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Ideas for Garden Tractor Loader

I just finished building a 3-point hitch for my Murray garden tractor. Lift power is via a 12 volt cable winch. Everything else was fabricated with steel, all welded (except actual attachment to tractor). Finally got to test it yesterday, and while it will need a couple tweeks, it works well.

Now I want to build a loader (trip bucket). Unlike a farm tractor, there isn't much room to work with in terms of mounting, and I don't have hydraulics.

I'm looking for conceptual ideas in two areas on how to go about constructing this.

  1. Mounting method (to frame) that will be solid and give me about 5' of lift at the bucket.
  2. Method and mechanics of lifting without the use of hydraulics (will probably use another winch same as I used for the three-point).

An alternative is if someone has knowledge of inexpensive hydraulic parts. I can get the cable winch for $50, so wouldn't be willing to spend a ton more than that on hydraulic pump/valve/cylinders.

Any suggestions appreciated.

Mark

Reply to
Mark
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This happens to be a site just about small tractors, homemade implements, modifications, and anything else you can do to small tractors. It may give you ideas and advice.

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the whole world singing . . . . DanG (remove the sevens) snipped-for-privacy@7cox.net

Reply to
DanG

Look at the swisher.com site for ideas, (ATV) You could make a frame for the attachments. or get the idea for the dump that they use. Just a thought Don D.

Reply to
Don D.

A used power pack from an old snow plow truck. Should have everything your looking for.

Bernd

Reply to
Bernd

Thanks to all three of you (Dan, Don, Bernd) for some excellent ideas. Mark

Reply to
Mark

And remember that you can use a "repurposed" 12VDC pump powerpack without having an alternator on the tractor - just mount a deep-cycle and recharge the battery at the end of the session.

Might want a 120V battery warmer blanket for it that is plugged in when the tractor is parked and you are charging it - batteries don't put out much when near freezing, and depleted battery electrolyte can freeze and damage the case.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Cadplans.com has just what you are looking for.

Richard

Reply to
rburge58

I might have missed some of this thread as I have not seen any cautions about the 5' of lift. Seems to me that to lift a full bucket to this height requires at least an equal weight on the rear of the tractor for a counterbalance.

When I first mounted the snowblower on the front of my JD 216 I did not mount a counter weight on the rear. This caused an extremely light rear end and gave very little traction. An equal amount of weight on the rear cured the problem.

Good luck and have fun

Reply to
Bob Miller

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