My Angry Beaver : Front End loader Build

[ironpony]

very nice job, now just remember it is only as strong as its weakest link, which is probably the tractor itself. I would find out what the manufacturer says it should lift, just because you can lift it does not mean you should lift it. hate to see you break the little guy, I have a Kubota of the same size only 3 cyl. great little tractor but too strong for its own good.

 

[BrianK]

Awesome thread, great project. Brings back good memories. We had a 25hp rear drive Satoh tractor growing up. It always started, always ran, never let us down. It was amazing the things we accomplished with that tractor. My dad gave it to my nephew a couple years ago because after almost 40 years of use and abuse it finally needed a rebuild. Wish I had it now.

 

[Freakingstang]

Good work especially with regards to persistence until completion.

Looks like a danged handy machine.

Thanks. It is... I wish it was a hydro, had a belly mower, quick detach loader, and had power steering like all the new little sub compacts have... but most of the kubota BX sized machines have limited lifting capbilties. I thought the hydraulics were slow on mine until I got to use a newer Kubota BX and was kinda disappointed because it was a 15K$ machine! I have about 2200 bucks in mine!


its funny how i aquired it... being a broke new homeowner I couldn't afford a "tractor". i had a rotted out mustang 5.0 chassis that I used to race. no motor or trans and tried selling it for about a year for 1K. I had a buddy that wanted it, but didn't have any cash. got to talking about needing a small little tractor to do some grading work in the spring. Turns out his brothers wifes uncles sister's cousin gave them this tractor years ago and had no use for it. I went and looked at it and about fell over, super small 4x4 and a diesel??? went home, got the trailer and loaded the car up. put the jumper cables onthe tractor while unloading the car, put some fresh diesel in it and bled the lines. She fired up on about the 4th revolution. drove it on the trailer. Apparently they ran it out of fuel year ago and didn't know that you had to bleed the lines on a diesel so it sat. I think he was a bit pissed to say the least. I had 80% of the steel. I have about 950-1K in all the cylinders, lines and fittings. worst part about the whole thing was making the hydraulic block adapter. It took a couple of times to get that right without a mill. I did have a ton of fab time in it,cutting stuff apart and redoing anlges and what not. Well worth it in my opinion. I could afford the time to put into it vs the money to buy a comparable machine.

 

[MasterMech]

Have her call me.

Believe me Dune, when it comes to my tools, I will have my way. Just takes longer to do it by myself.

 

[Eatonpcat]

Way cool build...Great fab job!

 

[Jags]

Out-Freaking-Standing.
I love this kinda stuff. Those tractors were little, but mighty. They didn't know how to quit - even if it was in their best interests.
The builds of the implements is fantastic and I really like the idea of the quick attach and its design. I was questioning the first position for your tilt cylinder, but I see that you corrected it. Stick with the single tilt unless you wanna give up a bunch of speed. Great job all the way around.

(dang - this looks like something I would have done.)

 

[semipro]

Great post. I'd like to see more of this kind of thing here. Its inspiring.

 

[Jags]

Jealous...

Wife says a welder would be a silly purchase. "You don't need that."

A shop without a welder is like a home without a refrigerator.

 

[Eatonpcat]

A shop without a welder is like a home without a refrigerator.

I don't know... But I've been living without the welder and I think my fat A$$ would be pretty sad without the fridge!!

 

[Jags]

But I've been living without the welder...

Clarification: you have been existing....you ain't living until the shop has a welder.

 

[Freakingstang]

Out-Freaking-Standing.
I love this kinda stuff. Those tractors were little, but mighty. They didn't know how to quit - even if it was in their best interests.
The builds of the implements is fantastic and I really like the idea of the quick attach and its design. I was questioning the first position for your tilt cylinder, but I see that you corrected it. Stick with the single tilt unless you wanna give up a bunch of speed. Great job all the way around.

(dang - this looks like something I would have done.)

I was using the existing cylinders that i had when i put it together... the first tilt cylinder took a crap after two bucket fulls of rock.. So I took the lift cylinder off of my kubota front blade and was using that. the location of the cylinder wasn't ideal, but it was a comprimise because of the short stroke... played around with the right geometry many times. i blew that cylinder out about 15 second after this picture of the 1K + lb work bench...

.

i've been using it for the last 3-4 months with a chain holding the tilt into posistion. I just aquired a set of bucket cylinders off of a new massey sub compact. A local dealer had some warrenty issues with some seals...if one was bad, they changed both under warrenty. I got two good cylinders for 50 bucks.... I just haven't had time to modify my setup yet.

 

[Freakingstang]

here is some more fab work. most of this was government time when we had nothing to do at work....

I used to be a fabricator, and then i worked in a factory that built forestry equipment, so I hoarded as much "scrap" as I could. I have about 150-160 bucks in the forks, and another 250 bucks in the woods finish mower. I made my own suitcase weights from a bucnh of 1" thick square plates we had at the shop. they look like something from frankensteins garage, but other than a little time I don't have a penny in them. I made the rear reciever/weight hanger all out of scrap. I can afford my free labor, but have a hard time paying for something I can make.
here's the rear weights and hitch/weight hanger. the cast purchased wieghts at 42lbs and cost about 50-60 bucks. Mine weigh 56-58lbs each and cost me about an hours time each. (cutting and welding all the scrap).

I picked this bucket up last night for a whopping 40 bucks. The original Blackhawk loader had a 50" bucket. Mine was only 41". This bucket came off of an old little skid steer and measures 53" wide. It is in good shape except the bottom is rotted from sitting so long. A piece of sheet 53"x12" will make it like new. It weighs just Over 200lbs, but once I remove all the quick attach stuff it should be closer to 150ish. I'm going to remove the welded on teeth and make up a removable tooth bar so I can use the bucket for many tasks, and probably use three of the teeth for my front hoe project.

(broken image removed)

I traded a 12 pack of coors light for a sheet of 10ga

(broken image removed)

 

[Freakingstang]

yes, I said front Hoe.....

Got some ideas from surfing the net. I have to install a bunch of drain pipe and other uses around the ranch. I don't have a "need" for a full blown backhoe. this should work better than a shovel.... I will remove the front bucket from my front end loader and install this via a quick connect/quick attach like my forks and bucket. I have another singel spool valve that will get mounted to operate this,and the grapple for my hay forks.
I had most of the material laying around. I cut out some 1/4 for the bucket with a plasma cutter that I had stockpiled. the bucket measures about 10" wide. I used a 5 gallon bucket for the contour.

Its not done. I still have to make another pivot point for the cylinder to bucket linkage. have to drill some more holes and then fab up a mounting plate my my quick attach front end and the cylinder mount. just been slowly plugging away at it when I have free time

 

[Freakingstang]

and yes, this is a stout little tractor... just like a full size, high and low 3 speed gear box (3 speed for Hi and 3 for Low). in low this thing will pull a house. This was the whole reason I got the tractor to begin with to re-grade my property:

This was my front yard after weeks of no rain and 75-80 degree temps this spring. just after driving over it a couple of times...
basically I had a swamp in my front yard and back yard, ground tapered towards house... so I dug out the mushy spots and brought it to higher ground and let it dry out.
I bought this 48" box blade for 150 bucks from a dealer. Cleaned it all up and repainted it with POR15 then misted on some equipment yellow spray bomb before it was dry..

So I tore it up... scooped out all the muck and took it to higher ground to dry out....

strapped on this 'ratchet rake' (meant to be strapped on a front bucket for sappling removal, finish grading, etc.

after a couple weeks...I had grass....

four inches of rain yesterday.... other than a few bald spots where I need to reseed, no water or swampy issues..

 

[Freakingstang]

back yard.... I ended up taking about 3 to 3 1/2 feet out of the back cornerwhere the fence and the garage meet. I dug out the muck, I spread it out beside the garage to dry out. Then after a few days drying, i dug some more creating a taper to the back corner. The property slopes to the left, so I"m going to run drain pipe down the width of my property and end it at the opposite corner to the low point of the property ditchline.

 

[Jags]

Outstanding.

 

[Stegman]

You had me at "Angry beaver."

 

[Freakingstang]

Sorry for all the pics to those users still on dialup. I didn't know that still existed. I just copied and pasted all of this from my build thread on tractorbynet

 

[firefighterjake]

Sorry for all the pics to those users still on dialup. I didn't know that still existed. I just copied and pasted all of this from my build thread on tractorbynet

If you went to the thumbnail option that would help . . .

 

[Jags]

Sorry for all the pics to those users still on dialup. I didn't know that still existed. I just copied and pasted all of this from my build thread on tractorbynet

I am a member over there too, just not a frequent flyer.
I just heard Craigs server gasp for air.

 

[Freakingstang]

It would have taken 3 hours to upload all those pics to another server... lol

I'm building a 5 foot landplane right now as well. sorry no pictures of that...

 

[Eatonpcat]

My wife had an Angry Beaver once...Not a good time in my life!

 

[semipro]

Nice box blade.
I've used the split (4-way) bucket on a backhoe before to in the same manner as a box bladed for grading.
When I finally got a tractor with a front end loader it led me to wonder if I'd be better off investing in a box blade or a split front bucket. The split bucket would be oh so nice for moving brush and other stuff around.

 

[ScotO]

Jealous...

Wife says a welder would be a silly purchase. "You don't need that."

Mine used to say that, but I bought a used MIG many moons ago, rebuilt it, and I now couldn't live without it....

Now, the time has come to break the news to her that I absolutely NEED a TIG machine (already have a Miller in my sights).....
Wait til she finds out it costs over 4 grand

 

[MasterMech]

A shop without a welder is like a home without a refrigerator.

Neighbors Millermatic 140 has taken up residence under my recycled ping pong table workbench. Rent free of course

But as we have discussed before, as useful as the 140 is, I need a bit more.

Have fridge in the shop too.