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Temporary Snow Shoes

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MichaelSnyder
Join Date: Jun 1999
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1999-12-06          10684


"Hopefully" I'll need to plow snow this winter, Unfortunately, I'll be using the loader bucket until a better solution is bought. I'm concerned about using the bucket against the cold pavement. Because of accelerated wear on the bucket, and potential damage to the blacktops surface. Has anyone put temporary shoes on a bucket? I'm not a big fan of drilling holes in the bucket, especially if this ends up as a temporary thing. Maybe I'm dreaming, but I gotta check first.



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Temporary Snow Shoes

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Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999
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1999-12-06          10693


I can guarantee you that the "accelerated wear" on the bucket will be negligible. don't even worry about it. The blacktop is safe as long as you don't catch a corner of it with the edge of the bucket...then it will tear for sure. But that's the chance that you take with any implement. As for drilling holes in the bucket, this is a sort of mental stumbling block that bothers me as well. But once you do it you will see that it makes no difference at all to the bucket and opens the door for all kinds of nifty home-made gizmos that are far more fun than a pristine bucket. I don't drill through the cutting edge...much to hard anyway. The rest of the bucket is fair game. Just yesterday I drilled and mounted two 4x4 tow hooks - one on each end of the upper edge of the bucket. ....


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tom
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1999-12-07          10708


I imagine that floating the boom and some experimentation with angling the bucket up will find a spot where you don't catch the bucket edge and don't leave too much snow. I know that my loader worked better after I figured out that the tractor came from the dealer with the float on the bucket rather than the boom.

I have a 3pt blower as well, but the problem of driveway damage doesn't go away
unless you have draft control on the 3pt (I don't). Just have to figure out how
much to angle the blower up and how high to set the lock on the hitch control.

I noted Roger's comment about the 4x4 tow hooks on his bucket. I'm curious why tow hooks rather than chain hooks. I plan to put hooks on my bucket because I want to chain large (but not too heavy) objects to the loader front and lift them with the bucket. I usually see chain hooks used for this purpose. ....


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Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999
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1999-12-07          10718


Howdy, Tom. Tow hooks simply because I stopped at an auto show and someone had a barrel of them at ten bucks a pair and I couldn't resist. They are much heavier duty than chain hooks and have the advantage of having bolt holes cast right into the base. Then having bought them (three pairs!), I had to do something with them..... :-)
I rarely use chain hooks - I assume you meed "grab hooks" as they were designed - to grab a chain link - because this puts lateral load on the hook. Not a good idea with a cast piece which has been welded to a bucket - as they often are. Instead, I usually use a larger more rounded hook (what are these called? slip hooks?), loop the chain through it, and fasten the chain back onto itself with the hook on the chain. Now the pull is in the proper direction. ....


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Roger L.
Join Date: Jun 1999
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1999-12-07          10719


Float on the bucket instead of the lift arms! What a novel idea.... ....


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tom
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1999-12-08          10742


Yes, the grab hooks I see are welded to the bucket. Thanks for the comment. I'm
familar with the cast metal quality of welds but hadn't connected the idea to
hooks welded onto loader buckets. Yep, not a good idea to subject welds to much
lateral force.

I once, unfortunately, saw a truck tumble down a mountain pass in Colorado. We saw the truck at a wreckers on the way back and stopped. The person I was with identified the cause of the crash as a tie rod that somebody had welded, and not even a good weld. I don't believe the driver survived to learn the lesson. Don't try to save money by sticking critical parts together with
the little arcer in your garage.

Regarding my floating loader bucket: The dealer said "opps" when I asked whether there was any reason why somebody would want a floating bucket. I have a few less gouges in my gravel drive way now that I'm not trying to spread gravel while riding the lift control. ....


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