FEL Bucket Hooks

[Anonymous Poster]

Can anyone lend me some assistance in finding a source for some good quality chain hooks that can be welded to a FEL bucket?

Thank you,

Frank

 

[Von]

www.labonville has weld on hooks that are good

 

[bekxsteins]

frank new holland has a heavy dudy hook (slip and grag combined) part# 7701066 list price $16.28 any new holland dealer can get them good luck
gary

 

[gordon]

Von it's also got the square chain. Great stuff for pulling logs with no slippage. In thier new catalog they also have a new grabber chain, that they claim even works better.

Oh yea if you don't have one of their catalogs request one great stuff for logging. http://www.labonville.com/

Gordon

 

[Will]

Is there such a thing as bolt on hooks? I don't have access to a welder, and I'm hoping that bolt on hooks might work as well.

 

[Thomas]

Frank,
This might be an over kill,but loggers know there chains & hooks and thats what I buy..for who else better to put these items thru a test.
If you have a heavy equipment store near you pay them a visit.

Before you weld your hooks on are you planing to install extra piece of steel for support for the top of the bucket.

If you ever plan on useing a strap instead of a chain,you may want to consider a heavy duty "O" ring 3/8 + sure comes in handy.

Thomas..NH /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[stevepio]

Instead of weld on hooks, I used a regular clevis style hook, but used a bolt in place of the clevis pin. I used a smaller, grade 3 bolt as kind of a safety valve so the bolt will shear before anything expensive gives out. Thus far I have yet to shear a bolt and have used it extensively. Probably the heaviest thing was a ford 460 engine, with heads and manifolds.Glad I had the counterweight on the 3pt!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

<font color=blue>a smaller, grade 3 bolt as kind of a safety valve so the bolt will shear before anything expensive gives out.</font color=blue>

No offense intended... but I think you may have created a major safety issue here. Remember it will be as strong as the weakest link.

I'd rather not be able to lift something or even bend the bucket versus having that poor engine or anything else fall on somebody's head because of an "unsafe" safety valve?

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Thanks to all for all the great information. In response to the questions;

My FEL is a Great Bend 260, with their heavy-duty bucket. The bucket is constructed of 3/16" steel, with a 3" tubular stiffener along the upper lip. Although it's probably heavy enough to handle the hooks, I plan on welding a heavy angle along the tube.

Thanks again,

Frank

 

[stevepio]

Yeah John, I thought about that. You won't see me working on or around (or under) anything with my setup. Just useful for moving stuff around. I have a standard engine hoist for situations where fingers and toes are involved! I've seen enough "accidents" first hand to make me appriciate safety in several areas, of which overhead lifting of heavy objects is defiantely one!

 

[jyoutz]

Will, you can do what I did but farm out the welding. I got a 2 x 3 inch piece of quarter inch angle iron the length of the upper lip on my bucket. Then I bought very strong grade 80 grab hooks with a clevis type attachment. I cut off the clevis end and welded them to the angle iron. Then I drilled and bolted the whole assembly to the bucket, using a piece of flat quarter inch steel as a bolt backer on the underside of the bucket lip (I used heavy grade 8 bolts). Strengthens the bucket lip, easy and fairly cheap, and removeable. It would be easy to take the angle iron and hooks to a welding shop. You can buy the grade 80 hooks at anyplace that sells binder chain for truckers. I got mine at a rental equipment yard. I never found any that are not the clevis type.

 

[drjdb]

I like the idea of welding onto a piece of angle iron and then bolting it to the bucket - saves me figuring out how to get my machine to the welding shop. I don't have any experience using hooks on a loader bucket, but I can see it would be useful for lifting stuff. If I'm going to do this, how many should I put on - one, two, three? Where should they be located - one in the centre, two at the ends, ... ?

dave

 

[jyoutz]

Yeah, the angle iron idea is easy to do, cheap, and strengthens the bucket lip. Cost for cutting the clevis hook and welding to the angle iron should be minimal. I used 4 equally distributed 1/2" grade 8 bolts to attach the angle iron to the bucket. I'm not real experienced with using these hooks either, but I mounted 1 at each end of the bucket in line with the lift arms, since this is the strongest portion of the bucket. I used grab hooks to hold 3/8" chain. This size will also work with 5/16" chain. I've been told never to lift anything very heavy by using only one hook, since it throws off your balance and puts too much stress on one lift arm. For single line lifting, I attach a chain through each hook and then attach another chain to the center of the first chain. This distributes the weight between both hooks and centers the load. For using a slip hook, I do the same thing by attaching a slip hook to the center point of the chain, using a large clevis pin. To secure a load in the bucket, a hook at each end is ideal.

 

[Keoke]

What dealer did you get the 7701066 New Holland combo slip and grab hook from. Local dealer here wants $32 a piece for instead of $16.98.

thanks,
george