My Little Bolens Loader

[Leejohn]

Just one of the things I have been making on the days when you don't feel like doing the things I should be doing.
Been playing with it for about 4 weeks off and on. Still have some welding to do on it and have to pull the tractor apart to get all the bolts in.
I'm going to use 1.5" Hyd. cyl. It would look better with 1" but haven't found any yet. The Bolens has Hyd on it but I'm going to put a small pump on the front of the eng. The pump on the Bolens also feeds the trans and don't want to cut it short. I'm not going to be able to get the Cyls right away because of cash flow.
The Bolens was a round tube frame and I made it sq frame. It still has the engine that came with it, I did put O.S. piston & rings in it. I run it a lot, most of the time everyday. My shop is away from the house and I use it to go to and from. Over look the rust and the dirt on the bolens it has to come all apart and well be painted then. Also maybe a new engine.

Lee

 

[tlbuser]

Looks great so far. Did you fab the bucket too?

 

[Farmerford]

Very nice fabrication.

And an interesting shop, too: I'll bet the Bolens, barber pole, shoeshine chair, and Evinrude are about the same vintage.

 

[jimgerken]

I like the tapered loader arms. How did you make them? Can you include a few more photos up close of these arms please? Thanks!

 

[MrWoodChips]

Does anybody wonder whether this tractor, with anything actually in the bucket, would just tip over if it was actually capable of lifting that load off the ground? A full load in that bucket is very far forwards of the front wheels from these pictures. At the very least, it seems quite unstable. I'd recommend a large breakfast before use, so as to maximize your butt.

I'd definitely want suitcase weights on the rear end. What is the weight of the tractor itself? It looks like a rather light model. Let me guess that the tractor itself is 500-600 pounds, a fair amount of which is in the engine itself, and that sits on top of the front axle. I'll guess the wheelbase on the tractor is a little over 4 feet, so we can look at the tractor as a point load that sits roughly 2 feet back from the front axle. Let me be charitable, and say the tractor is a 600 pound point load sitting back 2.5 feet from the front axle.

How about the bucket? This must weigh in near 250-300 pounds at least from the pictures, especially if it has any strength in those arms to lift. And the bucket sits just about the same distance in front of the front axle as the wheelbase of the tractor. So approximate the empty bucket assembly as a 250 pound load that sits 4.5 feet in front of the axle.

These two lever arms just barely balance each other, and if you have a few hundred extra pounds of load in the bucket, it will tip over immediately unless balanced by someone in the seat. As I said, this will be unstable unless that tractor is one heck of a lot heavier than it looks.

John

 

[Leejohn]

tlbuser, The bucket started out as a front blade off of a small tractor and I done the rest.

Jimgerken, The taped arm are made out of 1 X 2.750 X .125 rectangular tube and I took 2 of them cut to my arms length. Then cut from one corner to the other corner and that gave me 4 wedges that I welded on the bottom of each arm. Just had to go slow with the welding.

Farmerford, yes thay are somewhat the same vintage. The Bolens is a 1256 made in 1970. The barber chain is from the early 20's and the pole I have had it 28 years, was old when I got it. The # on it is 405 and about 10 years ago the Co. was still making them.

John, Yes I well need ballast for the back.. You are right about the wheel base at 4' and the weight of the tractor 500 to 600 lbs. If you look again at the engine, the front of the engine is in line with the front axle not over it.
The bucket is about 55 to 65 lbs. and the arms are 56 lbs. Can't always go by the picture. The bucket is set 2' in front of the axle and if go look at your tractor it"s scaled about right.
Right now it takes 174 lbs. to left the rearend up with no ballast and no one on the seat. The bucket is only about .400 of a yard or less. I'm not going to try any heavy work with it. If I need something like that I well eather use my B7800 or my L4240 what ever the job.
The biggest thing I'm going to have is trying to turn it. I guess that well call for some PS. Oh well what are toys for anyway?

Lee

 

[JDeerekid]

Very nice loader fabrication. I like that you made it unhook like all the newer loaders with the 1 pin on each side. And you did a nice job on the bucket. You definately have some skills. Hope to see the finish product. How much are you estimating it to lift. Definately have to add quite a bit of weight to the rear end.

 

[2manyrocks]

That's nice. These 1970's vintage garden tractors are a lot tougher than people give them credit for. I guess you've done quite a bit of fabrication in the past for this loader to look this good.

 

[Leejohn]

I'm not sure what it well lift for sure all I know it well lift 174 lbs. right now and if I get into the seat that adds 140lbs. so lets guess 275 lbs. with no ballast. It has a hyd 3 point that I put on it and I have a basket for it, can add weight as needed. The 1" cyls that I would like to use, that would be about it. If I only can get 1.5" cyls. that might be alittle over kill. More then likely that is what I well end up with, just have set the relief valve low.

Lee

 

[Blackhammer]

It looks like an old bolens lawnmower without the mower. I like it. I have a 17hp john deere that I welded up a brush guard for. Was it needed? NO! but now I have a little impact bar on it as a tie down point and also a good jack point to change the blades. I really like this forum and All you guys are great.

 

[2manyrocks]

There was a loader that could be purchased for Bolens and other similar garden tractors. Thought you might enjoy this link. http://www.mytractorforum.com/showthread.php?t=63038&page=2

 

[Leejohn]

Thanks, I signed up. I lost all of the bolens groups I did belong to. Lee

 

[WilliamBos]

Just one of the things I have been making on the days when you don't feel like doing the things I should be doing.
Been playing with it for about 4 weeks off and on. Still have some welding to do on it and have to pull the tractor apart to get all the bolts in.
I'm going to use 1.5" Hyd. cyl. It would look better with 1" but haven't found any yet. The Bolens has Hyd on it but I'm going to put a small pump on the front of the eng. The pump on the Bolens also feeds the trans and don't want to cut it short. I'm not going to be able to get the Cyls right away because of cash flow.
The Bolens was a round tube frame and I made it sq frame. It still has the engine that came with it, I did put O.S. piston & rings in it. I run it a lot, most of the time everyday. My shop is away from the house and I use it to go to and from. Over look the rust and the dirt on the bolens it has to come all apart and well be painted then. Also maybe a new engine.

Lee

Nice!! I love the custom QA too. Keep us posted, paint or no paint. Projects like this get my blood flowing!!

 

[joes_427_vette]

You have a good start on a very functional loader. Like you said... it doesn't have to lift a ton. That job is for larger equipment.
The upright mounts where the loader frame attaches......... did you cut one side of a rectangle tube for the quick tach mount to slide into ? Looked pretty well engineered from a distance. Can you describe this area and how it was constructed ? Nice work. jr

 

[Leejohn]

Here are 2 more pictures that you can see the uprights a little better.
The part that bolts to the tractor, " I should be saying lawn tractor" are made from 2 1/2" X 2 1/2" tubing about 1/8" thick. With 3" X 3/8" flat at the frame. Right now the I only have 1/4" holes in the plate, 5 holes per plate, in the end they well be 3/8 or 1/2" bolts not sure yet. I have kickers to put on also and a brace from the upright at the top to the front. The rod welded thru it is 1" solid.
The 2nd half is made from 2" X 6" tube and the half circle is a 1" I.D. pipe with about 3/16" wall. That I cut alittle off of the C/L. The hole up from that I just used 3/4" black pipe. All the other pins well be 3/4". As you can see I left in part of the 2X6 until I get the cyls. I don't know for sure were the hole well go for the cyl. That hole well have to have some bushing welded on each side, and a another big half circle behind the end of the cyl. Hope that makes it strong enough?
The reason I didn't paint it when I put the frame on was because I knew I was ging to make the loader and it all has to come back apart. well paint everything at one time. I have to stop on it for awhile, working on getting my shop all done on the inside right now.

Lee

 

[Leejohn]

I said the uprights I used 2 1/2" X 2 1/2 " that should be 2 1/2" X 4" .

Sorry about that.

 

[dillo99]

A very nice job Lee...but it is the clean shop that impresses me. If I had a project like that going on my workshop would be utter chaos!

 

[bolens1455]

Hi Lee, looks like a very nice project. I have a Bolens 1455 with a Johnson 14 FEL which appears to be very similar to what you are building.

You mentioned you plan to put a pump in front, undoubtedly driven off the front PTO takeoff. I had to replace the pump when I fixed up the 1455 and discovered it is very difficult to obtain a CCW (which is how the PTO rotates) pump these days. I finally found one that works well from Twin Hydraulics (TWIN HYDRAULICS-Great Prices on Hydraulic Power Units, Honor Pumps & Hose Assemblies.). It is model 1AG2U09L, item no. 5017, and costs about $ 121 + $ 16 or so in shipping. You might want to check it out as an option for the pump.

Have some photos of my Bolens 1455 on my blog at RPI projects. You might have to wade through a lot of blogs about various repair jobs underway but they are there. It has the FEL, a mower deck (currently down for repairs) and a tiller.

Take care and best wishes.

 

[Leejohn]

!st I'm sorry for late reply, but just moving around in here and see it again.
Where I stand right now is, I have all the Cyls now and paint on the loader. The loader is all done just have to put kicker from sub frame to the front somewhere.
What is holding me up now, is a newer engine. I'm still running the old Wisc HH120 with the starter/gen. Most parts for it are NLA, but I run it everyday 7 days a week and it just keeps going. TimeX must of had something to do with making this engine.
As far as the hyd pump, I have a small one that well be hooked to the engine drive shaft pully by way of a couple where the battery was, battery is in the front of the engine now.
I'm not sure if I said in this thread or not that I took out the round frame and put in a tube frame, also made it 4" longer.
Sure wish I could find a engine at a good price. It seems like when I find one the cash is not there and when I have cash there is no engines around. Oh well just set and wait until the timing is right. That's the way it is when your on that old timers pay roll (SS).