Bobcat 953 quick attach conversion ideas?

[GMason]

We recently rescued a Bobcat 953 and rebuilt the motor. It only had 1500 hours on it. Problem is the attach bracket on the machine. It is far larger than the universal quick attach that is the standard. I am looking for opinions on options on how to convert to the universal system without breaking the bank. I have seen parts upwards to $4300.
Would like to hear from you experienced fabricators.

 

[Gearclash]

River Valley Machine of Dubuque IA make a nice and affordable semi finished quick attach plate. It is built with Case based moving parts. You add your own hardware on the back to make it compatible to the loader arms and cylinders.

Edit to add, I would look through what RVM offers, they have finished attachment couplers as well, they may have something that fits your machine without further work.

 

[GMason]

River Valley Machine of Dubuque IA make a nice and affordable semi finished quick attach plate. It is built with Case based moving parts. You add your own hardware on the back to make it compatible to the loader arms and cylinders.

Edit to add, I would look through what RVM offers, they have finished attachment couplers as well, they may have something that fits your machine without further work.

Thank you for your reply.
Believe me, I have scoured the interwebs and youtube for all I could find on this issue. I briefly looked at this site but saw some of the pricing so I passed on by. Trying to keep the costs down as much as possible although I am way ahead on the cost versus value of the project.

 

[Gearclash]

RVM's website is terrible to navigate, and I'm not finding their stuff on eBay either. I would call them and see what they have. When I bought semi finished plates from them it seems like the price was in the $400 range. Keep in mind this was pre Covid when dollars were worth something.

 

[sauciechick]

So is your attach plate a lot wider? On mine, it is a regular size quicktach, but I have a bent? pin on one side - thus have to do some grinding on the outside edge of some attachments. Not much grinding.

 

[GMason]

So is your attach plate a lot wider? On mine, it is a regular size quicktach, but I have a bent? pin on one side - thus have to do some grinding on the outside edge of some attachments. Not much grinding.

So it sounds like your machine has already been converted to the standard quick attach.
Mine is 47 1/2" wide at the top and 20" long to the bend.

 

[haymaker]

Several posts in the last couple of months have mentioned a skid steer scrap yard in Illinois.
A bit of research would find the name and number of that place and you could get some parts there.
Maybe someone with a better memory than me knows what I am talking about and can post the info here.

 

[GMason]

https://www.ebay.com/itm/174416696067

This is the route we decided to go with to convert our 953 machine over to conventional quick attach.
We will simply weld this to the existing quick attach plate mounted to the machine.

 

[GMason]

RVM's website is terrible to navigate, and I'm not finding their stuff on eBay either. I would call them and see what they have. When I bought semi finished plates from them it seems like the price was in the $400 range. Keep in mind this was pre Covid when dollars were worth something.

Thank you, Gearclash...
For any of you that are looking for a universal SSQA adapter......those "universal" adapters on Ebay that are 200-300 bucks are absolute garbage. We found out the hard way. We finally had the time to do ours correctly so we cut off the original bobtach, and that cheap SSQA, and replaced it with the universal unit from River Valley Machine. They build a VERY nice QA, and it took a lot of work to fab it onto our 953, but it's solid and works well.