Bucket Forks rebuilt to pin on

hr3 · Mar 5, 2011

Hi all Last fall I went to use my bucket forks to move the firewood inside for the winter.. Well I have a bota 7610 and she will only life 302 lbs at the bucket tip but will lift 420 lbs at the bucket pins.. Sooo this winter I started to cut the clamp on forks up and make them pin attach instead.. The first pic's are of the parts I cut off to reuse ...

Johndeere3720 · Mar 5, 2011

Sounds like a really interesting project.

So are you going to make them slide on a rail like regular forks or weld in one position? Do you have any trailers, if so now many be a good time to drill a hole in one of the forks, put in a protective sleeve (assuming the fork is hollow) so you can screw a trailer ball into the fork and move trailers with the FEL.

hr3 · Mar 6, 2011

They will be fixed and not on rails.. weight is my major concern I want to be able to lift the max so the lighter the forks the better.. I'll post how they fit on later today,,

easygo · Mar 6, 2011

Good morning HR3,
I think you might be a bit off on the lift capacity of your loader. The model number of the Kubota loaders actually represents the lift capacity in kilograms measured at the bucket center. If you have an LA-302 that will lift about 660lbs the LA-352 will pick up about 770lbs.
The newer machines ie. B2x20 series are measured at the pivot pin so their lift capacity seems higher but it is not really.

Good project, thank you for the pictures.

hr3 · Mar 6, 2011

Your right easygo.. I was reading the kg's not the lbs.. :ashamed: Not too sure what it was an extra 2' in front of the bucket tip though ??.. Anyway I have the parts that I cut off welded on and welded 1" solid pins on the tops.. "please excuse the welding it's been a few years" I made 3 passes everywhere to add as much strength as I could.. The uprights are just tacked on and will weld them up today,,

Next will be building the removable backstop..

easygo · Mar 6, 2011

What does that bucket weigh? I think just by eliminating that you gave yourself an extra 100-120lbs(?) lift. Are you going to add across piece between the forks just to be on the safe side? In case one of them comes in contact with something and get a strong push to the side. A cross brace would not add much weight but will give stiffness.

chopped · Mar 6, 2011

Nice looking project. You sure have gutts to cut up a factory unit...Ive cut up brand new stuff but always feel what if it doesnt work? lol

hr3 · Mar 6, 2011

What does that bucket weigh? I think just by eliminating that you gave yourself an extra 100-120lbs(?) lift. Are you going to add across piece between the forks just to be on the safe side? In case one of them comes in contact with something and get a strong push to the side. A cross brace would not add much weight but will give stiffness.

Not sure what the bucket weighs but I'll take that extra 100lbs of lift and it will all be worth it.. I couldn't lift our 1/4 cord wood piles of pallets this year.. I could curl them but not lift.. " The wife loaded all 24 of them into her new trailer and loaded them into the basement".. My hope is to lift them to the bulkhead and drop them in..

As for the cross brace no I don't plan on adding one,, The ATI adapter I have has one tube cross brace and that will be enough,, If your look at the bucket you can see where I hit one side,,hmm kinda hard and about tore the side off it,, " I like the extra capacity" :laughing: and I don't plan on using the forks for anything other than pallets,,

TDVT · Mar 7, 2011

That mod looks like it will really help your lift capacity.

I have a L3400 that doesn't have a QA as they were released shortly after we bought it.

While I don't really have an interest in using multiple skid-steer attachment, I would like to switch over to forks, bucket-less. I hadn't really checked out the ATI pin-on conversion until I looked at your pics.

Are you happy with it? Do you remember roughly what it cost?

bikerdib · Mar 7, 2011

I don't know, I think if it were me I'd add some cross bracing. The tube isn't really that heavy and I'd be worried about torquing one of the FEL arms. When you have a bucket or other attachment on, it provides some torsional resistance to keep the arms from torquing.

Then again, I do tend to overbuild most things...