Warranty for Poor Design "Woods RB 84" rear blade?

[Mountain Hill]

Just purchased a Woods RB 84, 10 days ago, worked great for moving snow, from the two recent storms. However, yesterday while doing a little clean -up, the main bolt, (1" / 7") broke off, leaving the blade dangling from the three-point hitch.

Not a problem, ah yes the design problem with 'Woods RB84' ! The nut is welded on to the blade carriage, now with a broken off piece of 1" bolt stuck in it. This broken piece has now, to be extracted, at a machine shop. I had the problem of breaking bolts with other rear blades, but you simply replace the the nut,bolt , lock washer, etc. , and keep going. A trip to a Machine Shop, for what should be simple maintenance is very disappointing.

My other option is to have the nut cut off, then I can use nut and bolt assembly? Regardless I'm looking at $100-200 fix, for poor design.

 

[hodge]

That is poor. I would have expected more from a Woods implement. Obviously the bolt isn't up to the load, although it could have been a weak bolt- isolated incident. Welding the nut on and making a repair difficult is inexcusable- things break, so facilitate the repair by design.

 

[beckmurph]

IF you purchased your RB 84 new, then it is still covered by Woods warranty.
Why spend your money. Let Woods fix it for you.

 

[hodge]

IF you purchased your RB 84 new, then it is still covered by Woods warranty.
Why spend your money. Let Woods fix it for you.

Typically I would agree. But, if the blade were mine, I'd be more interested in correcting the design so that it would be serviceable in the future than saving a few bucks and having to wait on Woods to sort it out.

 

[Kurtee]

I would do what I needed to do to get it going again. I would save all receipts and send them to Woods customer service with pictures and a letter explaining the issue as I see it requesting reimbursement. I would also let them know how to find this thread. Oh and a copy of it to the dealer that sold the blade. Don't forget a copy of the sales receipt for the blade.

KURTEE

 

[cold1313]

I would do what I needed to do to get it going again. I would save all receipts and send them to Woods customer service with pictures and a letter explaining the issue as I see it requesting reimbursement. I would also let them know how to find this thread. Oh and a copy of it to the dealer that sold the blade. Don't forget a copy of the sales receipt for the blade.

KURTEE

Agreed. You might be surprised what they might do to keep a customer happy...or so we all hope.

 

[bcp]

Mine is the same design and bolt on a 60 inch blade made by Woods. The bolt keeps working loose. If loose, there would be lots of bending strain on it, especially if you were both pushing and pulling. I try to keep mine tight to a point just less than binding the rotation.

Bruce

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Unfortunately stuff happens. With the blade being only 10 days old, the first thing to do would be to talk to the dealer that sold it to you. From that point you can decide what to do. Other than that fix it and move on.

 

[cerlawson]

Just took a look at mine. Entirely different design and much less cost. No bolt. The pivoting is on a pipe welded to the upper plate (with holes for adjustment), rotating inside of a large pipe. Make is King Kutter. Maybe I can't take this apart, but for snow plowing and occasional earth grading, why?.

 

[Bulldog]

A friend of mine bought a new gear box from woods for his rotary cutter. After around 10hrs use the output shaft sheared off letting the stump jumper and blades fall to the ground. Woods refused to stand behind it and said it was his fault it broke (abuse). I almost can see their point but in the same sense he only has a 30hp L series tractor so how much abuse can be done.

With customer service like that I'll never buy anything from woods.

 

[lsmurphy]

What's on the backside of this plate? the nut? is the bolt sticking out of the nut?


Either way, you can't get the bolt out? can't drill and easy-out? can't get Visegrips on the rest of the bolt and turn it out?


Get a good grade 8 bolt next time.

Get on with life....


And don't over pay for Woods.

 

[hodge]

If that bolt is an 1" diameter, you should be able to take a smaller diameter bolt and weld it to either end of the broken piece and turn it out. With an inch, there should be room.
Or, take a nut that will fit down in the opening, and weld the center to the broken end, then thread a bolt into the nut and tack weld that. Then back the broken piece out.

 

[kubotaguy]

i've got an older blade only 72 inches. i repainted it so had to take that bolt out. the original bolt was "seized" to the welded on nut and took it to dealer when 10 minutes of 1 inch drive impact wrench finally loosened it. I bought new 1" by 7" bolt for $21 plus tax and re-assembled with anti-seize compound. Could you drill out the old broken off bolt?

 

[skeets]

Ya know this is not the first rumblings I have heard about Woods, seems there has been some issues around here as well, but the dealer took the hit after people couldn't get anyplace with Woods. Could just be isolated things I don't know but it would seem a little suspect. I have no doubt that someone from Woods as well as other Mfg. pursues these sites and get more impute from them than one might guess. I know HD has a group that has joined every HD chat site they can find, and a lot of ideas, and fixes that have been kicked around on these sites has, very coincidently, found its way to some of the newer models

 

[Mountain Hill]

Just an update, had someone weld on a nut , and then extract broken piece of bolt, got a used 'Cat' 1"/7" bolt from friend , and back up running. I did send an email to 'Wood's' , no response! Poor design and no response to customer concerns, I ll think twice about the purchase of any future Woods Equipment.

 

[Highspeed]

I too broke the bolt on my Woods blade (RB60) just the other day. It caught one too many cracks in the driveway. With the bolt seized, and 2" sticking out of the nut, I discovered the easy removal solution by accident. While tapping on the bolt (not real hard either) to jolt the threads a bit, I discovered that the nut is only tack welded in place. A few taps and the nut and broken bolt fell into the area under the pivot plate. So now I just need to put a new nut and bolt on and tighten it up. Tacking the nut in place should be very simple, if it evens needs to be tacked. Just an FYI.