FEL Build for my Kubota B6200

[GPintheMitten]

Not much to report yet. I plan on building a fel using P.F. Engineerings' plan. I won't be giving his secrets away here but I'll try to keep anyone interested posted on how it is going and hope to get some good advice along the way.

The tractor is a 1983 B6200 HST 4wd with about 900 hours. My brother bought it new and I bought it from him a couple of years ago. I'm getting ready by changing all the fluids and filters. You'll see in the pics I have the sheet metal off the engine area.

I've never tackled anything quite like this before but with the help of the plans and your advice...here goes.

I'm going to turn the muffler 90 degrees and point it toward the front. I think it is in the way sticking up. See pic as is now.

Next, I want to build up the brackets for the mmm and use them for both the mower and the towers for the fel. I plan on using the tractor with both mounted at the same time during the mowing season.

My plan is to strengthen and add steel to the existing brackets. They are currently bolted to a bracket that is welded to the bell housing. That looks too weak for a fel to me, so I plan on adding steel to this bracket to allow it to also be bolted to the frame forward of the bell housing (see yellow paint on attached pic). Then I'll add more steel to the top of the bracket to provide more strength and a place to mount the fel towers.

My drawing is crude but I think I would use 3/8" steel to make the additional mounting plate to the tractor frame and probably 1/2" plate for the bottom of the towers welded to the top of the current mower bracket.

Does that make sense? Sound OK? Looking for advice on the bracket. Thanks.

 

[MJPetersen]

I look forward to following your build. I have looked at the PF web pages and have considered their plans. Take lots of pics of your progress and show it to us. Best of luck putting it all together.

Mike

 

[GPintheMitten]

Thanks Mike. I'll post up progress.

Still hoping to get some advice/feedback on my plan for the bracket modification from folks. Ideas/comments?

 

[scarlo101]

GP I am not familiar with that model tractor. It appears to me that you are going down the correct path. I always tend to overbuild. I built my own FEL for my BX last year.

 

[GPintheMitten]

Thanks Scarlo101. I remember looking at your build a few months ago. Took another look at your web site tonight. Nice job. It's encouraging. I was out in the garage doing more figuring and some prototyping with 1/4" hardboard. I'll keep scratching my head and will come up with something that seems strong.

I just don't trust the mount to the bell housing. It is 1/8" steel welded to the housing and then a hefty bracket for the mower bolted to that. Fine for a mower but just doesn't seem like enough for the loader stresses.

 

[mx5guy]

Scarlo101 nice work, so what would your FEL cost to fabricate, not including your many, many hours of labour. I am thinking of making my own Box scraper, I have sticker shock at what they sell for. Your FEL is Just like Michelangelo taking a block of stone and turning it into a piece of art, you have done the same with your metal fabrication. Nice pic's on your web site.

 

[scarlo101]

Thanks GP and MX. GP I agree with you about the strength of the bell housing. About 5 years ago I built another loader frame on an old farmall. Some of the bolts bolted onto the bell housing and I was never too comfortable working it too hard because I was afraid breaking something.
On the BX build, I used some cardboard cutout to figure out some angles, but my biggest helper was autocad. I drew up every little detail to scale and it all came out good. Autocad allows you to play around with different angles and configurations.
MX as far as cost goes it worked for me to be a little less than half of buying it new. The only part I did buy was the bucket, as lots of dealers had new ones in stock because customers had exchanged them for QA models. Also I would have needed a fab shop to form it for me so the cost was about the same. Would I do it again, probable yes because I already have the experience of doing twice.

 

[David Devuono]

As your B6200 is a bit bigger then my B4200. Anyway this picture will give you a better idea of what your up against. I have broken the welds at the transmission Bell housing. As I don't use the MMM that came with the tractor I ended up extending the mount so it is supported at the front bumper, Transmission, and MMM mounting location not shown in this early picture. This build used no plans but has worked hard for me for about 7 years.

 

[David Devuono]

I need to add as well that these mini-tractors can be overwhelmed quickly with a loader so while I know the MMM is about 250 lbs, you might want to consider a counter weight or rear blade to make the tractor more stable. Without my rear blade it will lift a rear wheel easily and becomes unsafe. My kubota has only a hydraulic filter screen. Perhaps an external filter would be a good addition.

 

[joes_427_vette]

If you have engineering plans... don't they give the steel specs ? The rest of us that build based on plans in our heads figure the force and apply the required pieces. Sometimes we build them ( and rebuild them ) several times to get the proper result. That is why a good band saw ( Ellis ) , a mig welder ( Miller , Lincoln ) and a acetlyn torch ( Smith , Victor ) makes the transition such a pleasure. Don't forget a grinder ( Milwaukee, Sioux, D&D ) for the finishing touches.