Thoughts On Lining Up Bucket to Front End Loader

[Smokeydog]

B26 ssqa bucket and backhoe qa buckets have flares or wings to help guide. Small tractor has a good site line anyway. They all should be made that way.

Bigger tractors I can’t see and often store FEL implements just inside the drip line of a barn or shed with uneven ground compounding the problem. Welding 1.5x0.5” flat bars on the sides at 45 degrees helped considerably. Attachment just want to jump on now. Greatly reducing time and frustration.

Grapple. Built with tight side to side tolerance that any unlevel up hook was hard.

Hitch plate. Added wings in build.

Just using a grinder and beveling the inside sides of the implement hitch helps some. Wings make it easy. Still have a few more attachments to fix.

 

[SmallChange]

I've been wondering about putting a mirror just under the front of my canopy. It'd need to be close to horizontal. I have used nice convex golf cart rear view mirrors before, though at this location a few feet away from my eyes the convexity would need to be very slight.

Anybody done something like this?

 

[scootr]

I have one mounted in this location. I have a 60" roof so the mirror may be 48" from my eyes. There are a lot of different miorrors out there with a lot of different configurations of vertical as well as horizontal curve.
The very best I have found is this golf cart mirror. Red Hawk
Depending upon the rigidity of your roof the mirror may vibrate and reduce visibility.

 

[MUDONTHETIRES]

B26 ssqa bucket and backhoe qa buckets have flares or wings to help guide. Small tractor has a good site line anyway. They all should be made that way.

Bigger tractors I can’t see and often store FEL implements just inside the drip line of a barn or shed with uneven ground compounding the problem. Welding 1.5x0.5” flat bars on the sides at 45 degrees helped considerably. Attachment just want to jump on now. Greatly reducing time and frustration.
View attachment 771599
Grapple. Built with tight side to side tolerance that any unlevel up hook was hard.
View attachment 771600
Hitch plate. Added wings in build.

Just using a grinder and beveling the inside sides of the implement hitch helps some. Wings make it easy. Still have a few more attachments to fix.

Awesome!

 

[npalen]

My Westendorf SSQA bucket has a vertically angled guide at each end so that as the loader lifts up it forces the attachment sideways to align the pins.

 

[scaredychicken]

I put the implements on the edge of a pallet at ground level, seems to give me the 3-4 inches required to clear the QA.

I have more issues with the 3 pt hitch

 

[SmallChange]

The very best I have found is this golf cart mirror. Red Hawk

We will see! I just ordered one.

It does look more straightforward to mount than the three I have used so far (though for two of my three I needed some side to side adjustability that this one does not appear to provide). For the ones I have used so far, which might have been truck mirrors now that I think about it, they required a bar to clamp onto. I bought a round bar and several stanchions to mount the bar to my canopy supports, and the mirrors to the bar. It's a very nice setup, but I fooled around for maybe a year trying to find a simpler cheaper way, and then spent way too much to make that work.

 

[scootr]

The 180ºview is about as wide as any mirror can go without big fisheye distortion. I used this mirror on my old tractor mounted to the front of the roof in the right corner. In this location the mirror wasn't filled with my face as it is when mounted in the center of the roof. Try to clamp it on in a different places when deciding where to mount it.

 

[deezler]

Huh. This is a problem I hadn't heard of before. The whole point of front loader SSQA is convenience, that definitely sucks if you can't see the brackets. Even if you stand up on the tractor?

Elevating the implements like the shelf idea should help. Mine are all usually on the ground and I can just drive right up and scoop em without hardly looking. Guess my loader design is optimal.

 

[scootr]

Huh. This is a problem I hadn't heard of before. The whole point of front loader SSQA is convenience, that definitely sucks if you can't see the brackets. Even if you stand up on the tractor?

Elevating the implements like the shelf idea should help. Mine are all usually on the ground and I can just drive right up and scoop em without hardly looking. Guess my loader design is optimal.

No my MX I can see one side when looking between the loader arm and he hood.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Lining up the SSQA was always a snap on my open station tractors. It's easy when you can stand to see the brackets. No can do on the new cab machine though.

 

[deezler]

Lining up the SSQA was always a snap on my open station tractors. It's easy when you can stand to see the brackets. No can do on the new cab machine though.

You cant stand up in the cab? Get your eyes right up to the top of the front windshield - still can't see the ssqa brackets? oof.

 

[WinterDeere]

Store the implements on stacked up pallets of build an elevated shelf

View attachment 771248

Beautiful rack, but have you ever thought of putting a roof on it to protect your implements?

 

[Ken45101]

It's just easier to see the contact points on some tractors than others. I read the LS or NH tractors had a very sloping hood and loader arms making SSQA easier to see.
The MX Kubota is not too bad to see. But nothing come close to the ease of connecting implements on the Bobcat

Yes, exactly! Everything is lose sand visible on my skid steer and all I have to do is flip a switch. Everything is Invisible on my M5040, and manual latching if I succeed. You can guess which one I prefer, LOL.

 

[i7win7]

Beautiful rack, but have you ever thought of putting a roof on it to protect your implements?

A roof & 3 sides are a project for next year. Working solo I've built a bucking table, woodshed & stocked it and started the Kubota toybox

 

[mcfarmall]

I added some contrasting pipe marker tape on mine to help line up.

 

[SmallChange]

I read the LS or NH tractors had a very sloping hood and loader arms making SSQA easier to see.

I think the NH CUTs have two different loader arm shapes that would affect this. The Workmaster 25 CUT has arms that have straight segments and an angle in the middle, whereas the Boomer ones have curved arms. My Workmaster arms with the angles can interfere with this line of sight, but I just have to move around a little to see it. I wonder if the Boomer arms are much better for this issue.

 

[DaBear3428]

I use a wireless camera powered by a cordless tool battery. It has a dual magnetic base which will stick to any metal surface:

View attachment 771524 View attachment 771525

View attachment 771529 View attachment 771526

View attachment 771528 View attachment 771527

I store it in the cab and place it wherever it's needed. It can also be placed on the ground which sometimes gives a better view of the work operation.

mind sharing links or anything else about this project, i want to add a camera to mine and really like this idea of relocatable camera and monitor

 

[bdhsfz6]

mind sharing links or anything else about this project, i want to add a camera to mine and really like this idea of relocatable camera and monitor

Here's a link to the thread on how I made mine. Some questions were answered but if you have more, just ask:

Portable Tractor Camera System

I have a fairly cheap wireless camera system I use on one of my tractors. I occasionally need to use a camera on other equipment as well. Rather than buy multiple cameras, I converted the one I have into a portable rig. Although the camera video is wireless, both camera and display require...

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[mo1]

I’ve been running a tractor for a long time but with my newest addition, I’m having the hardest time lining up my bucket and forks. I can’t see the brackets because of the loader arms. Any ideas on an easy way to line them up? I’ve read putting a painted line on the quick attach plate and bucket and forks, but I haven’t done that yet. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated!

The skid loader QA is not easy to see on a tractor, standing up may help so you can look down at it. It is really easy to see on a skid loader though, it's right there in front of you.

I've used loader attachments on skid loader QA, Global/Euro, and JDQA. The latter two are much easier to get lined up than skid loader QA as it's much easier to see and catch the top hooks with the carrier than on skid loader QA. The spring-loaded rod on Global/Euro is almost as finicky as the levers are on skid loader QA to get fully seated though. However, all are tons easier than a pin-on bucket.