skid steer to ( fast attach) pallet fork conversion

[sd455dan]

Ah
pic is actual arms

The pin on mounts od is 43.5 so
close to but under kit attach plate ID

I need to keep as much lift capacity as possible, since I move and stack 1500lb square bales 3 high.

It is doable now using my grapple and forks but if I move farther out the grapple may be iffy stacking 3 high
for everything else it has had plenty of lift, 2k pallets are easy on the forks.
if I do have to add a spacer, may have to switch back to the 1200-1300lb hay bales which means a different seller and a lot farther drive.

 

[Vigo327]

Gotcha, so you're in the somewhat rare camp of using a loader that can lift 2000lbs to its actual capacity at max height, frequently. Seems like most of the time people are using loaders like that so far within their limits they don't even mind what the adapter costs them since they never notice.

For me being a car guy and not living on a farm, a bigger tractor just means more cars need to be moved OR sent to the bodyshop (yikes) every time i start the tractor so im definitely on the end of trying to optimize a small machine. Same thought processes in play either way.

 

[Xfaxman]

The pin on mounts od is 43.5 so
close to but under kit attach plate ID

Sounds good, should fit.

 

[sd455dan]

Sounds good, should fit.

Yes I think so.

Have made some progress .

I am starting with the Koyker pin on bucket conversion while integrating the QA lever plates.

My bucket has a large round tube that is offset rearward and would be in the way of the latch levers for other QA and if I mod the levers it might cause clearance issues for other QA attachments, so I plasma cut pretty much everything off the bucket except the outer guide plates that are about right for QA.

On the FEL side removed the old fast attach top points on each side (similar to QA) but not close enough then mocked it up on the kit lever assemblies and tacked them in place.
Tacked in the top flat plate to bucket that captures the QA top angle of each end plate.

Looking like I can get away with about a 3/8" or so front/rear offset. No 3 inch spacer pieces needed, very happy about that.

Left my camera in the garage- will post some pics in the near future.
Lots of welding and some reinforcement still needed to get the FEL finished as well as the bucket mods.

edit
After I get this combo tested, will get the forks and grapple lined out.

 

[sd455dan]

Made some more progress today.

1st pics from yesterday and then into today

 

[sd455dan]

A quick test of breaking out a chunk of a frozen snow berm seems ok.
Have a couple reinforcing pieces to the lower pin brackets on the bucket. Need to grind out a buggered weld or two. Lots of clean up, it was getting dark and was tired, but we need the tractor /bucket tomorrow. Already really nice to just flip a couple levers compared with fighting with the pins.

Need to get the grapple and Forks all in the same area and do some more figuring.

Don't like being without the use of the Grapple, or Forks.

 

[Xfaxman]

 

[mmancuso13]

Nice work!

 

[sd455dan]

Nice work!

Thanks!

Really put it to the test today.
Plowed about 250 feet of driveway that had not been touched since December. Worked great the only thing different is that I cant "Shake the bucket" to get stuck snow out anymore.
With the pin on there was enough play that it could be shocked loose using the joystick. QA has no such play. It almost makes the tractor "seem" newer- less rattles and noises.

Once the bucket work was finished I chained the grapple to the hook on the bucket and moved it to the garage.

Plasma cutter time!

 

[sd455dan]

Finished up the Grapple,
hand plasma cut the pieces out and re used some of it by flipping the rolled piece upside down and then adding a flat bar above it, This gives lots of room for the levers.

Fit up left a bit to be desired.

Test time as a Snow Grapple?

Last Pic is where this thread began

Time to reverse that and change what were New Holland Skid steer (factory forks) that I converted to the Rhino Fast Attach
Finally to Bob tach QA

 

[sd455dan]

More Plasma cutting to get an idea of what needs modded
Mmm this one is going to need some work...
I am sure a solution will present itself.

 

[Xfaxman]

Consider adding some extra rollback on the forks:

 

[sd455dan]

Edit

Yep, which is what I added when I changed it to fast attach.


I Like the pic you posted.

Might be the best way to Go.

Add some rectangular stock or spacer flat stock to the bottom of the Forks body and then tack in the plate I got in the kit, after cutting out the center where the receiver hitch is.

Then add some support flat stock pieces between the plate and existing fork body.

The only other hurdles are, it would require cutting the entire top NH capture piece that is still on the Forks and some fill in plates on the outside edge of the kit plate to Old fork body.

 

[Wobblin-Goblin]

Need pictures. Your 3rd picture is too close up to show the outside edge and angles.

I guess something like this is what you have:
View attachment 737113

FYI, my dad just bought a pair of those identical lockers. Made in china, and they need modifications just to work properly (or at all).

 

[Wobblin-Goblin]

Off to a Rocky start.


They machined the QA spring actuator incorrectly to where the handles cannot be rotated over the break over point to lock them I am machining the shoulder down so it will work.

The actuator part that slides is either mis machined or machined for a bushing that is not included therefore when you push the lever the assembly binds on the threads that are used with a nut to keep the spring compressed.

I am trying to source or will have to machine those parts as well.


More to follow.

The QA mechanism plates are as advertised and well made. Just need to address some issues and move forward.

Just to follow up on my previous post, what you posted is exactly what we had to deal with. We made our own bushings, filed the throat of the steel block, and drilled and tapped in a grease fitting.

Without doing this, the mechanisms are completely inoperable.

 

[sd455dan]

Just to follow up on my previous post, what you posted is exactly what we had to deal with. We made our own bushings, filed the throat of the steel block, and drilled and tapped in a grease fitting.

Without doing this, the mechanisms are completely inoperable.

Yeah it took some work.
I was going to enlarge the throat of the blocks if my bushings did not work.

The bushing walls were "thin" for sure. I will enlarge the blocks if the bushings I made fail.

Today spent some time on the pallet fork conversion.

After thinking on it for a while decided the kit plate would need much of its center cut out to leave access for the receiver hitch pin/ bolt and would add more weight.

I decided to just modify the existing forks and add the lower locking plates , still have some more to do.

Typical discount kit for sure. For what it cost I think it was a decent deal,- but if I didn't have tools to deal with the mis matched mechanism parts, it would have been almost impossible to make the kit work as sold.

Was looking at the feedback and several people did send the kits back because of the mechanism.