front hitch on cut

[bwmarine]

Lot of good thoughts, appreciate the posts...

The only time I will be needing the front hitch is in the storage building when putting boats in between others that are just inches apart. The building has a concrete floor so the boats roll pretty easily... its just those with the tandom axles that are a pain when space gets tight. For moving boats around the lot the rear hitch should work just fine. Plan on getting something together within the next month or so before the boating season starts.

Dan

"I do agree with y'all though, if I had a FEL, I'd probably remove the bucket and fabricate a narrow plate to mount a hitch"

I do like this idea...

 

[farmboy12]

Lot of good thoughts, appreciate the posts...

The only time I will be needing the front hitch is in the storage building when putting boats in between others that are just inches apart. The building has a concrete floor so the boats roll pretty easily... its just those with the tandom axles that are a pain when space gets tight. For moving boats around the lot the rear hitch should work just fine. Plan on getting something together within the next month or so before the boating season starts.

Dan

"I do agree with y'all though, if I had a FEL, I'd probably remove the bucket and fabricate a narrow plate to mount a hitch"

I do like this idea...

You'd be surprised at how many people steal other people's ideas on TBN. Really is a great place!


Kyle

 

[Leejohn]

Dan I see you got the ideal. I used 1 1/2" steel for the Y and the Cyl mount I can't remenber what I used. Now one side of that Y is stright and just long enough to go into the ground so you can get under the coupler that are right on the ground. I also had about 6" bent down just alittle to help getting under the ones on the ground. The Ball is welded on. The only bad thing I ran across was on rough ground and moving to fast it could jump off the ball.
I stored 280 boats and when going in I would stage them by pulling one on the back and one on the front. Drop the one in back and go on into the warehouse with the front one.
Make the tractor bracket so that you only have to take off the Y by pulling 3 pins and change the hoses, it well not be heavy at all. Even the wife could do it.
I don't have any pictures, that was back in late 70's or early 80's.

 

[Linework]

If you had a FEL I would recomend one of these. The only thing better is one of these on a bobcat/skidsteer ! I love mine for moving trailers and the boat around. ( Also made a handy mounting point for the snowplow )

 

[Blagadan]

If you had a FEL I would recomend one of these. The only thing better is one of these on a bobcat/skidsteer ! I love mine for moving trailers and the boat around. ( Also made a handy mounting point for the snowplow )
View attachment 121489

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin about!!!


Nice setup linework!

 

[oldhippy]

I built a front bumper for my tractor that had a 2" hitch built in the middle of it. I moved trailers around with it, worked quite well. Sorry about distance from bumper this was the only picture that I had. I gave the bumper to another TBN member when I bought a FEL. big dan

 

[John D]

I built this one. I had to make it long enough so I could see it over the 5103 hood but it could be cut down.

 

[Diamondpilot]

I deal in boats also and just put a Reese Hitch on the top of my FEL Bucket. The one change I would make is to run a heavy piece of plate or a piece of 1/4" wall 2.5"x2.5" tube to stiffen up the top of the bucket. It flexes a little with a big boat like the one in my avatar on it.

Having it on the FEL helps with the tandem or triple axle trailers. You can lift up the front axle or just lighten the load on it.

Here is a picture with my boom pole in it.

Chris

 

[bwmarine]

Thanks All, what ever I come up with I will take pics and post...

Dan

 

[MossRoad]

I used to stack airplane hangars for a living, so I find this subject very interesting. Here are some thoughts I have for you...

You could put three different balls directly inside the front of your bucket, about 4" apart. The advantage of a bucket mounted ball is that you can tip it down and under a hitch and lift it up and move the trailer without ever getting off the tractor. The bad part is... you can't see it at all!

Also, the bucket is wide. That means you have to pay extra attention to the edges or your other boats will get hangar rash.

Having the balls farther out in front of the tractor will give you greater mobility side to side with less forward/backward movement of the tractor VS having them up close to the front of the tractor. Side to side movement is very important when stacking a hangar, so I imagine it would be the same with boats.

If you are going to take the loader off, why not just take the bucket off instead and have a hitch with three balls fabricated to fit in place of the bucket? Have it fabricated so that you can see the balls from the operator's seat. Then, you can use the FEL controls to lower and tilt the balls to slip under the trailer's hitch, then lift and curl to raise the front of the trailer just enough to get a little pressure off the jack stand. Then off you go, never having to get of the tractor.

 

[MossRoad]

Or, you could get a Power Trac like mine and get a towing adapter and be all done.

 

[MossRoad]

This is what we used to stack hangars with. We had a ball hitch attachment for moving trailers with it, too. It moved up and down about a foot with the push of a lever. Very easy to move things with. We could move really large twin engine planes with these things. Amazing what a lawn tractor can do.

 

[farmboy12]

This is what we used to stack hangars with. We had a ball hitch attachment for moving trailers with it, too. It moved up and down about a foot with the push of a lever. Very easy to move things with. We could move really large twin engine planes with these things. Amazing what a lawn tractor can do.

Very interesting...


Kyle

 

[Leejohn]

MossRoad,
Your Power Trac looks like it would be the nuts for moving boats. I bet you can see the hitch real good.

 

[patrick_g]

A local trailer manufacturer uses a ball on the end of a pallet fork to manuever trailers in close quarters. The sketch posted earlier with the hydraulic lift is nice but tilts the ball when raised and lowered. A little more complicated device (parallelogram type arrangement) will raise and lower without tilting the ball.

I find the front bumper mounted receivers on my one ton Dodge to be pretty handy, even though not adjustable but for a situation where you do this a lot the hydraulics would be a terrific improvement to a static ball on the front of the tractor and wouldn't have to "stick out" all that far in front.

Pat

 

[jinman]

This is what we used to stack hangars with. We had a ball hitch attachment for moving trailers with it, too. It moved up and down about a foot with the push of a lever. Very easy to move things with. We could move really large twin engine planes with these things. Amazing what a lawn tractor can do.

Okay, I'll bite. Was the steering on the lawn tractors reworked to operate hydraulic rams and articulate the towing dolly for steering? None of the pictures are big enough to actually see the mechanism, but since the steering wheels were left in place, I can only assume they were not just to hold onto.

BTW: for all those who want to see the cutting edge mounted trailer balls, you could easily cut a window in the back of your loader bucket and cover it with expanded metal. Very few things you lift with the bucket will come through the expanded metal and you could see a center ball mount near the cutting edge. If you did this kind of thing a lot, that could let you easily use your FEL bucket. By welding a receiver tube inside the bucket, you could do the conversion quickly.

 

[J_J]

Why not just install a truck mirror on the hood to look down on the ball

 

[J_J]

OK, I finally found a picture of the ideal set up for me. These forks was purchased for about $160, and adapted to my
Power-Trac 1445. I also use it to lift other things, engines, tires, welder generators, etc.

 

[George2615]

Thanks All, what ever I come up with I will take pics and post...

Dan

Dan,
I did what JB did except he bolted his to the bucket. I reinforced the top of my bucket with a piece of 2x2 angle and welded a receiver in the middle.

 

[patrick_g]

Why not just install a truck mirror on the hood to look down on the ball

I have seen CCD "BACKUP" cameras with wireless remote LCD monitor for $60 that would give you a great view.

I use a convex mirror on a U shaped mount that fits over the top of the tailgate on my 1 Ton Dodge and gives a good view of the ball except when the lighting is not good like wrong sun angle, glare, and so forth (about 1/2 the time it is hard to see.) A spritz of white paint on the ball and a bit on top of the coupler really helps with the visibility.

Pat