FEL lift capacity

[skipro3]

I have a 4344 HST Montana tractor and I'm wondering how much load the front end loader will lift. Here's what happened; I have a 18ft flat bed trailer I built stake side bed for. This trailer holds just a little over 10 yards of what ever you want to put in it, up to the top of the stake sides. I loaded it full with horse manure/stable scrappings. I lowered the foot on the front of the trailer and unhooked it from my truck. I wanted to crank the foot so as to tilt the trailer a bit to aid in unloading the manure. To aid with that, I placed my FEL under the tongue hitch on the trailer to lift. Nada. Wouldn't move. Even curling wouldn't lift the trailer front end an inch. So I had to crank, and crank, and CRANK!

I thought I saw somewhere the front end will lift 2500 lbs but I might be wrong on this. That would mean by ball weight was more than the lift capacity for my tractor?? It drove fine down the highway at 55 mph loaded and the rear at the ball only sagged 3 inches from the stock ride height.

[JDeerekid]

Th is from the Montana website:
Lift Capacity
2,165 lbs.(at max. height)
2,740 lbs. (to 59 in.)
2,680 lbs. (at 59 in.)

I know they come from the factory a little on the low side I had my dealer turn mine up a little. I am not sure what he did, but he said that that is a bolt or a set screw somewhere under the tractor that you turn to increase your lift capacity.
I am not sure how much my tractor can lift but I have unloaded a pallet of wood pellets that weights 2000#'s. And have lifted my old JD 494 4-row & 1240 4-row corn planters off my trailer no problem. Not sure of the weight of them, but I am sure they arent very light.

My guess is your lift capacity is adjusted a little on the low side and/or you had more weight on the tongue of your trailer than you thought.

[Mickey_Fx]

This is one of my soapbox issues. For a moment forget the FEL lift capacity, do you know what the capacity of your front axle/wheels/tires are? Due to weight transfer, your front axle will see more weight than that being lifted. When you subtract the weight of the tractor and FEL, how many extra pounds of capacity does those tires and wheels have?

My FEL specs says it can lift several times what the capacity of my tires are. I'm more concerned about that than what the hyd capacity of the FEL is.

Backing down off my soapbox.

[skipro3]

Thanks for both replies. I found that spec info on the website, just wasn't sure I was interpreting it correctly. Seems like I did. I've heard that there's an adjustment to the relief valve so I'll have my dealer check it when I get the 50 hour service done. (I'm at 46 hours now).

I think the tire rating is for a rolling tire going down the road at some sort of speed, not a static or very low speed application. I've paid close attention to my tires when lifting heavy loads and driving over rough ground, rocks, etc. They don't look any different than unloaded to my eye. I'm going to ask my dealer about this as well.

Looks like I had that tongue weight at close to or over 3,000 lbs then. I'm impressed the trailer didn't just fold on me then since it's a 10K rated trailer and all. I loaded that thing very even; 2 1/2 feet deep for the entire stake sided bed from front to rear.