Kubota RTV900 Cat 1 linkage

[printcom]

I need to fit a cat 1 linkage to the back of my UTV to carry a box blade. As I am a tight fisted farmer I cant justify the cost $1799 + shipping to buy one of these farmboys- so in true Mig Welding Forum tradition I have decided to make my own. I can get a complete cat 1 Linkage for just over £100 and a small ram shouldn't cost much more than £75 or so. All I have to do is make up the frame and fixing brackets. I have trawled through all the pictures I can find and it appears the they have used 50mm box for the frame - my question is what wall thickness? I usually have a tendency to over engineer things and make them heaver than required - at least they don't bend that way. My initial thought was to use 4mm wall box and 10mm flat for the brackets. The box blade weighs about 200 kgs empty and about 350kgs when full of dirt. Has anyone any thoughts on this.
I was going to fit it onto my tractor which weighs 7ton - the problem being if the box hits something that does not move the tractor wont stop

 

[Spark plug]

When making things for my tractor I found everything needs over engineering, as you say if you hit something that dose not move......

4mm box and 10mm sounds ok but I it where me I would probably go for 5mm box. And depending on the positioning of the flat and the way forces will act, etc I may use anything up to 20mm.

 

[printcom]

I have almost finished this thing. Anyone know where I might get a bit of 1"1/4 1/8 wall ( or greater) box section from. I only need about 300mm. I really don't want to buy 6 meters of the stuff if possible. 30mm is a bit too slack. Why the Americans insist on using the out dated imperial system has always baffled me.

 

[BrokenBiker]

I have almost finished this thing. Anyone know where I might get a bit of 1"1/4 1/8 wall ( or greater) box section from. I only need about 300mm. I really don't want to buy 6 meters of the stuff if possible. 30mm is a bit too slack. Why the Americans insist on using the out dated imperial system has always baffled me.

because it means they don't have to learn something new (SI units) even though it is all easier as no fractions, then again some people struggle with decimals and find fractions easy. I can work in both but prefer metric to be honest

 

[printcom]

Thought I'd share the progress so far, I settled for 40mm box 4 mm wall and 40mm x 10mm flat for the frame being in mind that it is only on a 22hp vehicle. Well I finally hitched it up to the box grader yesterday and gave it a go. The good news is that it didn't break, mind you I was being ultra careful as the last thing I want is to pull the hoses out! The bad news is there is not enough lift and the top link arm I have is too long (hence the chain) I think to increase the lift I am going to have to shorten the top carriage and lower the pivot point (I just wish I had paid more attention in the maths class at college) cause working out the angle of the dangle without fouling the body of the Kubota and within the stroke of the ram is a brain ache. The most time consuming bit was working out how to attach it to the body, I finally settled for using over sized U bolts as I couldn't find any high tensile M12 with 52mm inside diameter off the self. Any ideas anyone?

 

[Wendelspanswick]

Thought I'd share the progress so far, I settled for 40mm box 4 mm wall and 40mm x 10mm flat for the frame being in mind that it is only on a 22hp vehicle. Well I finally hitched it up to the box grader yesterday and gave it a go. The good news is that it didn't break, mind you I was being ultra careful as the last thing I want is to pull the hoses out! The bad news is there is not enough lift and the top link arm I have is too long (hence the chain) I think to increase the lift I am going to have to shorten the top carriage and lower the pivot point (I just wish I had paid more attention in the maths class at college) cause working out the angle of the dangle without fouling the body of the Kubota and within the stroke of the ram is a brain ache. The most time consuming bit was working out how to attach it to the body, I finally settled for using over sized U bolts as I couldn't find any high tensile M12 with 52mm inside diameter off the self. Any ideas anyone?

I am going through a similar process in making a Buckrake to attach to the power loader on my John Deere 2130. In the end I made a 2D scale model out of card of the loader, rams and Buckrake to get enough movement and clearance on the brackets. I used map pins as the pivot points.
Haven't tried fitting it yet though!

 

[printcom]

I am going through a similar process in making a Buckrake to attach to the power loader on my John Deere 2130. In the end I made a 2D scale model out of card of the loader, rams and Buckrake to get enough movement and clearance on the brackets. I used map pins as the pivot points.
Haven't tried fitting it yet though!

Are you actually making the Buckrake? I would have thought the price of the tines would have made it cost prohibitive. I picked this one up at farm dispersal sale last year for £30. I just had to repair the thread on one tine. One of my next jobs is modifying it to fit a set of Merlo telehandler brackets.
The cardboard cutout notion sounds like a good idea, I will have a bash.