Attachment repair: Bent 4N1 bucket

[ponytug]

Anyone have any great ideas on how to bend the moveable half of the 4N1 clamshell bucket back to flat?

A buddy tried to pick up a tree trunk and it bent the bucket floor. (as opposed to the back, where the attachment plate is)

Suggestions most welcome.

All the best,

Peter

 

[2458n]

Body shop frame rack

 

[woodlandfarms]

on the 1445? yeesh..... Must have been a huge stump...

 

[ponytug]

He said it was a long trunk that he thought he would just pick up and move. All I can think of is that he must have slid the trunk in by having the attachment plate parallel to the ground and that the bouncing during movement or the inertial mass was large enough to bend it. Clearly, the PT was strong enough to lift it without puckering.

I usually pick items up transversely (cross-ways to the PT). It is more awkward, but you get to grip the item against the teeth of the 4N1 "jaws". Funny, I never really thought about why I did it that way.

All the best,

Peter

I'll post photos, if I get them.

 

[woodlandfarms]

If I had done this, I would take it to my local metal shop. We have the usual farm / heavy equipment guys and they seem to fix my mistakes... They have all the heavy rams / hoists.. Frame rack sounds interesting... not sure how it would work but...

 

[firemanmike69]

I'd call and see how much just buying the part new, then keep that in mind as your getting quotes on the repair. How thick is the floor of the bucket? You may be best off cutting the bent floor out and welding a new one in. Use a pipe welded in between the arms to keep everything aligned and square, cut the bent floor out, bevel the new plate, weld it in, cut the brace pipe out and your back in business

 

[swick1]

I'd look into welding some shackles to either side of the bucket and running a chain between them. Place a hydraulic jack under the bucket with some scrap plywood or shelving board on either end of the jack and run the middle of the chain over one end of the jack then pump away. Make sure your chain is rated for more force than the jack produces.

 

[J_J]

Anyone have any great ideas on how to bend the moveable half of the 4N1 clamshell bucket back to flat?

A buddy tried to pick up a tree trunk and it bent the bucket floor. (as opposed to the back, where the attachment plate is)



Suggestions most welcome.

All the best,

Peter

Can you show pictures.

If it is bent in the middle and the bend is down, could you not put a block under the bend and push down with the bucket.

If the floor is bent up, just push the bucket into a tree and lift up.

Maybe a torch with lots of heat will cause it to return to normal.

 

[CDN Farm Boy]

Shouldn't your buddy that bent it be fixing it?

Isn't is common place to return equipment as good or better than you got it?

 

[MossRoad]

Can you show pictures.

If it is bent in the middle and the bend is down, could you not put a block under the bend and push down with the bucket.

If the floor is bent up, just push the bucket into a tree and lift up.

Maybe a torch with lots of heat will cause it to return to normal.

J_J. I've found that just pushing on something with the PT will usually only lift the wheels off the ground or spin the tires. When I've bent implements, it was always because I applied too much hydraulic leverage on the implement, not the weight of the tractor. It'll take some leverage to bend it back, which will require sticking the implement between some unmovable objects and applying force.