Building A Kubota BX Swiss Army Bucket

oh boy okay all right all right I got the door open hello everyone and welcome back to the homestead I would hold up oh what I've got in my arm here there you go but it's real heavy [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] what we have here is a package from a company called ju fabworks I got reached out to by the owner of the company Jeff ulig who'd I imagine ju fabworks and they build something called the work master plate they started by building these for John Deere and they've recently expanded into the world of Kubota and he reached out to me and he said hey I have this product I see what you do with your tractor on your farm on YouTube and I'm wondering if you'd be interested in true trying it out giving it a shot I'm not just gonna take free stuff to review on the channel we get tons of emails trying to trying to get us to review stuff on the channel but this was something that in talking to Jeff he mentioned it was made in America it uses components that are also made in America and then it's fabbed up right in his shop after talking with Jeff a little bit back and forth I said you know what send me one I'll give it a shot I'll check it out I'll see what it's all about and I'll give it an honest review on the channel he was all about it he said I don't want you to sugarcoat anything if you don't like it if it's junk um feel free he he believed in his product and I really like that so I've got the box here this actually came like a week and a half ago with homesteaders of America I'll link that video up in the corner with my trip down to Virginia for Home Centers America I didn't have a chance I didn't want to put it on or do the unboxing beforehand and then have to come back to it so I'm back here I'm home from work it's a little bit later in the day than I would have liked but I've got tomorrow as well that I can do some work with the actual tractor uh if I can get this thing mounted up today so goal for today's unboxing and mount it and then tomorrow we will do some work with the tractor and actually see how it works let's get in here wow that is Sharp the powder coat's beautiful check it out welds look really good it's got a sticker there cool logo etched in grab books are made in the USA that's pretty cool so we've got grab hooks rings and a two inch receiver I'm guessing this is going to be Hardware backing plates it looks like I haven't read the directions yet I'm guessing these are backing plates though for inside the bucket and hardened Hardware everything looks awesome um the welds are great the grab hooks are are solid the powder coat looks good I mean if it was like if it was a set of wheels I might say it's a little thin in places but um like on the bottom there but it's a tractor part and um that's gonna be going up against the bucket anyway so not too worried about it I'm gonna go off camera I'm gonna look at the directions I'm gonna see what we need to install this and then we're going to install it so yeah give me just a second all right we're back uh I've read the instructions right here they are actually pretty good uh I think I know without looking without having the tractor in front of me and just reading through the directions I'm pretty sure what I I know what I need to do um I'm gonna go get the tractor I'm gonna pull the tractor out I'm gonna park it right here so we have better light versus it over in the woods kind of where it is right now and then I'm gonna go grab it tells you everything you need in the directions uh you're gonna need a drill you're gonna need some clamps um half inch bit 7 16 bit so I'm gonna get the tracker out and we're gonna get to putting this thing on and I'm gonna time it and I'm gonna see how long this takes me to put on so you guys know once I get moving just how long it takes all right so slight change of plans uh as I was going through and I was looking for my drill bits um or I found my drill bits but I realized one I thought I had a half inch who knows where that is and I thought I had a 7 16 turns out I've never owned a 716 drill bit I found six 3 8 drill bits which who knows why uh but I do have this trusty unibet um which will do everything I need it to and our steal on this is not super super thick if I had to drill through this [Applause] you know on on the work master plate there's no way this would drill through there and get me a good clean hole but on this on the Kubota bucket it's perfectly acceptable it's not too thick for this thing so I will clamp the workmaster plate on I'll mark my holes I will drill pilot holes which I didn't want to do but I will and uh we'll just go that route so I am going to start the stopwatch now [Music] the directions tell me it should be 12 and a half inches from either side to the Inside Edge of this or to the outside edge of the work master plate so I'm going to start by marking that and then seeing where that gets me [Music] that looks pretty good it's lined up with the ram [Music] the center RAM on the loader here let me show you that's where we're at there thank you as we say in the states that's good enough for government work that's where I'm going to clamp it and we'll drill our holes [Music] [Music] so your first step once it's clamped down is you're going to drill your three holes in the front the two on the ends are perfect the one in the middle was just a little bit off which is funny because that's the first one I drilled but I think it's gonna be good enough I again this is not a Precision instrument um we'll align it with the two on the outside and if I have to um oversize the hole in the middle just a hair that's fine we've got one two three four other bolts holding it on there so I think we'll be good all right we're going to 7 16 I've got my drill bit marked so I can see and we're just gonna water these out [Music] all right [Music] got my holes drilled now I'm pretty sure I got the middle one close enough I don't think I'll have to drill it bigger than 7 16. uh it should go in but um I'm gonna put the plate back on I'm gonna clamp it back down and we are going to get these first three bolts in all right 5 8 5 8 I know I'm not giving you guys the full play-by-play on this but I'm assuming if you're going to attempt something like this uh you at least have like a basic working knowledge of tools and sizes and things like that so [Applause] with these three bolts and the bends in the bucket and as thick as this steel plate is I bet that that would work as it is but you've still got these reinforcement brackets that are going to go and in the back here [Music] foreign [Music] okay um slight snag that we ran into so the direction spec that you tighten down the front to about 60 foot pounds and then you put these rear brackets in place the problem I ran into you're not gonna be able to see both so I'll just do bank and then I'll get through and cut it in the problem I ran into is that on the brackets either the holes that are on the top of these brackets which are actually elongated they weren't long enough or they were drilled in the wrong place they were a little bit off or the bend the 45 degree Bend at the bottom here that braces up against the bucket should have been bent just a hair closer like the overall top to bottom width is a little bit off or there's always the possibility that my bucket is out of spec as well because it's Fab work and we all know how Fab work can go you're working with metal it's not easy so I'm not placing the blame on anyone in particular I do have a call into Jeff over at j fabworks i loosened up the three bolts on the front here and once I did there was just enough play in it that I could get everything to line up the way it should and I'm inclined to think that if I drilled the lower holes in the back and put the bolts through there the half inch bolts and then tightened everything up against the bucket and then tightened up the bracket to the work master plate itself everything should fall in line and the only issue that might arise is this tiny little Gap right here it wouldn't sit flush against the top of the bucket quarter inch plate steel grade 8 Hardware um I'm not inclined to think that it would it would break anything would break or bend because because that's just the way Metal Works like it's not it's a BX it's not like we're lifting thousands of pounds with this so I have an email in like I said and when I get a response um I will pick back up on the video to get to this point though we are at 36 minutes and 10 seconds so uh not too bad we're still under an hour and actually I think even with this little snap who I stopped it when I figured out something was wrong um I think even with that I'll be able to figure out and keep this under an hour for the total install which is pretty good hello and welcome back so it is the next day from where I left off on the video last night um where I had gotten basically everything lined up but I wasn't sure if there was an issue with the support brackets on the back uh because things weren't lining up with the front tightened down I did get them lined up correctly with the front loosened up and after talking with Jeff last night speaking of customer service out of this world I shot Jeff an email last night at like 5 30 and I had a text back we were texting pictures back and forth and we got it figured out so the way it looks is just because of various manufacturing um you know tolerances and things like that that can stack up uh or potentially the fact that my bucket was out of spec or because I've used it now for almost four years I bent something on the bucket which is totally possible there could be just a little bit off on everything what I'm going to do is I'm going to leave the front loose I am going to find where the holes need to be drilled for these and drill those holes put the ball bolts through tighten the bolts on the back tighten the bolts on the front while clamping it and then tighten these top bolts here and hopefully that gives me I mean it it's gonna it is gonna give everything it's going to tighten everything up and everything's going to be solid so that's how we're going to do it um and that's how we're going to roll so let's do that I will restart the stopwatch [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign So the plan I'm going to tighten these lower half inches first then I'm going to clamp this again so it's tight against the top I'm going to do the front three and then we'll do these top ones holding everything together that should work [Music] first thing I'm going to try is I'm going to put a 1-7 8 ball in here um and we're gonna try the trailer moving capability of this thing because that's actually that's what I was most excited about I'm gonna move a trailer I have an old uh really old Harbor Freight Utility Trailer I think it was like a 1200 pound Max Capacity although I wouldn't trust this thing with that but um but it's not really roadworthy anymore it's got a lot of rust on it it lost a fender at one point uh really it's not I used to use it to move motorcycles around like if I bought a motorcycle I would hook it up behind my car and use it to get a motorcycle home that way but um but it's in rough shape it's not something I really want to use for that anymore so in the future this is going to become a chicken coop for down on the New Pasture area I don't really want to have to drive my truck out into the pasture every time I want to move this so the work master plate with the trailer ball on the front of it makes for a really quick and easy way for me to get this thing moved if I have to uh so that's what I'm gonna try I'm gonna bring the tractor around and hook this up and we're gonna push this thing around the front yard and see how she goes coupler definitely needs a little bit of lube but that thing's been sitting for like three maybe four years I also should note that the tongue on this I know is short um so the trailer geometry is going to be a little bit wonky but it should work just fine for for playing around in the yard foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] that is going to work out perfect for moving the chicken coop once we get that built so if you've never moved a trailer using the front of your bucket um or like a front hitch on a car they make those too I highly recommend it you wouldn't want to tow any long distances with it because you're going to be looking over your shoulder but if you just need to move something quickly like we back the boat into the garage or I'm moving a chicken coop out on pasture just removing that trailer around the yard a little bit and putting it where I want it this thing is worth its weight in gold already I am super psyched on it obviously with a BX and the loader capacity I wouldn't want to go tongue weight like I would say even like 300 pounds would be like the max tongue weight I'd want to do on this and you're only going to want to move something if you're in four-wheel drive so that your brakes have the ability to slow things down trailer moving ability big trailers on flat ground or small trailers like chicken coops um on kind of bumpy or more uneven ground you've also got these grab hooks here the USA made grab hooks they are the official size is 5 16. this is quarter inch chain but um but it's still working in there you're talking 1 16 of an inch so it is still locked in where I see using these hooks for me at least is going to be in firewood processing especially in the near future I'm not ready to start cutting right now you'll see this in a future video where I talk more about using this thing but what I Envision here with this is moseying up to the center of a log hooking into this ring with a chain hook going around the back of the bucket I'm coming back up and chaining that log here so that I can lift that log up and buck it up into 16 inch lengths which I can split and then put in the wood stove kind of like a poor man's grapple obviously it would be a little bit slower I would have to feed the chain through I couldn't just drive into the log and grab it and pick it up with the Hydraulics but this is going to be you know one tenth the price of of a capable grapple for the front of ibx and that's not counting your third function Hydraulics that you need to have wired up and all that other stuff this is literally just an hour of your time to install oh shoot I forgot to turn my phone stopwatch off so even recording all this and playing around with that trailer and digging the trailer out and finding some tools about an hour and 41 minutes impressions of the ju fabworks work master plate for the Kubota BX um I'm impressed for 239 dollars I went and looked up the price actually 239 dollars you get two grab hooks on the front for a 5 16 chain you get two heavy duty Rings here that you can attach stuff to whether it's a safety chains for a trailer or some other item you get a two inch receiver you know you can put a ball on here and move anything within reason for your tractor's loader capability you definitely want to you know pay attention to that you know the powder coat on it looks good I've already scratched it up a little bit moving that trailer around but I'm not it's a tractor part I'm not worried about what it looks like um you know from a pretty pretty tractor-part standpoint I'm worried about if it works and this thing works the welds look good everything's made in America fabricated right in the midwest so I'm sold for 239 dollars I don't think that there's a more useful kind of accessory plate I guess you could call it that you would mount to the front of your Kubota BX big thanks to Jeff over at ju fabworks for sending this out to me I don't have an affiliate code with them I'm not going to drag Jeff over Cole's here for an affiliate code either for 239 dollars you're supporting a small us-made company there's too many of these things that are made overseas with whatever Quality Steel you know you don't know what you're getting and um you know I want to support Americans so for 239 bucks I'm gonna say just buy it at that price if there is an affiliate code or you come across one cool enjoy it but uh but really think long and hard before you use that affiliate code because this thing 239 bucks is worth it all day long that's going to be it for today on the channel if you like what you see and you want to see more of our farming and homesteading stuff make sure to hit subscribe down below otherwise as always thanks for watching and I hope you're doing well bye

Channel: The Mindful Homestead

Views: 37,683

Keywords: kubota, compact tractor, jufabworks, kubota bolt on hooks, kubota bucker reciever hitch, tractor, kubota tractor, kubota bx, bolt on tractor hooks, workmaster plate

Id: mdEDSEGwam0

Length: 22min 39sec (1359 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 13 2022