces to the tractor in different ways.

The original poster was trying to improve "counterbalance" by adding 450lbs to the front end. I think that amount is well within what my mind thinks the tractor is good for in terms of loading. Most of the heavy loads are taken up on the rear axle housings and bearings.

A loader would likely apply most of the load to the center of the tractor, wherever the bottom of the lift cylinders are located. Granted loader frames often extend to the rear axle for pushing reasons...but the bucket forces can only be transmitted thru the pivots. I would think the tractor to be much more vulnerable in this type of loading.

Dave remember some of these tractor are 70 years hold, that in it's self makes a big difference. The frame screws came loose because of the lock washers. Change all the frame screws with grade 8 and no washer and torgue them as tight as you can, them they will stay tight.

I have seen several H's that have broken in two at the center casting and it isn't pretty. All the tractors were broken when they had a loader on them, specifically a Farmhand loader (can't remember the model #, but the ones with the frame outside the wheels). I always heard the same as others said that the problem was mainly loose bolts. However, these old Farmhand loaders had mounts that were made to break the tractor as the rear mounts attached to the center casting of the tractor. With a 3-point hitch on the H, if it is like mine, it attaches to the drawbar mounts on the axle. To me the first thing to break would be the bolts attaching it to the axle (although I haven't made any calculations to back up my opinion). I just have a single hydraulic cylinder on my 3-point on my Super H and with my fork lift attachment I am unable to lift more than 2000 lb which is good, because that is the rating on the fork lift attachment I bought commercially (I tested it out last week lifting a pallet of retaining wall blocks). Roger

Chris: My dad's H broke when it was 3 years old in 1954. I'll stand by what my drunken welder said, any tractor casting that broke was operated loose sometime in it's history.

Trying to carry 2000lbs on the back of an H sure isnt a good idea.

'Bout a 1066 with a IH loader? :>)

Allan

Wheelie popping places more stress on these bolts than all the weight you can hang on the front of it. I always thought this point of the tractor was overlooked as I never hear the subject discussed. Thanks Dan

I'd love to see your fork-lift attachment. I sort of threw mine together from stuff I scrounged up at the scrapyard. I'll see if I can get a picture loaded in the next couple of weeks. I think seeing how these solutions are designed is very useful.