Thumb Hydraulic thumb for BX23 BH

nasdaqsam · Jul 21, 2005

A quick note to all of you that have been following this project from the beginning.

THANK YOU. All the assistance was greatly appreciated and we learned some things along the way.

With out the assistance of all the people here this project may never have left the ground.

What Next????? HMMMM. Can you say grapple?

HomeBrew2 · Jul 21, 2005

Truely a spectacular job!!! And, by far one of the most straightforward and gracious commentaries. Thanks for letting us all in on it!
Cheers!

Junkman · Jul 22, 2005

Do you have any pictures of the unit as it was being installed? I would like to make one like yours and any help that you can give me will be appreciated. What is the size of the cylinder that you used? Any pictures that you would be willing to share will be greatly appreciated by me and others, especially of the individual components. Great job in designing this item...... Junk..

Junkman · Jul 22, 2005

( ..........................What Next????? HMMMM. Can you say grapple? )

Here is the American Solutions LLC (web page) one that I worked on with the inventor...... TBN web page

HomeBrew2 · Jul 22, 2005

American Solutions ... xlnt looking product ... too expensive for what a BX can lift ... great price for a rig that can tote 2000#+ in the bucket.

nasdaqsam · Jul 23, 2005

( Truely a spectacular job!!! And, by far one of the most straightforward and gracious commentaries. Thanks for letting us all in on it!
Cheers! )Thank you and your welcome.

nasdaqsam · Jul 23, 2005

( Do you have any pictures of the unit as it was being installed? I would like to make one like yours and any help that you can give me will be appreciated. What is the size of the cylinder that you used? Any pictures that you would be willing to share will be greatly appreciated by me and others, especially of the individual components. Great job in designing this item...... Junk.. )Junk, As I mostly brought the ideas and design to my fabricator and he did the welding I do not have any "as being done" pictures. I would be more than happy to take any pictures of it you want from any angle and send any measurements you want. Just be patient, sometimes it takes me time to get things together.

I am coming up with a list of parts we used in the building of it but I still have not had time to test it before I recommend anything. The hose routing is an issue right now. Not a big one but I want to be able to give a complete list.

Stay tunes I will get that together very soon.

And thank you.

nasdaqsam · Jul 23, 2005

( ( ..........................What Next????? HMMMM. Can you say grapple? )

Here is the American Solutions LLC (web page) one that I worked on with the inventor...... TBN web page )I saw that one before, I really like that design. Of all the ones I looked at I liked that one the best. Do you know how much it weighs in at?

The reason I asked is I called another grapple manufacturer awhile back and they said they build one for the BX but really detered me from thinking it was going to be of much use (which I appreciated) as the weight of the one they built was around 130lbs which would handicap the bucket to much to be of much use. The design of the one you show looks much lighter.

I guess it is going to depend on what the intended use is. If it is just to stabilize the load I don't think it needs to be to heavy duty. If it is going to be used to grab and pick heavy loads thats another story.

If the weight was right on it I may be interested in one. I see they are a pre-order item also. Any idea on how to get one?

Thanks

nasdaqsam · Jul 23, 2005

( ... too expensive for what a BX can lift ... great price for a rig that can tote 2000#+ in the bucket. )This is the sentiments I heard from another grapple manufacturer. They build and sell them but are very adiment that you not expect much use of it for the BX because of it's limited load capacity. Who knows though, if you just need something to move some brush and you do a lot of it, it may be worth it.

jim_wilson · Jul 23, 2005

I have heard the same sentiments from manufacturer's when I asked about grapples or fork attachements for the BX FEL. It is an attitude I really can't quite understand. Maybe my attitude is getting bad but lately I have taken to saying " Yes - after almost 300 hours with my BX I am intimately familiar with what the FEL can and cannot lift - and that happens to be a lot more than I can lift using my back and leg muscles. If had wanted a bigger tractor I would have bought one - what I am looking to do is make this tractor more useful. A grapple on the BX bucket still makes the tractor more useful if I can hold something in the bucket I could not otherwise." /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif .

The thumb looks excellent by the way - I would also be very interested in the list of parts that were used to do this. Who made the actual thumb assembly? Was that your fabricator? Do you think he would be interested in making any more?