The Swivel Tach, as called in its commercial guise, was launched by Fieldmaster at National Fieldays.
Two hydraulic rams driven by an extra hydraulic system enable the movement while keeping the bucket steady under pressure.
Toft says he was doing the job with a shovel and wondered if there was a way to do it with the loader. “Initially I just welded a couple of attachments to the side of the bucket but then I wanted to do the other side so it went from there.”
Once he had the concept worked out in his head he advanced by trial and error to put together something that worked. An offer of $4000 worth of steel for $200 made the project possible. “I’d have never made it if it wasn’t for that.”
At first he had no plans to commercialise the product – it was just a useful attachment for on-farm use. Then Fieldmaster spoke to him about commercialising it.
Fieldmaster marketing manager Rachel Stock says the company’s chief engineer, Rudolf Vorschezang, told them about the loader. “We are always open to looking at new innovations.”
The Swivel Tach is a face plate which mounts between the loader and the attachment and Toft says it works with all his existing implements.
He has since found a wide range of uses for a tilting front-end loader bucket, including picking up hay bales on an incline and pouring precise amounts of meal and feed into bins and feed trailers.
With a load capacity of 1 ton the unit is incredibly sturdy, he says. And he and Fieldmaster engineers have tested it extensively. “It has been tested extensively on my working dairy farm and have found it capable of assisting with almost anything.
“I can put a ton weight on and twist it easily, so if I’m driving along and I come to a slope I can just twist it to keep the load level.”
Though sturdy the mount doesn’t add a lot of weight to the loader. “Four men can lift it easily. We had to carry it into the innovation tent [at Fieldays] because they couldn’t let machinery in there.”
Because of the huge variety of front end loader widths and attachment mounts the Swivel Tach is built to customer’s order.
“There are different loader widths so when dealers take an order they will take details and we will engineer the product to that.”
Tel. 0800 500 275
www.fieldmaster.co.nz
