I have a 1991champion 740 a that I bought a couple of years ago to maintain about 6 miles of gravel road.it had a couple of inches of available cutting edge when I bought it that's now worn down to less than an inch. When look at the Mould board I see it's been worn off some in the past. I'm fact at its most worn point it is just about even with the washers on the bolts holding cutting edge on.other areas it's an inch from the washers.question is if I put on new 8 inch edges will this work?seems there'd be a lot of extra force on bolts .I'm not sure how much Mould board is supposed to be there.anyone have thoughts on this?
Yes it will work out usually older blades are worn in the middle we have spots where the nuts barely cover the frog and get thicker from there as long as its not weak all the way across it wont give any trouble
Clean everything up really well and retorque after a couple of shifts. We use hardened washers to help spread the load.
As mentioned, you should be fine. Just pay attention to this and don't contribute to this failure. I have zero patience for an operator that is too lazy or don't care enough to rotate or replace cutting edges when they are wearing into the frog. No excuse for that. At all. If you buy a new set of cutting edges, with only 6 miles of roadway to maintain, you'll be many, many years down the road before you will wear them into the frog. Rotate, rotate, rotate.
If you're concerned grab some "iron powder" (high deposition) welding rods & run a few beads along the edge to build it up
l rotate mine once the middle is worn 1/2-3/4" more than the outside. The trick to reducing wear is don't take wide blows over a crown. Narrow multiple passes will also help mix the material better.
if your cutting edges are 7 foot long i cut them in half , the cut will go thru the middle of a bolt hole . i do the same with serrated blades , cut is thru a tooth and bolt hole .have never bent or broken the half width tooth even in some fairly harsh conditions . The reason i cut them is i'm usually by my self and it makes it so much easier to do. Also you can swap the pieces around to keep your edges straight . Haven't had issues with bolt coming loose at cut hole just make sure cutting edge and mouldboard are clean on mounting surfaces.
Yes cutting edges must be made out lead these days ! Seem to be a lot heavier now than when I was in my 20's
DU, more likely...
I hear ya. Same with tire chains. I used to hoss em up on there. Now I hook one end into the tire lug and let the grader pull them up on the tire.