The Wheel Fell Off this Tractor – Who Should Pay for It???
It's definitely a good thing that I Decided to come out here and do this Today because I just found a major Problem Hey it's Brock here with Rock Hill Farms And I've Got a Friend Who has the same tractor I do and Recently had one of the wheels fall off The tractor while they were running it It did quite a bit of damage to the Tractor it's going to be an expensive Repair and I've had a few conversations With my friend about this And his experience in dealing with the Dealership and with John Deere about Whether or not this is or should be a Covered warranty claim and what the Tractor owner's responsibility is In preventing something like this from Happening You know what they are expecting you to Do and is that reasonable it's have me Thinking a lot about Maintenance on your tractor outside of Air filters and oil changes and grease Zerks so today We're going to go over some of that I'm Going to show you exactly what led to my Friend's wheel falling off and we'll Just have a conversation about customer Or Owner responsibility manufacturer Responsibility and how we can prevent Things like this from happening so first
Thing I want to do is get the loader off So I've got better access to check some Other things besides wheel bolts so the Issue I'm talking about with the wheel Falling off is a rear wheel and it Involves wheel spacers and wheel weights We're going to start up here and work Our way back because All of these major Bolts from the wheels To The axle mount To the loader Mount all go in the same Category as you know a larger diameter High torque bolt that Can cause a major issue if they come Loose or break and it's something that We need to be keeping an eye on all the Time now on the these wheel bolts I did Find a torque spec in the owner's manual It says 103 foot pounds The idea here is pretty simple I'm sure You guys have all seen this before but If you put a mark across the bolt and Then carry that Mark onto the metal next To the bolt then if this starts to come Loose even just slightly you'll be able To tell that's happened and tighten it Back up or replace the bolt before it Turns into a bigger problem Now every time I walk around my tractor I'll be able to see that and make sure That my bolts are still tight The next set of bolts we need to check Are for the front axle
And Another YouTube channel that I'm friends With is called Hardy Brothers outdoors And that's a channel from a pair of Brothers Josh and Jason Hardy who have John Deere tractors and Josh had a Problem with his 2032r breaking these front axle bolts so He did a whole series of videos on going Through the process with that so that's Another one we definitely want to be Checking now my owner's manual does not Go through and give us a torque spec for All of these bolts It does have a chart for bolt size And Hardness that tells us a torque spec And I believe this to be an M12 Bolt Based on what I've found and it's a Class 8.8 Bolt Which gives me 70 foot pounds of torque That seems kind of light actually now if I was installing these I think I would Verify that number before I just Installed them and ran the tractor I would be calling my Dealer For verification on that being an Accurate number But for making sure it's tight if it Says it's tight at that number I'll feel Pretty good about it
One of them moved just a tiny bit And also one of these bolts isn't Actually it just holds this bracket to The frame And it's got a nut on the back so at First it moved I was like what the heck But that's not a problem Now Conventional wisdom is if you find one Of these that's loose you just tighten It up But I've spent a lot of years working on Machines and I would not do that I might do it immediately but then I'm Taking that bolt back out and replacing It as soon as I get the opportunity to Because my experience is a loose bolt Will turn into a broken bolt and you Might even break it tightening it up so I would just replace a bolt that has Come loose on this so I've known ever Since I had the tractor basically that It was a good idea to go through and Mark these bolts and I've never done it Knowing about it doesn't help you any You got to do it Now this next set of bolts actually Broke on my tractor and that's the Service I had done at the dealership was Fixing these broken bolts and I really Should have marked these at that time But didn't do it So That one's good
Now one of these has a nut behind it It's this one has the nut behind it So we'll have to check that with the Wrench on the back And the last two are hard to get to Because they're behind the hydraulic Hoses on this side To take the adapters off Foreign As we do this We'll start to get into the story Of the wheel falling off And why all of this is relevant to that Story Because it says in your owner's manual To periodically check your Bolts on your wheels And I thought that the owner's manual Said periodically check these bolts but I could not find anywhere in the manual That said that Actually Have a couple pictures here Of excerpts I found interesting from the Owner's manual And we have every 200 hours Check wheel bolt torque Now Go ahead and think about that yourself Does that mean that if your wheel falls Off before 200 hours that that's a Warranty problem because You're not supposed to check them till 200 hours
What if it falls off at 300 hours bolts In your wheel brake and the wheel falls Off causes a lot of other damage you got 300 hours it says well you're supposed To torque those at 200 hours how do we Know that you did that well how do you Know that I didn't What if you did torque them at 200 hours And they break it 300. Is that does that seem like a warranty Issue to you So we've done one side I'm going to go Through and do the other side exactly The same way then we'll move to these Back wheels it's definitely a good thing I decided to come out here and do this Today because I just found a major Problem Well I mean actually I don't think it's A major problem today But it would have been pretty quick I Bet this bolt right here I have not Touched with a wrench I was just Cleaning it so I could make my mark And these bolts right here these two and These two are what hold your axle in Place And if one bolt is loose Yeah it's not broken yet But it's been running loose for a little Bit because there's a flat spot on the Threads And if I tighten this up In my mind you know it's 50 50. it might
Tighten Up and Hold or it might Not hold and break and then cause a Bigger problem And if this one goes then this one will Be next and it'll eventually work its Way all the way around and this bolts Loose also I'm going to not take out more than one Of these at a time even though it Doesn't feel like it has pressure on it Right now It could in theory be a situation where It's hard to line these up I've actually Seen people talk about that And this one the threads are not Flattened off And it's not broken So this one came loose after that one I Would I would think But it was just a matter of time before I had this axle trying to fall off on me These two are still tight to the touch Let's check our torque Tight That one turned maybe a half a flat So these two bolts for sure will get Replaced And loctid probably Might as well do all three of them Probably the one that was still tight Would be okay but I may replace all four Of them if they have these in stock and I'll get verified torque specs and Probably use some Loctite on these all
Right so Obviously we're not going to Mark these Since there's a problem Hopefully that's the only problem we Find today Now I'm not freaking out or getting Really upset with John Deere That these bolts are like this Because From the conversations I've had in my Personal experiences you know this is Something that can just happen over time And you need to be going around and Checking out your machine But that's the point of this video is Hoping we can save someone else from Having these problems So I'm going to Mark the rest of these And we'll go back and take a look at the Rear wheels I am really glad that I Decided to make this video because I might not have found that those loose Axle bolts If I hadn't done that and now I will Have everything marked and I'll do a Better job of keeping an eye on it and Hopefully I help some other people to do The same but the heart of the issue is What I started off talking about I've Got a friend he's actually got his own YouTube channel And I'll put links to his channel in the Description if you want to go check that Out he has a 2038 with wheel spacers and
One set of wheel weights Now on his he did the same thing I did He went in When he bought the tractor and he bought John Deere wheel spacers and those were Installed From the dealership and the way these Work is your wheel bolts go through the Spacers and bolt into the Hub And You can see those bolts I mean I can see them right here I can Actually reach in there and touch those Bolts And it's just a longer bolt in the same Size and same place that the original Wheel bolts would be But The operator's manual says every 200 Hours you need to check and re-torque Those bolts Well I don't think unless I Misunderstood I don't think his tractor Has 200 hours yet So the dealership put these wheels on With the wheel spacers and bolted those On And I think yours it basically says Check everything at 10 hours so he Should have re-torqued these at 10 hours And assuming he did that and they they Broke or came loose whichever happened First before 200 hours If the customer buys this and follows
The owner's manual to the T he hasn't Checked those again Now you could say a thorough person Would check them every day I mean we could just every day spend all Day checking things on the tractor There's a fine line with this between As the operator the manufacturer can't Guarantee what you're doing what extra Stress you're putting on it It's your responsibility to pay Attention to your machine check Everything out look for problems And be proactive But you know the service time isn't hit On this yet now if my wheel fell off Yesterday while I was running this That'd be on me because I should have checked those bolts three Times But the problem I have And the just the reality of the Situation it's not having a problem With these wheel weights on I can't Check those bolts And it takes A few hours and really two people to Take these wheel weights on and off it's A pretty big job and you've got to take Them off to check those bolts So I'm gonna do the right thing and do that Extra work I'm going to take all three Sets of these wheel weights off
Check the torque on all my bolts Mark All my bolts and then put them back on But the conversation I want to have Is Is this a warranty issue for my friend I don't have every detail But as of right now it's been denied as A warranty claim and when this fell off It did a lot of damage and he's looking At a deposit of 3 500 to have the Dealership fix it It tore up the Hub Damaged the wheel I don't know what else but they want a Deposit of thirty five hundred dollars I Said it could be seven to ten thousand Depending on if they found any other Problems And that is a hard pill pill to swallow When you're looking at A third almost half of the value of the Machine To fix it now I believe he's going to Fix it himself but I also think he Shouldn't have to I think it should be a Warranty A warranty claim so Let me know what you guys think about Where is the responsibility on an issue Like this is that his problem Is it his problem if it's over 200 hours Now what he told me and this is third Party you know I'm not trying to be the Judge and jury on this but what he told
Me was that he ran it for a while with No wheel weights then he added wheel Weights and he added them himself And when he added right before he put Them on he actually used a torque wrench A digital torque wrench and checked and Both sides these wheel bolts were still Tight and then he installed the wheel Weights now if that's the case I feel like he did his responsibility And I'd like to hear what you guys think About liability on an issue like this so Because I've got that other problem And the amount of time that goes into This And I found a few things in the owner's Manual that I was unaware of Beyond this That our maintenance items I need to do On this tractor I'm going to come back out here tomorrow And possibly the next day and do another Maintenance video on this where we go Into some other things that I just Wasn't aware of we replaced those bolts Take these off and and check the torque On these rear wheels but I'd love to Read your comments let me know what you Guys think about this situation I Appreciate you taking time to watch this Video I'll put links on the screen to a Couple more of our videos and I'll see You next time
