134, D44, D27, Will It Break, Pulling A 14,000lb Case Farm Tractor +baler?

Son ask to use PATCH, to pull a huge case tractor with baller, out of road, into my yard till they could repair? Now the 134 runs fairly well, but I worried bout the drivetrain? Told him u break it u repair it! Also told him NO 4wd on pavement, so into low range he went, left the front hubs unlocked, hooked to tractor a nd pulled it into the driveway. Soon as he hit grass it began to spin, locked hubs in, then broke chain, repaired chain then pulled it into yard , where it sat 2 days while they repaired? I didn't think he could move it, but the little 134 just torqued right along? The farmer, neighbor of mine, said, you might as well get something else, and not waste your time hooking that tiny willys up? He was wrong. And nothing broke. Damn things are tough!

 

With a 134 you'll run out of tractive effort first. As long as it doesn't hop it will be ok.

 

I'd worry more about the frame pulling all that, but maybe you'd run out of traction before stressing that?

Dope you got it done though!

 

Running low range on a single axle would be asking for trouble. I'd rather share the load on both axles.

I knew a man who stripped out both differentials in low range, on an f-head pickup, when its snow plow got frozen into the mud.

 

Yup, share the stress whenever you can between all four. If you have to pull heavy on pavement, get the pull lined up straight in the direction you want to go in 2wd, then lock it in 4-low. Turn as little as possible.

Glad to hear you got it done though. F-heads seem to have bionic pulling power.

 

Sorry no pics, it was almost dark when tractor broke down, I was already in house when son came to get jeep. This is my 1st jeep. I amaze myself all the time, the things it will endure! Im a believer that willys helped us win the war! I've read so much negitive on the d27 ,that's why I told him NO 4wd on pavement? Next time I'll know better. Overweight divided by 4 is less than by 2!
Son said u should have seen the look on farmers face when it moved!

 

Well, pick your poison.

4WD on pavement should be fine ... if you don't have to turn. Binding is not good, but I have driven short distances on pavement without causing big trouble. The binding is noticeable, and maybe binding under a heavy load can be bad enough to break something. Not in my experience.

Or, 2WD low on pavement puts your rear axle gears or shafts at risk. You can definitely break something. I'd also expect 4WD to be less likely to break loose than 2WD, which leads me to suspect 2WD could be additionally dangerous because the likelihood of impact load is higher. Regardless, any impact load will make the risk of breakage much much higher. This why the hop that Rich mentions earlier is bad - the tire breaks and connects, adding impact load. Bad.

Just my take - no proof for any of this, but what I think my (pretty good) physical intuition says combined with my limited experience.

 

With that much length you would never feel any bind in the driveline unless you turned the wheels hard to the left or right. Just turning slightly to pull it into a yard wouldn't build enough bind into the system to even notice. As far as power the little F head is ok but the gearing was what aloud it to pull that much weight. I drug my fathers 3/4 ton long wheel base pickup loaded with lumber and concrete about 100' thru the mud. It was buried to the axles in red clay, I did this with my little Isuzu P'up. 2.3 liter 96hp in reverse with a 1" diameter rope hooked to the frame of his truck and to my front tow hooks. My dad laughed the whole time I was hooking it up telling me my little toy truck was never gonna move that much weight in all that mud. He never laughed at my little truck ever again!

 

They are like little tug boats for sure. I certainly would have put it in 4wd to share the load. I didnt realize it was this controversial. If you had a look underneth at the amount of axle wrap you are getting im sure you would agree.

 

You're moving "X" amount of weight, requiring "Y" amount of torque.

Let's say "Y"=1000. In 2wd, each rear wheel will need 500ft/lb to move the load. In 4wd, each corner will only need 250ft/lb to move the load.

As long as all four wheels are going the same distance (straight), all the tires are the same size, and all the tires have the same amount of traction, this will hold true.

 

Ok guys, I'm glad to hear the debate! Part of this story you didn't know? The pull started on a 2 lane county hwy, about 30ft from my driveway. With chain hooked, the willys was bout 15ft from a hard right into my driveway, light pole on 1 side and mail box on other, no way to gently turn in. My thinking was the hard right on pavement might overstress the d27 . As soon as he turned right the pavement went to gravel, and 10 ft more it began to spin. Then he locked the hubs and gently turned right into the grass. Now I still have a open diff in the front, so doing it all over again, reckon it would be ok to turn hard right?

 

Any turn (with open rears or not) will put the front axle on a longer arc than the rear, forcing it to travel a longer distance than the rear. Our transfer cases are "locked" and don't allow for that difference. This is the "binding" feeling that occurs.


This can be debated, but my personal opinion is, you probably aren't going to grenade anything by pulling on a dry surface in a stock, unloaded jeep on factory-sized tires. The light weight and small tires combine to overcome the tires' grip pretty easily, long before anything snaps. Add more weight or taller tires to the mix, and you're adding more traction and more stress to the axle shafts.

My jeep rarely leaves 4wd, and it's on pavement all the time. It just chirps its way around turns and moves on. I'm on 33s, so I'm sure something will blow apart some day, but it'll just give me a reason to upgrade.