# Front end loader brands...



## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

I run a pair of 5610S Ford/New Hollands, and about 10 years ago I got a loader for it from Loader Super Center in Oklahoma (it's an Allied loader, so it said on the gray primered frame before they painted it Ford Blue for me-- it's a 2070 model). I'd love to get another one for our other tractor, because the FEL is just handier than sliced bread-- dunno how we made it all these years farming before we got it!

Last time I went through OK, the place I got it was shut down.

SO, what loader brands do most folks here have, and what should I be looking for/at for a 70 horse tractor like that?? Not looking for a lot of bells and whistles (I don't even have a joystick-- run it off the dual hydraulic controls on the tractor-- though a joystick WOULD be nice!) Just need a good, strong, basic loader...

SO, brands/recommendations?? Experiences and things or companies to avoid?? What sort of price can I expect?? How about used loaders??

Any and all information greatly appreciated!

Later! OL JR


----------



## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I like alo but allied are the most common loader on that era of ford around here - can get them used


----------



## RockmartGA (Jun 29, 2011)

I've only had Bushhog brand loaders. Been well satisfied with them.

If I were in the market for a new loader, I would look into getting a quick attach set up to accept universal skid steer brackets. That way, you'd be set up with a "one size fits all" with buckets, hay spears, pallet forks, grapples, etc.


----------



## Bonfire (Oct 21, 2012)

Quicke and Bush Hog.


----------



## Grateful11 (Apr 5, 2009)

Is anyone running a Koyker Loader? We've been looking at a 185 or 542 for the Deere here.

http://www.koykermfg.com/index.php/products/loaders/info/

542 Loader

http://www.koykermfg.com/index.php/products/542-loader/542-loader/

http://www.iowafarmequipment.com/koyker-542-legend-front-end-loader.html


----------



## TJH (Mar 23, 2014)

My 8240 has a Koyker 545. Its a big heavy loader weighs a ton. My first loader was a Westendorf TA-26. I'm not going to lie, I prefer the Westendorf hands down, mainly for the ease of removing it. When I'm mowing and baling I don't like to have the loader on, and compared to the Westendorf the Koyker is a PITA to take off. I could have the Westendorf off in less than 3 minutes and lucky to get the Koyker off in 20. And I'm not even going to mention changing attachments. So if you leave it on any will do, but if you want to remove it often, W is the only way to go. I do wish I would have made them change it before I bought it.


----------



## Gearclash (Nov 25, 2010)

I'm not wild about Westendorf. Dairy has a TA-29 (mechanical self leveling) on a CIH5230. Over 8000 hours on the combination. Dismounting may be quick, but the mountings allow the loader frame to rock sideways a little when the arms are up. Bucket roll back angle is poor. Attachment system is so so. Arm cylinders have had end cap welds crack and leak countless times, including the replacements Westendorf gave for free.

I have a CIH L750 which is made by Great Bend. Mount/dismount is slower but there is no slop in the mountings when it is on. Bucket angles are much better. Euro style attachment is so so. It has hydraulic self leveling which I would trade for the mechanical self leveling that CIH offers in a heartbeat.


----------



## IHCman (Aug 27, 2011)

I love the Miller loader on my 5240. Greaseless pins and very well built, also easy to take off. My only complaint would be that the red paint faded quite fast. If I ever buy another FEL It will be a Miller.

Dad has an Ezee-on 2100 loader on a ih 5088 that's been a pretty good loader. The Ezee-on grapple fork on that one was junk though. Solved that problem by having a grapple fork made at a shop south of here.

Had a farmhand loader years ago 1140 XL?? can't quite remember the model. It got the job done but wasn't the best loader. Harder to take off than the Ezee-on and it would always crack out around the pins.


----------



## barnrope (Mar 22, 2010)

The nehborhood is full of Koykers. They seem like a good loader. In the family are three 510s and a 565 on a 4020, two 4440's and a 4455. Pretty low maintanance and easy to take off and put on.


----------



## MT hayer (Mar 1, 2014)

I believe you can still get an Allied, it is called a Buhler now. Mine is an in between and has the Buhler name. it isn't the greatest to take off but not bad either. Mine has a quick attach bucket and has the extra linkage for the bucket so it dumps further. I think it is a 545? Have to go check. I have it for a 7710 series 2. Always wanted a 5610s. Bet they are a really nice tractor?

I will be honest with you, I would rather see you go get a ford industrial loader, or skip loader. Keep your tractors nice and just have a good loader. They are well built and made to handle the weight. I would bet if you shop around, you will find one for not much more money than a new loader would be. Plus you might find one with MFWD, pto, and reverser!!


----------



## TJH (Mar 23, 2014)

I agree with you, dad tried to get me to buy a Ford loader-backhoe that was for sale at that time and I wish I had gone that way.


----------



## gradyjohn (Jul 17, 2012)

I have a Koyker 545 with a joystick (love the joystick). It is mounted on a JD4450. Don't like the mount because it is not easy to get in and out of the tractor. As far as what is does I love it. The do Ford New Holland Blue.

From my web search it looks like Allied is now Farm King and there is a dealer in Shiner.

http://www.farm-king.com/Region-US/allied_by_farm_king/front-end_loader/index.php


----------



## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

IHCman said:


> I love the Miller loader on my 5240. Greaseless pins and very well built, also easy to take off. My only complaint would be that the red paint faded quite fast. If I ever buy another FEL It will be a Miller.
> 
> Dad has an Ezee-on 2100 loader on a ih 5088 that's been a pretty good loader. The Ezee-on grapple fork on that one was junk though. Solved that problem by having a grapple fork made at a shop south of here.
> 
> Had a farmhand loader years ago 1140 XL?? can't quite remember the model. It got the job done but wasn't the best loader. Harder to take off than the Ezee-on and it would always crack out around the pins.


That's good to know...

I've been well pleased with the EZ-On... I haven't dismounted it since I mounted it actually, but it's designed to simply slide forward out of the sideframes. I can get to most of the stuff on the engine to work on it pretty easy even with the loader on, which is a big plus IMHO. I also like that the side frames are "wrap around" at the front (bolted to the bolster) and nothing sticks down underneath the tractor like some loaders... with the loader off, all you have are two sideframes straddling the engine bolted on to the transmission and the front end. If you have to work on the engine, well, the sideframes can be pulled off after backing out of the loader in probably 20-30 minutes.

I've used it pretty hard-- hard enough that I bowed the cutting edge of the bucket about 2-3 inches lower in the center and cracked some welds and sheets on the bucket... course I've been grubbing out trees and pushing around trees that I killed with Remedy/diesel in old fence lines, digging out the fencelines, pushing brush and dead trees into huge piles, etc. Our place at Shiner was cross-fenced seven ways to Sunday but most of those old fences were falling down and so ate up with brush and crap that they were just providing hog habitat and feasts for birds that then crap out tree/brush/huisache/mesquite seeds all over the place. So we've been steadily poisoning out all the trees and brush in these fencelines (bois d'arc, mesquite, huisache, hackberry, camphor, and a few worthless live oaks and junipers-- but we leave a FEW big ones just for shade here and there). We poison the trees, if they don't completely die we give them a second dose the next year (basal bark Remedy/diesel 25% mix sprayed on from the golf cart) let them dry out a year or so (til the branches start falling out of them) and then go in and push them down with the 5610S and EZ-On, and push them up into piles to burn... dig or pull out posts, roll what wire we can and push the stuff loaded up with vines (dewberry, greenbriar, and muscadine grape) into burn piles. Can usually knock down a 2 foot plus diameter tree without too much trouble after 2 years... then roll the stump out by shoving the bucket under it and rolling the bucket back to "pop" whats left out of the ground. I got a little overeager a few years ago when we started and was trying to dig out the smaller green trees, which is what really warped the cutting edge on my bucket-- those things are TOUGH when they're green! Remedy and time really softens them up though!

When the ponds went dry about 4-5 years ago during one of our killer droughts, I took the opportunity to dig them out... removed about 3 feet of sand from the bottom of one pond where it had washed in over the years making it a shallow bowl shape, made it completely flat bottomed and built up the banks, and shaved them down and smoothed them out from the steep caving-off mess they had been... cut the sides back to about a 30-45 degree angle from the top of the bank down to the bottom. We worked in 110 degree heat for about 2 weeks doing that (I ran the loader tractor and would scrape bucketfuls up and drive up out of the pond, dump it on the bank, and circle back down the embankment into the pond, doing the whole thing without stopping in 2nd or 3rd gear at about 1800 rpm on the tach... much faster than digging and backing and stopping and crawling up the bank and dumping and backing and driving back down again... my brother ran the little 2310 Ford with the box blade, spreading dirt and leveling out the spill I was hauling out. In one area, I was hitting sandstone bedrock and popping out 2-3 inch thick sheets of sandstone where the bucket was following layers in the rock... I don't know how many buckets of sand we hauled out of there-- but we basically doubled the size of the pond bottom, so it's nearly the size of a football field... coupled with the bank work. I know we put probably 2-3 feet of sand over an area at least the size of a football field on top of and outside the banks, filling in a lot of "low places" that held water outside the banks, plus we built up the dam and approaches (and the road over the dam) as well as the backside of the dam, tapering it out enough that we can shred up and down it now. When the pond bottom got TOO hard at one end, we put the moldboard plow on and plowed up the hard pack to loosen it, then scooped the loose dirt out with the bucket and shaved it down smooth... We put a LOT of work on that loader and other than replacing some hoses and regularly greasing it, we've had no problems. I've lifted stuff that had one of the rear tires lifting off the ground (and they're filled with water!) and no signs of cracking or anything like that. Rebuilt the bucket while I had it at the farm shop here (flipped it, chained it up and put a hydraulic jack in there and pushed the cutter edge straight (went past straight so it sprang back straight) and then welded everything up that was cracked or stressed. Looks good. It's got their "EZ-on" quick-tach system, which is pins in the bucket that engage in four "J" hooks on the front of the loader frame, with a piece of bar that slides over a 3 point type pin, retained by a lynch pin on the top of the "J" hook... it works ok but it's not as handy as the skid steer types that automatically make the connect "snap-style" once you stab the top hooks...

I'd love to have another EZ-on, but last time I went through Idabel, the Loader Super Center was closed... I drove up there years ago and bought the thing and brought it back myself (about 500 miles or so from west of Houston up there) and IIRC we paid $3500 for it with the quick-tach deallie-oh... just handy as sliced bread... They did have a number on the door to call, and when I called it I talked to the owner... had a REALLY fascinating conversation over an hour or two-- I took a little break from driving sitting there in his old parking lot talking with him, and then spent another hour or so on the phone as I drove up through the Ouchita Mtns. heading for Indiana... he told me a LOT about the loader business and what happened to his outfit...

Anyway, I'm really glad that folks are sharing their input... thought I'd add another log to the fire, so to speak.

Thanks again to everyone and I hope to read more information as folks are willing to share it!

Later! OL JR


----------



## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

MT hayer said:


> I believe you can still get an Allied, it is called a Buhler now. Mine is an in between and has the Buhler name. it isn't the greatest to take off but not bad either. Mine has a quick attach bucket and has the extra linkage for the bucket so it dumps further. I think it is a 545? Have to go check. I have it for a 7710 series 2. Always wanted a 5610s. Bet they are a really nice tractor?
> 
> I will be honest with you, I would rather see you go get a ford industrial loader, or skip loader. Keep your tractors nice and just have a good loader. They are well built and made to handle the weight. I would bet if you shop around, you will find one for not much more money than a new loader would be. Plus you might find one with MFWD, pto, and reverser!!


My great granddad had the first tractor in Fort Bend County, Texas, back in the early 1900's... he came down here from Kansas at about 26 years old, bought his uncle's farm here (our home place) in 1902 (two years after the "great hurricane of 1900" that hit Galveston, TX (70 miles SE of here) and killed 6,000 people-- which pretty much convinced his aunt she wanted to move back to NY state, where our people originally came from (before they migrated to Hallsville, MO, then to the Coffeyville, KS area, where my great-granddad's parents lived. That first tractor was a Fordson. Later he farmed with F-12's and F-20's. My Granddad started farming this place (GGP had seven kids and seven farms by that time) in about 1952 or so, bought an Ford NAA and then a Ford Golden Jubilee 8N. My grandmother kinda rubbed his nose in the fact that he was a "poor boy" and her family was rich, and this farm 'would never be his' and so in 56 he bought 160 acres just east of Shiner, and moved up there in 57 or 58. Tried farming cotton on the sand hills and nearly went broke, got into the hay business and paid for the farm selling small squares by the thousands to the auction barn, feedlots, and to customers. They farmed cotton on the Needville place, hauling the 8N's back and forth on a flatbed trailer made from the back end of an old 2 ton truck. Finally moved back to Needville in 64, Dad graduated in 65. Somewhere along the line in the early 70's they moved up to four row equipment from the old 2 row stuff they'd been using with the "fleacatchers" (as the neighbor called the little Fords-- he farmed with Farmall C's and H's and M's). First they got a 5200 Ford row-crop (high-deck) and Dad got a Super-M with a wide-front, and he started renting ground. Most of the stuff that he got was inferior ground, sand that burned up in summer, weed patches, etc. He and Grandpa always "farmed cheap" (figured how much money they had to spend on weed control, and then figured out how many acres they had to cover, and that determined the herbicide rates, not the actual weed pressure-- thus the fields were usually a pretty big mess and yields suffered.) Dad and Grandpa bought a brand new Ford (Claas) 640 combine in the early 70's and did a lot of custom work, which allowed them to rotate in grain sorghum with the cotton for better weed control, and make extra money. The grain market collapse of the late 70's put and end to that, as most of the acres in the area went to straight cotton, or rotations with corn, with the farmers usually having their own combines, sorghum acres dried up and so did the custom work. Dad had worked during the winters for dealerships as a mechanic or parts man before quitting to put in crops. By the late 70's that didn't work much anymore either, as jobs were harder to come by. He got a job driving dump trucks at the nuclear plant for the then-unheard of wage of $5 an hour, had more money than he'd ever had, and since he had lost a lot of land to the BTO's (who were in the first phase of the "get big or get out" rat race) and decided to let his rent land go and just help Grandpa with the home place, leaving them just 62 acres in cultivation, the rest in pasture and cattle. Grandpa and Dad went in partners on a Case/David Brown ~70 horse tractor (don't remember the model number), which had plenty of power, but the wiring harness burned up three times on it in the several years they owned it. The last year we had it ('80 IIRC) we had to pull-start it all the time-- the electrical system was gone and Grandpa didn't want to spend the $800 to have it rewired AGAIN. In early 81 he came home one day and said "I fixed the Case-- I traded it on a new Ford 6600." We had the first round baler in the area as well-- he finally traded the old Ford 512 (517?) square baler in on a new Ford 552 (Gehl 1400?) round baler-- fire ants had recently moved into the area with a vengeance and dealing with small squares was a very painful proposition, plus our then-nearly 100 year old hay barn had seen better days. We still cut with the old Ford 501 sickle mower (despite the anthills) until the late 80's when Grandma and I traded it off on the Zweegers drum mower. We ran the old NH 55 rake behind the Jubilee until the early-mid 90's, when we retired both and bought a NH 256 rake. Grandpa died in 83 when I was 12, and I ended up getting trained the next year to take his place. Dad set everything up and got me started when he wasn't working, and within 2 years he pretty much turned the farms over to me. When I turned 16, he was basically helping me; I ran the farms for my Grandmother, did all the hauling/driving and farming as well. In the mid 90's, the old 5200 row crop was showing its age-- it had lost a lot of power, needed new rear tires, the PTO brake didn't work (spun all the time, though "coasting" not powered when off; worked fine when turned on). Lots of "little things" like that. I got the opportunity to trade it on a brand new Ford 5610S, so we jumped on it. We were still row cropping cotton and sorghum (after getting out of grain entirely for about 15 years-- the 96 farm program and improving prices made getting back into grain rotation make sense again) with a little corn and soybeans thrown in at times, as well as hay and cattle. The 6600 had been doing the "heavy work" (tillage, baling, etc) in the time since we bought it, and was starting to show its age too. In '99 we had to have a lot of work done on it too, even though I wanted to trade it off, Grandma didn't want to spend the money. Unfortunately, the mechanic put plain water in it and Dad didn't check it, and I was out of state for a few weeks visiting my girlfriend in New Jersey, when we got one of the biggest cold snaps and freezes in recent memory. The block cracked and Dad talked to the dealer, and made a trade on a brand new New Holland 5610S on New Year's Eve, for basically the same money we'd paid for the Ford 5610S 3-4 years before. We row cropped for another 3-4 years before we decided that falling prices and rapidly increasing input costs made row-cropping such a small acreage unprofitable, and decided that the tenets of the then-still-in-effect 2002 farm program made switching to all cattle and hay the best fit for our size operation... basically the farm program payments would pay to fence this 87 acre place. I had been married several years by this time and Grandma was getting very elderly, and didn't want to deal with the big expenses of row crop farming compared to cattle/hay operations costs, so it was a good time to switch.

Those 5610S's are nice, basic tractors... the Ford is 68 horsepower, the New Holland (newer model) was "souped up" to 72 horse (so the dealer told us when we bought them). The New Holland is the one with the loader on it. I used it to do all the "heavy work" from the time we bought it til we quit row cropping, and would do most of the baling with it. We drove it the 100 miles to Shiner when we decided to start ripping out all those old fence lines, and moved the little Ford 2310 (basically a 3 cylinder diesel 8N, which we replaced the old NAA with in early 83) down here to do light jobs like bush-hogging with the six footer, raking hay when needed, etc. The only real difference in this tractor and the others is size... they all have the 4x2 (8 speed) manual transmissions. The 5610S's have dual remotes and 540 live PTO's, the 2310 we added a remote to it and it has a semi-live (half-clutched) 540 PTO. I've also run a 5610S for the husband of a fellow bus driver (when I was driving a schoolbus) who ran a fairly big custom hay operation, cutting hay with a 9.5 foot Kuhn GMD 700 series II (IIRC) 3 pt hay mower. Worked great. Didn't hardly even know it was back there once I got everything set up right (belts at the proper tension, etc). I could cut anything at 6 mph all day long. My 7.5 foot Zweegers is the same way-- don't even know it's back there, mow all day long at 6mph in anything, regardless of how tall or how thick (but dense bahiagrass can test that like nothing else-- better have sharp blades and keep them sharp!) Given that the Zweegers is now 25 years old, I'm looking to move up to a 9.5 foot NH mower, preferably on a caddy... I picked up a 258 rake a few years ago at an auction and refurbished it, and a dual-rake homemade bridge-hitch a few years back for $125 at auction, so now I pull double rakes, and do pretty much all the haying with the Ford 5610S. I'd love a loader for it to load and move hay-- back in the early 90's I got a "forklift" type hay loader (telescoping mast that can load up to about 6 feet high) that fits on the 3 point, with a 48 inch cylinder running off the remote to raise the mast, which works okay for loading hay (and was better than having to park the wagon we were hauling hay with then in the ditch to set hay on it with a regular 3 point bale fork) but the loader is about a thousand times handier...

SO, yeah, if you need a good, decent, fairly cheap general workhorse tractor, the 5610S is a good machine for its size. I just changed the oil in the new one and it's at 910 hours. I'm not sure what the older Ford one has (my brother changed the oil in it while I was in Indiana). I made a bracket that bolts onto the ROPS for a canopy-- after I priced a canopy kit and like to passed out when I heard what they wanted for one, I took an idea I read in "Farm Show" magazine and built the lightweight angle-iron frame to bolt to the ROPS, which is covered by a round piece of plywood to reinforce one of those $9.99 kiddie pools from Wal Mart... the ones that are about 6 feet in diameter... it works like a champ-- keeps the heat off in summer, and the rim of the pool keeps the sun from shining into my eyes until about the last 20 minutes before sundown... lets the breeze blow through, and keeps most of the rain off in wet weather, unless it's blowing or I'm driving fast. My nephews in Indiana make a bit of fun at it, but heck, the kiddie pools last a couple years (if I keep the tractor parked in the shed rather than sitting out in the sun all the time (the shed doubles as a repair area for other stuff) and they're cheap and easy to replace (six screws and about five minutes time). Heck, they're even "color coded" to the Ford Blue... and the little rubber duckies and stuff on the inside keep me company LOL A canopy kit would have cost over $900 bucks years ago when I priced one, and doesn't cover to the sides or down around the rim as well. A buddy put a golf-cart plastic roof topper on his tractor, and it's even smaller. The pools might look funny, but they work, and work well, and cheaply!

One thing I DID pretty soon after I got the loader-- I replaced the 7.50x16 front tri-rib tires with 11.00x16 four-ribs... got the tires as pull offs cheap from the dealer (they'd been sitting in his storage barn for a year, and he figured they were getting old) and picked up a set of rims for them from Eagle Tractor Company, a salvage outfit my brother worked as the computerized parts inventory guy for at the time, which I picked up pretty cheap. Works like a champ now, where before, a big bucket of dirt in wet ground would sink those 7.50 tri-ribs to the hubs pretty darn quick! Other than that the tractors have been good and dependable.

Later! OL JR


----------



## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

Jr- BREATHE!


----------



## MT hayer (Mar 1, 2014)

By gosh you have a memory like a steel trap! You have a long history of fords! That is good to hear. Same way up hear. We still have the 5000 tractors that grandpa bought years ago. Need some engine work and paint. Couldn't tell you how many hours are on them. The 5610 had better power steering and a good charging system compared to the old ones. 
I would like to get an 8630 Ford bought someday before they are all shot! Nice cab and a full power shift. I like my 7710 for baling but my knee doesn't agree with me because of the clutch. I hate to go green but it is tough to find a good blue tractor any more up here. I checked and my loader does say allied on it and it is a model 694. I see there is a great bend 660 on tractor house for a 7710. I don't know if the mounts would be the same or not?


----------



## FarmerCline (Oct 12, 2011)

I normally don't read all of your posts because my attention span simply doesn't last that long when reading a forum. I did read your 2nd post that pretty much covered your family's farming history......you should consider writing a book.....seriously.....you seem to never have a lack of words and would be good at it. I don't think I could be that long winded if I tried.


----------



## treymo (Dec 29, 2013)

Great Bend loaders are not in business anymore, but the popular loader here are KMW loaders which are made right here in Great Bend.

Trey


----------

