jim_wilson
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2004
- Messages
- 1,781
- Location
- Northeast MA
- Tractor
- Kubota B3200 w/ BH77 & 12", 18" & 24" buckets, Kubota B50 SSQA w/ 54" & 60" buckets, LandPride FDR1660, Artillian Fork frame, Extreme 3pt rake, Concrete Mixer, MyTractorTools grapple adapter
Jim, Just curious.... why didn't you originally go with an aftermarket SSQA such as the one ATI makes? I think they are a grand-ish, but were available back when you bought your tractor.
I looked at the ATI SSQA setup and decided against it for three main reasons:
1) It was expensive. If I remember correctly just to get the quick connect and a matching bucket was going to be something like $2000
2) It was heavy - I wanted to use as much of the capability of the loader as possible and not basically be lugging around a bunch of extra weight in QA and bucket that doesn't do anything for me actually carrying a load. IMHO the ATI SSQA and the ATI bucket were way overbuilt (and therefore way too heavy) - for the LA504 loader on the B3200.
3) the ATI SSQA is basically a hack in my opinion. They take a generic SSQA setup and graft on the appropriate brackets to fit whichever loader they're making a solution for. This does two things - A) adds a bunch of unneeded weight (as I mentioned above) and B) pushes the pivot pins out just that much further than they really need to be. Which once again reduces the loader capacity.
At the time - I just decided that going with the Kubota pin-on style QA was just a better deal. The QA assembly itself was only like $300 or something like that - and extra buckets ( I ended up getting another 54" bucket to use just for digging in addition to the 60" that came with the tractor) - cost far less and are a lot less weighty than the ATI SSQA buckets.
In the end - with the Kubota pin-on QA I ended up with the following: 1 QA setup (around $300 if I remember correctly) , 1 60" bucket (was about $550 again - if I remember correctly) , a 54" bucket (about $550) - and the Kubota fork frame - which was about $650 .
So for around the same price as what I would have paid for just the ATI QA and 1 bucket - I got a QA, 2 buckets - and a fork lift frame. All of which are better suited to the tractor than the ATI stuff would have been.
Once I got the tractor - I actually spent a bunch of time measuring the LA504 - going to Kubota dealers to look at SSQA style QA's on L-series (and others) - and checking out the specs on the SSQA standard - because I was seriously thinking of trying to make up my own SSQA setup to fit on the LA504 - that didn't have the drawbacks of the ATI setup. I didn't do it - because I just ran out of time and the Kubota pin-on QA works - it's just not optimal IMHO.
So when I saw the B50 stuff come out - and saw the QA setup I thought to myself "holy crap - Kubota just made almost exactly what I was thinking of making".
When I put the order in at the dealer yesterday I got the Kubota SSQA QA piece, a 54" bucket, and a 60" bucket. The grand total came to like $1690. They wanted like $650 for the QA, $490 for a 54" bucket, and $550 for the 60" bucket. I had talked to a different dealer a month or so ago - and they had quote $450 for the QA - plus shipping. For some reason the dealer I ordered from is higher on the QA, but they were also lower on the buckets - so I figure it's all going to even out.
I'm going to get a fork frame too - but I am going to talk to Artillian about that. He makes a nice low-weight fork frame and has some nice add-ons for that frame. His pricing is about the same as the Kubota frame. Currently he only makes John Deere stuff - but I've already exchanged email with him and told him I'd like to use one of his frames on one of these new Kubota QA setups - and he said he'd be open to taking a look and seeing what he can do. He's located here in MA - so he's relatively close.
I haven't beat up any of the pin-on attachments - they're all in pretty good shape. So I'll be selling them on Craigslist or whatever once I get the new setup. I'm hoping I can recoup a good portion of my money by doing this.