Where to weld bucket hooks?

[JB4310]

With all this advice about not putting the hooks outside the lift arms, which by the way I am in complete agreement with, then why are tooth bars the rage when you are basically putting a hook on the outside edge of your bucket?

You could catch the corner of a bucket even without teeth, and still get that flipping effect. That's why ballast is so important. but with your tooth bar you are normally engaging the ground evenly. I've never had a tooth bar but I guess you may have to be a little more careful not to just use one side of bucket when trying to break out something.

JB.

 

[magicheater]

You could catch the corner of a bucket even without teeth, and still get that flipping effect. That's why ballast is so important. but with your tooth bar you are normally engaging the ground evenly. I've never had a tooth bar but I guess you may have to be a little more careful not to just use one side of bucket when trying to break out something.
JB.

Seems contradictory to me that when you add a tooth bar to be aggressive you then have to be careful (less aggressive) after adding it. But this thread is about hooks and not tooth bars, sorry.

 

[Thick82558]

I use the Receiver in the middle of my bucket with a drop hitch slid into receiver. It works wonderful. In the receiver you can slip many hitches drop hitch,one with hook for chain,one with hook for strap sling,one with a clevis. Many uses for center receiver

 

[Dargo]

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That sounds interesting. Care to explain how you get the ball that low.

Uh, are you serious? All you have to do is roll your bucket forward.

 

[Dargo]

I think you are right on the outer hooks
I wonder if any hooks other than the center
One can bend your FEL. Because I have picked
Up on a fence post to pull it out of ground and
my hooks are in line with my arms and it pulled
My tractor down. But it did not bend my FEL. So
I think I will cut my hooks off and
Use my center receiver only. That would be one
Expensive fence post. I saved many yrs to get my tractor
I would hate to tweak it out on a numbskull thing like a
Fence post

One very useful feature you can take advantage of using just one hook in line with your loader arm is pulling 'things'. I generally don't bother to put a hitch in the center receiver if I just need to pull some logs out of a pile of drag them out of tall grass if the tree fell into thickets when cut down. Sure, if the item being pulled is too large, you'll slide sideways a bit, but that generally means it's too big anyway. Something that is that taxing to pull should be pulled with your drawbar. It should be your strongest attachment point for pulling anything.

 

[Deere Dude]

Couldn't agree more

Some may be tired of seeing my "Bucket Buddy" since I post this pic of all the acs. when ever the subject come up.

JB

That is the same kind of bucket I have. When bolting the hitch on, did you put a stiffener plate under the nuts in the bucket. I want to do that same thing but it seems the bucket has a 1/2"air gap which I would worry about squashing when torquing down the bolts??

 

[JB4310]

Seems contradictory to me that when you add a tooth bar to be aggressive you then have to be careful (less aggressive) after adding it. But this thread is about hooks and not tooth bars, sorry.

You brought up a good point, if you try to lift something heavy or stationary with just one side of your bucket, you will get the same effect as lifting from just one outboard (inline with cylinders) hook. You could possibly tweak your loader, but for sure without enough ballast you will lift the opposite rear wheel off the ground, if you went far enough, it could lay the machine over.

That is the same kind of bucket I have. When bolting the hitch on, did you put a stiffener plate under the nuts in the bucket. I want to do that same thing but it seems the bucket has a 1/2"air gap which I would worry about squashing when torquing down the bolts??

I have to double check on the bottom plate, I think I did add it after. But I know for sure I was worried about crushing the 2 walls that make up the bucket top, so what I did was add a sleeve between the 2 walls, a piece of steel pipe large enough for the bolt to fit in, over drilled the top wall so pipe could drop in, but drilled the bottom only large enough for the bolt.

That way I could crank it down to my hearts delight and it would only go so far. These double wall HD bucket tops must be pretty tough, cause even with the heaviest thing I have lifted (full ballast box) There was zero deflection in the top of the bucket.

But even if someone had to reinforce the bucket top, it would be well worth it to be able to have a center mount receiver tube :thumbsup:

JB

 

[HSSC]

This is how I did my front bucket hooks. I put a 2 inch receiver in the middle and 2, 1 inch receivers on the ends of a 1/4 inch 3"x2" piece of angle. Bolted and welded to the bucket. I also notched the angle iron for chain with reinforcement. I carry with the tractor the piece for the 2 inch receiver at all times and when needed just reverse it around as needed. On the ends I can put any type of device I can dream up which includes hooks. The last pic is the 1 inch receiver on the end. Kind of hard to see as we are getting yet another snow storm. Getting close to one hundred inches at the house and 500 inches at the local ski resort, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe.

 

[Ivan1547]

Here is a link to another post...

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/customization/149200-bucket-hooks-d-ring.html

 

[grsthegreat]

ok.. i surrender. i vise gripped the receiver hitch to the top of my bucket to see how i could get one to mount there and work. it would work for the gooseneck - no problem

but no mater how i rotate the bucket, i cant get it to pick up my bumper pull trailers.

so im moving to the dark side. im going to cut off the 3/8" hook i welded on the center of the bucket, install a upper 3/16 steel plate and a lower 3/16 plate inside the bucket. these will be 42" x 5" wide on top, and narrower inside.

i ordered the steel today, and will plasma cut the 1" shank hole. I'm going to put the 2-5/16 ball right up on top of the bucket. leave it on permanent.

then I'm going to make a portable clamp device for the lower bucket lip to move my other equipment. i vise gripped a prototype on there today...will work great. it will just bolt down when needed, and unbolt when not needed.

will get pics after i make them. Now onto the AutoCad software to design the dang thing.

 

[SandburRanch]

ok.. i surrender. i vise gripped the receiver hitch to the top of my bucket to see how i could get one to mount there and work. it would work for the gooseneck - no problem

but no mater how i rotate the bucket, i cant get it to pick up my bumper pull trailers.

so im moving to the dark side. im going to cut off the 3/8" hook i welded on the center of the bucket, install a upper 3/16 steel plate and a lower 3/16 plate inside the bucket. these will be 42" x 5" wide on top, and narrower inside.

i ordered the steel today, and will plasma cut the 1" shank hole. I'm going to put the 2-5/16 ball right up on top of the bucket. leave it on permanent.

then I'm going to make a portable clamp device for the lower bucket lip to move my other equipment. i vise gripped a prototype on there today...will work great. it will just bolt down when needed, and unbolt when not needed.

will get pics after i make them. Now onto the AutoCad software to design the dang thing.

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QUOTE: Dargo - Uh, are you serious? All you have to do is roll your bucket forward.

 

[grsthegreat]

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QUOTE: Dargo - Uh, are you serious? All you have to do is roll your bucket forward.

i used a 8" drop hitch, and rolled it as far foreword as i could. i couldn't even see the ball anymore, so i had someone else guide me in...no go. i was nearly 75-80 degrees and still the bottom of the bucket scraped the ground. i lifted the tongue as far as it would go...nope.

my bucket on the Kioti is just too tall.

doesn't matter, i was a little leery of the pressures exerted from a 1500# goodneck leveraged out 8" from the bucket with the reverse drop hitch. this way the weight will all be on the bucket. total build time on the top ball will be less then 30 minutes. (plus painting). I placed a rubber pad on the bucket ledge and tested picking up the trailer.....worked great.

i can fab the lower adjustable hitch in about 60-90 minutes. it will take an additional 1 to 1-1/2 hr to do the art. the planning always takes me longer than the assembly.

and besides...this is the kind of work i love to do.

beats fencing

 

[grsthegreat]

ok....i spent about an hour redesigning what i want to make. ran it thru the cad program, ran that thru the vextractor program, then ran that thru a program called Enroute to set the cut parameters and do the nesting to save on materials as much as practical. Im cutting the parts out of a 24" x 48" piece of 1/4" plate stock i have laying around. a bit rusty but will clean up ok.

ill cut the 1/4" plate material tomorrow...if time permits and weld it all together. The amazing thing about cnc plasma cutting is i can cut these parts out in a few minutes, and pick up the pieces almost immediately after by my bare hands.....not sure how that works, but the metal doesn't get very hot. 30 seconds cooling time is all it usually needs for 1/8" stock, about 45-60 sec for 1/4" plate.

heres a lame picture of the nested art work. the program doesn't have a good way to send a copy to my printer. i have to do it a round-about way and convert that to a JPG to post. Ill take a few pics while cutting and after cut.

 

[Dargo]

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QUOTE: Dargo - Uh, are you serious? All you have to do is roll your bucket forward.

Yup, that's all I've had to do for the last 15 years or so with several different tractors with different buckets. You'd have to have a really short insert, a really odd bucket, or a tractor with very poor forward roll for it to not work. Attached is a pic of a double ball insert (2" and 2 5/16") that will easily jam into the ground. Even if you had a bumper pull (which would be a 2" ball 99% of the time), as you can see, I could pick it up off the ground. Pictured it is on a Kubota 5030 and I easily move my pintle hitch trailer, dual tandem 20k GN trailer (trailer weighs over 7k) and a 7k bumper pull car trailer. Simply put, it ain't that complicated.

 

[grsthegreat]

Yup, that's all I've had to do for the last 15 years or so with several different tractors with different buckets. You'd have to have a really short insert, a really odd bucket, or a tractor with very poor forward roll for it to not work. Attached is a pic of a double ball insert (2" and 2 5/16") that will easily jam into the ground. Even if you had a bumper pull (which would be a 2" ball 99% of the time), as you can see, I could pick it up off the ground. Pictured it is on a Kubota 5030 and I easily move my pintle hitch trailer, dual tandem 20k GN trailer (trailer weighs over 7k) and a 7k bumper pull car trailer. Simply put, it ain't that complicated.

the way you did it, it might work on mine. but id never be able to see the ball and hitch line up to connect the two. i took a piece of square tube and vise gripped it to my tractor, made it about 15" long, rolled the bucket down so it would line up with the hitch. i can see how you can roll the ball into the hitch. but there was NO WAY i could see the contact point from inside the cab of my tractor. i stood up until my head was plastered on the ceiling....nope.

do you have a cab tractor? i can see how an open station tractor would work, as if i stand out on the side step i can see it. this would be too much of a pain in the a** to use for my situation.

 

[JB4310]

No need to have the hitch reach the ground, who's trailer is that low :confused2:
Raise the trailer tongue a little.

You can't see the ball or coupler with your rear mounted hitch on your truck.

I use my bucket mounted receiver to move 3 different trailers all the time, with zero issues and surgical precision placement of trailer :thumbsup:

JB.

 

[Dargo]

the way you did it, it might work on mine. but id never be able to see the ball and hitch line up to connect the two. i took a piece of square tube and vise gripped it to my tractor, made it about 15" long, rolled the bucket down so it would line up with the hitch. i can see how you can roll the ball into the hitch. but there was NO WAY i could see the contact point from inside the cab of my tractor. i stood up until my head was plastered on the ceiling....nope.

do you have a cab tractor? i can see how an open station tractor would work, as if i stand out on the side step i can see it. this would be too much of a pain in the a** to use for my situation.

Sorry to hear the simple way won't work for you. As I said before, this is NOT my idea by any means. I most certainly copied it off of others who move trailers all day long with their tractors. I know of two boat dealerships and a trailer dealer who have used this method long before I ever thought of it.

I can't understand why it won't work for you. I don't own a tractor without a cab and I can see just fine. Sounds like a bummer that you have to go through a huge amount of work to achieve what others achieve in a few minutes of just welding a receiver on their loader. Good luck to you.

 

[grsthegreat]

well i understand it worked for you, but not for me. I have back issues and climbing in and out of the tractor is hard enuf some times. i want to be able to just drive up to the trailers (have 4 of them ) and hook up without having to climb out and align anything. I had a similar design on my loader JD, and it worked flawlessly.

as for hooking up my trailer to my truck, i use back up cameras when hitching. its called the swift hitch system. i can back right up and hitch up without getting out of the truck. i dont want to use this camera on the tractor because im afraid of breaking it. dont mind it in the truck,but the tractor is way too rough.

i guess it all boils down to being lazy and having a bad back.

 

[Dargo]

i guess it all boils down to being lazy and having a bad back.

Nah, it's called working smarter with age. Since my trailers are all inside my barn, on concrete, and I have a few thousand yards of concrete outside, all my trailer moving is done with my forklift. Same sort of idea as with an FEL, but with even more maneuverability. If I screw up and drop the back wheels off the concrete I'm screwed though. The first time I did that I used my track loader to pull it back up on the concrete and broke the axle. The only other time it happened, I used my excavator to lift and pull it back onto concrete.

 

[grsthegreat]

I replaced my middle bucket hook today with 2 separate hooks in line with the bucket arms.

After reading multiple post here, i decided maybe i best relocate my hooks.

I was adding a 3/8 upper plate and a 3/8 lower plate (inside bucket) to support a 2-5/16" trailer ball so i can move my wifes new horse trailer.

since i was having to add the steel plate anyways, why not make the plate larger and add the 2 bucket hooks. The plate stock was cut from my scrap pile. It took me 6 different stops to locate weldable bucket hooks....no one had them and i picked a real lousy day to forget my cell phone.

i left the outer 2 hooks but those are only used to prevent items from swinging.