Vemeer & John Deere roll bar bearings Old to New

lundi 27 mai 2019

I have a John Deere 700 rake that is really a Vermeer R23 with different paint. Vermeer came up with new style bearings a few years back. Changing over from the old style to the new style is a bit of a problem.The new style is 1.5" diameter and the old style is about 1 3/8". I checked with the JD dealer tech and he suggested using a grinding rasp on a drill and go around and around. That is the way they do it. There is not a hammer big enough to make it fit. Last year I went with the rasp idea and just about wore myself out along with a drill and rasp. A reamer would work but could not find a 1.5". After replacing both ends on one roll bar this year and wearing out my wrist i figured there has to be a better way.

My solution was to take the end cap, knock out the grease zert, take it to the drill press with a 1 1/2" hole saw and cut a hole in the end cap. Next take another end cap and knock out the grease zert. Using the bolts on the rake attach the cutout template on the outside and the other on the inside and carefully line up equal distance around the hole. Next take your hole saw on a low speed drill and using the template cut it out. Repeat the process on the other end.

I replaced 6 bearings using this method in the same amount of time of replacing two the other way.

I ordered the complete set from https://www.shoupparts.com/SH114683-Tine-Bar-Bearing-For-Rakes for $34.95. Of course you can replace the bearing with the old style for $20.95. Me I like not having to grease 24 bearings. In time I will replace the remaining 8 then it will be totally updated.

See the attached pictures.