Kubota mod #1 FEL storage

Wildfire

Active member

Equipment
Kubota L5740 HSTC3 and a Kubota ZG222Z, 2013 BX25D,Custom Toyota fork lift.
Over the last year I've made a number of custom modifications' to my tractor and before I found this site I posted some of them on other sites and everyone like some of the ideas so I thought I would share some of these mods with you fine folks.

Everything starts with an idea. My head is full of ideas and the wife says I'm nuts and she's probably right.
Anyway my Kubota Grand 4240 had this tube on the loader attachment. I said to myself that seemed to be a terrible waist of space and seeing I needed a place to put a tow sling I decided to use that space for it.

I had to have some way of capping the ends of the tube so this is what I did.

To do this project I used all scrap aluminum. I machined and then cut covers for the pipe and then Tig welded them and machined it again.

I wasn't to particular about the appearance of the weld because I knew I wanted to machine it again anyway.

The O rings were used to keep the caps in place but the grooves had to be machined just right or they would be either to tight or to loose. The O rings also kept the water out of the tubes. After that was done the parts were etched primed and painted. Here's a few pics to show you the process from start to completion.





















 

Greg

New member

Equipment
B7100 HST-D 4x4 with FEL, PTO and 3 pt hitch
Dec 7, 2009
120
1
0
Putnam County, NY
Thank you very much Wildfire for the hardest laugh I have had in days!!!!!

What is it you said?

"I wasn't to particular about the appearance of the weld because I knew I wanted to machine it again anyway."

Haha, you're joking right? In my wildest dreams, I can't weld that well.
 

GWD

Member

Equipment
M7040, L48 TLB, BX2200
Jan 8, 2010
792
12
18
Northern California
Very nice job of fabricating. You could sell these but probably couldn't approach anything affordable.

Fenders, not a spot of grease or dirt, no sign of wear, chrome tow hooks - you are a perfectionist indeed.

I leave my tube open for digging bars, shovels, hoes, and crowbars.
 
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Wildfire

Active member

Equipment
Kubota L5740 HSTC3 and a Kubota ZG222Z, 2013 BX25D,Custom Toyota fork lift.
Thank you very much Wildfire for the hardest laugh I have had in days!!!!!

What is it you said?

"I wasn't to particular about the appearance of the weld because I knew I wanted to machine it again anyway."

Haha, you're joking right? In my wildest dreams, I can't weld that well.
No joke sir. To tell the truth Greg I almost didn't post that that photo. It's hard to tig weld something round because you have to hold the filler rod in one hand. Hold the tig torch in the other and have your right foot on the amperage foot pedal while continuously moving around the part welding it so I'll admit it's a bit tricky but then again I'm not a welder by trade so there may be others that will say there's nothing to it. That being said I now use a welding positioner doing that type of work so instead of me moving around the piece the positioner moves the piece for me and the welds are a factory looking weld. In this case I knew I was going to machine the part after welding it so it didn't matter.

Glad you liked the welding though. If you were here I could have you welding better than that in less than an hour. Heck if I can do it, anyone can.;)
 

Wildfire

Active member

Equipment
Kubota L5740 HSTC3 and a Kubota ZG222Z, 2013 BX25D,Custom Toyota fork lift.
Very nice job of fabricating. You could sell these but probably couldn't approach anything affordable.

Fenders, not a spot of grease or dirt, no sign of wear, chrome tow hooks - you are a perfectionist indeed.

I leave my tube open for digging bars, shovels, hoes, and crowbars.
Thank you. Ya I put about a day and a half building those caps. The real difference here is that my tractor is only used for snow clearing. If I were using it for farming It would look much different. There would be no way to keep it clean. I will admit that I do look after my equipment. The truck pictured is the same truck that I removed the plow from to put on my tractor. That truck is a 1993 model and I plowed snow with it for 13 years. It still has it's original paint job on it. I use it now for towing around my mobile welding machine that you see behind the truck. It pays to look after your equipment.



A little foot note: This is a trailer I built to tow my Miller around on.







Video of trailer build: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceFXtSEypnY