mark02tj
Platinum Member
I wasn't sure whether to post this here or in the "Build It Yourself" section. Since this project involves welding/fabrication, I thought I'd do it here. If one of the mods thinks it belongs elsewhere, feel free to move it. 
So, here's the story.... I have a lot of honeysuckle and other brush on my property and am looking for a way to get it out. I've thought about root grapples, a Ratchet Rake, a Piranha Tooth Bar, a regular tooth bar and just about every other contraption you can think of. Eventually I want to get a root/brush grapple, but I don't want to bite the bullet on that just yet. So, I came across this tool on another TBN thread. Credit for it's design goes to "NS in Texas".
I have a 300CX FEL on my tractor. It uses the Deere Quick-Attach system. I thought it would be easier to buy a "blank" mounting plate that already had the necessary hardware in place to use as a starting point rather than to try and fab that up myself. So, I bought a blank mounting plate from (an unnamed vendor well known on TBN). The plate is 1/4" thick steel. I was initially happy with it as it seemed to fit OK (pins lined up, etc.) but upon closer examination I ran into some things that have me kind of concerned. That's where you guys come in! :thumbsup:
The first thing that I noticed was a lot of "back and forth slop" on the bottom pins. As you can see from the picture, there's well over a half inch of "slop" from having the retaining pin hole drilled too far back.
My concern with this is that the implement will bang back and forth as I go from pushing to back dragging to dislodge brush. I'm afraid that will put stress on the "ears" that are welded to the FEL arms. Am I wrong in my assumption? This might be able to be solved by using some washers on the pins to keep that from happening though.
The next thing I noticed was "daylight" where the back of the plate was supposed to meet up with the FEL mounting area.
This is as tight as the two surfaces can come together. There is about 1/4" of space where it should be flush. Again, my concern are the "ears" on the FEL where the pins go through to attach to the loader. The plate should be resting flush against the FEL mounting area. I will be putting a lot of pressure on the mounting plate while pushing and uprooting brush. I don't think those "ears" are designed for that amount of stress. Am I wrong?
For reference purposes, here is a pic that shows how flush my bucket mounts against the same point on the FEL.
After looking at that space, I wondered just how flat that the blank mounting plate was. As you can see from the next pics - it ain't very flat!! :confused2:
You can see from the second pic, that the plate starts to bend around 11" in from the end of my straight-edge (a 4' level). The first pic shows the 1/4" that it's out at the end. The other side is identically bent. The plate itself is approximately 51" wide, so only 29" of the plate are actually flat! I'm planning on using 2" x 4" x 1/4" tubing for the frame on this tool. Is it possible that the tubing could be clamped and welded against the plate to straighten it out? Keep in mind that I don't have any kind of press to try and do this, so I'd have to use big C-clamps to hold it together until it's welded. Would it even be possible to do without a press of some sort? I'm concerned about 2 things with this approach. First, would the stress of the bent plate cause problems to the tubing welded up to it? Second, if I straighten out that plate, then the mounting pins will end up a bit too wide so I'm going to have to grind part of them off.
So, here's where I'm at right now... The plate that I purchased to help save me a lot of time might end up costing me a bunch of time trying to fix it. Should I just send it back and get something else from a different (higher-quality?) vendor for mounting? (I'm waiting right now to hear back from the vendor about getting an RMA) Or, should I just try and make it work - keeping in mind that my tools are limited? Are my concerns about the stress points valid or am I just imagining things?
THANKS for any help and advice!! I'm looking forward to hearing from the voices of experience here!!
So, here's the story.... I have a lot of honeysuckle and other brush on my property and am looking for a way to get it out. I've thought about root grapples, a Ratchet Rake, a Piranha Tooth Bar, a regular tooth bar and just about every other contraption you can think of. Eventually I want to get a root/brush grapple, but I don't want to bite the bullet on that just yet. So, I came across this tool on another TBN thread. Credit for it's design goes to "NS in Texas".
I have a 300CX FEL on my tractor. It uses the Deere Quick-Attach system. I thought it would be easier to buy a "blank" mounting plate that already had the necessary hardware in place to use as a starting point rather than to try and fab that up myself. So, I bought a blank mounting plate from (an unnamed vendor well known on TBN). The plate is 1/4" thick steel. I was initially happy with it as it seemed to fit OK (pins lined up, etc.) but upon closer examination I ran into some things that have me kind of concerned. That's where you guys come in! :thumbsup:
The first thing that I noticed was a lot of "back and forth slop" on the bottom pins. As you can see from the picture, there's well over a half inch of "slop" from having the retaining pin hole drilled too far back.
My concern with this is that the implement will bang back and forth as I go from pushing to back dragging to dislodge brush. I'm afraid that will put stress on the "ears" that are welded to the FEL arms. Am I wrong in my assumption? This might be able to be solved by using some washers on the pins to keep that from happening though.
The next thing I noticed was "daylight" where the back of the plate was supposed to meet up with the FEL mounting area.
This is as tight as the two surfaces can come together. There is about 1/4" of space where it should be flush. Again, my concern are the "ears" on the FEL where the pins go through to attach to the loader. The plate should be resting flush against the FEL mounting area. I will be putting a lot of pressure on the mounting plate while pushing and uprooting brush. I don't think those "ears" are designed for that amount of stress. Am I wrong?
For reference purposes, here is a pic that shows how flush my bucket mounts against the same point on the FEL.
After looking at that space, I wondered just how flat that the blank mounting plate was. As you can see from the next pics - it ain't very flat!! :confused2:
You can see from the second pic, that the plate starts to bend around 11" in from the end of my straight-edge (a 4' level). The first pic shows the 1/4" that it's out at the end. The other side is identically bent. The plate itself is approximately 51" wide, so only 29" of the plate are actually flat!
I'm planning on using 2" x 4" x 1/4" tubing for the frame on this tool. Is it possible that the tubing could be clamped and welded against the plate to straighten it out? Keep in mind that I don't have any kind of press to try and do this, so I'd have to use big C-clamps to hold it together until it's welded. Would it even be possible to do without a press of some sort? I'm concerned about 2 things with this approach. First, would the stress of the bent plate cause problems to the tubing welded up to it? Second, if I straighten out that plate, then the mounting pins will end up a bit too wide so I'm going to have to grind part of them off.So, here's where I'm at right now... The plate that I purchased to help save me a lot of time might end up costing me a bunch of time trying to fix it. Should I just send it back and get something else from a different (higher-quality?) vendor for mounting? (I'm waiting right now to hear back from the vendor about getting an RMA) Or, should I just try and make it work - keeping in mind that my tools are limited? Are my concerns about the stress points valid or am I just imagining things?
THANKS for any help and advice!! I'm looking forward to hearing from the voices of experience here!!
