Hydralic Tent stake puller for the 3pt hitch of Kubota BX, help wanted.

BX tent guy · Jun 10, 2014

Hello everyone,
I'm in the tent business and I do a bunch of hard work and I can't help but think my BX sitting at home could be a huge help. I move the tractor with a dump trailer with a landscape gate, I have forks for the FEL and I am thinking about buying 3pt forks from here. Silver Lake Fabrication - Concord, NH - 603-630-5658 - TRACTOR 3-POINT HITCH FORKS Once I have those I'm thinking that I could modify the rear forks to hold a hydraulic cylinder to pull the tent stakes. The stakes are 42" long, 1 1/8" Diameter, some big tents/jobs have hundreds of them. Basically the plan is to extend the top link bar of the forks on the link and gusset them to the lift arm links for strength then attach a 2 1/2" bore x 16" stroke cylinder. The forks will act as the base plate and after the cylinder has lifted the stakes partially out the 3pt hitch can do the other 15" or so of lifting. At that point the stakes can be removed by hand and stacked in the bucket. I'm trying to replicate a machine like this. Green Monster Stake Puller S1000 - YouTube.

If anyone can help with the hydraulic design and parts I'd appreciate it. Welding/building and fabricating isn't an issue but I have no idea what the 3 hydraulic fittings at the back of the tractor do and what controls to choose. In a perfect world the rod would be extended as its natural position and retract with the push of a lever. I'm not sure that can work though. I should note that the stakes are not always at a predictable angle. I planned on the top of the cylinder being on a spherical joint and a jaw for stakes at the bottom.

Thanks for reading and ideas if you have them.
Jim

bcp · Jun 10, 2014

I would try a hook on the back of the bucket, or a hook on the top center of the rear forks. Use a chain to a post grabber like the stake puller has. Might take two lifts on the rear. The grabber could be made to slip down by its own weight for the second pull.

Build something only if the hydraulic mechanisms already on the tractor don't do the job.

Bruce

94BULLITT · Jun 10, 2014

Those forks will not work good on a BX. The lift arm points are too low. With the 3PH all the way down the forks will probably be 5'' off the ground.

Could you use a drawbar like this guy does on this post?

BX tent guy · Jun 11, 2014

I'm not sure about how effective the draw bar will be on the stakes. 24" behind the lift arms the tractor will pick up 680#'s. That isn't enough for most stakes. The commercially available options pull around 6000#'s.

jenkinsph · Jun 11, 2014

If it were me I would make a base to rest on the ground with a vertically mounted cylinder. Use the small tractor to move the unit around to position and use the tractor hydraulics to operate the cylinder. It would seem a base with a vee shape that you could back around the stake would work well for this. All the down force should transfer to this base when pulling up on the stake, the tractor is there to move it around and hold it steady. You would need a clamp to grab the stake that would work well and be easy to release, don't know if or where this would be available.

ace10 · Jun 11, 2014

Let me offering this thought from a practical standpoint... will it be acceptable at your sites to drive a one ton tractor around? Turf tires would be a must. And they're gonna be bearing the weight of this action, so isn't turf damage inevitable?

That nifty green monster machine has a base plate of maybe 2 sq feet to distribute that 6,000 pound lift capacity to the ground.

BHD · Jun 11, 2014

If I had to do what your talking about and going to build a puller, I would either copy the hand machine, or if I was going to use the tractor,

I would make a three point frame, and make a set of H frame arms, that would allow it to be swung out and adjustable, to get exact and back up or drive along side, and be accurate is not a easy task, (at least not for me).

and it might allow more than one stake to be pulled at one setting of the tractor depending on the stake spacing,

some may depend on if this is a one or two person operation, as well,

I would most like put a cylinder on the head to lower it to the ground and so a foot will support the puller and one cylinder for the lift, (most likely a 30" in length,)

and if the tractor had a power beyond port I would use that and put the control valve on the puller and not the tractor,

If some how I was going to try to do a one person operation, I would change the location to the belly of the tractor and use three cylinder, one to slide a arm under the belly of the tractor in and out, one to lower the puller to the ground and one to pull the cylinder,
all tractor controlled but located so they could be ground operated,

by belly mounting one could see and adjust the puller to drive up on the side of the stakes and make small side adjustments, and should be able to drive right up and on to the stake, and depending on the design of the stake and the puller, most likely pull it from the tractor seat with our getting off, and then move up to the next stake and repeat,

sketch below is of the first idea, of the movable arms

bcp · Jun 11, 2014

Might find some ideas by looking at hydraulic post pullers

Bruce

BX tent guy · Jun 11, 2014

Ace10, Your point about caring for the turf is valid. Most of the really big jobs are not on a highly manicured lawn, I'm not considering bringing this to a job site for something like a 50x100 foot tent. This is for the REALLY crazy jobs, most of them are on a field more than a lawn. In the design discussed so far the pressure would be on the 3pt forks on the ground. There would be more area than most tent pullers.

This is the type of job the BX and puller would go to.

BX tent guy · Jun 11, 2014

BHD said:
If I had to do what your talking about and going to build a puller, I would either copy the hand machine, or if I was going to use the tractor,

I would make a three point frame, and make a set of H frame arms, that would allow it to be swung out and adjustable, to get exact and back up or drive along side, and be accurate is not a easy task, (at least not for me).

and it might allow more than one stake to be pulled at one setting of the tractor depending on the stake spacing,

some may depend on if this is a one or two person operation, as well,

I would most like put a cylinder on the head to lower it to the ground and so a foot will support the puller and one cylinder for the lift, (most likely a 30" in length,)

and if the tractor had a power beyond port I would use that and put the control valve on the puller and not the tractor,

If some how I was going to try to do a one person operation, I would change the location to the belly of the tractor and use three cylinder, one to slide a arm under the belly of the tractor in and out, one to lower the puller to the ground and one to pull the cylinder,
all tractor controlled but located so they could be ground operated,

by belly mounting one could see and adjust the puller to drive up on the side of the stakes and make small side adjustments, and should be able to drive right up and on to the stake, and depending on the design of the stake and the puller, most likely pull it from the tractor seat with our getting off, and then move up to the next stake and repeat,

sketch below is of the first idea, of the movable arms

BHD, can you explain how the power beyond line works? Is it just constant pressure? I like the sketch, I think I've come up with something VERY simple, but that might be of use for the next project.