Practical Farm Ideas
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Anyone who makes and adapts equipment in the workshop will read this and it will alter the way you design equipment in the future, particularly implements attached to handlers. Here’s a real instance of a farmer coming up with a superb and very cost effective way of designing loader implements.
Implements that attach to loaders are designed and built - and then the desired loader brackets are added as an after-thought. When Rodney Fuller from Surrey designs front end implements for his farm, he incorporates the bracket into the design, saving steel and making use of the shape to build strength into the machine without spending any extra money.
Corner of the bale spike showing the way the bracket is angled and the frame built around it
Brackets like the old Quicke were small and light-weight, but those for modern handlers are substantial components which can form part of the frame.
The bale spike and the loader adaptor plate are perhaps two of the most popular farm workshop projects, and as you can see from the pictures, Rodney's are designed differently, with the bracket forming a corner on the spike, and is an integral part of the frame of the adaptor. The design idea provides a useful few inches of leverage to the machine as well, as the plate is not stuck on the backside of the frame but has the implement built around it instead.
Adaptor plate is built around the mounting brackets
As well as looking smarter, there's a saving in steel and welding time.
Commercial designers have little option but to make a machine that can be fitted with any kind of bracket, but the home builder knows what's needed and can do a Saville Row made-to-measure job. He can start with the brackets, fitting them to the loader and then tack welding the implement in place - saves a lot of tricky measuring.
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