They were very useful, but they were impossible to anchor down, so they moved around. They were also slowly bending the bucket. They were way out in front of the loader, killing the leverage. I decided to cut them up and make a single fork with quick-attach plates. The result is in the photo.
The tines and the upright parts are old. Everything else has been added by me. The tubing is 3/16" wall.
The tines have heavy plate welded to their sides for the first 18" or so. That came from the factory. They are welded to 3/8"-plate rectangles which are welded to the frame. The uprights are just held in by gravity now, but they are made to be bolted to the tines.
I took this thing out and tried it, and nothing moved. I stood on a tine and jumped up and down, and it was very stiff. I still have a couple of welds to finish, and I am considering putting short tubes between the tines close to the rear to add rigidity.
I used 0.035" wire, and I did my best to make big, loopy, deep welds. I did a number of additional passes. Hope that's the right idea.
The tractor will limit me to maybe 1200 pounds net load, and I don't think I've ever lifted that much. I mainly move downed trees and brush.
Think this thing will hold up? The original tines ran under the bucket at the rear, so part of the force on them went up into the bucket.
I don't know anything about welding, but it seems like a lot of things are way overbuilt. The original bucket had to support the tines and whatever I lifted, and it had maybe 20" of smallish beads holding it onto its mounts.
After I made it, I found out I could have gotten something similar for about $1500.
- 06 06 23 Kubota fork attachment trial run small.jpg (372.18 KiB) Viewed 9043 times
