Loader relief valve pressure question?

[Larry_Van_Horn]

So I have this TC40D with a 17LA and yesterday I had to use me pallet forks to unload steel from the truck for my new miracle steel barn. I found that I just couldn't life too much. I had my 84" boxblade on the back, the rear tires would not come loose, but just couldn't lift as much as I thought I should. The dealer said that they checked my relief valve last week and it was set at 2750 PSI which is at the top end of the range. Still a bit disappointed that I couldn't pick stuff off the semi as I had hoped. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
Larry

 

[hazmat]

There are two relief valves - one on the "system" and one for the loader. Which did your dealer check?

How much steel were you trying to lift? Steel gets heavy fast!

 

[PineRidge]

Larry your TC-40D & 17LA should be able to handle 1955 pounds less the weigth of the pallet forks themselves. Check the trucking weight slip and divide it by the number of pallets that you received. You may find out that the pallets weighed more than the 17LA was designed to lift. We have been there ourselves. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

We now keep spare pallets around in case a heavy load comes in. We can then balance the load between multiple pallets to get them off the truck with our 17LA & TC40D.

It works!

 

[mike10]

When using a pallet fork the lift capacity decreases depending on how far out the load is on the forks. The loader is like a lever, the farther the load is from the pivot point the more effort is required to lift it.

There is only one relief valve on class 3 (yours) compact tractors. It is the tractor system relief valve. Class two tractors have an additional relief valve in the loader valve.

 

[PineRidge]

<font color="blue"> When using a pallet fork the lift capacity decreases depending on how far out the load is on the forks. The loader is like a lever, the farther the load is from the pivot point the more effort is required to lift it.
</font>

Mike unless the pallet is at the extreme end of the forks (and it should not be for obvious safety reasons) I'm not buying your comment. I would think that a normal FEL bucket puts the same amount of weight on the pump as the pallet forks.

I think this will probably turn out to be a case of simply trying to lift too much weight. I have been there myself.

 

[jinman]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( unless the pallet is at the extreme end of the forks )</font>

Mike, I don't mean to be putting words into Mike10's mouth, but if you lift a heavy pallet, you can't help but have half the load much farther away from the pivots than the standard bucket. Isn't a standard pallet at least 3-1/2' wide? I have chain-on forks for my bucket, so I'm really at a disadvantage. I tried to lift a pallet with 25 bags of mortar mix and all I could do was scoot it across the ground. Just look at the attachment to see how far out my forks are in the attached photo. I have to be really careful not to end up on my blue nose. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Larry_Van_Horn]

Jim,
I see your point. I have my heavy box blade on the back and just figured that I could get my rear tires loose before I actually maxed out the lift capacity. Guess that just means I got enough weight in my tail.
Lar

 

[jinman]

Larry, while cleaning up around my house, I tried to lift a pile of steel rebar and found my rear tires coming off the ground even though I had the steel as close to the bucket as possible. My rear tires aren't loaded, so that's probably why my relieft valve didn't limit my lift. Like Hazmat said, steel can really surprise you. It's much heavier than it appears to be.

Another day, the delivery truck for sheetrock had one of those 3-wheel pallet loaders to lift the sheetrock up one story to the level of my deck. I could tell by watching that a full stack of sheetrock was really heavy. I asked the operator how much the 3-wheeler could lift and he said about 6,500 lb. Some of them can lift over 10,000 lb. They do one thing and do it very well. Our tractor's lift capacity can't hold a candle to one of them. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif ...but our tractors pull a mower much better than they can. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[PineRidge]

Jim I see your point. By the looks of your picture I can imagine how much extra stress/weight is applied the farther away from the pivot point of the loader that your forks actually apply the weight.

Did that last sentence make sense? /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[ManofMystery]

Larry,

I got a shipment from Miracle Steel too. I unloaded it with a long wheelbase all-terrain forklift and even that heavy machine got a little light in the rear. The heaviest item was the bundle of sheetmetal. I don't think that load was meant to be handled by something in the class of your TC40.