jmt1271 said:
I am wanting to add hooks to the bucket on my 300CX. Where is a good online source for high strength high quality hooks? What should I expect a shop to charge me to weld them? thanks.
AW Direct is the best source I know of for hooks. Do you want slip hooks or grab hooks or are you going to do a combination?
My recommendation is to put the hooks 'in line' with the attachement points of your loader arms. Some people put the hooks at the bucket corners, JMO but I believe that is a reciepe for disaster and if you snag something when you have a bucket hook at the corner you can more easily tweak your entire loader out of square.
I have grab hooks in line with my loader arms. I've considered, but never installed, a slip hook located at the bucket center.
As for installation time, I welded my own on, it took about 15 minutes to do both of them. The top lip of my bucket (its a New Holland bucket) comes heavily reinforced from the factory with a fully welded length of square tube so there was no need to reinforce under the top lip. As you have a John Deere bucket, they offer heavy duty and light duty buckets, if you have one of the HD buckets, there is no reason to reinforce the lip. If you have a bucket design that is a simple curled or folded top lip, then I would want a piece of angle iron welded across the full width of the bucket to reinforce it with the hooks welded to the top of the angle iron.
What surprises me is how lightly built some of the buckets really are. Below are some photos of buckets that you might want to review, any of the rolled or folded lip buckets are inadequate (IMHO) if you want to add hooks. In order are a bucket from a 35hp Branson, it is not only small but also just has a folded lip, also notice it has no welded reinforement on the lower corners or the sides of the bucket. Next is a JD light material bucket on a JD 3410, it has a simple rolled top lip, it has corner reinforcment but not side reinforcement. The third photo is a New Holland TC35 bucket, notice the tube steel, welded full length under the top lip, it also has full side reinforcement welded on. The 4th picture is a Montana bucket, on a 50hp tractor, like the Branson bucket it is a low capacity bucket (
considering the much larger size of the 50hp tractor) and has a simple fold along the top lip, the Montana bucket does have welded side reinforcement similar to the New Holland bucket. The final photo is a Kubota B3030 bucket, this is a small & ultra-light 30hp tractor, suprisingly the bucket has a double fold along the top of the bucket and welded reinforcements on the lower corners. It does not have reinforced sides.