Homemade quick attach

[Steve in MT]

Hey puckgrinder, It was because of that very video that inspired me to build one for my tractor. I had built a pallet fork attachment and found out pretty quick that changing from bucket to forks was a real PIA. The skid steer style is faster to change out a bucket then this one but its also tons cheaper and way faster then changing 4 greasy pins. I spent an entire weekend building mine and am very happy how it turned out and how fast a bucket change is now. Here's a picture, I have build pictures as well if you want to see them. It was well worth the time spent to build and you wont be sorry if you build your own. Just my .02 cents.

 

[puckgrinder85]

Yea I'd love to see the build pictures, if you want to post them on here for others to use or email me them it would be great, I have a few Ideas rolling around in my head but nothing concrete on the way I want to make the bends and such.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

The main dimensions are going to be the loader arm (center to center) width and pin diameter is really the two main things that need to be close. I think my machine is like 42" on center for the loader arms and it has all 4pins 1.25".

I have a 504 loader on a B3300SU with this style of QA direct from Kubota. 1" dia pins, 7" o/c top to bottom, 3.75" forward mount. Changing the width (from arm to arm) would be as easy as cutting the joining pipe and adjusting to suit. You'll also need to pay attention to the width of the ears that each arm mounts into.

Two thins I noticed from the links:
1) Not sure why the guy in the first video wouldn't have spent $10 for top pins to leave in both buckets.
2) The "saddle" for the top pin needs to be flared out -- it will make picking up the bucket a whole lot easier when attaching than having to line up exactly on the pins.

It's not anywhere close to as easy as a SSQA to use this but still WAY better than standard pin-on. The biggest flaw with mine is that you can't get ahold of the pins to pull them out. I need to weld on some loops that I can get my hand into.

 

[puckgrinder85]

Yea I agree with the pins, and that was my intention just to buy extras to leave in all the buckets, getting on and off the tractor more than once is kinda what im trying to stay away from, and the greasy pins too. I had planned on flaring the top link portion as well, enough to get the bucket in the ball park, the weight can pull it down into the tighter tolerance fit afterward. I found some pins from tractor supply that should do the trick.

When I talked to ATI they said the biggest issue was the pin diameter. I have 1.25 and the kubs use 1" a lot so it seems he was right. He mentioned modifying an existing one with 1" pins may be more work than just building one from scratch.

 

[Steve in MT]

OK guys, here ya go. I wish that I had taken more pictures as I went, but didn’t. There are enough, however, to give you a good idea how it goes together. The guy in the video must have had used a metal break to form the main pieces and I didn’t have access to one so I had to do mine the hard way. I took 4 pieces of ¼” thick flat bar and cut them to length. I stacked all 4 pieces on top of each other and tack welded them together so that they wouldn’t move when I drilled them out. A small pilot hole was drilled through all 4 pieces in the pin locations. Then a 1” bit was run through the pilots. This makes sure that all 8 holes match. I had to use a die grinder with a burring bit to oversize the holes a tad so that the pins would slip through easier. I bought a 2’ piece of steel pipe (not called pipe, but something else, the name escapes me) that has something like a 3/8” wall thickness. I cut some bushings out of this and welded them to the outside of the brackets for the pin support. The hole is dead on 1“ and I had to use the die grinder to clearance the inside so that the pins would slip through . I made some extra pins from some 1” round stock and left them in the bucket and fork setup. I too wondered why the guy in the video didn’t do the same. Maybe he didn’t have them at the time he made the video. Nope, not as fast as a skid steer set up, but a darn site faster then un-pinning and re-pinning during a bucket change. It was well worth the time to make this setup. Yes, It pushes the bucket about 2” further forward, but I noticed that the skid steer style QA’s are pushed forward as well.
Questions? Ask away


. OK

 

[puckgrinder85]

Thanks for the pictures. I thought you had a break too the way your piecese looked, they look pretty smooth. Did you just take the two pieces at the junction and weld the bucket side plate into the interior of the loader side plate? Thanks for the pics btw.

 

[Steve in MT]

Yes, thats exactly what I did. What I didnt take a picture of, was the 4 pieces that were inside the bucket mount with the pins keeping them in alignment. I used some thin washers between the QA plates and the bucket bracket to act as spacers so that I had enough clearance for bucket changing. I also used a short piece of that 3/8 wall pipe in the lower pin section. (see the 5th picture) When all the parts (and pins) were clamped into the bucket , everthing was tack welded and taken to the welding bench. Another sneaky thing that I didnt take pictures of (hind sight eh?) was the forward upper pin cradle. Although I have a press, I couldnt figure out how to form a really nice "U" out of some 1/4" flat bar.
So, I cut another short piece of that thick pipe, cut it length wise, and now had a cradle bottom for both sides. A couple of short pieces of 1/4" flat bar was welded to the top of the cradles flush with the inside of the cradle and the side plates. Boy, I hope ya got that as I'm not very good at explaning myself sometimes.(you can call me "Forest Gump") With the bucket part of the brackets welded together, they were then pinned to the bucket, the bucket pushed up to the loader, aligned, tack welded, removed, and final welding and grinding performed. The last step was to poke some holes in the brackets for the cross bar. I had a section of 1-1/8" square "Rod weeder" bar that needed a job, so thats what I used here. Rod weeder bar is almost like a spring steel so it worked out really well. Yessiree, this project was very slow going but well worth the time. I need to finish welding and grinding the pallet fork and get some paint on it as it looks like crap at this moment. I also scrounged up an old manure fork/bucket off of an old Farmhand F-11 loader and will modifiy it to fit the kubota. No sense building a QA and only having 2 buckets right? Keep us posted on what you decided to do.

 

[puckgrinder85]

Ok, nope I got most of that actually. I bought a carbide tipped hole saw for the size of my pins so hopefully the hole is nice enough to use it, if not i can get that tubing you talk about, I think its DOM tubing which is "seamless" and very accurate in size and comes in a ton of id's and od's. I also have a huge press (50ton?) and a huge selection of press tubes. I planned on make the cradle by forming a red hot piece of flat steel around the properly sized press tube in order to make my cradle.

 

[BukitCase]

Been watching this thread, my older Case 580B (actually, ME) is in need of QA since it's my only loader. Built some forks that slip on the cutting edge and lock onto the rear with turnbuckles, but of course I can't SEE where they're going, so nearly useless for pallets. Plus, the fool that worked on it before I got it thought welders were a direct replacement for circlips, etc... so at present it's a "cut off, weld on" bucket :=(

I figure I can just "upsize" all the great ideas here (AFTER I remedy the dumb-***** excuses for maintenance), so thanks for all the pix/ideas, etc.

BTW, here's an idea of some of the sizes you can find in DOM tubing

Ram Steelco Inc. - Salem, Oregon | Steel Sales, Metal Sales and Metal Processing

The only way I can remember the name of the tubing is to remember what that acronym stands for - Drawn Over Mandrel -

In my Case (pun intended) the pins are 1.5", so I'll likely order a 3' length of oil-hardened drill rod in that dia. from Enco ( Enco - Guaranteed Lowest Prices on Machinery, Tools and Shop Supplies ) and cut it to length with a thin cutoff disk.

Gettin' too old and cranky to wanna do things the macho way, so will probably build a new fork frame, grapple, 3-point QH and fence un-roller/stretcher before I'm done... Steve

 

[Vtmaple]

Hello, I am curious about how wide is the 1/4 steel for the boom and tilt mounts and how wide are the pieces that slide inside the bucket mounts? Thanks, Dan