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Howdy Charley, Thank you for the information. It appears that you are absolutely correct about "Farmhand". From what I can gather, Farmhand is now just a brand name owned by AGCO, and they make one model loader according to their website. Apparently, however, there aren't too many real Farmhand "old timers" around AGCO. It's just a brand name under another company. They appeared to be baffled that I called them asking about Farmhand stuff. The receptionist made a comment something like: "I'm sure they are based out of this office, let me transfer you." Maybe she was just new? Then I got someone's voicemail which didn't identify brand, department, division, or anything. I left a message, but havn't heard anything back. The Farmhand email link is dead, so I emailed AGCO, the parent company, which is also linked together with all of AGCO's other brands (Which apparently includes Massey-Ferguson!). It's been a couple of days now, and I haven't heard anything from them either. I'm no farmer or rancher, and I don't rely on AG equipment to make a living, but if I did, and I had already experienced a few days down-time while attempting to contact the folks who made my stuff, I would be fairly peeved, I think! (For comparison: I emailed Case/IH when I first was considering purchasing the 830, asking about availability of parts and service. I got a personal phone call from a Case representative within 3 hours. I was pleasantly surprised. THAT'S real customer service!) Getting back to the loader, it does look like it mounts to the front of the rear axle. The mount appears to clamp around the axle housing, and big "I" beams that are part of the mount put the upright supports about 12 inches ahead of the axle. Then there are some "swing arms" that look like they mount to the side of the tractor somewhere. They really don't look very "beefy", but I have seen a couple photos now where it appears there are supposed to be some mounting plates up there to bolt those "swing arms" to, but I suppose if the holes on the front arms line up with one of the many threaded holes on the side of the tractor, I will "luck out" and could just bolt it up directly. Or I could just drill some new holes through the arms wherever the holes on the tractor are, and use some grade 8 bolts. I am just concerned with strength and safety. I don't want to bust out the bolt holes in the cast iron sides of the tractor, and I certainly don't want to bugger something up which could break and get someone hurt, expecially since several people, of varying levels of experience, are going to be voluntarily using the thing for maintenance of dirt roads in the New Mexico backcountry. From measurements I have taken, the space between the inside of the "boom arms" is 41 inches, and the length inside the boom from the inside of the rear upright support to the inside of the frame where the bucket mounts, is 104 inches. So it appears that as far as that goes, it will fit, and clear the front axle, steering wheel, etc.
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