Craftsman Front Scoop

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

Hey Folks,

the past month has been interesting. About a month ago I bought on ebay a 520H with no engine and no dashboard. This is going to be a frankentractor project and I'll be using it for dirt plowing, snow plowing and Dozer duty. I have not picket this up yet, but the hydro is supposed to be good and since I don't need a PTO on my "Dirt Horse" it should be fairly easy to find an engine.

Then this week I was looking for engines on craig's list. A guy was advertising one of the Craftsman (Agrifab) front buckets for $200 with a free Craftsman garden tractor with a Kohler 18.5 twin vertical engine(not running).

Craftsmanbucket1 by rolf.taylor, on Flickr

Craftsmanbucket2 by rolf.taylor, on Flickr

More info here: http://www.sears.com.../p-07124847000P

I have looked at these before. Not as strong as a johnny bucket (it has a 200 lb rating), but in some ways nicer than the manual johnny bucket. And there are some very satisfied purchasers of this thing on line.

I contacted him and asked if he'd take $100 for just the scoop, and he said he'd take $100 but I had to take the tractor too! So after some discussion with my wife, I got permission to buy this.

As you can see from the pictures, it is in nearly new condition. I asked him if he had used it and he said he had, but only to move cinder blocks! It looks like this may very well fit right onto the WH front tachamatic. Might need some spacer to prevent side to side play. There is a height adjustment that should compensate for any difference in height.

I stopped by my local wheeler dealer and he will be bringing by someone to look at the tractor. Good chance I can barter for a horizontal engine.

So, I am pretty excited. Finally I got a couple of deals go enough to make others envious!

I've still got too many projects, but this with the 520H will be verrry nice to have around.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, a day late

[jay in nc 209]

looks like an easy mod. to make it work. you got a great deal ! Jay

[SALTYWRIGHT 859]

HOW ABOUT PUTTING A DIESEL IN IT ? IT IS CHEAPER THAN A GAS ENGINE. I PUT ONE IN MY 417-8 AND IT WORKED OUT VERY GOOD. RUSS

[Jake Kuhn 1,547]

nice score!

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

A diesel has crossed my mind. My neighbor has a little one he picked up and if he'd let it go cheap enough I could go that route. Otherwise my budget is way below what a diesel will cost.

I am going cheap and am willing to give up a lot to due so. For example electric start would be nice, but not necessary.

Since I wrote the above I got a knock on the door. A friend of a friend that I showed the tractor today on the way home is willing to do some bartering. May have a snow blower engine for me. Going to go look tomorrow! Wish me luck!

A diesel has crossed my mind. My neighbor has a little one he picked up and if he'd let it go cheap enough I could go that route. Otherwise my budget is way below what a diesel will cost.

I am going cheap and am willing to give up a lot to due so. For example electric start would be nice, but not necessary.

Since I wrote the above I got a knock on the door. A friend of a friend that I showed the tractor today on the way home is willing to do some bartering. May have a snow blower engine for me. Going to go look tomorrow! Wish me luck!

[KC9KAS 4,741]

Nice looking "scoop"! Keep us posted with the engine transplant.

[Tankman 3,515]

Nice looking scoop. Good luck with your project.

518...Very good start!

I was thinking of making a scoop and using the plow mount; blade off, scoop on.

Keep us posted with your progress.

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

If I was going to make a scoop from scratch I'd make it as an add on to the snow plow.

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

The guy with the snow blower says he'll dig up a 12 horse engine for me because he thought it was way to much work for me to convert the snow blower engine. So he bought the Craftsman tractor and will have a working engine for me by sometime this winter!

[leeave96 487]

I've got a Johnny Bucket for my Wheelhorse tractors. It was designed to fit on the hitch at the rear. Later, I purchased the adapters/mechanisms to mount it to the front - but...

I felt the clevis hitch arrangement was weak and prone to bending the clevis hitch. I could see hitting the bucket on a corner and busting the tranny boss that holds the pin for the clevis hitch. I didn't care for the narrowness of the front hitch set-up too, so I never used it.

What I did do was buy a rear quick attach hitch for a 5xi tractor as they are MUCH heavier built than the rear hitch used to hold a front blade or tiller to the rear axle housings. I modified/added to the Johnny Bucket frame such that the bucket mounted to the quick attach hitch - spreading the load to the axle housings vs concentrating it to the center of the tranny housing. I then used my lift cable that one would use to lift the clevis hitch to raise and lower the bucket. Not much travel up or down, but it was enough to move/haul some 16 tons of gravel on a drainage project I did.

The downside - I think the rear axle flex helped shorten the life of one of my axle seals - which I replaced.

Sooooo - you might be able to mount your bucket to the front or rear of your tractor depending on your needs.

Good luck,

Bill

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

Thanks. Wife has me working on other projects now, but I am looking forward to this project! Still need to pick up the 520A.

[WheelHorse_of_course 99]

I don't seem to have any pictures, but I did get this thing more-or less working on my Charger 12. I did need to fasten it in two points and the rear point was able to coincide with the holes in the frame that mount the front mount on the charger (front tachamatic was an option back then). I am 90% sure the same holes exist in later models, they just are not used for this purpose.

 

Because the mount is wider than the Wheel Horse frame, I had to replace the bolts with longer bolts (head inside the frame). The had to protrude about 5 inches. The double nuts on the triangular plates from the bucket. The bolt holes were IIRC1/2" but possibly 3/8" I can no longer recall.

 

This worked but the grade 3 bolts bent rather quickly. I did move a fair amount of light bucket loads of soil before they bent too far to hold it up. Rev 2 replaced the bolts with Grade 8. Actually I could not find full-thread bolts long enough, so I used grade 8 threaded rod. I also used a bunch of extra bolts back to back on the rod to effectively make it harder to bend. This worked better, but eventually bent right at the frame where the reinforcing nuts ended.

 

I then moved and never used the bucket again (and removed the protruding bolts. For rev 3 I would have drilled out the frame to 5/8 and used 5/8" bolts/rod. I am pretty sure this would have worked.

 

The last big job I did with the Charger before I moved away form this property involved a dunp truck load of soil. There was a badly settled pipe trench in the front yard that was effectively a big ditch and hard to mow around etc etc. My primary goal was to  re-grade around the house to stop basement leakage, but of course I filled in this ditch. So on the front side of the house all the work was done with the dozer blade. The left side of the house was re-graded taking smallish buckets of soil and dumping them. I got things fixed p really nicely and then my Ex decided we should move because the landlord wasn't fixing the things that I had just fixed. Very frustrating.

 

The next house didn't have room for a garden and needed no work so the horse did nothing but mowing. Then we got divorced and I have been in townhouses ever since :(.

 

 

Edited December 12, 2021 by WheelHorse_of_course

[DennisThornton 4,769]

I have one mounted on a AYP/Husqvarna/Craftsman as intended.  Got it cheap.  Worth every penny!  But I'm glad I didn't pay full price.  Oh it has some uses but it won't lift much and won't dig.  OK for moving rocks loaded on to it or loose fill, garden soil or mulch.  Lots of slop and bending and limited lift do to arm power.  Nevertheless it has a purpose if nothing better is available.