[DSiekman]

Hi guys, I’m new here so apologies if this is the wrong place for this question.

I nave a new 1025R with the 54D MMM. The lift is tied to the rock arm lever. I have about 20 hours on the machine and have been loving it!
I had the deck off to do some loader work and struggled a bit to get it back on. The ground was soft and a little unlevel. Anyway, after a couple tries I got it back on and did my mowing. I went to lift the deck so I could drive into the shed and there was a loud bang. Hopped off to take a look and found the eye bolts on the rear linkage had completely sheared off.

I did some searching yesterday and did not find other reports of this happening. It appears the bolt bent before shearing so I am guessing it was binding on something. I did not see anything obvious or other signs of damage.

I have an email in to my dealer but thought I’d see if you guys had any thoughts?

 

[MarkEagleUSA]

Did you by any chance forget to lock the lift in the up position after removing the deck? If everything was hanging down you could have caught it on something.

Regardless, I'd think that should be covered by warranty...

 

[DSiekman]

I don’t think so but anything is possible. It is also possible that it happened when I was unsuccessfully trying to reconnect.

 

[ncgrl1]

I have a new 1025r with the 60" deck and had the same problem at 30 hours. Deere had no eyebolts in the entire system so I rethreaded the hole to take a upgraded 3/8s eyebolt and changed both sides. IMO...This is a weakness in the new lift system. So far mine has remained good since the repair. Deere did get me the new eyeball a couple weeks later but I told the dealer to put it in stock.

 

[DSiekman]

I have a new 1025r with the 60" deck and had the same problem at 30 hours. Deere had no eyebolts in the entire system so I rethreaded the hole to take a upgraded 3/8s eyebolt and changed both sides. IMO...This is a weakness in the new lift system. So far mine has remained good since the repair. Deere did get me the new eyeball a couple weeks later but I told the dealer to put it in stock.

Thanks! Good to know I’m not the only one. I was thinking about finding a higher grade bolt but upping the size would work too.

 

[fatback]

I didn't snap mine but I bent them both. What happened in my case is that when the deck is adjusted up as high as possible by screwing in the eyebolts, the eyebolt will bind on the turnbuckle or whatever they call that bracket the pin goes into. My solution after bending 3 or 4 eyebolts was to cut the eyebolts short enough so they would not bind.

My final solution was to buy the old style turnbuckle and weld a nut inside and use the shorten 2020+ eyebolts. Seems to work much better and easier to adjust.

 

[DSiekman]

Your post got me thinking. I did not take pictures before removing the piece of linkage. Let’s call it the lower half of turnbuckle. It seems that in one direction that piece would allow more travel than in the other direction. Is it possible they were backwards and that caused the binding?

 

[fatback]

This is the way I think they are supposed to be. Haven't tried them with the other way.

 

[DSiekman]

Thanks for the picture, that is a huge help! It seems the parts diagrams do not show the updated linkage yet. I ordered a new set of eye bolts this morning.

 

[DSiekman]

I had ordered the new parts from a different dealer (closer to work) and was on my way to get them when the dealer I bought the tractor from called. They insisted on coming to pick it up and taking care of it under warranty. I really wasn't that concerned about a paying for the couple of eye bolts and putting in a little elbow grease but if they want to do it I am happy to let them. Pretty happy with the customer service!