Home brew boom pole

[cityfarma]

Here are (I hope) my first pictures. I hoped to use the boom on my L4400 to pull out lots of acacias that have become a weed on my property. It appeared to work ok. The problem I noticed was that the brackets for the 3ph were obviously too weak at 10mm. I have straightened them up and will be adding some bracing.

The boom is attached to a frame attached to the 3ph. This allows me to attach other implements to the frame. As a tight a..., I use as much recycled material as possible in my projects. This also means it has not cost me lots as I am also learning to weld.

Come on retirement. It is getting harder to return home after playing on the farm. But I suppose playing in my shed making stuff for the farm is nearly as good

 

[patrick_g]

cityfarma, I have this advice re your mechanical structures.

TRIANGULATE

Gussets are a good way to triangulate, just not the only way but will go a long way toward making things stronger without having to upsize all the materials (and increase welding difficulty.)

Best of luck to you with your welding and fabricating. I too was intending to build a pole but for the other end of the tractor. I wanted to put a pole up front on the FEL. I will use it to help hoist and hold materials in place while building a barn. Maybe I should do the math and see which end of my tractor is better suited to handle the load and give the range of motion needed.

Pat

 

[cityfarma]

I am also looking at fitting the pole to the bucket as I will be building a garage to store my tractor. It will make it easier to hold beams while bolting the frame together.

I would like to see how you make yours. My intention is to make an adaptor that hooks over the return at the top of my loader. The bottom would hook onto the front edge with possibly a bolt each end to clamp onto the loader. The boom pole could then be used either end of my tractor.

Cityfarma

 

[patrick_g]

Hey cityfarma, No fair, man! You were supposed to go first so I could improve on your design and not have to make the first simple mistakes and corrections.

Oh well. I was thinking of welding on a "socket", a piece of pipe next size up from the pole. Weld it to the top rail of the bucket in the center. Put a hole in the pole and the socket to accept a pin to retain the pole (just in case.) I suppose I will need an eye or a hook to take the rigging required to hold the pole up. I will go far a fairly long spreader (mid pole) to get a decent angle on the stay. I haven't done much analysis yet and don't know if I will use more than one stay (cable or rod stock.) Although we tend to think of normal ops where the force is a pure lift, I know from practice that side loads and such even when not desired generally fall under the s--t happens heading. So I will want some lateral consideration in spreaders and stays.

Maybe if I fumble around long enough you will get ahead of me and I can use your final design as a starting place.

Pat

 

[dullpain]

Like this maybe

 

[Egon]

I'm wondering if the bucket strength is sufficient for the possible loads that may be placed upon it.

Think I'd go for an independent unit something like the pictures posted.

Biggest concerns would be keeping the tractor with all four tires in the down position when things get high.

Pickers work real good.

 

[cityfarma]

G'day Dullpain. Great way to go but looks too serious for me.

My theory is simply something to hold relatively lightweight load at height. Something like a simple "C" section folded steel beam rather than a big heavy steel "I" beam. As it is for occasional use, I can't justify the engineering.

Cityfarma

 

[BobG_in_VA]

G'day Dullpain. Great way to go but looks too serious for me.

My theory is simply something to hold relatively lightweight load at height. Something like a simple "C" section folded steel beam rather than a big heavy steel "I" beam. As it is for occasional use, I can't justify the engineering.

Cityfarma

I put this together when I welded up the bucket forks....You'd need a big tractor though....this one weighs in at about 10K lbs....bobg in va

 

[MikeD74T]

cityfarma, Boom poles are made for reach at lowered capacity whether FEL or 3pt mounted. If you reinforce the bent brackets something else will fail. Make a tree getter http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/97783-grabbing-small-tree-trunks.html?highlight=%22tree+getter%22 post # 8 or http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/attachments/100201-tool-grubbing-stumps.html?highlight=getter
& you'll be happier in the long run. MikeD74T

 

[RonR]

As you can see from some of the linked posts, I'd recommend using a receiver hitch on the FEL or 3PH. Would give you options of what to insert, depending on what you needed to use.

The FEL might need some support to mount it well, but I think that's a good design.
ron