Custom-Built 5-Yard Bucket With Grapple Fork

Custom-Built 5-Yard Bucket With Grapple Fork TRACTORS Loaders 23-3-6 Machinist Terry Therkilsen, Comfrey, Minn., converted a 3-yard front-end loader bucket to a 5-yard bucket and grapple fork designed to quick tach to a Deere payloader. "I built it for a big cattle feeder who uses the payloader mainly to load manure and to handle corn stalk bedding. The original bucket was only 34 in. deep from front to back and didn't have grapple forks. He wanted more capacity because corn stalk bedding doesn't weigh a lot. He makes the bedding in stacks that measure 8 ft. wide by 16 ft. long. The bigger bucket and grapple forks allow him to grab about one third of the stack at a time," says Therkilsen. He welded on new sheet metal to double the depth of the bucket and mounted a new cutting edge on front. The bucket now measures 68 in. from front to back. Therkilsen built the grapple forks entirely from scratch. To make the quick tach brackets he adapted the quick tach brackets designed for a Caterpillar 966 payloader. The forks are opened and closed by a pair of 10-in. hydraulic cylinders and swivel up or down on a 4 1/2-in. dia. steel pipe. There are four forks and each one is made in three sections. The section next to the swivel pipe is made from 2 by 4-in., 3/16 in. thick sq. tubing; the middle section is made from 2 by 3-in., 3/16-in. thick sq. tubing; and the end section from 1 by 3-in. solid steel. "The total conversion cost was about $3,000 but there's nothing on the market like it," notes Therkilsen. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Terry Therkilsen, Rt. 1, Box 146, Comfrey, Minn. 56019 (ph 507 723-6130).

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