John Deere H160 Loader Mount to Tractor Not Tight

JD70LPStandard · Mar 22, 2020

Finally got a reason to use my H160 loader for the first time this weekend. When carrying light loads, I noticed that there was movement up and down where the two rear loader frame pieces fit onto the round mounts bolted to the transmission housing. A closer look shows the paint has been chipped away by this movement:

View attachment Right Loader Mount.jpg

View attachment Left Loader Mount.jpg

It's a little hard to see in the pictures, but if you look closely at the left mount, you can see the paint missing from the top of the mount post and the gap between the loader frame and the mount post closer to the bottom side of the mount.

I read the manual and looked at how the loader is mounted on the front bracket, and it looks correct to me:

View attachment Front Mount.jpg

The amount of movement doesn't look quite right, and I have trouble believing JD designed it to have that much slop. Anybody know if I've got it mounted not quite right or is this how JD made them?

JD70LPStandard · Mar 22, 2020

Here are a couple of other pics of the mounts and missing paint:

View attachment Left Mount Rear View.jpg

View attachment Right Mount Rear View.jpg

I used the tractor and loader to move some landscape stones and flat rock from my trailer. Very impressed with lift capacity and how the tractor and loader handled the work. I started out with half full buckets, and quickly determined a bucket stacked full was no problem.

hosspuller · Mar 22, 2020

Looks like you're missing a pin on the front grill guard.

It does not look like there is anything to hold the loader frame to the mounts other than geometry. Some movement should be expected as the tractor frame flexes. Make sure all the mounts are tight. Especially check the parking stand /weight bracket engagement per the manual. There is an adjustment procedure.