Ym1500 front end loader?

[Hnewman144]

Been thinking about adding a loader to my 1500. I know these things weren't designed for loaders but I'm not going to be doing gravel work or anything heavy duty. I only want one for light yard maintenance, but mainly for cleaning out stalls in my barn. So I'm not worried about over working it. But my thing is, where the heck do you find a small loader to fit a 1500? I of course would like a used one at a good price but when searching the internet I cannot find one that is made for my tractor. Where does everyone find these things.

[winston]

If you were to find a used one you would have to fabricate or adapt the mounting brackets to fit your 1500. Don't know if your equipped to do that. This sight gets loaders in from time to time, you might call or contact Hoye to see if they have one.

Another possibility is Coldwater Tractors. They fabricate loaders for these old Yanmars with proper brackets. There price including shipping is very reasonable. https://www.manta.com/c/mm8vygb/coldwater-tractors-inc

[PatrickHanna]

I've been working on building a loader from scratch for my 1500. I'll be posting pictures in a couple weeks in the project section once I have it done and painted. The only things I have left to do are attaching the bucket and plumbing the hydraulics, which I'm hoping to have done this weekend. I used 3/16" 2x3 steel tubing for the posts and arms. I lucked out on the bucket - my dad had an old one sitting around and I cut it down just so I wouldn't be tempted to overload the tractor. I don't need a great deal of lift on this, so I was able to keep everything a little bit closer to the ground, which I hope will help with stability. I won't be able to load a pickup truck with it, but I will be able to load my trailers.

I bought all the hydraulic cylinders and lines/adaptors from surpluscenter.com and I bought the steel at a local scrapyard. I bought a two stick Prince control valve - either from Amazon or Northern Tool - I don't recall which. I'm using two cylinders for the lift and one centered cylinder for the bucket tilt. The tilt cylinder has mounting pins in the middle so I can have more clearance around the hood. (I was able to put the cross brace on the lift arms closer to the bucket with this cylinder)

For the bracket, I just cut two steel plates into the shape that I wanted, and I bolted them through the holes that go through the front frame into the engine block. I had to get longer bolts for this, but you need to be careful that you don't get bolts so long that they bottom out. I added the thickness of the steel and washers on the existing bolts to find what size I needed. Then I attached the two sides of the bracket to each other with a piece I fabbed that bolts into four holes that are right behind the bell housing - so the bracket is attached both in front and behind the clutch.

I'm still going to build a subframe for it, but in the beginning I'm just going to be using it to clean stalls, carry mulch, and turn compost. So the subframe is not a priority right now. I have enough steel left over to build the subframe with the only additional expense being the welding rods. I'm going to attach the subframe to the rear where the drawbar is bolted in currently, and then weld the drawbar to the bottom of the subframe plate.

Anyway, I'd estimate that in total I'm out maybe $700 - if that - plus my labor and a nice dinner for my dad for helping me with the trickier welding.

[PatrickHanna]

I posted a couple pictures of what I have done on my loader so far here:

viewtopic.php?f=13&t=8371

[Aaron]

Nice! I like it and I bet it work a LOT better than a shovel!