Bad day
 

I was enjoying some cub seat time moving snow around the yard when all of a sudden :bigeyes: :bash2: (look at pics) After closer examination I found that it was cracked perfectly all the way around about 3/4 the way through right by the weld.It fell pretty fast and hard ,there was #400 in the weight box at the time.Had to fire up the 72 to get the 125 back to the shop. Talk about a bad day.

OUCH!!! That must stink,but thats one more reason to have more than one Cub Cadet!

wowsa!!! Thank God you're OK.... That sucks bigtime Jeff!

WOW that sucks!!

I am glad you didn't get hurt. Seems like stuff like that happens when you least expect it. Well, to be honest, I would have never expected that to happen. WOW :bigeyes:

Sorry to see that, Jeff. At least, you weren't hurt.

That's why I run loaded tires with wheel weights on my tractors. Take the load off the axle and rear end housing.

how did that happen and what are you going to have to do to repair it? i wouldnt expect that to happen to these tractors, they are overbuilt and have heavy duty rear axles. maybe that 400 lbs was just too much?

Broken axle
 

I would say Sam Mac has the right idea. A little too much weight a little too long and something gave up, in this case it was the axle shaft.

I like the idea of Windshield washer fluid in the tires and wheel weights. I have seen wheels poured full of cement on full size tractors when I was a kid. They devised a way to keep it from sticking to the wheel with maybe canvas and poured it full. They put something in the place of the bolt to keep a hole opening and made their own weights.

Dave in SW Missouri

This is why most of the weight on my loader tractor is on the wheels. I suspect that counterweight contributed to the failure. There is a pretty massive stress concentration where the flange attaches to the axle, and having weight on the frame/rearend increases the stress on the axle flange.

The rear will have to be drained and the axle pulled and replaced. I would replace both axle bearings and seals while you're in there if I were you. You should also get some wheel weights or load the tires, and reduce the side of that counterweight, or you may have this happen again.

Matt,
Don't you think the welded flange instead of a forged flange also contributed to the brittle/weakness of the axle assembly?
I'm thinking that a forging would of not broke, but either design would be overstressed in my book @ that small of diameter with the loads imposed.

and
Matt is correct on what cause the failure. 150 to 200 pounds of weight would have been plenty. The loader itself is lucky to lift 350 to 500 pounds. When you add the operator's weight, rear end weight you will have more than enough counterweight. Going overkill like some of the recent post/topics will cause problems like broken axles or diffs. I rather have my Cubs be able to spin tires some than over do the weight.

George-
A forge flange may take more abuse.....they do cost more and not needed if the driver/owner use some common sense.

Jeff K
Thanks for posting and dont feel bad i did the same thing to my cub 100 on the first snowfall we seem to forget when playing with these things that they are not TANKS lol they will break good thing they are not too bad to work on good luck !!!:beerchug:

I couldn't agree more as far as cost and given the original intent of the welded design.
Just like the weights I hung on my axle for traction, I was leery of them because they were not only excessive, but hung so far back, multiplying the weight/stress.
I just wanted to see how it would work. I really don’t use the 782 for snow removal.
I use my IH 400 loader/rear blade tractor as it is faster, and better suited.
The 7’ bucket moves a lot of snow in hurry as well as the rear blade.
But what fun are little toys if a feller don’t at least try to play with them Ha,LOL!
The 782 came with chains and a thrower so I thought I'd play some before I moved the thrower along to my son.

Ol'George-

Absolutely...the weld is probably more brittle and therefore more prone to cracking from repeated loading. There are probably residual stresses in the axle flange joint area as a result of the welding.

loader update
 

The axle is fixed good as new. Price wasn't that bad for a used one. I have only only owned this tractor for a few months now. I haven't really beat on it. I was just playen in the snow when it happened. It was definitely broke before i bought it. I feel like u guys are scolding me for having to much weight on the tractor. I like the idea of putting fluid in the tires ,but the tires are pretty shot. I will wait till i get new ones them i will fill them. As far as wheel weights that is a great idea but all that i own are being used I will be looking for some more this summer at tractor shows.This will help me redistribute the weight properly Thank you all for your concerns,comments,and opinions they will be put to good use. :Thanks::ThumbsUp:

My comments were not intended to be scolding.....I see too much of that-someone thing a little is ok....so alot should be better. I've found out the hard way (spinning tires on rims and junk a diff carrier) that more is not always better.

I hope everybody else that has a giant concrete block hanging off the back of their tractor is paying attention to this. It's not a matter of if an axle will break, but when. The later tractors with fine-spline axles and aluminum rearends will be just as susceptible to this.