Building an FEL quick attach for an L3400 Kubota

[Chilly807]

I noticed that in your full dump picture that you can look through the hole in the side plate and see your cylinder rod. If that hole is for a tie rode to connect both sides of your QH when it is dumped you will wreck your cylinder rod or the connecting rod! You should reevaluate that hole and adjust it accordingly so it wont ruin anything.

Nice catch! I missed that entirely, checked this morning after reading your post, and you're right it would have been a problem. I'm planning to move the brace now, just where exactly will be decided the next chance I have to work on it. Thanks!

Mine does need the stops to prevent the rod from contacting the loader arm, I think I can weld some extra pieces on to the existing ones and have it work well.

Sean

 

[Steve in MT]

Sean, after reading about your cylinder rod hitting the loader frame, I decided to check mine. Sure enough, the rod just touches the frame enough to mar the paint, but no further. With the bucket at full dump I can take my hand and lift the rod off of the frame so I know that there isnt any real stress at this point. Although there are what appears to be bucket stops welded to the loader frame, there are no such stops on the factory bucket to make contact at these points. I bet if you look at the so called stops on your loader frame, that you will not find any paint missing indicating where the factory bucket was hitting it. I have 2 thoughts on this. (one) go ahead and build in some stops to your QA, or (two) indent the top of the loader frame to make clearance for the cylinder rod. The gland nut on my cylinders are not touching the loader frame although they are close. It would be nice to get some more input from another LA463 owner to see if their cylinders touch the loader frame or not. Maybe if ya get bored, you can put your bucket back on to see if you still have the same clearances as compared to what you have with the QA installed. At this point, Im not sure if I need to do anything with mine or not. I'll keep an eye on your build.
Steve

 

[Chilly807]

The stops on mine definitely hit, no paint left in those areas. From what I remember, it's the triangular flange on the bottom of the bucket that makes contact. Whether there would be enough pressure to damage the rod if the stops weren't there, I don't know. Mine has almost a quarter inch of clearance between the rod and loader frame at full dump. What may have happened was that some of the rods were too close due to build tolerances and variations, and Kubota changed the design mid-stream. Mine is fairly late production.

I think it'll be fall before I get the opportunity to work at this again with any kind of focus. I'm going to be on the road a bit this summer, and home time will be at the mercy of whatever else crops up that's more pressing. You guys are just gonna have to be patient ..

Sean

 

[LD1]

Mine hit the stops as well. And mine is either an 05 or 06 model year. So mine is not one of the later ones

 

[Steve in MT]

So the buckets on both of your tractors hit the stops on the loader frame and mines doesnt? Darn strange if ya ask me. I still have paint in those areas. I would have to take my QA off and put the bucket back on to re-test to see whats going on. Its a good posibility that maybe I got the wrong bucket on my tractor.(????) Dang, now you guys got me wondering if I need to build some stops on my QA or just leave it be. (sigh)

 

[LD1]

Well, mines not a QA if that matters

 

[Chilly807]

If the cylinder rod has rubbed the paint off the loader arms, its too close. Mine hits the stops quite hard, I use it to shake any sticky material out of the bucket.

If you have any doubt, measure the amount of rod that's exposed with the bucket fully dumped and the rods just barely touching the loader arms, then remove the QA and fully extend the cylinders. Measure again, if there's more rod exposed (I doubt there will be or you would have bent something by this time) you might want to add some stops.

Mine's about to spend an afternoon mowing fields. Sure would be nice to have just the QA to look past while I'm mowing.

I'll try to take a few pics this afternoon of the stops and the cylinder clearance I have.

Sean

 

[Steve in MT]

Chilly, Yep, I took a long hard look at my loader and the bucket this afternoon. No where on the loader frame or bucket is there any evidence of anything was hitting the stops. The more that I looked at it and thought about it, the more I decided that its going to be a good idea to build in some stops into the QA. I dont have the time to mess with it right now, but will take some before and after shots if your interested, let me know.
Steve