JD 3032E brush guard and bucket hooks

[picker77]

Compared to most of the projects on here this one is pretty insignificant, but I'll post photos anyway. My new little JD came with a decent grille guard frame as standard equipment but the first time I handled brush with it I knew it was too open to do much good against sticks and brush poking holes and dents in that nice new grille, which, knowing JD, is probably a $300 replacement part.

Real welders please look the other way at this point...

I cobbled up a simple brush guard out of some 3/4" angle and expanded metal I had left over from building tree stands. At the same time, I put hooks on the bucket. The hook mounting plates are 3/8" x 4" cold rolled and all hardware is grade 8. If anything acts like it wants to bend I'll pull them off and have a hunk of 5" heavy wall channel welded across the top and put new hooks on that, but I hated to do that from the get-go because I'm trying to save all the lift capacity I can for lifting. I'd like to say I did the nice weld beads on those hooks but I'd be lying, I had a local shop with real welders do those for me (my typical Lincoln 225 beads are more like the ones on the grille guard). The weld-on type hooks are 5/16" grade 40 from AW Direct, a fine place to shop online. At 3900 lb working load for these I didn't see a need for grade 70 hooks. Paint is Valspar JD Green from Tractor Supply, turned out to be a fairly close match.

I realize it's not the fancy sweeping curvy version of a commercially built grille guard, but it should help some, to me it doesn't look too ugly on the tractor, and the cost was low.

 

[k0ua]

I would say you did real good. I would be proud of it!
James K0UA

 

[rekees4300]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: Be careful with those bucket hooks. The top of the bucket isn't designed to handle a whole lot of weight.

 

[picker77]

:thumbsup::thumbsup: Be careful with those bucket hooks. The top of the bucket isn't designed to handle a whole lot of weight.

Yeah, I'm aware of that. I don't plan to do anything really heavy with it, just pull a occasional T-post, or do back-saving stuff like lift a 200 lb 5th wheel hitch in and out of the truck, stuff like that. I also wanted a handy way to chain bulky items down so they don't roll out of the bucket. The next item might be a set of Markham's bucket teeth, although I haven't yet convinced myself I need them for what I do, which is mostly gravel road maintenance and moving heavy stuff around from here to there. A lightweight set of pallet forks might even make more sense for my uses.

 

[RoyJackson]

Really nice job on the brush guard...both functional and a clean appearance.
Do you have to remove it completely for checking the battery, or does it pivot forward?

Wow!!! Somebody must have had a sale on bucket hooks!!! Neat job there too, but I'll reiterate what rekees4300 wrote about lack of strength. Those doubler plates will help quite a bit and if you really want to stiffen the upper section, get a length of angle iron or C channel and (using the same holes as the hook doubler plates) bolt it underneath the lip of the bucket.
What you have now will work for lighter loads (few hundred pounds) and for pulling in reverse (but remember the tractor is built for pulling forward, using the drawbar).

Really nice work!!

As far as the tooth bar, I've had one for ten years (just modified the width from 54" to 61"). I used it a lot the first year. Although I install it every Spring, it hasn't had much use in years. The pallet forks would be more useful. Now, that would be a nice project...pallet forks to replace your QA bucket!

 

[foggy1111]

Roy....do you have a pic of how you modified your tooth bar to fit the wider bucket? Also, did you modify a Markham bar? I have this same issue coming up.....so I could draw from your experience. Thanks

Really nice job on the brush guard...both functional and a clean appearance.
Do you have to remove it completely for checking the battery, or does it pivot forward?

Wow!!! Somebody must have had a sale on bucket hooks!!! Neat job there too, but I'll reiterate what rekees4300 wrote about lack of strength. Those doubler plates will help quite a bit and if you really want to stiffen the upper section, get a length of angle iron or C channel and (using the same holes as the hook doubler plates) bolt it underneath the lip of the bucket.
What you have now will work for lighter loads (few hundred pounds) and for pulling in reverse (but remember the tractor is built for pulling forward, using the drawbar).

Really nice work!!

As far as the tooth bar, I've had one for ten years (just modified the width from 54" to 61"). I used it a lot the first year. Although I install it every Spring, it hasn't had much use in years. The pallet forks would be more useful. Now, that would be a nice project...pallet forks to replace your QA bucket!

 

[RoyJackson]

Roy....do you have a pic of how you modified your tooth bar to fit the wider bucket? Also, did you modify a Markham bar? I have this same issue coming up.....so I could draw from your experience. Thanks

Sorry, no pics.
Mine wasn't a Markham.
However, I bought a length of the extrusion that fits on the bucket cutting edge from the manufacturer (Woods, IIRC), a tooth and a tooth receptacle. Minimum they would sell was a 12" length (I needed 6").
I sectioned my tooth bar at the center (to minimize the welding required), fit the 6" length I needed and beveled all edges (better weld penetration). As I was working in a fabrication shop, having it welded wasn't a problem (I have used TIG and MIG, but it's been years). Once welded, I dressed the weld bead flush, then located the tooth receptacle and had that welded in place. The tooth itself uses a roll pin to keep it in place.
Not much to it, really. We were fitting this in with our normal work but it didn't take more then an hour or two (if we could have done it in one shot).
I always like plenty of clearance (1/8th to 3/16th's) on the ends so it would slip easily into the bucket. I use a thick washer on each end as spacers when it's installed on the bucket.
As mentioned, I was working in a fabication shop, so we had the power hacksaw and grinding tools required. However, the sectioning of the tooth bar and cutting the extrusion down to length can easily be done with a grinding wheel. Don't worry about being too pretty with the grinding as it's all going to be consumed by weld when assembled.
After all the welding and grinding, paint it if you want to...then install it on your bucket. It's not a complicated or difficult job at all.
Although I wrote "just modified", that wasn't meant to mean it was done recently. I did the modification shortly after I bought the 790 in 2004.

 

[picker77]

Really nice job on the brush guard...both functional and a clean appearance.
Do you have to remove it completely for checking the battery, or does it pivot forward?

Wow!!! Somebody must have had a sale on bucket hooks!!! Neat job there too, but I'll reiterate what rekees4300 wrote about lack of strength. Those doubler plates will help quite a bit and if you really want to stiffen the upper section, get a length of angle iron or C channel and (using the same holes as the hook doubler plates) bolt it underneath the lip of the bucket.
What you have now will work for lighter loads (few hundred pounds) and for pulling in reverse (but remember the tractor is built for pulling forward, using the drawbar).

Really nice work!!

As far as the tooth bar, I've had one for ten years (just modified the width from 54" to 61"). I used it a lot the first year. Although I install it every Spring, it hasn't had much use in years. The pallet forks would be more useful. Now, that would be a nice project...pallet forks to replace your QA bucket!

===============================================

Thanks for the comments, Roy. I might just do the C-channel thing underneath, easy to do, all it would take is longer grade 8 bolts. It would definitely break my heart to bend the top of this thing, being new and shiny and all.

The guard is fixed (four bolts). The battery access on this tractor is a big 11" empty space between the front of the radiator and the back of the grille, and there's nothing down in there except the battery and the coolant overflow tank. Because of that the grill on this model doesn't need to swivel and everything is easy to get to. Nice thoughtful design, one of the many little things I like about this tractor.

There's a guy who's a professional engineer that's created a one-man cottage industry making really nice laser cut (water cut?) pallet fork kits for JDQA's, he's been on TBN and also advertises on Ebay. Website is JD compatible Pallet Forks

The entire thing weighs just over 180 lb and is the slickest set of forks I've seen. Available in any of five or so stages of finishing, including painted and ready to use for $754 plus shipping. I think I'll look into that instead of the tooth bar.

 

[picker77]

Wow!!! Somebody must have had a sale on bucket hooks!!!

3 is good, 5 is better, right? Besides, knowing when to quit has never been one of my strong points.

 

[Chilly807]

===============================================

being new and shiny and all

You're going to have to get that tractor dirty or at least put a couple of scratches in the bucket before you post any more pics.. that shiny green paint is hard on the eyes

I still go over mine with a paintbrush when I have the can open, touching up scratches where I can find them, so don't feel too bad.

Nice job on the grill guard, I really should do the same with mine. The Kubota one is pretty open too.

Sean