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Bizarre Lost Flywheel

K

kcmelancon

New User
A friend of mine has a John Deere Model H that he just got back together and had a very strange thing happen - he lost the flywheel. Yes, it's true, on the maiden voyage down the driveway, with his young daughter on his lap, the flywheel fell off. This event so flustered him that he secured his daughter, reached for the clutch, and caught only a brief glimpse of the flywheel moving past the front axle. Now, unfortunately this did not happen in open farm country, but rather, in very long grass near myriad wetlands (ahead and to the flywheel side) with bull rushes etc. The bottom line is that he has been over as much area as he can with a brush hog to knock it down, and in spite of he and friends spending many hours looking for the flywheel it has gone missing. In hindsight how precious it would be to have that one critical second back to see where the flywheel was headed as it departed the driveway.

Anyway, the flywheel is about 16" dia, weighs over 80 lb and might be a little over 2" in width. It is my opinion that when such a flywheel, rotating at 1000-1500 rpm, fell off the tractor, the flywheel would posses significant inertia and would be capable of going much further than one might 1st imagine it could go. In my minds eye it would be akin to a very powerful gyroscope, thus would have a strong tendency to maintains its vertical orientation and cover significant ground before hitting something substantial or coming to rest.

So, I suspect my friend is not the 1st person to ever loose a large flywheel like this, and was hoping someone might be able to offer some insight in terms of how far such an item might be capable of traveling on open ground, or better yet some 1st person account of how far some similar object has traveled. Thanks in advance for any input you may have.
 
Must be no deer hunters in the area. Through that kind of growth you should be able to walk right to it. But I guess his bush hogging has totally messed up the trail by now. I would go to the edge of his bush hogged area and pick up the track.

Course if it is soft ground he may have mashed it into the mud.

Gene
 
Flywheel could go a long, long way unless it hit something. An H has no balance weight in the clutch disc, all in the flywheel, since it's on the camshaft. He's a very lucky guy to have such a precious cargo and have no one hurt. Flywheels aren't that hard to find in junkyards. Tighten it up right next time, and check it after a few minutes run.
 
I know exactly where it is. Its at the bottom of the pond 3 farms over. Thats how it works for me, even if the farm 3 farms over is uphill and on the other side of a thick, overgrown, dense woods. Try a metal detector as suggested. Its there. May have gone further than expected, but its there. Might be down inside a badger den lying on top of one very angry badger, but its there.

Good luck

Mark
 
My father talked about the late 40's when he and 2 friends were driving down First avenue in Cedar Rapids in his model A. They crossed the RR tracks and started laughing when someones tire pass them.

About that time dads Model A dropped to the ground on the rear. Wasn't so funny then.

He said the tire went 3 blocks down the street and they were only traveling about 20 mph.

Guys I know that farm along I80 say they find truck tires 300 yards from the road after they knocked down the fence.

Gary
 
I have seen truck duals a 1/2 mile from the stopped truck. Saw where one set went through the fence, bounced in the air and took 10' out of the middle of a light pole, and bounced out into the woods never to be found by the wrecker driver. Look farther out, if it stayed on hard ground it could be 1/4 mile away. Probly less tho because I believe they are heavier on one side than the other.
 
I had the tin clutch cover come off a two banger while plowing and it went up ahead of the tractor a long ways before it fell over. A flywheel could go at least a quarter mile, maybe farther.
 
When you find your flywheel or a differnt one. Put on new bolts and nuts. You can also drill and tap the center of the crank to install a stop to prevent this. This is common practice on John Deere pullers
 
I hope when they find it it's not near the body of a bicyclist that it took out on the way by!
 
Many years ago I met a truck tire on I280 between MPLS and St. Paul. It didn"t hit my Mustang, and we both kept moving on...
 
If may suggest, perhaps a metal detector would be in order. I bought my wife one a while back and it has saved me enough times to pay for itself. I think I spent about $150.00 on it.

After your friend finds his errant flywheel they are just a lot of fun for poking around.
 
That"s why I always say "No NO children on tractors. Never." What could possibly go wrong??
 

It had rotational inertia but very little forward momentum, so given the bull rushes and myriad wetlands I expect that it went a short distance and is imbedded in mud or under water.
 
Just last week a guy on a motorcycle was killed on I-80 near Atlantic Iowa when he was struck by a wheel and tire that came off a truck.
 
From my experience something like that will not travel very far in soft ground. Use a pitch fork or something to probe the soil closeup. It's gotta be there.
 
Rent a metal detector.

I would never go into an area with a brush hog knowing a flywheel is in there somewhere.
 
Engine RPM x circumfrence of flywheel = distance flywheel rolled. What Daid G. said . The cheapest metal detector will find that.
 
(quoted from post at 21:48:38 08/18/14) Flywheel could go a long, long way unless it hit something. An H has no balance weight in the clutch disc, all in the flywheel, since it's on the camshaft. He's a very lucky guy to have such a precious cargo and have no one hurt. Flywheels aren't that hard to find in junkyards. Tighten it up right next time, and check it after a few minutes run.
Click to expand...

Pulley runs 1/2 speed and backwards. Flywheel spins forwards at crank rpms.
 

I have to concerned about the workmen ship on the rest of the tractor, equipment , vehicles and buildings at your buddy's place. If he can't bolt on a two cylinder flywheel properly. And a test flight on a unknown machine with a passenger .
Flywheel surface speed could be in the 60-65mph range.
 
I'll tell ya if it happened to me I would be looking a 1/4 mile away for it only to be found a few feet away. LOL
 
Don't matter if it's un balanced when it free of the tractor. It hits the ground and rolls. The heavy side may make it bounce some. It has mass that will help it travel further than expected. I suspect it could be some distance off unless it hit water or soft mud and sank.

Rick
 
(quoted from post at 02:30:50 08/19/14) A friend of mine has a John Deere Model H that he just got back together and had a very strange thing happen - he lost the flywheel. Yes, it's true, on the maiden voyage down the driveway, with his young daughter on his lap, the flywheel fell off. This event so flustered him that he secured his daughter, reached for the clutch, and caught only a brief glimpse of the flywheel moving past the front axle. Now, unfortunately this did not happen in open farm country, but rather, in very long grass near myriad wetlands (ahead and to the flywheel side) with bull rushes etc. The bottom line is that he has been over as much area as he can with a brush hog to knock it down, and in spite of he and friends spending many hours looking for the flywheel it has gone missing. In hindsight how precious it would be to have that one critical second back to see where the flywheel was headed as it departed the driveway.

Anyway, the flywheel is about 16" dia, weighs over 80 lb and might be a little over 2" in width. It is my opinion that when such a flywheel, rotating at 1000-1500 rpm, fell off the tractor, the flywheel would posses significant inertia and would be capable of going much further than one might 1st imagine it could go. In my minds eye it would be akin to a very powerful gyroscope, thus would have a strong tendency to maintains its vertical orientation and cover significant ground before hitting something substantial or coming to rest.

So, I suspect my friend is not the 1st person to ever loose a large flywheel like this, and was hoping someone might be able to offer some insight in terms of how far such an item might be capable of traveling on open ground, or better yet some 1st person account of how far some similar object has traveled. Thanks in advance for any input you may have.
Click to expand...

Thanks to all for your thoughts and comments. Well, the lost flywheel is now found. After dozens of hours by many people probing with no success, my neighbor rented a metal detector and began sweeping the deep bull rushes. After several more hours with no success he threw in the towel and started walking back to his house. Of course the easiest way back was through the brush-hogged ditch, where he hadn't looked because it was "cut so short no flywheel could be hiding there". The metal detector went off, and to his surprise he found a Come-Along in the ditch that must have fallen from someone's trailer or vehicle as they passed by. After routing this out of the weeds the detector went off again and as he looked down could see the sheen of the flywheel edge under some weeds - EUREKA!

The bottom line is…. from the point of separation from the tractor, the flywheel came to rest in a wet soft roadway ditch about ~ 50 yd forward and about 10 yards to the left of the tractor's line of travel. The stand of weeds that the flywheel traversed would have to be characterized as extremely thick and heavy, and the ditch being "boggy", could also absorb significant flywheel energy. At any rate 50 yd is the distance it covered.

So, to those that said "look 1/4 mi away only to find it in your yard" or "get a metal detector, it should be easy to find", hats off to you, and hats off to all the others that offered a voice in the matter. Thank you.
 
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