“Made-It-Myself” Garden Tractor Loader

“Made It Myself” Garden Tractor Loader TRACTORS Loaders “When I first started building it I figured I was making myself a toy but the loader has turned out to be handy for many jobs ” says Dennis Gintowt about the loader he built for his 1972 Deere 112 garden tractor “The bucket holds a little more than you can get in a wheelbarrow so it’s like a motorized wheelbarrow ” With weights on back of the tractor he can pick up as much as 500 lbs with the loader It’s handy for loading firewood in the pickup spreading fertilizer handling bark mulch and scraping the driveway in winter Gintowt started with plans for a Cub loader tractor he had purchased and modified them to fit his Deere He used 2 by 2 1/8-in tubing for the arms and 4 by 4 1/4-in steel for the towers one of which holds the hydraulic fluid He built the bucket out of flat stock and estimates the whole thing weighs about 450 lbs He drilled holes on the tractor to bolt the loader on but otherwise didn’t have to change anything on the tractor With nearly 40 years of welding experience he had all the tools and skills necessary to build the loader but it was his first time working with hydraulics He lost some fluid in the process but with trial and error and the help of a friend he figured it out It took Gintowt about a year to complete the loader with a lot of time spent planning “You don’t want to hurry the project ” he advises noting he took his time planning important details such as placing the hydraulic pump so the wheels didn’t hit it for example After eight years of use there is only one thing that would make it better “I wish it was a 4-WD tractor for digging in the dirt ” he says It easily handles loose dirt but doesn’t have the traction for digging packed dirt Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Dennis Gintowt 68 Line St Southampton Mass 01073 ph 413 527-8699; dengin0551@verizon net

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