B7100 Quick Attach

[jimmysisson]

Looks like when your lock handles are down the spring engages the flat of the lever to hold it from rising. That should work unless something like a branch hits it. A washer between the spring and the lever might preserve the spring longer so it doesn't snag on the lever angles.
The spring gave me an idea, though. On my Ford 2120/7109 loader, the pins are spring loaded extended, so you can engage the top of the QA on the implement, curl the dump cylinders, and the pins snap into locked position. You have to manually disengage the pins, but at least you only have to get off the tractor once during an attachment changeover.
In the pic, the lock pin has a small roll pin resting against the bottom guide. When you have, say, a bucket on the QA, you lift and rotate the big lock pin out with the handle, then the roll pin rests against a boss on the bucket. Then when you curl the attachment back and the pins snap down into the QA, it dislodges the roll pin from the boss and the pin snaps all the way down.
Hard to explain, but easy to use. Might there be a way for you to make those lock pins spring loaded?
Jest thinkin (often dangerous).
Jim

 

[cowsrus]

I've been searching for someone who has made one of these. Thanks for the ideas. I think the hard part for me building one will be the latch. I need something really simple.

 

[charlz]

Looks like when your lock handles are down the spring engages the flat of the lever to hold it from rising.

The top 'bolt' is the hinge bolt, this is a weld-on stud. The lower 'bolt' is a stud with a hole drilled in it and moves with the handle. The rod that goes to the lock pin is threaded and goes through this stud. The washer and spring are against this lower stud and as the handle rotates down I have it go just slightly past perfect alignment with the lock pin and weld-on stud. This way the spring tension is holding it in the 'locked' position.

 

[charlz]

Here are a few pics of how I finished out the bucket.

Knowing I wouldn't be able to paint underneath once it was welded I masked off where I needed to weld and gave it a few coats on both the bucket and the QA plate sides. This worked out pretty well with only a little scorched paint to clean up for the final coats after welding:





The finished bucket... I had already done a little test digging with it and you can see the paint is already taking a beating Hard to paint this time of year as it takes forever to really dry hard.



A few shots of the bucket on the tractor and dropped off:





All in all a very slick system... can't wait to make a few more attachments

I had weighed the bucket before cutting off the original brackets and again after adding the QA brackets. The bucket weight went up about 20lbs according to my old bathroom scale. The tractor side appears to weight about 35lbs. So that's 55 lbs or so of added weight. Not great with rated lifting capacity of 500lbs but I have picked up 800lbs of wood pellets before so.... I am really hoping the versatility of being able to make other items for the FEL makes it worth it.

 

[jimmysisson]

That's some nice thinking and nice workmanship. If you don't mind a suggestion, the slot on the bottom of the bucket that catches the bottom pin of th QA looks vulnerable in rough going. On the forks and a bucket on my tractor there's a stirrup of 3/8" steel to protect that area. You can see it at lower left in the pic, against the floor. Ignore the notes and tape rule.
Jim

 

[charlz]

That's some nice thinking and nice workmanship. If you don't mind a suggestion, the slot on the bottom of the bucket that catches the bottom pin of th QA looks vulnerable in rough going. On the forks and a bucket on my tractor there's a stirrup of 3/8" steel to protect that area. You can see it at lower left in the pic, against the floor. Ignore the notes and tape rule.
Jim

Thanks for the suggestion. I am going to see how it goes with the pins. I did some testing yesterday moving dirt around on my sons dirtbike track and everything worked perfectly. I have some old cultivator shovels that I think might do the trick if I decide I need pin guards.

 

[mwb]

I've been searching for someone who has made one of these. Thanks for the ideas. I think the hard part for me building one will be the latch. I need something really simple.

This build is pretty simple (latch). You could also check out my build at http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/141029-tractor-side-shuttle-shift-quick.html

 

[mwb]

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.

The angle between the two sides is most vulnerable when you don't have a bucket attached. If, when in the process of engaging your bucket, you only get one side hooked then the weight of the bucket will want to extend the hooked side cylinder and (through the hydraulics) retract the other side. This will want to twist the angle.

 

[charlz]

The angle between the two sides is most vulnerable when you don't have a bucket attached. If, when in the process of engaging your bucket, you only get one side hooked then the weight of the bucket will want to extend the hooked side cylinder and (through the hydraulics) retract the other side. This will want to twist the angle.

Thanks for the info. I will have to watch for that. I went ahead and painted it up the way it is, if needed I can cut the angle out later and weld in some new tube.