OP
EddieWalker
Epic Contributor
The welder got right on fixing the bushings. He was kind of embarassed by what happened and said he might have removed the pin while he was welding and plain forgot to check his work. I felt he was being honest about it, even thought it's annoying to have to bring it back and deal with such a simple mistake on his part.
It was done before noon, so they didn't mess around.
I had to do some things the next day, so my dad took off the loader bucket and installed the Quick Attach attachment by himself. He's 72 years old, but said it wasn't that dificult.
When I got home, I started fabricating some brackets for the hoses. They run down the inside of the loader arm so they will be out of the way and hopefully less likely to get damaged.
The bracket is a piece of angle iron that I drilled four holes in to hold four bolts. I welded them into place and then welded the bracket onto the loader arm. After installing the hoses, I saw that I had made a mistake in how close the bottom hose came to the tie down bracket for the backhoe. It's a massive piece of steel used to hold the backhoe in place when it's on a trailer. Too big and important to mess with, so I moved the hose up a little and created a new piece of steel to hold them in place on the same bracket. It was a little delay, but nothing major.
To hold the hoses from the grapple in place and allow them some movement without getting tangled, I cut the thread off an axle U bolt that I had lying around from something that I don't remember. This was a very simple idea that seems to be working very well.
The valve works great. Just push the botton on the loader joystick and it goes from tilting, or dumping, the bucket, to opening and closing the grapple. You have to positing the grapple to where you want it first, but that's pretty basic. I really only works in the straight up and down positing anyway. Once it's where you want it, then there isn't any real need to change the angle of the rake part of the grapple. Just drive up to the tree, give it a little nudge or make contact with it, and then close the grapple. It works great!!!
Anyway, the electric solinoid that actuates it is on the top of the valve assembly. It's on part of my ROPS, which is exposed to the weather. I don't know how weather proof it is, but figured there was no point in testing it. I got lucky in that a plastic case for my welding rods was a perfect fit over it. I notched it to give it a better, tigher fit, and just slid it over the solinoid.
Eddie
It was done before noon, so they didn't mess around.
I had to do some things the next day, so my dad took off the loader bucket and installed the Quick Attach attachment by himself. He's 72 years old, but said it wasn't that dificult.
When I got home, I started fabricating some brackets for the hoses. They run down the inside of the loader arm so they will be out of the way and hopefully less likely to get damaged.
The bracket is a piece of angle iron that I drilled four holes in to hold four bolts. I welded them into place and then welded the bracket onto the loader arm. After installing the hoses, I saw that I had made a mistake in how close the bottom hose came to the tie down bracket for the backhoe. It's a massive piece of steel used to hold the backhoe in place when it's on a trailer. Too big and important to mess with, so I moved the hose up a little and created a new piece of steel to hold them in place on the same bracket. It was a little delay, but nothing major.
To hold the hoses from the grapple in place and allow them some movement without getting tangled, I cut the thread off an axle U bolt that I had lying around from something that I don't remember. This was a very simple idea that seems to be working very well.
The valve works great. Just push the botton on the loader joystick and it goes from tilting, or dumping, the bucket, to opening and closing the grapple. You have to positing the grapple to where you want it first, but that's pretty basic. I really only works in the straight up and down positing anyway. Once it's where you want it, then there isn't any real need to change the angle of the rake part of the grapple. Just drive up to the tree, give it a little nudge or make contact with it, and then close the grapple. It works great!!!
Anyway, the electric solinoid that actuates it is on the top of the valve assembly. It's on part of my ROPS, which is exposed to the weather. I don't know how weather proof it is, but figured there was no point in testing it. I got lucky in that a plastic case for my welding rods was a perfect fit over it. I notched it to give it a better, tigher fit, and just slid it over the solinoid.
Eddie
