Tractor Mike's video: Beware of Orphan Great Bend Front End Loader to John Deere Tractor Engineering Projects

I received an e-mail from a viewer who purchased a John Deere 2040 tractor with a Great Bend 330 Front End Loader. Problem was, the loader wasn't mounted on the tractor, but the seller seemed to indicate that everything was there to make it a functioning unit. Oh boy! Anytime I hear of anyone buying a loader without mounting brackets or with mounting brackets that the seller is "pretty sure" fits the tractor I always know it won't end well. This is one of those situations. The first problem is, it's highly unlikely that the brackets fit the tractor. If they would have, the seller would have mounted it and sold them together because a tractor with a front end loader will bring way more than a tractor with a loader and a bunch of pieces beside it. I'd say the seller knew the loader wouldn't fit with existing brackets and sold it and left quickly. The second problem is, Great Bend is no longer in business. They were sold and closed a few years ago when the world came tumbling down on most aftermarket loader companies. 20 years ago there were a lot of companies that made front end loaders for various tractors. Today there are few. What happened is that the original equipment manufacturers got tired of their dealers selling their tractor and someone else's loader. For many years, you could buy a better after market loader than what the manufacturer offered, for less money. Dealers would use the manufacturer's low rate program to finance the tractor and loader. Low rate programs cost money and the OEM's got enough of helping to sell a front end loader than didn't have their name on it and brought that program to a screeching halt. Especially on the smaller tractors, manufacturers started making it economically not feasible for dealers to offer aftermarket loaders on new tractors. They would offer new tractors with a "free" loader. It wasn't actually free, but most dealers immediately quit selling aftermarket loaders and instead, pushed customers to the OEM loaders. Sales of aftermarket loaders tanked, and many companies that made them struggled to survive. Great Bend was purchased by Bush Hog, who moved production to their state-of-the-art production facility in Tennessee, then a couple of years later, closed that plant. Today, Bush Hog offer Quicke loaders from a company called Alo, who is based in Europe and is currently the largest manufacturer of front end loaders in the world. So it's no longer possible to get loader mounting kits for Great Bend or Bush Hog loaders of that era. Unless someone who watches this video has a set of loader brackets to mount a GB330 loader on a Deere 2040, my viewer is stuck with a large engineering/fabrication/welding project. So, beware of orphan front end loaders that aren't mounted on tractors. LINKS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT... The Tractor Fun Store: https://asktractormike.com/products-for-sale/ Support the Tractor Mike Channel: https://www.patreon.com/TractorMike Visit the Tractor Mike website: http://asktractormike.com/ Visit Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/Ask-Tractor-Mike-312112962245304/ Copyright 2022 Tractor Mike LLC