B7100 Quick Attach

[J_J]

charlz


Found a picture of something that you might can use on your adapter. A linear actuator for open and closing the locking pins.

 

[charlz]

Found a picture of something that you might can use on your adapter. A linear actuator for open and closing the locking pins.

That would be sweet! Doesn't help much with the weight issue though. Nice thing about a small tractor is I could just use one of these:

if I could find a place to carry it!

 

[mwb]

Your drawings are some of the ones in my pile! Thanks for posting those.


It does but only about 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch.




Yeah I left that one 'path' through the holes to help stiffen things at the top. By gusset do you mean just welded to those pieces (air underneath) or also welded along the flat plate?



Hmmm hadn't thought about pressure more on one side of the bucket than the other. It _is_ twisty and I had really only thought about when the curl cylinders come full back. (need to put those 'stop blocks' back in)I used angle because I have a pile of it, another cragislist buy , but actually liked the idea of tube better.

The other thing I am a little concerned about is the 'softness' of the locking pins. Been wondering if it is better to have 'hard' pins?

I know that your bucket would be out a little. Aftermarket QA plates add two inches or more...

For the gusset, you don't need much. See my hack of your picture. I would do this for both the top and bottom. Doesn't add much weight and would do alot for rigidity.

 

[mwb]

I have one question for the group. As I am looking at how to attach the plate to the bucket it looks like I might need to raise the QA plate so the attachment points are slightly higher than stock, like an inch or so. Making the bucket 'lower' compared to the lift arms.

When using the bucket I like to fully curl it back, put the weight of the tractor on it and back drag. This leaves a nice, smooth, somewhat packed finish to the dirt. The curve of the bucket works perfect for this. Because of this I kept the plates the cylinders connect to as low as possible. However after studying it a bit and looking at the scratch marks on the bucket I think the locking pins and lower part of the adapter might get in the dirt a little.

So is 'lowering' the bucket in relationship to the arms about 1" a 'bad thing'? I am thinking of tacking the plate to the bucket enough to put it back on the tractor for a better look-see.

When I grade backwards like this I always use the lip of the bucket. The bucket lip has a wear edge; better than wearing out the back of the bucket. Not sure which method does a nicer job though.

I prefer to maintain lift height so I would stick with the original location as close as possible. Depending on the geometery, the new QA pins might be exposed and that would require either locating the QA higher or adding a small protection (shield) to the bucket to protect the pins incase you back-drag them over a rock. Partially disengaging the QA while under reverse load (front wheels off ground for example) would be a good way to test that piece of angle!

 

[mwb]

That would be sweet! Doesn't help much with the weight issue though. Nice thing about a small tractor is I could just use one of these:

if I could find a place to carry it!

Which end of that would you hold?

 

[mcd176]

Charlz,

Very nice build, I have a question: What keeps the locking pins handles in the locked position, I have been drawing up some ideas for a quick attach for my L4200 and have been stuck on the locking pins, I really like the simplicity of your design, I just dont know what to fab up to keep the locking levers from popping up

Thanks,

Mike

 

[charlz]

Charlz,

Very nice build, I have a question: What keeps the locking pins handles in the locked position, I have been drawing up some ideas for a quick attach for my L4200 and have been stuck on the locking pins, I really like the simplicity of your design, I just dont know what to fab up to keep the locking levers from popping up

Thanks for the comments. Since I haven't finished I have not been able to drive it around and test how well they stay 'locked'. What I did is under the angle iron there is a 'stop block' that prevents the handles from rotating too far, on down and around, and thus loosening the lock pins. I set this block so the handles come just slightly 'too far' and hopefully that is enough to hold the handles in place. Not sure if that makes sense or not.

Another thing, which actually plays more towards keeping the handles up when 'unlocked' is the friction provided by the nuts holding the handles on. I plan on using nylock nuts so I can set that friction without having to worry about the nuts coming loose (hopefully).

Maybe someone who already has this type of QA can comment on the handles staying down.

 

[charlz]

Speaking of the locking handles and their stops. Tonight I tacked the QA plate onto the bucket and did a test fit to see what it looks like. Well, I found out the upper 'stop pin' that the handles come up against is perfectly aligned with the elbows coming out of the curl cylinders... and just long enough to hit them and if you curl the bucket all the way back somewhat quickly with weight of the bucket on there... well let's just say a new street elbow and some oil in the loader reservoir are in order along with moving those stop pins

 

[charlz]

The other day I fixed the hydraulic 'problem' and solved the issue by moving the stop pins higher up, clears by a nice margin now. I also added the gusset between the loader bracket and top 45 degree plate as suggested by MWB.

While I had the QA plate tacked to the bucket I mounted it all on the tractor and checked the full dump and full roll back positions against baseline photos I had taken before cutting the brackets off the bucket. I had also made a line on the ends of the bucket that was parallel with the backs of the loader brackets. This would be the plane that the QA bracket would need to match. Everything in the photos looked good so I believe got it. The QA bracket is going to be lower than I would like but with a small tractor comes a small bucket

Next I started working on making the curved gussets to support the QA plate on the bucket. This took some messing around because I don't have a compass that can draw a circle as large as the curve of the bucket. I wound up taking some heavy paper and 'cutting' it to the curve of the bucket with a ball peen hammer.... like they used to make replacement gaskets back in the 'good ol' days'. Worked out pretty well. One of the things about working with a 30 year old bucket is there is pretty much nothing straight or the same on the each end I then figured out the height and length of the gusset and marked out a rectangle. By using the curve on the paper I could trace it from one corner to the other. Then I moved to the opposite corner and did the same thing. This gave me two gussets in one 'rectangle' with only a little 'football' of waste material in the middle. I can see where a plasma table system sure would be handy!

I made a wood template to help guide the plasma torch with the correct offset. Not everyone came out perfect but in the end it worked out because the back of the bucket was not perfect so I could mix and match gussets until I got one that fit that particular spot.

Once I tacked most of the gussets on the QA plate I took the plasma to it and cut the center sections out of it. This is an effort to lighten it a bit. Overall it will just compensate for all the gussets etc. I have to put in. I also welded on the gussets that I had tacked.

Here is where I left off, the two halves sitting on the bucket where they go. I made witness marks before pulling off the QA plate for cutting to help line these halves back up:


One half flipped over to show the gussets.


Now I just need to figure out how deal with the hole, there is one more set of gussets that will go along that edge of the plate. I made the QA plate from one I saw online and cut the center out. In hindsight I should have waited until where I am now to figure out how to lighten it up a bit. Oh well, live and learn

 

[charlz]

Also, the holey angle iron between the sides might not be strong enough. There has been debate about how important (structurally) this piece has to be but you will likely bend or twist that angle if you only get one side of the bucket hooked (this does happen). I understand that your loader does not have a huge lift capacity but you can subject it to a lot of stress with the tractor.

Is this mostly a concern when digging or?? I finally finished the bucket, pics hopefully later today, and got a chance to play around with this. I held off painting the tractor side until I could test that angle. I hooked one corner and then the other under an immovable (for my tractor) object and worked the controls. It seemed like I _might_ have got a little twisting but it went right back into place as soon as I let the pressure off.