How to straiten a twisted loader?

I just bought a Deere 2440 with low hours and it has a 146 loader that they used to push snow.They scraped their driveway with the bucket strait up and down and caught something with the cutting edge twisting one side of the loader up about 2-3 inches. They even pushed the bucket stops slightly up into the arms on both sides. I can find no cracks or broken welds on the frame or the front tube. How do I straiten it? Should I chain the high side to the floor in the shop and jack the other side up? What about putting the lower side on blocks and have a neighbor with a big track-hoe push down on the high side? The tractor has side frames but putting as much force as will be needed scares me with thoughts of breaking the plate on the rear of the engine(I have seen them broke before).I could remove the loader but not sure how then to work on it. Thanks for any ideas or experience with this problem. Tom

Firstly I would not do it on your tractor. You need to find a TRUCK repair place. They have some huge hydraulics and tydown points to do that heavy type of pulling and bending stuff. Look on U tube and type in truck frame straightening. They make it look soooooo easy.

like was said, find a body shop with a frame machine

The trouble with a loader is that they were made to be rigid and truck frames were not thus they can be brought back straight and a loader not so much. I have seen bent loaders and once they are sprung they will never be right again. Seen many wrote off by insurance.

Without pictures showing what is bent it's impossible to give good advice. That said, I've fixed a good many loaders over the years. First thing you need to decide is how good do you want it when done. Fixing a loader well is usually a significant job, but certainly doable. If all you want is for the bucket to be flat on the floor again then either of your plans should work fine. If you want to get it back to factory specs then it will take more in most times.

One basic to remember is that the best way to straighten something is to reverse the force that bent it. If your loader had been bent digging dirt then either of your plans would be ok to start with. But since it was likely bent from hitting something while moving, then the propper way to straighten it will be to pull it in reverse of the impact direction. I have chained the loader yo a tree and pulled back to accomplish this before.

Now if you really want to get it right you will need to do some carefull measuring to see just where it's bent. You will likely find a good many parts that are not quite right and will need to be put back in place.

There are many ways to apply the force needed to get things straight, but without a good idea what is bent any suggestions in that reguard would be nothing more than guesses.

I have done a few in my shop with "not bad" results. You can never make it virgin again, but you can make it respectable. I try to figure out how the damage was done, then pull, or press it in the opposite way. Maybe you could tie off the loader to the front and a little up. Do it in a way to spread the load out. then pull down and rearward, maybe under the tractor on the opposing side. Dont let the nay say ers discourage you. Its already tweaked, not really usable now, What do you have to loose? No one was ever able to do anything until they tried it for the first time. Who knows, you might find you have a gift for straightening stuff. Sometimes the weight of the tractor, added the power of the hydraulics can tweak stuff back. You can add the weight of a second tractor loader to help. I have straightened many cylinder rams with a block of hard wood and hydraulic pressure while still mounted on the machine. Your imagination is your only limiting factor. Go slow, and always use HEAVY chain, and good blocks. Take time to look things over good n and go slow,and be safe. Getting it back to usable wont take long. It just takes time to think, then rig it up to do what you need done. Good Luck,,, Al

Let some air out of one rear tire. That'll make it lay flat on the ground. lol

Sometimes a tree is a handy resource. When I built my shop in"82, I put two tiedowns in the floor- one inch steel shaft, three feet deep in concrete.

I am opposite of Jeffcat the last thing I would do is remove it from the tractor. May be sprung where you could not get it lined back up. I have straightened many and the key to doing it is go SLOW. Either of your methods would probably do it but placing a small block under the lower side and then pushing down on the other is a start. Whatever you try just go slow and do a little at a time till you figure out where to put the pressure to reverse the bend. It can be done if you go slow push or pull a little and then check things.

A lot depends on what you expect for a final result. If you are planning on using the loader to it's maximum capacity then you replace it. It will never again match it's original specs without either replacing every part that bent or with a lot of metal welded on to make up for the defects cause by bending.

Rick

(quoted from post at 16:35:14 08/01/16) I am opposite of Jeffcat the last thing I would do is remove it from the tractor. May be sprung where you could not get it lined back up. I have straightened many and the key to doing it is go SLOW. .

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Ditto what jm stated. I'd straighten it while it's mounted on tractor

Maybe if were on old oliver that would work but not on something as good as a Deere.LOL

Me thinks that if they caught something pushing snow, then it's pushed back on one side.
Pulling that side forward might fix it.

Know somebody who bolted a piece of grader blade to the front lip of the bucket to use as a wing to push ridged snow into the ditch.
Tweaked the loader frame bad enough that when let down the right side would sit 2-3 inches higher than the left.
Bolted the grader blade on so it was sticking out the other side and put it to work, did not take much to tweak the other side enough for things to be level again.
It takes way more force to unbend something than it takes to bend the other side to match.