Can it pick this up?

   / Can it pick this up? #1  

Johnbro

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 1, 2008
Messages
375
Location
Western Washington
Tractor
2010 Kubota L4240
So I want to be able to pick up a pallet with 2000 lbs of ice melt (in 50lb bags) and stick it in my plow truck. I think in addition to the 2000 lbs of ice melt, plus the weight of the pallet (~20lbs) I'll have to add some sort of simple box around three sides of the pallet to keep the bags from sliding off. so maybe the whole thing might weigh 2200 lbs?

I want to be able to put on some pallet forks and pick up the pallet "box" and put it inside the bed of my F350 just far enough to close the tailgate. Then unload it after the truck is back from a run.

My LA854 specs are rated to lift 1878 lbs at the bucket center and 2489 lbs at the pivot pin. What I don't know is whether this is more than the system can handle with a set of forks like these:http://www.skidsteerexpress.com/cgi-bin/shopper.cgi?preadd=action&key=ATTA1FORKS

It seems like it will be too much weight and the system will go into relief? Perhaps I could jack up the relief valve a bit with a shim and pull it off? The alternative is my wife and I (both well north of 50 YO) will have to load this stuff one bag at a time when there's snow forecast :mad:

Any thoughts???
 
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   / Can it pick this up? #2  
Johnbro your post got cut off some snot not sure what you were saying about a box. You could always try it and see how it does then lighten the load a bag or 2 at a time until you can. Would beat the heck out of doing the whole thing by hand.

On my little Kubota with hst I can coerce a couple hundred extra lbs out of the fel by tapping the hst peddle of few times in forward, it gives the hydros a bit of a surge to get up a little more. Wouldn't want to do it all the time but it has worked a few times with no ill effects so far.

Rick
 
   / Can it pick this up? #3  
Hey John, we must be neighbors being Western WA. just a suggestion if your tractor won't pick up the whole load. Have it put on 2 pallets, they don't have to be 50-50 maybe just a few bags on the second pallet will be enough relief to lift the first pallet. Where about are you in WA, not too many places where you need a plow truck....But when we do, boy do we....
 
   / Can it pick this up? #4  
Are you loading the bags onto the pallet or does it come that way? I would think you may be OK if you put a few more bags closer to the tractor. Do you have a set of QA forks or the kind that slide onto the bucket? The QA kind will lift more since the load will be closer to the tractor. Instead of a pallet maybe you could make something more of a rectangle shape, again to help keep the weight closer to the tractor.
 
   / Can it pick this up? #5  
On the forks the weight will be well past the center of the bucket and more than the tractor can handle. Throw a few bags off a full pallet onto another pallet, see what it will lift. If you raise the empty pallet right beside the full one all you really have to do is slide them across. You might want to consider shrink wrap it will be lighter if you come close to needing a full pallet, might save a trip home for that last bag.
 
   / Can it pick this up? #6  
If you have a hook on the back of your bucket and can (safely) rig a pair of slings thru the pallet you may be able to lift it, but I'm not sure if you'll be able to get it into the back of your truck. Please tell us you will be doing this on a paved, flat surface.

The idea of breaking the one load down to 2 smaller pallet loads, as Scruffy1 suggested, seems like it would be the best way to go.


-Jim
 
   / Can it pick this up? #7  
I have an 853, same specs ...I cannot load a 1 ton pallet (wood pellets) onto my F350 ...but I can, just barely off load the full pallet ...FEL is already raised, and I can get a little lift (and, think about it, the truck springs help), so I can get it off, barely ...I cannot curl, however and given the geometry it is a little chancy lowering the pallet since you need to curl up to keep the pallet level...you wouldn't have that problem loading because you would already be curled up at ground level and merely have to uncurl at the truck bed ...but, I am convinced I could not load the pallet and so don't think you can either ...

Best advice above was to partially offload onto a second pallet.

There is one trick I will try next time I have to deal with a pallet of pellets: the pallet is 48x40 and is normally loaded onto my bed the "long" way by the forklift. next time I will ask them to load 48" widthwise, which will get the center of the load 4 inches closer to the pins and might just give me a little extra capacity.

I hadn't thought about trying to fool the pressure valve, but I don't believe I actually vent ...just a tiny bit of lift and no curl. [there is another thread on the board about replacing the loader hydraulic cylinders with higher capacity ones, but that sounds daunting to me.

will be interested in how you make out. incidentally, I looked for the lightest forks I could find that were 48" and rated at 2000 pounds ...Bradco, in my case
 
   / Can it pick this up?
  • Thread Starter
#8  
thanks to all for the input. Scruffy, yes we are neighbors, I'm down the road a bit in Duvall. Wife's started a landscape maintenance business and in the winter we focus on snow and ice removal, thus the need to load all the ice melt into the plow truck. If we'd been in the plowing biz two winters ago I'd probably be retired by now :D

I'll keep you posted on what we do. I think some QA pallet forks are in my future, but it looks like we'll have to break a full pallet down into smaller loads.
 
   / Can it pick this up? #9  
I would strongly suggest that you cut the load in half as YOU will end up with the nose of the tractor eating gravel due to the the fact that you do not have an over center control valve and the tractors tipping point which is with boom level and the bucket level which is what they are referring to will be past the point of balance with the load.

You will be better off just leaving a pallet in the truck and loading bags in the bucket and doing it that way as the boom and bucket will not be overloaded.

The problem is the pallet any pallet is sticking 3 plus feet over the proper center line and proper lifting arc of the boom-EVEN WITH A CURVED BOOM THE SAME PROBLEM EXISTS.

This makes the boom and bucket 3+ feet longer than it is capable of handling with the proper balance.


The QA pallet forks will cause the same problems for you.

Add some steel mesh frame sides to the bucket to carry the loaders rated capacity and you will have no safety issues and you will live longer.
 
   / Can it pick this up? #10  
Duvall, ya that's not too far. I wish I had a snowblower for the snow we had 2 yrs ago, I could have paid for it from all the driveways I did. Although they are saying this year is suppose to be a good one too. Good luck with your business and pallet situation.
 
 
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