Loader Bucket welds broken - LS won't warranty

[ovrszd]

Problems with mig work the exact opposite way too, too hot and too fast causes just as many failures.

Welding requires patience.

 

[LEOpilot]

Regardless of whether or not your mistreated the FEL, those cracks are from overstressing the metal and weld. The only way to prevent that is to get a heavy duty bucket or substantially reinforce that one. I have really put pressure on my FEL and never had an issue with it.

Agreed. Any suggestions on reinforcement placement to help support those stresses would be appreciated.

 

[LEOpilot]

Sorry you are having this problem. I'd educate myself on how to do the repairs and complete a fix. I would not continue to use it in that condition. Also wouldn't worry much about warranty denial. Any of us can do serious damage to our buckets in a few minutes.

Yeah, it's not a big deal. More or less just a matter of principle on the warranty issue. It's not being used now.

 

[coralhead]

It looks like a lot of heavy back dragging with the bucket curled down at an excessive angle. A good stick welder will put that back to good.

 

[k0ua]

It looks like a lot of heavy back dragging with the bucket curled down at an excessive angle. A good stick welder will put that back to good.

It is hard to beat a 1/8 inch 7018 at 125 amps for solving problems. :thumbsup:

 

[aarolar]

It is hard to beat a 1/8 inch 7018 at 125 amps for solving problems.

Agreed

 

[dragoneggs]

Be sure to grind out the welds good. The prep will take a lot longer than the welding. Look at my thread I posted a link to, and you will see the rust and rot and corruption that was hiding under that little crack that I first noticed. It took many 1/8 inch rods to build it back.

James, I had to laugh when I read you found 'corruption' hiding in the crack when you ground the weld. :laughing:

 

[nybirdman]

I would put a pass of 1/8" 6010 and then a pass of 3/32" 7018. The 6010 doesn't mind a little rust and gets good penetration,the 7018 is stronger but needs to be clean.

 

[k0ua]

James, I had to laugh when I read you found 'corruption' hiding in the crack when you ground the weld. :laughing:

You never know what nasty you might find hiding under some old crack...

 

[4570Man]

I understand your frustration and they appear to be faulty welds, from what I can see, and your dealer should have spent a few minutes repairing for good customer service. Really, this would irritate me more than the LS response. I do seem to recall LS buckets were a bit lighter in construction than the ones on the Kiotis I looked at. At this point just re-weld and move on. I had a tooth tear off of my rock bucket after a moderate amount of intermittent hours of hard operation over a couple months. In my case it appeared to be a defect in the original bucket edge material as the tooth tore through the metal with the bucket cutting edge still attached to the tooth. Since I can't weld 3/4" steel, I took it to a local (30 miles) welder and it looks like they had an apprentice do the job. Nonetheless, it has held up through many more grueling hours of digging out large rocks. <img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=498074"/><img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=498075"/><img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=498076"/><img src="http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=498077"/>

I don't think they can weld 3/4 steel either. I hope they didn't charge you for that terrible job.