drawbars

What type of steel are drawbars made from? I have a couple that are badly worn and would like to know what electrode to use.

I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and tell it as I see it... You didn't mention a manufacturer, and I am not going to get in a brand war, but from a lifetime of observation, I think the steel used varied from mfg. to mfg..

Boring it round (or doing the best you can with a die grinder) and pressing in a hardened bushing is likely the BEST repair.

(Posted by a guy that has seen welded-up drawbars SNAP, which is not the greatest thing to happen when pulling a loaded trailer down the road)!

Likely Heat-treated steel.

If welded, you would alter the structure and it could become brittle and break under load.

I agree on the differences in steel from mfg to mfg. I have used a bushing to fix a worn hole, but it all depends on what you use the tractor for. Light duty on a restored tractor would work ok, pulling full gravity wagons.....?

welded several, havent had a problem

So who has the best steel in there drawbars inquiring minds want to know

Get a colar with size hole needed and burn out hole big enough for colar and than weld colar in. Have put drawbar in fire and got it hot and then welded it not stop welding till done and put back in fire and slowly cool it down.

Snap to me means tempered steel. It is strong till it gets to it's yield point and then snaps. Mild example is the shear bolt in the PTO shaft of my baler. JD part is a grade 8. JD says that the grade 8 will snap clean and you can get it out where a grade 2 will smear.

Mild steel will slowly bend as you exceed the yield point but will not snap. All in the alloys and tempering (annealing).

I would think that you would want temper to keep it from bending. However, constant pounding especially with spikes above the yield point could shear it.

I saw a connector for a dump truck tag along "Pup" shear right into. The constant pounding of the Pup tongue fatugued the metal and it broke. It was cast however.

I have taken ball bearing races and pounded on them till they crumbled.

I had a drawbar once that needed another hole. I took it to a machine shop and they were able to drill a 1" dia. hole with no apparent problem. Guy didn't charge much and didn't say anything about having to remove temper and re -annealing it.

Just remembered something. Once I hired a neighbor teen and asked him to load some hay on a 16' tandem flat bed. The hitch was on my truck and was not all that thick, maybe cat 2. These trailers have a long distance from the tandem to the hitch as compared to the rear making them tongue heavy.

He loads about 4 high starting in the very front and loads up rather than one full layer at a time. Next thing you know the tongue bends, didn't break just bent.

Well that's what I know about it.

HTH,
Mark

What size tractor would be a good starting question. A lot of the drawbars used on pulling tractors are made of hot roll bar stock. I have made several out of hot roll for tractors under 100 horse power. The drawbar for my 961 Dorf is made from hot roll with the step down double bend. I made that one over 15 years ago. I have used it on a field cultivator and baler along with a bunch of other stuff. I don't see any change in it from the day I bent it up and slid it in. A standard drawbar drills harder than a hot roll bar but not by much. My drawbars for all my pulling tractors were welded to get the hook point closer to the rear axle. Over 10 years of pulling without any drawbar breakage. The factory drawbars are soft enough to wear out the pin hole quicker than the draw pin on a baler. A coupla more things to think about.

Now that you mention it, yes they do. So that too points to little if any tempering. I have a 1x2 double curved drawbar on my current 65 hp "work" tractor and I pull a JD 375 5x4 baler with it which has a pretty high tongue weight, guessing by how hard it is to crank the tongue jackstand when lining up for connecting; don't know the actual weight nor the weight with a full bale. The tongue of the baler is huge as compared to the tractor's drawbar but it seems to hold up. No bending yet. The tractor has 800+ hours of average work on it and the bar pin hole does have noticeable wear.

Mark

My vote goes to Massey.

This is the draw bar on a Deere 4230



Specification
Weight: 41.80 LBS 18.96 Kg
Hole Size - Tractor End 1.024 IN
Hole Size - Towed End 1.141 IN
Length 44.748 IN
Thickness 1.375 IN
Width 2.500 IN
No. Holes At "A" Tractor End 6.000
Hole Location - Tractor End 1.114 IN
Hole Location - Towed End 1.252 IN
Length to "J" 6.378 IN
Radius 0.500 IN
Offset 2.500 IN
Material 4140HR
Finish A
Note

Just grab a handfull of 6011 and have at it.

I weld them up all the time and just use 7018, but 6011/6013 would work too. Fixed one on our case as a kid that broke from too heavy of manure spreader, used 6011 and it held fine. That's the only broken one I've welded, but built up lots.

I welded up the drawbar from our Massey 285 when it snapped on dad hauling manure. I remade the hitch on the spreader but didn't make the pin hole big enough so when he went through a furrow the pin didn't have enough float and it snapped the drawbar.

I V'd it out almost to a point, and just started welding away. Once I was done,I put it inside a fiberglass blanket and let it cool slowly. We were cautious at first with it but it's been several years now with no signs of cracking. Dad did buy another used one, but the one that broke had a 4" drop where as the replacement had only a 2" drop. Didn't line up with any of the pto's on the equipment anymore and didn't match our other tractors so the 4" drop went back in.

Donovan from Wisconsin

IF it's 4140 steel, here's a link.
welding 4140

"V" it out real good and fill it in with 7014.

Tried to enlarge second hole in drawbar on wife's MF 180 an eight of an inch or so. Couldn't begin to drill it. Must be some pretty tough stuff.

A '65 Oliver, COOP and JD A, all with worn holes and top surface, and grooves in the sides from swing pins. I suspected SAE 4140 or something similar.