Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

For a while I've wanted a Johnny Bucket for my tractor. I've seen a few forsale in the $400 range but never bought one. I put out an add about a month ago on CL and got a local hit the other night. Like new Johnny Bucket with no tractor adapter bracket or wiring harness for $300. I reached out to Johnny Bucket and the tractor bracket kit is $600 Looking at the bracket, its seems like it would be fairly simple to try and modify a Case/Ingersoll mule bracket to attach the bucket. Deck mule brackets start at about $50 on ebay but they are a lighter gauge steel. Then I had the idea what if I dual purpose my snowcaster or bercomac bracket. The berco's bracket is probably 1/4" steel, much heaver than the deck brackets. It looks like I could run the Johnny Buckets lower pin through some bushings in the berco's bracket and I would have to fab up the upper mount. The seller told me the Johnny Bucket bracket is 13" wide. The berco's mule drive bracket is only 8" wide so it would require some spacers. What do you guys think?
The missing tooth is replaceable. The wiring harness can also be bought at a reasonable cost. Lift and dump are both done by linear actuators. Earlier versions used the tractors mid lift (AFAIK).
Johnny Bucket webpage https://johnnyproducts.com/J_Bucket_HTM ... gersol.htm
Johnny Bucket parts. Bracket is #10. https://johnnyproducts.com/ordermain.htm#JBandACCorder Berco mule drive. I would only reuse the snapfast portion of the bracket. Johnny Bucket Bracket Case only Johnny Bucket Bracket

I don’t have any experience with one of these but it’s a really neat set up. I can see where it would be handy around the house. And I think you’re right you could adapt your mount fairing easily. I looked around the web a little and the only downside that stuck out at me is a 250 pound lift capacity that’s pretty light, your tractor is certainly capable of more. But for hauling mulch and such it would be fine.

Well done @MattA . Very well thought out and executed . Should serve you well .

JSinMO wrote: ↑Fri Apr 26, 2024 11:07 pm I don’t have any experience with one of these but it’s a really neat set up. I can see where it would be handy around the house. And I think you’re right you could adapt your mount fairing easily. I looked around the web a little and the only downside that stuck out at me is a 250 pound lift capacity that’s pretty light, your tractor is certainly capable of more. But for hauling mulch and such it would be fine.

Dirt and mulch is pretty much what I'd haul with it.

Looks like the bucket side bracket is a bit wider on the bucket I am looking at than the Ingersoll bracket from Johnny Products.

Well I pulled the trigger and bought the Johnny Bucket bracket last week. Should hopefully be here in a few weeks. JB is throwing in a free tooth for the tooth bar.

I'm going to DIY the wiring/control box. I've spent quite a while looking at joysticks to control the bucket but what I've been able to find are SPST and would require an external DPDT relay setup to control each linear actuator forward/reverse. I may just throw a pair of DPDT 15Amp switches in a project box and call it done for now. I'll have to figure out where to mount the control box. Possibly on the fender?

SPST = Single Pole Single Throw.
DPDT = Dual Pole Dual Throw.

When I bought a tractor with the Johnny Bucket it had the switches in the tower access panel where they were easily accessed by the operator, that worked pretty well.

That was on a 222 however, so there wasn't the tower cooler taking up space. I think it'd still be feasible with the 4 digit tractors though.

Have you looked at Amazon or similar for 12v joystick switches? After reading your post I was curious and did some poking around and was surprised at the options available (and at a reasonable price too...)
Some of the ones for electric kiddie cars looked interesting too... They are cheap because they are simple on/off switches - rather than proportional control joysticks that cost big bucks and need way more electronics than a bunch of 12v relays... small enough you could use fingertips to operate them - mounted in a waterproof box with a big magnet on the bottom and some weather pack connectors it could sit on your fender in easy reach and also be easy to remove if you weren't using your johnny bucket...

I have been looking on Amazon at the same joysticks. The ones I have looked at will all require a pair of external relays to control the bucket up/down and dump functions (4 relays total). At least some of the joysticks are also a single function at a time. I wouldn't be able to say lower the bucket and dump at the same time.

I did find some motor reverse modules but I've struggled to find something in the 30-40A range. These are a bit more than I need:
https://www.amazon.com/YLQASOON-5541100 ... B0D8XNSM97?

Amazons got a lot of relays with harnesses
https://www.amazon.com/irhapsody-12-Vol ... B07XC6HT5C?
Complete BS amperage ratings... but at least these have 12AWG wires.

Using a pair of 20Amp DPDT switches could avoid the extra relays... The linear actuators (part number K2G20-12V-BR-04R90JP) are about 25A at full load (1200lbs).
https://www.amazon.com/Nilight-Polarity ... B0BJ2C8TGC?

Similar thoughts on a big magnet to hold the control box to the fender

Johnny bucket mule arrived today. I've also got a bunch of parts to build the control box. Cab and snowcaster still need to come off the tractor.

@MattA Why do you take the cab off ? Do the doors not just pop off ?

@MattA Can you take a couple of pictures with a measuring tape next to it for dimensional reference .

Making some progress on the project. Lift linear actuator has been changed from 90 degree mounting to 0 degree. Adapter hitch is assembled and on the tractor.

I'll get back to you guys on the joystick/relays/control box. It's a work in progress... I'm not thrilled that I had to go up two box sizes to fit the relays and joystick.

Anyways the control box is mounted using rubber coated magnets that accept M4 screws and the wiring is being mounted with rubber coated magnets that accept tie wraps. Wiring will eventually go in a braided wire loom. I'm trying to figure out where to run the wiring. I'd like it to be out of the way but easily installed/uninstalled. I'm open to opinions... Wiring will probably be 3/4" high when I finish.

Wiring down the inside of the fender Wiring more toward the front of the fender Wiring on the front of the fender... I think this is asking to get stepped on. My feet fit fine with the wiring there... Another option is down the PTO piping hole and under the tractor... but that's likely not easily removable.

Progress has been slow but I did get the Johnny Bucket working. It will lift me (around 200lbs) in the middle of the bucket without the tractor running. Pulls up to about 30 amps when lifting me. Lifting me on the front edge of the bucket is pushing the linear lift actuators limit.

Some pictures below... I'm going to make the battery connection pluggable. Once I do that, the whole harness will be removable in about a minute. Bucket comes right off like any other snap fast attachment.

Excellent looking installation @MattA - I'm really liking the idea of the rubber coated magnets with the cable ties attached.
Do you have a link for them?

I purchased a couple of electrical pigtails off Amazon a little while ago - https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0D13T9BJK?ref ... asin_title
and https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0BNM9X7TP?ref ... asin_title
My intention was to mount the power socket on the tower somewhere, and have the other pigtail connected to the battery - mostly so I could connect a small trickle charger to the battery and not have to lift the hood or muck around with the battery cables - but it will also give me a hard wired power port if I wanted to connect some extra 12v lights or something...
That's the plan anyway...

@RoamingGnome I like your electrical pig tails. I used what I thought were weather pack connectors and even bought the crimper which does the seal and the crimp at the same time but they didn't mate with the Johnny Bucket weather pack connectors... so I chopped the JB connectors off.

These are the rubber coated zip tie magnets. The zip ties are reusable... The fully zipped diameter seems a little large for my wiring but it allows me to slide the magnets around on the braided mesh over the wiring.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CCJBR1ZD

This is what I used to mount the wiring box:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYGR7ZCY?th=1

I chose the 32mm diameter threaded insert magnets over the threaded stud magnets which allowed me to choose the screw length needed. Most crappy magnets barely hold my kids school drawings on the stainless steel fridge door. Putting one of these magnets on the fridge was a mistake. I had to slide it off.

I got a lot of seat time last weekend with the Johnny Bucket setup. Lifting with the bucket loaded is slow. I've previously mentioned with me in the bucket, the lift actuator pulls a good 30Amps. If you look at the american wire gauge (AWG) table in this link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_wire_gauge scroll down to 14AWG and look 8 columns over for 0.002525 ohms per foot (table is in mili ohms per foot, 2.525m Ohms). My wire harness is made up of a good 14' of 14AWG wire, that's 28' round trip (pos and neg wires). At 30Amps, the voltage drop is 30A * 0.002525ohms/foot * 28 feet = 2.121V drop. Likely more with the relays and connectors. Certainly helps explain the slow lifting when loaded. I may at some point change the setup to 10AWG, 0.0009989 ohms per foot. That would reduce the voltage drop to 30A * 0.0009989ohms/foot * 28 feet = 0.839V. I may also explore a remote relay box where I don't have to run an extra 14' of wire round trip to the fender and back where my control box is right now. The remote relay box would reduce the voltage drop to about 0.42V.

Other thoughts... the Johnny Bucket mule drive pivot does not use any replaceable bushings like the Ingersoll snowcasters/Berco snowblowers use. For $600 they ought to. The bracket is decently thick. Also the JB mule drive only supports using a Case deck with the bucket mule drive installed. I've thought of offering to loan JB an Ingersoll RM series mule drive for development. I only have the early style.

14 gauge wiring is good for 15 amps

12 gauge= 20 amps

10 gauge= 30 amps

Bob

Remote relay box (Closer the better to the bucket )with 10 guage to the actuators and feed it with 8 guage from the battery . Keep your RPMs up to allow the alternator to maintain the battery between actuations (pickup and dump) . Happy Haulling . PS , the actuators will never be as fast as hydralics .

I didn't realize the lift actuator would draw 30Amps. The actuators themselves are wired with what looks like 14AWG. I'll likely do a rebuild in the future.

This is the control pattern I'm presently using on my joystick. I swapped raise and lower last weekend since I kept getting it backwards. I'm not sure if a standard control pattern exists. The labels are not attached so that I can still swap controls which is as easy as swapping two relay control wires around. This joystick only allows for one function to be used at a time.

Hopefully I got the terminology correct...

@MattA Don't know ,but looks good to me . What ever works for you.

The pattern only matters for the user. If you had multiple machines, you'd want them to run the same, but for a one-off, whatever works.

More typical would be raise/lower moving forward, and back, and the dump/rollback being side to side. I don't even really think about it when I sit down on the 646 I'm so used to it. On my JD310, I don't have enough seat time yet to really be comfortable with it, even though it's the same. I'm still confirming which way to move every time.

I agree what ever works for you and you get use to. I was using my 644 lbh the other day digging dirt and moving it. I haven’t used the hie in a while but after a short time it was like on auto pilot. Great job Matt Harry

I switched up the joystick control pattern for the 3rd truckload of dirt. Took some getting used to. I'm done moving dirt for the season. I'll get some voltage drop measurements with the lift actuator running.

I did see Johnny products has a quick lift kit which I assume boosts the voltage to the lift actuator.
https://johnnyproducts.com/products/quick-lift

Under resourses there is a pdf on the quick lift modual and yes you are correct . it ups the voltage to 24 volts .

DavidBarkey wrote: ↑Thu Oct 09, 2025 6:15 am Under resourses there is a pdf on the quick lift modual and yes you are correct . it ups the voltage to 24 volts .

Thanks David. I didn't realize they had this documentation on the website.

Today I measured 3.2V to 3.3V drop in the wiring due to the current flow while lifting me in the bucket. This does not include the voltage drop on the battery/charging system. With the engine at 2200RPM's where I was running it while working in my yard, battery voltage is 13.8V. Voltage drops to about 12.5V by the time the buckets picked me up all the way. Lower the bucket and repeat 2x more times and the voltage is mid to high 11's. I don't normally do this when using the bucket. The voltage returns to 13.8V in probably 15 seconds. I didn't have a current probe at my house for testing.

The JB mule has significant space under the tractor for a remote relay box. At some point I'll rebuild the control harness.

I worked on revising my Johnny Bucket wiring harness over winter break. Project goal was to build a remote relay box down in the mule drive cavity, shorten up the amount of wiring carrying 30Amps and change rhe 14AWG wiring to 10AWG.

New relay box mounted in the mule drive. This is secured with magnets. Pair of 60Amp integrated relay reversing modules. These are about $20 on Amazon. All wired up. Fits well in the mule drive. At this point I realized I can't remove the relay box from the tractor without removing the steering rod Now that the relays are out of the joystick box, I was able to put the joystick in a much smaller box. I forgot to take pictures of the joystick box.

I'm having trouble finding decent ingress protection rated 10AWG connectors for the linear actuators. For now I've left the relay box to linear actuators wired with 14AWG. I may make more updates in the spring.

Looks good @MattA . Should work very well for you .