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