Where to weld bucket hooks?

[JB4310]

With all this advice about not putting the hooks outside the lift arms, which by the way I am in complete agreement with, then why are tooth bars the rage when you are basically putting a hook on the outside edge of your bucket?

You could catch the corner of a bucket even without teeth, and still get that flipping effect. That's why ballast is so important. but with your tooth bar you are normally engaging the ground evenly. I've never had a tooth bar but I guess you may have to be a little more careful not to just use one side of bucket when trying to break out something.

JB.

 

[magicheater]

You could catch the corner of a bucket even without teeth, and still get that flipping effect. That's why ballast is so important. but with your tooth bar you are normally engaging the ground evenly. I've never had a tooth bar but I guess you may have to be a little more careful not to just use one side of bucket when trying to break out something.
JB.

Seems contradictory to me that when you add a tooth bar to be aggressive you then have to be careful (less aggressive) after adding it. But this thread is about hooks and not tooth bars, sorry.

 

[Thick82558]

I use the Receiver in the middle of my bucket with a drop hitch slid into receiver. It works wonderful. In the receiver you can slip many hitches drop hitch,one with hook for chain,one with hook for strap sling,one with a clevis. Many uses for center receiver

 

[Dargo]

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That sounds interesting. Care to explain how you get the ball that low.

Uh, are you serious? All you have to do is roll your bucket forward.

 

[Dargo]

I think you are right on the outer hooks
I wonder if any hooks other than the center
One can bend your FEL. Because I have picked
Up on a fence post to pull it out of ground and
my hooks are in line with my arms and it pulled
My tractor down. But it did not bend my FEL. So
I think I will cut my hooks off and
Use my center receiver only. That would be one
Expensive fence post. I saved many yrs to get my tractor
I would hate to tweak it out on a numbskull thing like a
Fence post

One very useful feature you can take advantage of using just one hook in line with your loader arm is pulling 'things'. I generally don't bother to put a hitch in the center receiver if I just need to pull some logs out of a pile of drag them out of tall grass if the tree fell into thickets when cut down. Sure, if the item being pulled is too large, you'll slide sideways a bit, but that generally means it's too big anyway. Something that is that taxing to pull should be pulled with your drawbar. It should be your strongest attachment point for pulling anything.

 

[Deere Dude]

Couldn't agree more

Some may be tired of seeing my "Bucket Buddy" since I post this pic of all the acs. when ever the subject come up.

JB

That is the same kind of bucket I have. When bolting the hitch on, did you put a stiffener plate under the nuts in the bucket. I want to do that same thing but it seems the bucket has a 1/2"air gap which I would worry about squashing when torquing down the bolts??

 

[JB4310]

Seems contradictory to me that when you add a tooth bar to be aggressive you then have to be careful (less aggressive) after adding it. But this thread is about hooks and not tooth bars, sorry.

You brought up a good point, if you try to lift something heavy or stationary with just one side of your bucket, you will get the same effect as lifting from just one outboard (inline with cylinders) hook. You could possibly tweak your loader, but for sure without enough ballast you will lift the opposite rear wheel off the ground, if you went far enough, it could lay the machine over.

That is the same kind of bucket I have. When bolting the hitch on, did you put a stiffener plate under the nuts in the bucket. I want to do that same thing but it seems the bucket has a 1/2"air gap which I would worry about squashing when torquing down the bolts??

I have to double check on the bottom plate, I think I did add it after. But I know for sure I was worried about crushing the 2 walls that make up the bucket top, so what I did was add a sleeve between the 2 walls, a piece of steel pipe large enough for the bolt to fit in, over drilled the top wall so pipe could drop in, but drilled the bottom only large enough for the bolt.

That way I could crank it down to my hearts delight and it would only go so far. These double wall HD bucket tops must be pretty tough, cause even with the heaviest thing I have lifted (full ballast box) There was zero deflection in the top of the bucket.

But even if someone had to reinforce the bucket top, it would be well worth it to be able to have a center mount receiver tube :thumbsup:

JB

 

[HSSC]

This is how I did my front bucket hooks. I put a 2 inch receiver in the middle and 2, 1 inch receivers on the ends of a 1/4 inch 3"x2" piece of angle. Bolted and welded to the bucket. I also notched the angle iron for chain with reinforcement. I carry with the tractor the piece for the 2 inch receiver at all times and when needed just reverse it around as needed. On the ends I can put any type of device I can dream up which includes hooks. The last pic is the 1 inch receiver on the end. Kind of hard to see as we are getting yet another snow storm. Getting close to one hundred inches at the house and 500 inches at the local ski resort, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe.

 

[Ivan1547]

Here is a link to another post...

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/customization/149200-bucket-hooks-d-ring.html

 

[grsthegreat]

ok.. i surrender. i vise gripped the receiver hitch to the top of my bucket to see how i could get one to mount there and work. it would work for the gooseneck - no problem

but no mater how i rotate the bucket, i cant get it to pick up my bumper pull trailers.

so im moving to the dark side. im going to cut off the 3/8" hook i welded on the center of the bucket, install a upper 3/16 steel plate and a lower 3/16 plate inside the bucket. these will be 42" x 5" wide on top, and narrower inside.

i ordered the steel today, and will plasma cut the 1" shank hole. I'm going to put the 2-5/16 ball right up on top of the bucket. leave it on permanent.

then I'm going to make a portable clamp device for the lower bucket lip to move my other equipment. i vise gripped a prototype on there today...will work great. it will just bolt down when needed, and unbolt when not needed.

will get pics after i make them. Now onto the AutoCad software to design the dang thing.