Henro
Super Member
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2003
- Messages
- 5,977
- Location
- Few miles north of Pgh, PA
- Tractor
- Kubota B2910, BX2200, KX41-2V mini EX
Soon after taking delivery of my tractor two summers ago I dropped a piece of something on my hood. Rolled the bucket back too far, as I suppose many of us do at least once.
So the need for some kind of a hood protector has been in the back of my mind since. On top of that, I have a couple acres of hillside that I want to improve a bit, by taking down the small trees (up to about 7” diameter m/l ) some of which are standing dead. And I can’t stop thinking about my head! And a hard hat does not seem to be the answer for protection against the possibility of a falling dead treetop or branch.
So as a learning home-hobby welder, I figured it would be more productive to actually build something than to just practice welding scrap for the sake of learning.
In this light I decided to build a hood guard and head guard for my tractor. I bought some 1.25 x 0.060 square tubing and a piece of flattened expanded metal with a half-inch diamond.
Both guards will share the same design features, so I thought it best to try the hood guard first. The nice thing about this design is that it is quick detach, and comes off and goes on in about 5 seconds max. The front has two bolts that act as pins, and drop through two holes drilled in my front grill guard. The rear is held on magnetically with switchable magnets.
The design is quite strong and I am sure I could stand on this and work off it if I wanted to mess up the paint. It is not designed to take a hard side thrust. The magnets do hold it on pretty well, but I am sure they will slide if pushed hard from the side. But I am not worried about a side thrust. I want protection from something falling from above, so this setup seems good for that.
Anyway, at this point I will post some pics of the hood guard, and of the mock up of the head guard, which I need to start building. The head guard will be bolted on.
The first picture is of the underside of the hood guard before I took it outside to paint.
So the need for some kind of a hood protector has been in the back of my mind since. On top of that, I have a couple acres of hillside that I want to improve a bit, by taking down the small trees (up to about 7” diameter m/l ) some of which are standing dead. And I can’t stop thinking about my head! And a hard hat does not seem to be the answer for protection against the possibility of a falling dead treetop or branch.
So as a learning home-hobby welder, I figured it would be more productive to actually build something than to just practice welding scrap for the sake of learning.
In this light I decided to build a hood guard and head guard for my tractor. I bought some 1.25 x 0.060 square tubing and a piece of flattened expanded metal with a half-inch diamond.
Both guards will share the same design features, so I thought it best to try the hood guard first. The nice thing about this design is that it is quick detach, and comes off and goes on in about 5 seconds max. The front has two bolts that act as pins, and drop through two holes drilled in my front grill guard. The rear is held on magnetically with switchable magnets.
The design is quite strong and I am sure I could stand on this and work off it if I wanted to mess up the paint. It is not designed to take a hard side thrust. The magnets do hold it on pretty well, but I am sure they will slide if pushed hard from the side. But I am not worried about a side thrust. I want protection from something falling from above, so this setup seems good for that.
Anyway, at this point I will post some pics of the hood guard, and of the mock up of the head guard, which I need to start building. The head guard will be bolted on.
The first picture is of the underside of the hood guard before I took it outside to paint.