Island Farmer
Silver Member
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2011
- Messages
- 102
- Location
- San Juan Islands, WA
- Tractor
- John Deere 5085M, Bobcat A300, Cat V50E forklift, Komatsu PC60-7
My question is for anyone who has a JD H260 loader with a skid steer carrier. Could you tell me how wide the carrier is, and have you had any problems mounting your attachments?
I bought a 2011 5085M over two years ago. I ordered it with the skid steer carrier. Before making the purchase of the tractor and loader and a number of implements, I had the JD salesman come out to my farm. I showed him my Bobcat A300 and the many attachments that I have for it. I told him that I was not going to buy a bucket, but instead would use my Bobcat bucket, he agreed that it was very heavy duty and the right size for the tractor and that it made sense. I also explained that along with my bucket, pallet forks, and hay spear, I intended to use my grapple and auger on the H260 and would therefore want it to be plumbed with the skid steer flat faced couplers that are standard for all modern skid steers. Based on my experiences with Bobcat, Cat, Kubota, and more recently Komatsu, I expected that when I received my new tractor and loader it would be ready to work. Instead, the H260 had the JD ag style quick coupler on the front of the loader, but far more frustrating was that the skid steer carrier was 44.75" wide. What was unfortunate about this was that the industry standard for skid steer attachment plates (the plate on the attachment) is 44.5". Because by design these carriers are not flexible, the carrier has to be smaller than the attachment plate in order for the attachment to fit.
Two years later, I am STILL trying to get this worked out. I now know that Bobcat, Kubota and Gehl all make their carriers between 43.75 and 44.25 inches. The widest carrier I have measured so far was on a couple of John Deere skid steers, which were both close to 44.37", which is too wide to be in the ideal range. The vertical dimension of the carrier has to be precise. The attachments are held onto the carrier because of the proper fit of the vertical dimension which should be between 16.57" and 16.65", and the locking pins. The horizontal dimension of the attachment plate should be 44.50". This is all described in the SAE spec. J2513. Therefore the carrier needs to be narrower than the 44.50" of the attachment plates, ideally giving some wiggle room when mounting the attachment to the machine. That's why, for example, Kubota makes theirs about 44.00".
If there are any engineers out there, maybe you can explain to me why the SAE J2513 spec. only describes the attachment plate dimensions, but does not describe the carrier plate dimensions? To me that is kind of like describing the nut dimensions, but leaving manufacturers to figure out how they'd like to design their screws to mate with those nuts.
When you order an H260 loader you have only two carriers to choose from, either the Global Carrier or the skid steer carrier. I would think that it would be easy to get to the bottom of this issue, but it sure hasn't been for me. I cannot get a straight answer out of JD about the spec'd dimensions of their own skid steer carrier, even after putting in a request straight to the factory.
As far as the dealer: After months of trying to convince the dealer that there was a problem with my skid steer carrier, they asked me to send pictures and measurements and then made me wait for months more. Finally they learned that there was a recall issue with the skid steer carrier. At that point they picked up the tractor and took it to their shop. They said that the recall was to lock the two sides of the carrier into a flat plane. They then said that at the same time they could solve my width issue by squeezing the boom arms together when they locked the two sides of the carrier together. I got the tractor back with the assurance that the carrier was now under 44.50" and that therefore it would finally be possible for me to mount my attachments. In fact, the carrier was exactly 44.50" -- a change that did allow me to mount some of my attachments, but unfortunately not all.
Any thoughts or assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Finally, I would like to again thank the guys on Tractorbynet who originally helped me with my purchase decision. I stopped participating on Tractorbynet because I was so unhappy about my experience with the tractor. I just continued to use my other machines so that I wouldn't have to think about the unresolved issues. Really, with the exception of the defective skid steer carrier, the tractor has lived up to the good reputation it has. My unhappy experience has been because of a dealership that is in my opinion not focused on customer service. To date I have 65 hours on the tractor, in the same time frame I have put hundreds of hours on my Bobcat and excavator.
I bought a 2011 5085M over two years ago. I ordered it with the skid steer carrier. Before making the purchase of the tractor and loader and a number of implements, I had the JD salesman come out to my farm. I showed him my Bobcat A300 and the many attachments that I have for it. I told him that I was not going to buy a bucket, but instead would use my Bobcat bucket, he agreed that it was very heavy duty and the right size for the tractor and that it made sense. I also explained that along with my bucket, pallet forks, and hay spear, I intended to use my grapple and auger on the H260 and would therefore want it to be plumbed with the skid steer flat faced couplers that are standard for all modern skid steers. Based on my experiences with Bobcat, Cat, Kubota, and more recently Komatsu, I expected that when I received my new tractor and loader it would be ready to work. Instead, the H260 had the JD ag style quick coupler on the front of the loader, but far more frustrating was that the skid steer carrier was 44.75" wide. What was unfortunate about this was that the industry standard for skid steer attachment plates (the plate on the attachment) is 44.5". Because by design these carriers are not flexible, the carrier has to be smaller than the attachment plate in order for the attachment to fit.
Two years later, I am STILL trying to get this worked out. I now know that Bobcat, Kubota and Gehl all make their carriers between 43.75 and 44.25 inches. The widest carrier I have measured so far was on a couple of John Deere skid steers, which were both close to 44.37", which is too wide to be in the ideal range. The vertical dimension of the carrier has to be precise. The attachments are held onto the carrier because of the proper fit of the vertical dimension which should be between 16.57" and 16.65", and the locking pins. The horizontal dimension of the attachment plate should be 44.50". This is all described in the SAE spec. J2513. Therefore the carrier needs to be narrower than the 44.50" of the attachment plates, ideally giving some wiggle room when mounting the attachment to the machine. That's why, for example, Kubota makes theirs about 44.00".
If there are any engineers out there, maybe you can explain to me why the SAE J2513 spec. only describes the attachment plate dimensions, but does not describe the carrier plate dimensions? To me that is kind of like describing the nut dimensions, but leaving manufacturers to figure out how they'd like to design their screws to mate with those nuts.
When you order an H260 loader you have only two carriers to choose from, either the Global Carrier or the skid steer carrier. I would think that it would be easy to get to the bottom of this issue, but it sure hasn't been for me. I cannot get a straight answer out of JD about the spec'd dimensions of their own skid steer carrier, even after putting in a request straight to the factory.
As far as the dealer: After months of trying to convince the dealer that there was a problem with my skid steer carrier, they asked me to send pictures and measurements and then made me wait for months more. Finally they learned that there was a recall issue with the skid steer carrier. At that point they picked up the tractor and took it to their shop. They said that the recall was to lock the two sides of the carrier into a flat plane. They then said that at the same time they could solve my width issue by squeezing the boom arms together when they locked the two sides of the carrier together. I got the tractor back with the assurance that the carrier was now under 44.50" and that therefore it would finally be possible for me to mount my attachments. In fact, the carrier was exactly 44.50" -- a change that did allow me to mount some of my attachments, but unfortunately not all.
Any thoughts or assistance would be greatly appreciated.
Finally, I would like to again thank the guys on Tractorbynet who originally helped me with my purchase decision. I stopped participating on Tractorbynet because I was so unhappy about my experience with the tractor. I just continued to use my other machines so that I wouldn't have to think about the unresolved issues. Really, with the exception of the defective skid steer carrier, the tractor has lived up to the good reputation it has. My unhappy experience has been because of a dealership that is in my opinion not focused on customer service. To date I have 65 hours on the tractor, in the same time frame I have put hundreds of hours on my Bobcat and excavator.