Bucket Bracket?

[Gary Fowler]

My brother in law had a 3 PH bale spear that he wanted to make into a FEL mounted one. After pricing local steel, I found a QA plate from Everything Attachments.com that was cheaper than me buying the plate and fabricating one. I cut off the 3PH pins, used the frame and just welded it to the plate. I cant remember the cost of the QA plate but it wasn't too expensive. I haven't looked at it lately but IIRC it was made of 1/4" thick steel plate with the bends and QA pin slots punched in so it fit perfectly.
All I had to do was attach the bale spear. Since the bale spear came with 2x2 tubing mounting frame, I just had to skip weld it in place.

 

[Fallon]

My brother in law had a 3 PH bale spear that he wanted to make into a FEL mounted one. After pricing local steel, I found a QA plate from Everything Attachments.com that was cheaper than me buying the plate and fabricating one. I cut off the 3PH pins, used the frame and just welded it to the plate. I cant remember the cost of the QA plate but it wasn't too expensive. I haven't looked at it lately but IIRC it was made of 1/4" thick steel plate with the bends and QA pin slots punched in so it fit perfectly.
All I had to do was attach the bale spear. Since the bale spear came with 2x2 tubing mounting frame, I just had to skip weld it in place.

I made a SSQA to 3pt QH for about $150-200. Actually just made a 2nd as the first plow mount one ran off with the old tractor & plow.

New a SSQA plate is $150-200ish & a QH is $100. I got several SSQA plates & various QHes at garage sales or the like for well under half new price. Welding the QH to the SSQA plate isnt hard if you can weld. Everything should be straight & flat (but the QH often isn't). Most of the effort is grinding off the rust & paint, then cleaning the welding spatter & repainting.

I built the 2nd one as it's really handy for moving & loading impliments. Would make a great way to mount a 3pt bale spear to the loader too. It does push the impliment or load out 6-8" & you loose a bit of capacity that way, but less than with pallet forks.

 

[CoyPatton]

I was talking about the bushings for the brackets that pin to the loader arms. The one for the spear itself isn't nearly as critical since it doesn't rotate.

Sorry, I was confused.
My loader arms have pins that go through them and the brackets on the back of the bucket.
Some flat stock and careful measurements could reproduce 4 plates with holes and spacing/support gussets. Then these would be welded to whatever frame you have for ur spears to mount on.
The bushings on my loader are a part of the loader arm and cylinder ends. Each have grease fittings/ports on them. Yours may be different.

 

[BlueKnife]

Sorry, I was confused.
My loader arms have pins that go through them and the brackets on the back of the bucket.
Some flat stock and careful measurements could reproduce 4 plates with holes and spacing/support gussets. Then these would be welded to whatever frame you have for ur spears to mount on.
The bushings on my loader are a part of the loader arm and cylinder ends. Each have grease fittings/ports on them. Yours may be different.

I think we were both a little confused. The OP's use of the term "bucket brackets" threw me at first because he's not talking about brackets for a bucket, but rather for a hay spear. Sometimes it's hard to convey this stuff in writing. Here's a picture so hopefully you can see what I'm talking about. This is a quick attach I recently got done building for my wheel loader. The wheel loader is different because it has a single attachment point in the center for the dump function but this should illustrate the concept. The red arrow is pointing to the bushing that's part of the loader arm. The blue arrow is pointing to the bushing in the bracket on either side of the loader arm. So each pin goes through 3 bushings. In the case of a FEL on a tractor, you actually have 4 pins that attach the loader arms and dump cylinders to either the implement or a quick attach of one sort or another. Those four pins use a total of 12 bushings.

 

[CoyPatton]

I think we were both a little confused. The OP's use of the term "bucket brackets" threw me at first because he's not talking about brackets for a bucket, but rather for a hay spear. Sometimes it's hard to convey this stuff in writing. Here's a picture so hopefully you can see what I'm talking about.View attachment 642744 This is a quick attach I recently got done building for my wheel loader. The wheel loader is different because it has a single attachment point in the center for the dump function but this should illustrate the concept. The red arrow is pointing to the bushing that's part of the loader arm. The blue arrow is pointing to the bushing in the bracket on either side of the loader arm. So each pin goes through 3 bushings. In the case of a FEL on a tractor, you actually have 4 pins that attach the loader arms and dump cylinders to either the implement or a quick attach of one sort or another. Those four pins use a total of 12 bushings.

My pins are actually bolts that go through the 2 sides of the bracket are are extremely tight with lock nuts. A real pain to remove the bucket. My movement all happens around the loader arm bushings and the only spot that is greased as well.
I have seen other loaders that grease through the pins and have bushings outside of the bucket brackets.
I think these could be made with heavy wall pipes drilled for grease fittings and welded to the brackets.
But if he plans to switch between a bucket, hay spear and possibly other items I believe he will be well served to buy or build a SSQA for his loader and adapt his bucket to SSQA and make his hay spear on such a frame as well.

 

[BlueKnife]

My pins are actually bolts that go through the 2 sides of the bracket are are extremely tight with lock nuts. A real pain to remove the bucket. My movement all happens around the loader arm bushings and the only spot that is greased as well.

As you say, it's normal for the rotation to happen in the loader arm bushings, not the bracket bushings. Bushings are still normally used in the brackets though because it spreads the load on the pin out. Even though the pin doesn't rotate in those bushings it still moves back and forth slightly as the loader is used and needs that extra surface area to spread the load on the pins. On small loaders with light loads, those bushings aren't as critical of course.

I have seen other loaders that grease through the pins and have bushings outside of the bucket brackets.
I think these could be made with heavy wall pipes drilled for grease fittings and welded to the brackets.

I have used DOM tube for bushings like that. It's sloppy, but can do the job for an occasional use loader that's being put together on a budget.

But if he plans to switch between a bucket, hay spear and possibly other items I believe he will be well served to buy or build a SSQA for his loader and adapt his bucket to SSQA and make his hay spear on such a frame as well.

Agreed. QA is the way to go. These questions all need to be answered for a QA too though. Building the brackets is essentially the same whether it's for a quick attach or individual implement.

 

[CoyPatton]

.
Agreed. QA is the way to go. These questions all need to be answered for a QA too though. Building the brackets is essentially the same whether it's for a quick attach or individual implement.

I disagree with this above logic!
If going to a QA system, you build your pin mount fir the QA portion from the brackets currently on your bucket. They have to come off the bucket for a QA receiver to be installed on the bucket anyway, so use them to attach the hitch portion for the conversion. This way your spacing of pins, necessary bushings, bracket spacing and all other details are set to what the manufacture of the loader designed.
You will need some detailed measurements for fitting both the hitch portion and the receiver mount, but these are less involved than building brackets.

 

[BlueKnife]

I disagree with this above logic!
If going to a QA system, you build your pin mount fir the QA portion from the brackets currently on your bucket. They have to come off the bucket for a QA receiver to be installed on the bucket anyway, so use them to attach the hitch portion for the conversion. This way your spacing of pins, necessary bushings, bracket spacing and all other details are set to what the manufacture of the loader designed.
You will need some detailed measurements for fitting both the hitch portion and the receiver mount, but these are less involved than building brackets.

If your bucket is designed in such a way that the brackets can be removed without destroying them then that'd certainly be a good way to go. Sometimes they can be cut off and then plate or bar stock can be added back on to bring them back to the original size before the kerf and waste from whatever cutting method was used was taken away. Sometimes there's not really a good way to do that. Just depends on the bucket, the loader, their clearances and how it's all designed.

 

[CoyPatton]

If your bucket is designed in such a way that the brackets can be removed without destroying them then that'd certainly be a good way to go. Sometimes they can be cut off and then plate or bar stock steel can be added back on to bring them back to the original size before the kerf and waste from whatever cutting method was used was taken away. Sometimes there's not really a good way to do that. Just depends on the bucket, the loader, their clearances and how it's all designed.

You mis the point that if you are going to make that bucket QA compatible with the tractor it was on converted to QA, the brackets must come off. So while removing them as you must anyway, do so in a manner that you can use the brackets to mount the QA to the tractor.
Will you have to do some fabrication? No doubts!

 

[BlueKnife]

You mis the point that if you are going to make that bucket QA compatible with the tractor it was on converted to QA, the brackets must come off. So while removing them as you must anyway, do so in a manner that you can use the brackets to mount the QA to the tractor.
Will you have to do some fabrication? No doubts!

:laughing: Not missing any point my friend. My point was that when cutting the brackets off the bucket, it's not always possible to do it in such a way that they're reusable. Sometimes it is possible to do that, sometimes it isn't, and sometimes the bucket and it's brackets and bushings are old and worn out and new ones are needed or wanted.