My Front End Loader FEL build

[Freakingstang]

Did some wheelin' and dealin' over the last couple weeks and ended up with this loader setup off of an old economy tractor. I believe it was home made at some point in time... It was a complete setup with hydraulics, hyd tank, pump, cylinders, spool valves and hoses. The bucket is 42" wide and seems like a perfect match for the little beaver.

even got a set of hayforks with it. I'll eventually make a grapple for this so I can use it to move brush and trees around.

instead of trying to modify what was there....I just started over....

I did resuse the sleeved bushings off of the old loader frame.... Here are my sophisticated set of Freakin' plans...lol

here is the start of the mockup....I used some 2x4's to get the propper angles...(no pics, sorry) easier and cheaper trial and error with free 2x4's...

I started with a 32" piece of 1 1/2" x 3" tubbing as the cross beam for the uprights. This is what the uprights and rear sub frame will hook into. This tubing is 3/16" wall. I then took a piece of 1" box tube, 1/4" wall and slid it inside. I did this to maximize support and minimize clearance issues as the cross beam will sit between the trans tunnel and the driveshaft. I did this to utilize ground clearance. I made a wide "V" notch in the center of the tube for clearance on the drain plug of the bellhousing. It will be fully reinforced and boxed back in before it is all said and done

then, after much measuring and spacing, I decided to make the uprights removable. I cut some 1" ID tube and notched the inner support tube to act as a sleeve for the 1" bolt that will come up through the bottom into the upright posts.

 

[Freakingstang]

For the upright posts, I used 2 1/2" box tube, 1/4" wall. I used 3/8 plate and drilled 7/8" holes in the pivot plates and welded them to the tubes. I'll eventually box in the backside and add some more reinforcement to them.

For the bottom of the upright tube, I used a 4"L x 3"W 1/2" plate. I drilled a 1" hole in the plate and then welded a nut on the topside of the plate. The nut will sit inside the box tube upright. I did this incase I want to ever remove the setup.

now it was time to build the boom arms. I had two 6 foot sections of 2x3" 1/4" wall tubing just laying around for a special project.... I cut the bushings off the old loader boom and squared everything up and welded them in place...they have bronze inserts that can be changed if needed. They use a 7/8" pin.

with the uprights and boom arms almost finished, it was time to start putting pieces in place.

for mockup I'm using the one single bucket dump cylinder that I have. I cant afford to buy a matched set right now (new home owner) so I'll probably just use what I have for now until I can afford to put a twin dump cylinder setup on it, but will make it so I can easily add the twin cylinders down the road

this was from the initial mockup before much welding had been done. Notice the clearance issues on the right side where the air cleaner is... I ended up cutting the mounting ears off the bucket and moving the arms out from 24" inside to 28"...I need to fab up a need boom crossmember and bucket cylinder mount.

I started on the rear subframe today. It will tie the cossbrace (under the uprights) into the rear. I'm using some 4x4" 1/2" plates that will be bolted to the rear end. From there 2x2"1/4" wall box tube will tie in on each side ofcross brace.I forgot my phone when I was at the shop today, so you'll have to wait for pictures. I hope to get 99% of the fabrication done tomorrow on my day off so I can start working on the hydraulics.


For the hydraulics, I have an Electric PTO on the front of the tractor. I'm thinking about using that with the aux oil pump that I got with the loader setup for faster cylinder times than the tractor hydraulics. Only issue I can forsee with that is the location ofthe hydraulic resevoir. I'm contemplating making a resevoir built into the boom as a cross brace out of 6"x3" 1/8" wall tubing......

more pics and fab work to come!

 

[Craig Clayton]

I see that you are well on your way.

I built a copy of a Power King as seen in the older isses of Popular mechanics. It had car parts from a Ford Pinto. It had a few limitations. I built a FEL for it that worked and had a tip height around 42". I did all the calculations with the on board Auto Cad ( trial and error and the gray matter). The only major problem with the FEL is when it was loaded it flexed the tube steel frame and that made it hard to change gears.
It was sent out to pasture ( scrap metal bin ). Maybe a pic in a old album ??.

Craig Clayton

 

[petes]

Hopefully you haven't finished building the a new crossmember and cylinder mount. You should move the top of the cylinder aft towards the hood as far as you can (looks like you've got some extra clearance to spare before hitting the hood). The geometry you have in the pics above won't let you curl the bucket as far as you're going to want to, or with enough breakout force. Pics show the bucket bottom sitting flat and the bottom end of the curl cylinder "behind" the bucket/arm pivots already so retracting the cylinder will actually cause the bucket to move towards dumping rather than curling. You can also improve geometry by moving the bucket end of the curl cylinder forward, but that may interfere at full dump position (or somewhere before that).