863 bobtach bent bad by loader arms

[jmdskid]

Hey guys, yesterday I was using my 863 and I was attempting to dig out a stump. I have a stump bucket annd after working a while at it, it was finally moving. I was giving that stump all my 863 had.

While doing thisthe skid slid sideways a little and side loaded the loader arms/bobtach pretty good. And all of a sudden I heard a loud "snap!". When I got out and looked at the bobtach I would see the outside ears on both sides bent out, almost off the pins. There's a like 3/4x3/4 piece of steal that reinforces the bobtach. One side is threaded and holds the tilt stop in place. Well I snapped both sides at once, allowing the outside ears of the bobtach bend out.

I thought about using my ball joint press to squeeze everything back together, cut out the 3/4 piece of steel and hoping to get everything relatively straight. Then bring it to my welder and have him weld it up with some nice braces on both sides and hopefully I get lucky. My question is anyone ever run into something like this? Anybody have any other suggestions? I considered buying a new one but I just replaced the handles and every else.

This forum is awesome! Tons of great info. Hope these photos help. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

 

[Tazza]

You did a good job....

I have never damaged one here, i have repaired ones that tore where the ram joins to the bobtach, the material on the outside looks thinner than the other side, no idea why they'd do it that way.

Your biggest issue will be getting things straight, you need it so the pivot points are in perfect alignment, or you twist the bobtach and it will bind, i have done it before in the arms where the taper is, i line bored them so they were straight and welded home made bosses in place with a pin that went from side to side so it was dead straight for welding. You may need to think of a way to make sure things are held straight when welding