Thanks for all the replies guys. Can anyone take a guess at what it might run me to have it welded? I found a guy that does mobile repair; he's saying $500-600 but to be honest I have no idea if that's reasonable. He's about 15 miles away, so he's not driving halfway across the state or anything, but I'm sure he's built travel time into the price.
Bucket Arms For Front Loader Broke - Weld? Replace? Scrap?
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Gary Fowler
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If he is furnishing the doubler (fish plates) then that is a good price. I would think a rig welder would charge around $50-75 per hour just for rig, labor and consumables. Any steel needed would be extra cost.
Every one with a tractor should be able to weld because sooner or later you will break something. If you bought a MIG welding machine for about that amount of money, a welder might fix it for around $100 and then you would have the machine to practice with.
Alternately: Since most of the welding is flat/horizontal, it would not take a lot of practice to fix that yourself even for a noob welder.
Every one with a tractor should be able to weld because sooner or later you will break something. If you bought a MIG welding machine for about that amount of money, a welder might fix it for around $100 and then you would have the machine to practice with.
Alternately: Since most of the welding is flat/horizontal, it would not take a lot of practice to fix that yourself even for a noob welder.
sd455dan
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Good advice given and- definitely agree with fish plating the outside of the lift arms,
also you may want to drill a small hole at the bottom of each arm.
Zoom into the far right side of your bottom/last picture.
It appears the tube is swollen, a sign water has intruded and frozen at some point, causing distortion of the welded tube.
My Ford 3000 loader did that and drilling small holes allowed the water to drain which stopped the distortion/damage when freezing.
Good Luck- a Good welder should have you back up and working in no time :thumbsup:
I actually built this house with a massive garage specifically so I can restore old cars with my son. Old cars mean rust, and rist means welding. So you're more right than you know. Unfortunately, I just have too many things going on right now to dive into it.
shaeff
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That's been failing for a while and just recently let go. You can see the rust in the break on the right side, everything else is clean. That's an easy fix. The price for the mobile welder isn't bad at all. Way cheaper than a whole new loader. As others have said, V it out, tack it straight, burn it in. Grind welds flush, fishplate. I like rounded off fishplates with a hole in the center so I can plug weld it. You get more weld surface that way which makes it stronger. Never had one fail doing it like that.
Old Guy in Tenn
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Probably important to make sure welder ground is good and near the weld, to avoid stray current affecting tractor electrical.
Maybe someone with more experience than me will chime in on this.
Maybe someone with more experience than me will chime in on this.
shaeff
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While this is generally good practice, I've never had an issue with it. I tend to take the cables off the battery as an extra safety factor. I've welded on cars, tractors, mowers, lots of things with motors and charging systems and never had an issue. That, however, is anecdotal evidence and each case my vary. As such, take precautions as mentioned, it certainly can't hurt.
dieselcrawler
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Lots of sound advice posted above.
Common stress point on loaders, I repaired one of my buddy's, 1986 Kubota 2850 with Woods Du-Al 105 loader. Many years of being used beyond design ratings (read: heavy abuse by many, including myself!) lead to the left arm breaking off like this one posted, I repaired as described, welded where broke, plated over welded seam, added gusset in corner from horizontal member to loader arm, and returned to service. The other side had been broken also, and repaired previously.
$500-$600 for a competent welder to come to you and make quality repairs is reasonable in my book. I would prefer the repairs take place with the loader still on the tractor, to ensure correct alignment and no twisted frame issues.
Good luck... let us know how it goes.
Common stress point on loaders, I repaired one of my buddy's, 1986 Kubota 2850 with Woods Du-Al 105 loader. Many years of being used beyond design ratings (read: heavy abuse by many, including myself!) lead to the left arm breaking off like this one posted, I repaired as described, welded where broke, plated over welded seam, added gusset in corner from horizontal member to loader arm, and returned to service. The other side had been broken also, and repaired previously.
$500-$600 for a competent welder to come to you and make quality repairs is reasonable in my book. I would prefer the repairs take place with the loader still on the tractor, to ensure correct alignment and no twisted frame issues.
Good luck... let us know how it goes.
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