Hydraulic Quick Attach

[downsizingnow48]

Where there is a will there is a way. Did more experimenting this morning and came up with a profile that works. It is perfect on the Kubota bucket and about 1/16" loose on the Titan. With a accurate gage in hand the next step is cutting the side plates to shape.

 

[aeblank]

In the world of SSQA, 1/16" seems like nothing to me. (of course, unless it is 1/16 too big/small to fit something else.....)

I'm sure you'll love it when you get it all going.

 

[downsizingnow48]

I agree! Getting from "won't fit kubota" to "1/16 loose on Titan" was a big deal around here this morning.

 

[downsizingnow48]

The four side plates are cut and drilled. Every dimension and angle is determined by something, so it took a while to get it figured out. The rest of the metal work is more straightforward. Right now I am waiting for DOM tube I bought off Ebay.

 

[Xfaxman]

Do you have enough rollback for pallet forks?

The plate on the V417 is leaning back 10 degrees from vertical, when lowered all the way. But the geometry is different than a tractor loader when the boom is raised.

 

[SSdoxie]

Made a little progress on the hydraulic side of this project today. As mentioned previously, shifting to a SSQA design (instead of a semi-Euro design) means actuating two vertical pins. Bobcat and Kubota modify their existing hand-latch designs to do this. I saw a Bobcat video clip that shows two small cylinders, one pushing each hand latch. Kubota uses a single cylinder floating between the two hand-latches. I decided to skip the hand-latch part and go with two small cylinders directly actuating the pins. Certainly the smallest cylinders I've ever seen. 7/8" bore, about 8 in long, 4 lbs, 1/8" NPT ports, 3" stroke. Had to have the cylinders in hand to work out other parts of the design.

Reasoning behind modifying the existing handles to connect the cylinders is 2 fold;
1. In event of hydraulic failure of some type, the cylinder(s) can be removed from the handle and attachment can be taken off by manual movement of the lever.
2. The handle acts as a signal flag, indicating what poistion the pins are in. If handle is not laying down flat the pin is not engaged. Helps to keep attachment from accidentally falling off in lock pin doesn't fully engage and you can't see this from the seat until you lift loader arms and roll bucket out.

Bocat also makes the horizontal cylinder versionand used on all their loaders with 2 bucket cylinders. The 2 seperate QA cylinders came out for the Toolcat which has a single center mounted bucket cylinder and mounting location of the at the QA would allow the horizontal cylinder.

 

[downsizingnow48]

SSdoxie thanks for raising the question of an indicator. Or actually two questions, do I need an indicator and if so should it be the movement of a crank arm or something else. Have to think about it a bit.

Xfaxman thanks for question on dump/curl angles. No current plan for forks. I think this will work with my two buckets and the grapple I still intend to make.

 

[Fallon]

Reasoning behind modifying the existing handles to connect the cylinders is 2 fold;
1. In event of hydraulic failure of some type, the cylinder(s) can be removed from the handle and attachment can be taken off by manual movement of the lever.
2. The handle acts as a signal flag, indicating what poistion the pins are in. If handle is not laying down flat the pin is not engaged. Helps to keep attachment from accidentally falling off in lock pin doesn't fully engage and you can't see this from the seat until you lift loader arms and roll bucket out.

Bocat also makes the horizontal cylinder versionand used on all their loaders with 2 bucket cylinders. The 2 seperate QA cylinders came out for the Toolcat which has a single center mounted bucket cylinder and mounting location of the at the QA would allow the horizontal cylinder.

Ya, the arms make great signal flags on my linear actuator one. I just have to pull 2 pins & I can drop the linear actuator out if it fails in seconds, would take me 10 times longer to untape the wire loom back to the quick disconnects a couple feet away.

I also have very little roll back on my stock setup when using my standard SSQA pallet forks. If/when I ever build another SSQA to 3pt adapter (just welded a quick hitch to a SSQA plate, pretty cheap & easy) I'll put in a shim so the 3pt adapter has 15 degrees of roll back while the SSQA plate is vertical.

 

[downsizingnow48]

I don't know what others do to remove super hard mill scale before welding and painting.

I soak the metal overnight in household vinegar.

Then the mill scale sometimes just wipes off with a rag. Other times it turns into a sort of light rust that brushes off in seconds with a stripping disk.

 

[downsizingnow48]

Here is the test assembly for the cylinder and pin arrangement.

The pin is 1.25" round bar. It slides in a 3.625" length of 1.75" DOM tubing I got off Ebay that had already been reamed to 1.255" ID. That is perfect for this purpose (got 4 pieces for $14).

I drilled a 13/16" hole in the end of the pin, 2" deep. That hole accepts an internal clevis made of .75" DOM tube. The 3/8-24 nut fits the cylinder shaft. The clevis is secured with a 3/8" roll pin. The tube and nut still have to be welded.

Everything fits neatly into the 16" space available.

The assembly is going slow! No problems, just lots of other things going on. Plus, the metal working tools are here in Sacramento, while the tractor and welder are at another place four hours drive away.