FEL Chain Hooks

[SOS]

You are right about the Grapple getting in the way of a hook. Is there any cheap quick release attachment made that I could just put a hook or two on and switch out my bucket for that when I needed a hook. Cheap is the key concept here ($500)?!

 

[daTeacha]

Depending on how much you want to lift, why not just hook onto the grapple arms at their base? Mine are about 1/4 inch thick x 3 inches wide and fit a chain hook well. For that matter, could you weld a cross member at the base of the pivoting part of the grapple and put your snatch hook or whatever on that?

To answer your most immediate question, I made up a pair of side plates for my 3 point carryall that allow me to connect it to the standard QA plates on my FEL. I'm pretty sure you could make up a simple one piece plate fit where your bucket is. If you don't have a welder, any welding shop should be able to make one for you. I used about 3 or 4 feet of 3" channel steel per side for mine.

 

[Larry The Tractor Guy]

SOS...you already have the heavy duty bucket on your tractor. You can buy half hooks which are flat one side and just weld them to the upper bucket support on either end. Our customers usually request 2 or 3 hooks and that is where our shop welds them on. Never had a problem.

 

[SOS]

I'm new at this so help me out here.... I don't want to damage the FEL. I guess if I got the hooks welded on the top and made sure I evenly balanced to load or pull I would not twist or crack a weld on the FEL. I will be picking up a Wood chipper, pulling some two to three inch trees out, dragging some big downed trees around (12 inches plus).

 

[Larry The Tractor Guy]

You want the hooks right on top of the rounded pipe reinforced portion of the bucket. There is no problem with stress as that is absorbed by the 4 link for the bucket. Its the same force as digging into a pile on the bucket and FEL only its a force in the opposite direction. It should work well for you and I as stated earlier, that is where we put them and our customers have no problems. In fact, they usually bend the bottom of the bucket trying to "pop-out" stumps or sidwalks before they even touch the top of the bucket. Hope this helps.

 

[SOS]

How much weight will this hold? I still have not received my book for the FEL.

 

[daTeacha]

The design function of that cross member is to keep the arms at the proper spacing. While it may very will function as a solid lift point, if you happen to bend it your QA face plates will not work properly since they will no longer be parallel to the vertical axis and may well be canted toward each other on the horizontal axis as well. I don't think the FEL can lift with enough strength to bend it, but I wouldn't do it. If you really want to put a hook there, put an extra plate or piece of angle iron almost full width on there to reinforce that crossmember instead of just welding the hook to the tube. -- BTW, my father-in-law accuses me regularly of overbuilding things, but I haven't broken anything yet, either.

 

[SOS]

Thanks. I won't take the chance I'd rather be safe than sorry.

 

[Su7]

SOS:
I just couldn’t leave you hanging, pun intended, on this question since I have a very similar concern in my thread posted here. Your original statement was “Cheap is the key concept here ($500)?!”. I have come up with a few solutions one of them is free and won’t add any weight to your QA bracket and the others can be had for less than $50.

The first is it just didn’t seem right to me that a 2½”x2½”x3/16” steel tube could not support the 2000 lbs maximum lift capacity of my 16LA loader. I did a little research on the material properties and bending of this member. I plugged that info into the web based formulas & calculator and attached the results below in the QA_Tube_* files. Even with a full 2000 lbs point load in the center of this member it deflects less than 1/32 of an inch which is only a momentary deflection and will return to it’s original state when the load is removed. Now, I wouldn’t want to pick up a load like this and transport it a great distance over rough terrain but on and off a trailer or over level or paved surfaces shouldn’t be a problem.

If there are concerns that this deflection would be unacceptable and possibly affect the QA bracket here is my second suggestion. Since the internal dimension of this member is ~2.125” why not slide a 40” 2”x2”x¼” rectangular tube inside the existing member, which could be removed when the lifting operation is complete, or welded into place to make it a more permanent solution if lifting of this nature would be a common thing.

The third solution would be to use that same 2”x2”x¼” rectangular tube inside the existing member but this time make it 46” or so. It can then be welded into place, along with grab or slip hooks for a permanent solution or just let it loose within the existing 2½”x2½”x 3/16” tube and drill holes in each end to accommodate your favorite hook or celvis pins and remove the entire assembly when the lifting is completed.

My fourth and simplest solution would be to use a 2” receiver hitch, than you probably have lying around thus costing $0, in each side and use the hole provided for the trailer ball to again attach your favorite hook or celvis pins. This approach can be seen in the attached pics, just imagine that is a 2000 lb log, and will be the one I’m using until I decide whether to make this a permanent solution or not. If you intend to make this a semi-permanent solution you could use a lenghtwise extended version of a 2" receiver and drill a hole in the main member to accept a bolt.

 

[SOS]

SU7,

Your 4th option sounds great, effective and is in my price range. The only lifting I plan on doing is picking something off the ground and placing it in a storage barn or trailer (i.e. chipper and other attachments) and transporting this would only be 100 feet of so. It looks like if I balance the weight in the middle, I should be safe.

Thanks again for what looks like, now, a very simple and obvious solution coming from a smart man that I can hang my hat on (figuratively and literally).