QA FEL Question

[Kubotasrking]

I've been spending most of my free time over the last 3 weeks cleaning up after a huge windstorm. I took a vacation day today because it wasn't raining, and was nearing the end of the day when one side of my grapple bucket popped loose from the QA lever/pin. The load of branches that I had on had hung up, and before I could stop the bracket gave way.

I dropped the load, and went back to level ground and reattached the bucket. I then completed my work w/o further incident.

Has this happened to anyone before? It has happened once in about 25 hours of tractor operation....all pretty heavy duty type work....

Thanks

 

[CJ4]

Absolutely......same thing has happened to me a few times actually. The skid steer QA is nice but doesn't appear fail proof. I think a big factor is we probably need to lubricate those pins after cleaning them well to make sure everything latches well when we hook them up. I've was worried something could really get bent or tweeked when one of those sides come loose like that.

 

[jinman]

Bob, I've never had a QA come loose, and I've done some very heavy and rough digging. I did have a limb pop one of the release arms up once, but I've never had a bucket come off when the QA was latched. I always make sure the pins protrude out the bottom at least 1/4 inch and most of the time they stick out 1/2" or more on about half of my QA implements like my rock bucket grapple.

 

[daTeacha]

I have had the ones on my home-made rig to use the back blade on the QA come loose. Examination showed two things -- the plates I made up for the frame were no longer in a straight line, and the bottom part where the pins drop through had bent downward just a little, reducing the amount of engagement of the pins when the levers were down.

If the problem continues, check to be sure the bottom section of your attachment plate is not bent downward a little. See how it lines up with the part on the lift arms and try to bend it up a little with a sledge or something.

I don't think there is any way to adjust how far down the pins drop when you turn the handles down, but if there is, that would allow you to increase the engagement, too.

 

[AndyMA]

I've had a bucket (usually forks) pop loose a couple of times. always when prying or pulling backwards. When you mount it you need to check below the bucket and make sure the lower pins extend all the way through.

Andy

 

[Kubotasrking]

Bob, I've never had a QA come loose, and I've done some very heavy and rough digging. I did have a limb pop one of the release arms up once, but I've never had a bucket come off when the QA was latched. I always make sure the pins protrude out the bottom at least 1/4 inch and most of the time they stick out 1/2" or more on about half of my QA implements like my rock bucket grapple.

This may have been what happened, but the load was definitely hung up on the right side.

I am going to double check the pins prior to use in the future...

Thanks for the help.