Quality of Wicked Buckets? Market for Used Non-SSQA Buckets?

[Suburban Plowboy]

Here is the only shot of the rear of the bucket I have right now.

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  05 21 22 Kubota bucket rear small.jpg

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ATI claims the Tach-All will work with universal skid steer quick mount attachments, so I shouldn't have to buy ATI plates. The bucket appears to be where the fun starts.

Here's a link to a video of a guy who appears to have the same bucket on a different loader. He cut the support angle iron off completely.

I have never used an SSQA, so I don't even know what they need to connect to a plate. I have seen plates with 4 holes along the bottom, but it appears you only need the two outermost holes for my purposes.

Guess I should get a cheap solid plate and cut out the parts I don't need.

 

[2manyrocks]

Buying a plate saves you from hunting the metal and having to fabricate the mount. The issue with Kubota buckets can be the reinforcing angle on the back of the bucket. You might either cut the tube or cut the mounting plate.....but I'd suggest you think carefully about your options.

I was actually going to recommend that you look on Youtube for bucket conversion videos because they are going to give you a broad spectrum of the different approaches people have taken. This guy goes into more detail about what he did. He also used two separate mounting plates instead of buying a single plate and then having to cut it.

Smokeydog and CADplans have obviously done conversions and have some serious fabrication skills. I'd pay attention to any tips they offer you.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I saw that video. I don't know where he got two separate plates. It's apparently cheaper to get a solid plate and cut the middle out. He quoted $200 for the plates, and I can get a solid plate for as little as $135. It would have a couple of unwanted holes I would have to fill, but that's a short job.

Right now, I'm waiting for Amazon to swear they're sending me the adaptor. I'm afraid they gave me a bogus shipping date, because it was so quick. Once I'm sure, I'll order something.

 

[2manyrocks]

Now that you mention it, I don't find two separate plates on Amazon or ebay, either.

Another option is to buy a full plate, and then plasma cut the center to clear the reinforcing tube on the bucket. This would be a long, rectangular horizontal cutout instead of chopping out the middle leaving two mounting plates.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

My ATI SSQA and Titan 3/8" solid mount plate arrived, and today I installed the adaptor.

Taking the bucket off the tractor wasn't too bad. The bolts on the pins were pretty fresh, so the nuts came right off. I put the bucket down on a couple of cinder blocks.

Putting the adaptor on the tractor was not all that much fun. I decided it was smarter to move the part to the tractor instead of trying to nudge the tractor to the part to make it line up, so I put the adaptor on a Harbor Freight lift table. That was a great idea, but unfortunately, I decided to line up holes on the hydraulics first instead of the rigid FEL holes. After wasting maybe an hour in the burning sun, I started over, installing the pins on the arms first. After that, the job was merely unpleasant, not terrible.

ATI does not leave enough room to put a socket wrench on the pin bolts, and the Kubota bolts are ridiculously long, so I had a lot of fun turning slippery bolts with a box wrench.

I have seen people complain about the condition of their old pins when installing things, but mine looked very good. The tractor has about 1200 hours. I grease it pretty regularly, but I don't recall seeing the zerks in the pins before, so they have probably not been greased since 2017.

I had to use a rawhide hammer, three different drive punches to line the pin holes up, and a massive Nupla deadblow hammer. I can see why people hate old-style pin attachments. I could see spending three hours switching attachments the old way.

The mount plate I ordered feels like it weighs over a hundred pounds. I think about 70 pounds will be cut out and set aside, so I wasted some money there, but maybe I can use the scrap to make mount plates for the fork attachment I'm going to build.

The black marks in the photos are pin grease, which I got all over everything.

The tractor is leaking hydraulic fluid somewhere between the front wheels, so I have to figure that out.

Really looking forward to using multiple attachments instead of being crippled by my brush forks.

 

[2manyrocks]

If someone else is interested in doing this, would you recommend that they use an engine hoist with a leveler to get the adapter in position? Or maybe a second person? I would think one would want to do this on the most level surface they could find, too?

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

I think you could do it on the ground if you wanted, shimming it up. I have never used a hoist. That Harbor Freight cart is really something for the money.

 

[WM75Guy]

My SSQA install was fairly easy. Laid the adaptor on the concrete. Moved the tractor into position, lowered the FEL and got the bottom 2 holes lined up, tapped in the pins. Extended the cylinders to get the top 2 pins lined up, tapped them in.

 

[Suburban Plowboy]

Must help to know what you're doing.

 

[2manyrocks]

My SSQA install was fairly easy. Laid the adaptor on the concrete. Moved the tractor into position, lowered the FEL and got the bottom 2 holes lined up, tapped in the pins. Extended the cylinders to get the top 2 pins lined up, tapped them in.

I'm guessing your concrete surface is level? I would assume that if the tractor wasn't on a level surface that there is enough flex in the loader frame that the pins wouldn't have lined up so easily?

Would you recommend that the key to doing this most easily is to get the tractor on a level surface to mount the adapter to the tractor loader pins?