Front-End Loader Does the Ford 19-209 (711) 1 Arm Loader Fit on my 1968 Ford 2000 3 Cyl Diesel?

[Gale Hawkins]

Well we showed up more or less read for our first antique tractor show. I found out if you buy a lot of gifts given the club to be auctioned off can be a positive thing all the way around.

These photos were the first I have seen of the 3000/711 loader project as it finally came together. Some like the headlights but most importantly the daughter likes them. I painted the grill with TSC Ford Gray. I used MF Red to redo the only red that I have on any Ford tractor since I could not see the difference in it and Ford read and I will need it for the 265 MF and when keeping the Cat 2 3PH fork lift OEM colors of red and black.

The difference in the grille quality from 1966 to 1980 dropped like a rock I can now clearly see.

The 2x4 cut for a last minute cylinder safety stop to keep it all the way up in the air did not hold up so I ran about 3 miles and picked up a 3/4" thick and 24" long 6" wide steel plate before they closed at 5 pm for the week. It is now stable as a rock and the pressure is on the pedestal upright. I will knotch it later for a more perfect fit and secure it with a U bolt clamp bolt around the upper end of cylinder. As it is we have to start the engine to remove this piece.

We drove the tractor to the Mayfield KY fairgrounds since I had no truck today to pull a trailer so that let me get an hour on the hour meter.

The top bar on the bumper is totally missing so we did not have to cut the end off so the loader boom does not catch on the front bumper.

The show is to be over Saturday sometime after lunch when the people/tractors load up and head out of town.

So far we are the ONLY blue tractors and the only tractor with a FEL. There are two red bellies and one very nice metallic green 35 Fergerson. Some are huge old tractors and a lot of hit and miss engines.

 

[Rford]

Looks great...you'll get a prize for sure.

I got mine put on today. It was a bit of a chore. I thought I was going to be an inch or so short on the front mount like yours and 4 inches low. I was kicking myself for not trying with my wood template first. Tried to hook it up using a hoist and tree limb. Not a good idea. No way it was going to fit that way. At all. Got fed up and drug it to the shop on a concrete floor and it was easier, but not easy. Still didn't think it was going to fit. Couldn't get the loader into the front bracket first as per the book. Finally Hooked up the hip and the tranny strap. Horsed with it for a while trying different things. Finally jacked up the bucket (loosened the small tranny strap) and its started fitting into place. Had to loosen the front bracket nuts so I could move the bracket forward as the loader moved to get clearance and then once it was lined up I tighten the nuts up and drew it into the loader. But it fit and worked fine. No way the bumper clears. Checked everything over and Pushed a couple brush piles around with the manure forks and called it good for the day. The hyd valve I had worked fine. Got to get new grease zerks. Straighten the bucket a bit. Never going to be a show piece.

If I take it off, I'm getting a couple of those cheap car dollies at Harbor Freight to put under the bucket. A floor jack on wheels under the other end and it should be easier the second time around. ;

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Awesome to hear you have a working Ford 711 loader now. You started out with a much nicer loader than we did. A $12.99 quart of the old Ford blue from TSC and a good paint brush will make yours shine too but will not make it more functional. While we had the pins out I removed the old grease fittings and reamed out the old grease and replaced with new ones. I had to use a nail and a hammer to drive out some of the 50 year old grease.

Did you get the sense the 711 was strong to handle some pushing OK?

There were no entry fees or prizes for this event that they seem to use as a membership drive, at least it worked on me. It is only $15 per year however. While the 3000 is 52 years old it was the only blue ford there and the only tractor with any kind of loader. One JD guy did ask where was the other half of the loader. I told him I looked for it but ran out of time to keep looking for it but would try to find it for the event in 2019. He laughed. At 67 it seemed like I was younger than many but there were some kids out driving the tractors too. If I come up with a good trailer option I may go to the one in Paducah KY later this year since it is only 40 miles away. There were 40-50 year old sons there with their dads so I think the antique tractor events will continue.

There was a lot of my brand is better than your brand ribbing but it seemed to all be in fun. Prizes might make it get more serious however.

 

[Rford]

Thanks. For a while yesterday I was kicking myself for wasting so much time and too much money on what was looking like a fiasco. But once it was on and worked I thought it was pretty unique (well, not unique, I guess others have them, but unusual for sure).

I have cut down and cut up a hundred or two 6-10 inch caliper scrub hedge trees and think the loader/tractor can push them into piles without much trouble and if I don't get too aggressive hopefully I won't break anything. More likely to rip off the hydraulic hose by getting branches underneath. It can be kind of dangerous work if those longer limbs get trapped and start whipping around. Soundguy has pictures of big round bales he lifts so I think the tractor will push fine if I'm careful. The bucket is set on a slight "upward" tilt so the tines aren't flat on the ground when lowered. I was going to change that so they were but then remember the last owner was an old farmer and he probably had it that way to avoid trouble with the tines digging into the ground. The tines work good for tree debris but if I have earth contact I'd probably bend or break something. I don't feel any instability. Had a rear tine tiller hanging off the back.

I'm going to put a red/white striped 2" wide tape along the angled support piece to be a visual marker when I'm just driving around with it. If I can see the tape the loader bucket will be off the ground a couple feet and I'll not ram it into the ground on a slight rise. Used to have that happen with a Massey 231 I had. I'd have the loader to low and would drive it into the ground with shocking results. This loader/tractor might not tolerate that.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Good idea on creating visual clues. At the show in the huge gravel parking lot the daughter go in about an hour of practice driving time and moving the bucket at the same time. I saw she was curling the bucket down a bit so I showed her how to keep the front cutting edge a couple inches higher than the back of the bucket just in case she tagged the ground when moving which she never did do by the way.

When I get the tractor home Heather's first objective is to get a few inches of sand spread over her mini horses dry lot so over time it will mix with the heavy clay soil and hopefully stay firm in wet weather since the water drains away naturally.

Maybe you can get some pictures of your brush piles soon.

I can already see how handy the 711 loader is going to be in tight places where the 12K pound JD 310B backhoe with the 7.5' wide front bucket is like a bull in a china closet.

 

[Rford]

Here are some photos of the problem I was having. Post #72 above describes what I ended up doing get it to fit. Off today to get a proper-sized hip pin and cotter "hairpin" for the front bracket. And a couple new grease zerks.

One thing that I'd do differently is to cut the front bracket hole 1 3/4 inch diameter instead of 1 1/2. That difference might have let it avoid contact and binding. If I ever take it off I'll do that and see if it matters.

A tally of my costs was $640: $460 for Loader, $60 for new hose, $85 for machine shop to make a front bracket; $20 for machine shop to make .125 shim; $10 in hardware.

But had there not been another crazy person at the auction, I probably could have saved $400. Saw a loader (no brackets, on the Wichita CL the other day for $100). But brackets are a big deal.


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[Gale Hawkins]

Here are some photos of the problem I was having. Post #72 above describes what I ended up doing get it to fit. Off today to get a proper-sized hip pin and cotter "hairpin" for the front bracket. And a couple new grease zerks.

One thing that I'd do differently is to cut the front bracket hole 1 3/4 inch diameter instead of 1 1/2. That difference might have let it avoid contact and binding. If I ever take it off I'll do that and see if it matters.

A tally of my costs was $640: $460 for Loader, $60 for new hose, $85 for machine shop to make a front bracket; $20 for machine shop to make .125 shim; $10 in hardware.

But had there not been another crazy person at the auction, I probably could have saved $400. Saw a loader (no brackets, on the Wichita CL the other day for $100). But brackets are a big deal.


View attachment 552990View attachment 552992View attachment 552995View attachment 552996View attachment 552997

You got a nice 711 Ford loader without tying up much cash unlike we did. Moving from the single to double spooler controls was $950 just for a Ford controller from that era. Our three hoses and all new connectors was more like $200 then here was the mounting labor cost and the rebuilding of the bucket, etc so ours is more like a $2500 project.

I think the curling bucket will make it more functional for the daughter's use for years to come. Since we have the JD 310B backhoe I have little need for a 40" bucket but like the fact the 711 loader is a great conversation piece at antique tractor events. When I find a nice bucket I will dress it up for show use perhaps. I think the light materials handling bucket would make a nice show bucket perhaps as would most of the many attachments that may still be barns across the land.

One plus is the quick wide wheels, Cat 2 lift arms, heavy stabilizers as well as the diesel down draft exhaust 3000 Ford makes it uncommon as well.

Get us some pictures when you can.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Here are some scanned pages from the Ford Parts Book and the Assembly Manual. If you compare the two, it may explain the 1" difference you encountered. In the Parts Book, the front support bracket No. 291279 which says it fits the 2100, 3100, etc. tractors, is not "flat" like the same part no. shown in the Assembly document. That 291279 bracket is "flat," and the Assembly Manual says it fits the 2100, 3100, and the 2000 and 3000, and is the one I've made and the one you have. So that bracket is the correct one for our tractor. I guess the loader you have is an inch short.
If mine fits I'll take a measurement and we can compare notes.

The Parts Book front support bracket is not "flat" and appears to have an offset that might make up the 1" you needed. But these are artists renderings, not photos, in the parts book. But I'd bet a nickle what Ford did was to lengthen the early versions of the loader by an inch or so to make it fit a flat front bracket that didn't take so much work to make. It you look at all the front supports on that Page 24 they all seem to have an offset.

I'm trying to attach these as a PDF. If that doesn't work I will try to email them to you. Also, I included the Installation instructions referencing the shim. And I blew up the 19-382 Kit photo that shows all the parts, except the needed shim. View attachment 552347

Thanks for the pages out of the Ford Parts Manual. I never did look to see if my hip bracket had a part number since it had been welded on but saw in this attachment for our 19-385 one arm loader the hip bracket seems to be part # 7702120. I would like to find a backup for our modified hip bracket but I think it is as strong if not stronger than new. I expect someone left off adding the shim you discovered in the Install Manual and cracked it when they got on unlevel ground and the front axle made a large range of motion response.



Once we started using our lift cylinder it started to leaking out the top end so finding the seals and doing the job is coming up.

 

[Soundguy]

If it's the original cyl, V packing is no problem. I've had a couple re-packed. the local mom n pop shop had -0- problems finding something off the shelf to make it work.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Thanks. That makes me feel better because it is OEM Ford it seems.