FEL not level

[bhh]

I've got a Kubota 3800 with a SSQA FEL. I was moving some brush around a few weeks ago and some vines got wrapped up around the QA levers and released one side of the grapple. I hooked it back up and went about my business. I had palette forks on this past weekend and noticed they weren't entirely level and got to looking more closely. It doesn't look like any metal is bent or anything but one side has about 1 or so inches more of the forward most polished hydraulic ram exposed than the other side which makes that side of the QA plate tilt forward a little more than the other side. I know next to nothing about hydraulics but is this something easy enough to adjust/fix or do I need to have it trailered into the Kubota dealership for them to take a look? Thanks for any suggestions and FWIW, I'm going to drill holes in the QA levers and chain them down so that doesn't repeat.

 

[DT86]

The cross tube part of the ssqa is probably twisted. I had more or less the same thing happen to me. Did the forks attach easily or was one side a PITA?

Take a good look from one side to the other, with no attachments hooked up, at the top edge of the ssqa (the part that goes up into the bucket). At first we could barely tell but with a 4' level across them it was apparent the tube was twisted.

I continued to use mine until one side finally broke off, then welded a solid 2' cross bar into a donor qa and everything is good.

 

[Tx Jim]

Check rear tractor tire pressures to be sure they're equal.

 

[jeff9366]

I would call the Kubota shop and explain your problem.

My guess is the FEL is "sprung" and it will be expensive to repair.

This most often occurs when people pry with one corner of the bucket.

I have Kubota's QA pin attached bucket. In brush I had one pin flip off, then one of the pivot pins worked out part way, and part of the bucket support frame bent. Total repair $1,400, fortunately all be $250 paid by Kubota insurance.

The bucket lynch pins are gone, replaced by 6M X 45mm screws and nuts.

 

[bhh]

Yikes guys, this sounds more serious than I thought. Good news is that I do have the Kubota insurance so maybe this is something they cover?
Its not a tire pressure thing, you can easily see the QA plates are not aligned. The palette forks were a little difficult to get to attached on one side actually. I won't be able to get back up there until this weekend but I'm going to take a closer look with a level and see if I can tell exactly where the problem lies. I was expecting to see something really bent but it literally just looked like one of the hydraulic rams was out a little further so I thought I got off lucky. I've got a service coming up so I may just have to have them deal with it then. I'm not too bad but I'm not sure it is something I should just ignore.

 

[jeff9366]

There is a $250 deductible on the Kubota insurance but the company was very good about paying for the repair without a hassle.

Kubota insurance gets very good reviews here.

Kubtoa can be tight on warranty repairs but they pay quickly for insurance repairs.

You will likely find the FEL support frame bent a little in several parts rather than a lot in one part.

 

[ray66v]

We did a lot of these when we had our body shop.

If you have a shop near by, with a drive on frame rack, they can fix it real easily.

 

[bhh]

So any ideas on what something like this is going to run?

 

[DK35vince]

Yikes guys, this sounds more serious than I thought. Good news is that I do have the Kubota insurance so maybe this is something they cover?
Its not a tire pressure thing, you can easily see the QA plates are not aligned. The palette forks were a little difficult to get to attached on one side actually. I won't be able to get back up there until this weekend but I'm going to take a closer look with a level and see if I can tell exactly where the problem lies. I was expecting to see something really bent but it literally just looked like one of the hydraulic rams was out a little further so I thought I got off lucky. I've got a service coming up so I may just have to have them deal with it then. I'm not too bad but I'm not sure it is something I should just ignore.

It just sounds to me like the QA torque tube is twisted.(the tube between the QA plates) And the QA plates are uneven.
Just twist it back straight, or cut the tube off line it up straight and reweld.
It is an easy fix

 

[ray66v]

So any ideas on what something like this is going to run?

I don't know how bad it is.

If it is just twisted a little, I would have probably charged $100 for setting it up, and $50 to twist it.

If it was a good customer, and I was not busy, I may have done it for nothing too.

 

[bhh]

So I took a closer this weekend and its not too bad. I used a level to go over the various parts and it looks like the difference between the QA plates is isolated to the crossbar illustrated in the following pic. which I think was is probably twisted a bit as someone said. This is just a pic off the internet so that's not going to show damage but it is minor enough that I can't really see any visible damage or cracked paint to that bar but all the other loader arm elements further up the assembly are still in alignment and the plates themselves aren't bent so it pretty much has to be this bar. I'm going to just use it as-is until I have it at the shop as it's not worth having it trailered over just for this. It almost seems as this particular piece is designed to fail first to prevent more significant damage to the arms themselves.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Redneck that I am... I would take the bucket/forks off, and just (gently!) run into something till it fits right again!

Do it carefully and within reason... but it can be done.

 

[RLstangs]

Remove the bucket. Put the side that is out further against a tree and lock the brakes. Slowly use the hydraulics to tip the bucket bending the center bar back. With nothing hooked up to the bucket attachment and the bucket cylinders part way out, measure the distance of the cylinder rod showing. Bend the bar until they measure the same. If you had cylinder depth stops that you put on a digger to control the depth in the field, you put them on one cylinder and bend it back by retracting the cylinder.

 

[bhh]

Remove the bucket. Put the side that is out further against a tree and lock the brakes. Slowly use the hydraulics to tip the bucket bending the center bar back. With nothing hooked up to the bucket attachment and the bucket cylinders part way out, measure the distance of the cylinder rod showing. Bend the bar until they measure the same. If you had cylinder depth stops that you put on a digger to control the depth in the field, you put them on one cylinder and bend it back by retracting the cylinder.

If we don't have too much snow this weekend, I'm going to give this a shot. Thanks!

 

[bhh]

Remove the bucket. Put the side that is out further against a tree and lock the brakes. Slowly use the hydraulics to tip the bucket bending the center bar back. With nothing hooked up to the bucket attachment and the bucket cylinders part way out, measure the distance of the cylinder rod showing. Bend the bar until they measure the same. If you had cylinder depth stops that you put on a digger to control the depth in the field, you put them on one cylinder and bend it back by retracting the cylinder.

This worked perfectly! Took 5 min. Thanks!

 

[RLstangs]

Your welcome! Glad I could help.