Nylock nuts on tooth bucket and rock

[riskydigger]

We're replacing the nuts and bolts for the side cutters on our brand new bucket with Nylock nuts since the factory ones only lasted about a month. The machine is digging through blasted rock.

There is concern among the crew that the nylon on the nut will fail due to excessive heat generated while digging in the rock. A quick search shows that "Nyloc nuts retain their locking ability up to 250 °F (121 °C)."

Does the bucket get that hot digging in rock in the middle of Canadian winter?

Machine is 35 ton.

 

[heymccall]

Why does it have to be nylon locknuts.
There are plenty of other locking nut solutions out there.
What bolt size?
What bucket?
How are they torqued, as, from your post, I can only assume the nuts are falling off?

 

[Jimothy]

I can see it getting to 120 Celsius, however it would have to be in the rock for awhile. We were digging in a line drilled trench about 8-14 feet deep depending on what structures were going in, and the drillers forgot there level one day so the trench was narrowing in and thus the bucket could make it through to the bottom but it was tight and a lot of rubbing and horrible noises, like a shotgun shooting bats outta the sky for an hour.

If your in the rock for a long time I’d slow down as long as the bucket is coming out of the rock to swing shouldn’t get that hot.

 

[Willie B]

My world is warmer. Today I dug in 20 degree F weather. The ground was frozen down 4-5" deep. My problem was everything in the gravel below frost had a bit of moisture in it. It was freezing to the bucket, causing a bunch of buildup. That'd be below 32 degrees F (0 C)

 

[Tones]

Cone lock nuts would be better. Are you reusing the bolts?

 

[funwithfuel]

If you're using the correct hardware, the bucket edges are undamaged, and the side cutters fit snug, you shouldn't have an issue. The plow bolts should come from the inside out and "square up " on the inside. The only challenge is torquing the hardware properly. Work it a little and re-torque. Nylocks are usually equal to grade 5, meaning if you side impact the screw, you'll probably push it through the nylock nut. If anything, use grade 8 crown locks, that outta last a couple more weeks.
The best option is still correct hardware and torque.

 

[DB2]

Make sure the mating surfaces are clean as well. With properly torqued GET hardware locknuts shouldn’t be necessary in my opinion.

 

[willie59]

If you're using the correct hardware, the bucket edges are undamaged, and the side cutters fit snug, you shouldn't have an issue. The plow bolts should come from the inside out and "square up " on the inside. The only challenge is torquing the hardware properly. Work it a little and re-torque. Nylocks are usually equal to grade 5, meaning if you side impact the screw, you'll probably push it through the nylock nut. If anything, use grade 8 crown locks, that outta last a couple more weeks.
The best option is still correct hardware and torque.

I second that. Side cutters should fit bucket edges snug and proper, holes should not be wallowed out, if either of these aren't proper then you'll work any nut loose no matter how tight you get it. And no, I wouldn't use Nylock nuts, if anything I'd use grade 8 Stover nuts, not so much to keep them from coming loose but more to keep them from rattling off if they do get loose, but a bucket in a rock trench isn't where I'd use a Nylock nut.

 

[JLarson]

We do a fair amount of edges on various things, we get scraper bolts and nuts from our hardware supplier. Def need to clean the bucket and edge good, paint, dirt, rust gotta go, then we high temp red locktite all the bolts and introduce them to the 3/4" gun.