Any body have a rear tandem for a 12 ton knowles?

I posted on the implement board last night that the running gear under our Gehl 970 snapped a spindle from the front tandem. I think a few of you guys know how that turns out, and now I do too.

The front dug into the ground and twisted the back of the running gear almost into a pretzel.

Got the neighbors out with their payloader to lift the wagon (barely made it) so we could block it up and unload it into another wagon.
After we got it unloaded, we lifted it back up and pulled the tandems out and blocked it up. Now it's out in the middle of the feild, up on blocks waiting for us to figure out what we're gonna do.





Donovan from Wisconsin
more pictures

One of those wagon gears is sitting on a sales lot next door. St. Louis metro east area.

Before you do anything, why not find a dealer for Horst welding /HLA loader attachments... and see if you can't price a 12 ton ger from them, minus the wheels. You probably can... and you'll probably find that it isn't all that expensive. Seems to me that wheels/tires included, complete is somewhere in the 2500 range in Canadian dollars...
The whole shot. Done and slid under there in a couple hours.

Rod

Knowles is right down the road from you.

If it were me I would get something besides a Knowles, we had one, very light built. The gears under parker boxes had inner bearings that were smaller than most outer bearings, with tiny spindles and are prone to failing, my opinion.

Normally I'd say start cutting and welding but those are shot.
I know the Horst gears will track perfectly at 50mph (empty). They seem very well built.

It all depends on what you have for a shop and what equipment it has. You have enough left of this to use for a pattern. Need a steel supplier that would sell you the material and use a heavier gauge tubing and heavier spindels and have a better set up. Good job for the winter.
gitrib

FWIW- Gehl is the same unit- made by Knowles. Actually, that doesn"t look to be that hard to fix. Cut out the crosspiece, realign it, and put in a new bolster, weld the wishbone. Plate everything.

Is that a Kools blower w/a fox snout your transferring with?

As others mentioned, I'd check into another whole set of running gear, (at least get an idea of cost )and turn the busted one you've got into a single axle hay wagon (cut and weld).

Good luck.

You nailed that one! The neighbors that helped us pick it up wanted us to pull our greenfeed wagon out and then unload into their bucket, but we had the spout laying around and already had the blower off the silo, ready to go.

We're gonna start looking at our options. I'm a machinist so I would be able to make new, and was debating how hard it would be to fabricate a new one. A couple dealers around have extra running gears I'm sure, it's just a matter of price.

If we got a new one, I'd just as soon do away with the tandems, and for sure get rid of the knowles. Dad never had a very high opinion of them, and now neither do I!!

Donovan from Wisconsin

Been thinking about fixing it. I've done worse projects in the past and I probably could fix it. I'll have to look into a beefy peice of I beam. The one on this is pretty wimpy, so beefier wouldn't be hard. The cross peice that the wagon sits on will need to be replaced, no questions about that. It's been twisted, ripped, and pretty well trashed.

Some of my welds holding up to some serious abuse, so I'm not extremely concerned about the welding aspect of it. I may have to pick the brains of the engineers at work to see what they think, but I might just have to look into what types of stock I can get.

Donovan from Wisconsin

We're not too fond of knowles either, but it's just what was under the wagon when we bought it. Our other wagon we use is a 16' 920 and it's got an 8 bolt Heubner gear under it. Heubner is a local company that isn't in business anymore but they did build some heavy equipment back in the day. Not too many of their wagons trail straight though.

Donovan from Wisconsin

Yea, tandems are handy in soft ground and the extra weight but there are extra problems (as you have) and the extra cost. Are you done harvesting yet? If you can wait you can shop and or fix during the beautiful Wisconsin winter. You can call Hein and Son and see if they have one. They have one of every thing ever built (well maybe not but it sure seems like it). 574-633-4177. They don't always answer the phone and are only "open" Sunday/Monday but you can try them.

When I worked for Gehl of course we had Gehl running gears. I never worked on them but the tandem set under the 980 forage box (they called them bunk unloaders) test unit we had pulled/tracked VERY well.

How do you like the 970 box? Some guys didn't think they were as good as its predecessors. Probably why the 980 came out. I was disapointed when they started buying (H&S or Meyer) boxes toward the end. I passed a "Gehl Brothers" box for sale the other day. Uncle had a Lamco (Rex) box. Wore it out and kept going. Don't see to many of those around.

3x8x1/4 or 5/16" HSS would be my choice for an axle tube.
4x4x1/4 makes a good walking beam tube. Just don't go wild with the welder or you'll distort it... and you also need to box in the ends.
That's basically how our Horst's are built and I've yet to see one broken...

Rod

The 970 seems to work just fine for us. It replaced an old Rex wagon that my dad bought used in the early 80's. That thing was worn out and wasn't worth trying to keep the gearbox together, so we parked it.

A few years later I tore it apart, and now the running gear is under a Meyer's wagon (busted that gear box last year) and the stringers are a part of a haywagon now.

We bought a 920 last year at my 2nd cousins estate auction. Paid $400 for it, and that was the highest priced one of the 4 gehls he had (a 910, and I think 3 920's. This was the first to go in the line up which we knew would be more $$$, but I knew something nobody else at the auction knew- It had a brand new apron chain installed a few years prior. My dad and I went and scoped them all out, and by looking at the chain we determined that this was the one with the new chain so we were pretty determined to get it.

While doing corn last year the steel over the apron drive shaft caught the chain and tore up a couple bars, but we fixed that and lined the floor in poly. Replaced the steel over the shaft, and all the steel in the front for the cross conveyor. Heck of a wagon now, just took a little more $$ to get it there. Still much cheaper than buying from a dealer.

Donovan from Wisconsin

The tandem walkers are without harm. The spindle is held in with a bolt, and I'm sure rust, but the tandems themselves are fine. They appear to be made of 2 peices of channel iron welded togther into a box shape.

Dad called around today, and we've decided to have it fixed by a local shop/manufacturer (Gruett) who makes running gears and chopper boxes themselves. He called them up, told them what we had. They said we'd be surprised what they can do with some heat and a hammer. I'd fix it myself, but we have to get it out of the feild before snow flies.

it happened to break right at the end of a grass waterway. It's dry right now, but as soon as we get any kind of snow and rain, it'll turn into a wet mess. If we're lucky, they'l have it fixed by next week. He's gonna bring it in tomorrow.

I'd love to fix it myself and I'm more than capable, but we've gotta finish up the fall fieldwork, plus put the engine back into our 1855 if we ever get it back... And I'm moving into a house in another 3 weeks.

Donovan from Wisconsin