Hi, Oil Slick.
Those triangle braces that I mentioned on the rippers for the 941s and 951s had shims between the back end of the brace and the front face on the ripper frame so that you could adjust for any wear in the pin at the drawbar attachment point under the tractor by removing shims and re-tensioning the bolts - similar idea to what you are talking about with the U bolts.

It really wasn't until the 'H' series that D8 back ends were seriously engineered to take rear-mounted rippers. Anything before that and you are taking a chance on tearing the back of the steering clutch case out UNLESS you do a REALLY good job of strengthening and bracing. It CAN be done and I think you are one guy who could do it but you do need to be aware of the stresses and strains involved. Rear-mounted rippers are a LOTTTT harder on the back ends of tractors than a towed ripper ever was 'cos all the shock AND all the lifting force comes directly into the back end of the tractor.

Also, with your idea for the cable lift, I would suggest building the ripper mounting towers high enough that you can put a beam across the top of them to carry your top sheaves and then brace that to your canopy so that the load is shared between the two. Even with only 2-part sheaves each end, you would be able to wind up enough pull on the 4-part reeving to give that canopy a 'headache' if you got the ripper stuck under sumpin'.

Just my 0.02.

Can I weld on the bottom of the transmission case? I would like to weld a heavy duty flat bar from the bottom of the tranny case to the bottom of the draw bar.

i think that whole case is cast iron . im starting to think you would be better off just using that ripper as a towed unit from what i have read above.

Hi, Oil Slick.
Personally, I wouldn't. Rolled steel to cast steel and the pre-heating needed would be pretty much impossible to do without an oven.

I would stick with bolting two separate towers to the existing drawbar swing guide mounts to CARRY the ripper and using the drawbar itself as the real load point, even to the extent of either beefing up the existing drawbar - again welding rolled steel to cast steel - or making another structure to replace the drawbar that will better distribute the loads from the ripper mounts to the drawbar pull point.

If you choose to go with making another structure, it might even be worth thinking about using a hardened steel bush at the pull point, along with some form of tensioning, i.e., your U-bolts, to take up any wear or slack.

That steering clutch had to be beefed up with through bolts just to withstand the extra loads of the boosted HO engine. It was never designed to cater for the stresses involved in ripping. There is a very good reason why the drawbar pull point is so far in under the tractor, unlike the D8H models where the drawbar is simply bolted to the rear of the steering clutch case.

Just my 0.02. (From somebody who doesn't want to view the innards of the HO steering clutches exposed from the rear. LOL.)

Hey OilSlick,

On the Siamese Project we had trouble with a couple of cracked cases. When they started putting rippers and such on, they tried using long bolts that would go through the cases and tied on up front for more support. The spot you want to weld to will be a weak spot. Those cases weren't designed for ripping.
Glen

Mike, I know you have a big goal of attaching a ripper to the back of the 2U. If you are using them in clay only and no rock, they should work fine without over stressing the tranny case. When you get into rock, you will probably start the cracking process. I have been getting into a lot of shale and red rock lately and the back up rippers I have on my 14A blade are working very well. I haven't had any problem doing the digging I need to do. They aren't super hard type rock, but without the rippers the blade wouldn't penetrate at all. Just a thought. I just keep them folded up while not in use.

Jan, the corner bit you see in the picture has since disappeared. I put regular Cat bits on. The corner bit pictured was over worn out when I bought the dozer, and they had ripper points on it when new that hung down a few inches. An old master mechanic friend of mine knew the brand very well (now out of business) and said they were used to get some added penetration and cornering rock and stumps. The low bed operator that hauled it after I bought is wasn't happy because blade width went from 11'-10" to 12'-4" just from the bits.

Hi, Paso Bob.
I have seen the same thing done with corner tips by welding a ripper shank nose piece onto the corner tip in the straight ahead position so that the tip of the ripper boot is a couple of inches below the corner tip level when fitted. When new cutting edges were fitted, they would weld pieces of grouser rebuild bar on the bottom edge of the corner to bring it back to original level. There was no increase in blade width with this approach, just a groove on each side slightly lower than the rest of the cut where the ripper teeth ran.

Just my 0.02.