hooks for my bucket

jmt1271 · Aug 30, 2006

I am wanting to add hooks to the bucket on my 300CX. Where is a good online source for high strength high quality hooks? What should I expect a shop to charge me to weld them? thanks.

George2615 · Aug 30, 2006

AW Direct has grade 40 and 70 weld on grab hooks. I would expect a shop to weld on a backing plate to weld the hooks to first. I'd expect labor to be about 2 - 3 hours or so but can't quote you a going hourly rate.

Bob_Skurka · Aug 30, 2006

jmt1271 said:
I am wanting to add hooks to the bucket on my 300CX. Where is a good online source for high strength high quality hooks? What should I expect a shop to charge me to weld them? thanks.

AW Direct is the best source I know of for hooks. Do you want slip hooks or grab hooks or are you going to do a combination?

My recommendation is to put the hooks 'in line' with the attachement points of your loader arms. Some people put the hooks at the bucket corners, JMO but I believe that is a reciepe for disaster and if you snag something when you have a bucket hook at the corner you can more easily tweak your entire loader out of square.

I have grab hooks in line with my loader arms. I've considered, but never installed, a slip hook located at the bucket center.

As for installation time, I welded my own on, it took about 15 minutes to do both of them. The top lip of my bucket (its a New Holland bucket) comes heavily reinforced from the factory with a fully welded length of square tube so there was no need to reinforce under the top lip. As you have a John Deere bucket, they offer heavy duty and light duty buckets, if you have one of the HD buckets, there is no reason to reinforce the lip. If you have a bucket design that is a simple curled or folded top lip, then I would want a piece of angle iron welded across the full width of the bucket to reinforce it with the hooks welded to the top of the angle iron.

What surprises me is how lightly built some of the buckets really are. Below are some photos of buckets that you might want to review, any of the rolled or folded lip buckets are inadequate (IMHO) if you want to add hooks. In order are a bucket from a 35hp Branson, it is not only small but also just has a folded lip, also notice it has no welded reinforement on the lower corners or the sides of the bucket. Next is a JD light material bucket on a JD 3410, it has a simple rolled top lip, it has corner reinforcment but not side reinforcement. The third photo is a New Holland TC35 bucket, notice the tube steel, welded full length under the top lip, it also has full side reinforcement welded on. The 4th picture is a Montana bucket, on a 50hp tractor, like the Branson bucket it is a low capacity bucket (considering the much larger size of the 50hp tractor) and has a simple fold along the top lip, the Montana bucket does have welded side reinforcement similar to the New Holland bucket. The final photo is a Kubota B3030 bucket, this is a small & ultra-light 30hp tractor, suprisingly the bucket has a double fold along the top of the bucket and welded reinforcements on the lower corners. It does not have reinforced sides.

schmism · Aug 30, 2006

Bob_Skurka said:
I have grab hooks in line with my loader arms. I've considered, but never installed, a slip hook located at the bucket center.

This is the aproach im going but instead of th slip hook am going to weld a piece of 3/8" or so plate with like a 2" hole in it at the center of the bucket. It can serve a number of pourpous including hooking a D-ring shackel to.

InlineDieselFan · Aug 30, 2006

jmt,

It looks like you have a new 2006 model tractor, I would ask the dealer to weld them on as a courtesty, It should not take more than a few minutes. I agree with it being inline or just inside of the bucket arms. I would not want them to the outside of the bucket.

steve

jmt1271 · Aug 31, 2006

The dealer is too far away. One of my drivers @ work is a very good welder. May just take the bucket to work and have him do it.

My bucket is the heavy duty version, along the top the material seems to be at least 2 inches thick, can that be correct? Seems like overkill. I think I will order two of the flat backed grab hooks from AW and weld them in line with the loader arms. Does anyone have specific hook recommendations from AWdirect?
Thanks alot guys.

George2615 · Aug 31, 2006

All my chains are 3/8" so that's the hooks I bought and welded on. Guess it depends on what chain you use most. I believe mine were # pab-3b.

schmism · Aug 31, 2006

3/8" grab hooks are usually 3/8 or 5/16. meaning they will work for both.

not that i think you would be useing less than 5/16 to lift/ pull stuff with...

Bob_Skurka · Aug 31, 2006

jmt1271 said:
My bucket is the heavy duty version, along the top the material seems to be at least 2 inches thick, can that be correct? Seems like overkill.

I suppose it is possible that you have 2" thick bar, but it is more likely that you have a 2" square tube welded under the top sheet steel that acts to reinforce the top lip of the bucket. It is pretty common to find either round or square tube used on the H.D. buckets used to reinforce the top lip of the bucket. As strong as it is, I have seen some of those type bend, I suspect when the top lip of the bucket comes into high speed contact with a tree or similar immovable object.

jmt1271 · Sep 1, 2006

aw direct has grade 40(?) weld on hooks with flat backs. would these be okay?

dfkrug · Sep 1, 2006

Bob_Skurka said:
What surprises me is how lightly built some of the buckets really are. Below are some photos of buckets that you might want to review, any of the rolled or folded lip buckets are inadequate (IMHO) if you want to add hooks.

Good side-by-side comparison photos, Bob. I, too, am surprised by
how wimpy some of the standard buckets are. At least the Kubota
and JD tractors offer upgrades to better buckets. I don't know if
all of them do, but the HD Kub and JD bkts are very nice. The Kioti
std bkts are very impressive, too, with doubled top lip and full
side reinforcement. I posted this photo of the CK20 bkt in another
recent bkt hook thread.

Bob_Skurka · Sep 1, 2006

dfkrug said:
Good side-by-side comparison photos, Bob. I, too, am surprised by
how wimpy some of the standard buckets are.

There are a couple very long threads about buckets and loaders. What surprises me about some of the buckets is how small so many of them are on some pretty big tractors. I'm sure if you put a low capacity (small volumn) bucket on a big tractor it will "feel" more powerful than the same size tractor that has a bucket that hold 35% to 50% more, but you actually do less work with those tractors. Personally I buy a tractor to reduce my work, simple things like bucket shape, construction and capacity can have a dramatic affect on the total time it takes to complete a task.

For example if 2 tractors, each 35hp have similar capacity loaders, but one has a bucket that is 35% smaller (less capacity) than the other, then the tractor with the larger bucket may get the job done roughly 1/3 faster than the other tractor.

Similarly if 2 tractors come without bucket hooks, and one has a heavily reinforced top lip and the other has a simple folded top lip and you want hooks, the process is easy on the reinforced bucket. But by the time you pay a welding shop ($65/hour) to reinforce the light duty bucket with angle iron, you probably are better off spending more money up front to get the heavier bucket in the first place!

For long term tractor owners, especially those who store their equipment outside, I typically recommend loaders with rigid pipe instead of hydraulic hose. Hose wears out (cracks, gets soft, snags on branches, decays from UV exposure, etc), pipe does not. Hose is cheaper, may never be an issue, but I'm willing to pay for pipe because it lasts for the life of the loader.

Deere offers some great bucket choices. They have light material buckets, heavy duty buckets, etc. Kubota offers less choices, but matches their buckets to their loaders. A lighter duty tractor will have a lighter duty bucket, a heavier duty tractor will have a heavier duty loader/bucket. New Holland seems to just build buckets like the army builds tanks. Even on the smallest TCs, the buckets are high capacity and reinforced (but typically NH is not a budget choice).

Sully2 · Sep 1, 2006

jmt1271 said:
aw direct has grade 40(?) weld on hooks with flat backs. would these be okay?

Thats where mine came from. Good quality products!

Sully2 · Sep 1, 2006

Bob_Skurka said:
AW Direct is the best source I know of for hooks. Do you want slip hooks or grab hooks or are you going to do a combination?

...The final photo is a Kubota B3030 bucket, this is a small & ultra-light 30hp tractor, suprisingly the bucket has a double fold along the top of the bucket and welded reinforcements on the lower corners. It does not have reinforced sides.

I know I was amazed at how "flexible" that top upper lip was on my own B3030. I clamped a 12 inch ( or 14"..??) Cresant wrench on it and could work it back and forth..and though..NOPE!! Aint welding hooks on this thing!! Took a piece of 2 x 3 angle..1/4" thick all the way across it and boxed that top lip in..and welded the hooks to the 1/4" angle instead.

I had a lug/bracket welded to the center..so I can attach anything using a pic. Clevis type slip hook...straight pin type clevis...etc

Bob_Skurka · Sep 1, 2006

Sully2 said:
I know I was amazed at how "flexible" that top upper lip was on my own B3030. I clamped a 12 inch ( or 14"..??) Cresant wrench on it and could work it back and forth..and though..NOPE!! Aint welding hooks on this thing!!

Yup, my B2910 bucket is very similar.

But remember, the B7800/B2910/B3030 is considered an ultra-light tractor series. These are the lightest and smallest 30hp machines on the market and some of the ~25hp tractors are significantly larger/heavier. The market niche for these light tractors is certainly for a different user than someone who wants or needs a heavy duty workhorse. On the other hand, a big heavy tractor will not fit where these smaller, lighter tractor will go.

There are no bucket hooks on the B2910 bucket, but there are hooks on my New Holland TC bucket.

slaveToHorses · Sep 1, 2006

Bob_Skurka said:
There are a couple very long threads about buckets and loaders. What surprises me about some of the buckets is how small so many of them are on some pretty big tractors....
Deere offers some great bucket choices. They have light material buckets, heavy duty buckets, etc.

It is all a tradeoff. I have a large volume materials bucket for my JD3720 that sticks way out beyond the width of the tractor and is very deep and tall. It is fairly light construction because it is large and you don't want to loose too much loader lift capacity to the weight of the bucket. On the other hand I did use it to dig a ditch in hard clay and it worked ok. It didn't bend anyway. Since then I got a small sized 61" heavy duty bucket with a tooth bar for digging, clearing and rock work. The small size focuses the weight and power of the tractor so it is more effective for digging.

I will be welding three hooks on this one. One at each attach point and one in the middle. My last backhoe had one in the middle and I found it really usefull, as long as the bucket is up to it. This JD HD bucket is definitely stout.

Sully2 · Sep 1, 2006

Bob_Skurka said:
Yup, my B2910 bucket is very similar.

But remember, the B7800/B2910/B3030 is considered an ultra-light tractor series. These are the lightest and smallest 30hp machines on the market and some of the ~25hp tractors are significantly larger/heavier. The market niche for these light tractors is certainly for a different user than someone who wants or needs a heavy duty workhorse. On the other hand, a big heavy tractor will not fit where these smaller, lighter tractor will go.

There are no bucket hooks on the B2910 bucket, but there are hooks on my New Holland TC bucket.

Oh without a doubt Bob. It was either machinery..or a heart attack from wheel barrowing material...

. I can move more fill dirt; topsoil or mulch in an afternoon with the FEL than I could in a week by hand.....but I do have to STOP once in a while to take a long drink out of my COLD water bottle.

I wont "Drink and Drive".....