Easy way to add front weight?

   / Easy way to add front weight? #1  

Bob_Trevithick

Platinum Member
Joined
Dec 2, 2001
Messages
566
Location
Williamson, NY (near Rochester)
Tractor
JD 4300 MFWD
I have a JD4300 with a front blade. I happened to notice the other day that the old suitcase weights I have (from my old GT235) fit just fine if I just hang them from the top edge of the blade.

Hmm. Given the width of the blade, I should be able to hang as many of these things as I want. Since the hydraulics are set up to handle a FEL, there should be no problem with stress on the equipment, right? And the weight is way out front, where it should do the most good.

Maybe, if this works, I can just create a cement box that I can drive up to and lift the blade under it without even dismounting.

If I find myself needing a lot of weight on the front, for example if I'm lifting heavily with the 3pt, would this plan seem workable?

Bob
 
   / Easy way to add front weight? #2  
Bob,
You might want to check and see if you can find out any numbers on the max. lift capacity of your front blade. A FEL is designed to lift. It's support structure is built for it. From the photos I've seen of the J.D. blade, it mounts in a totally different way. I would guess that it is designed for down pressure but the attaching structure may not be designed to lift a great deal of weight. Just a thought.

Hoss
 
   / Easy way to add front weight?
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Good point.. I'll check the manual. I kind of doubt there are lift capacity figures, though, since the blade isn't really intended for lifting. Too bad the manual is at home.

The more I think about this, the more it sounds appealing though. Hook a chain over the top edge, and lift the blade while backing up to pull out small trees. That sort of thing.

Maybe what is happening is that I'm slowly coming to bite the bullet and admit I want a FEL! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif
 
   / Easy way to add front weight? #4  
I hope it isn't a breach of forum etiquette to return to a very old thread, rather than starting a new one, when the subject is precisely the same? Please advise if so.

I have a JD 74 front blade mounted on a JD 4300 SyncReverser. This setup works great for me.. plowing snow, pushing dirt, nudging out rocks, and so on, plus I can leave it on year round as a front weight to counter the rear mower, tiller, and so on. What I want to know is how much I can safely lift with this front blade. As CVHoss pointed out, the blade isn't really designed for lifting, and I've searched high and low for information about this.. to no avail. I guess at this point I'm just looking for opinions.

What I want to do is be able to hang suitcase weights on the front blade, so I can do some lifting with the 3pt hitch and not have the front end come off the ground. I might also want to hook a chain to the blade and lift directly with it, on occassion.

For example, the other day a friend asked if I could help him pull out a particularly obstinate fence post. We hooked a chain to the framework of my rear dirt scoop, and lifted. The tractor lifted the front end in a "wheelie." So I asked my 300 lb. friend to simply sit on the front blade, and out popped the fence post.

I also have a boom pole, which of course would require even more front-end weight to be able to lift much.

I asked my JD dealer, and they couldn't really tell me much. They said well, it will work, but if I left the front blade up with the weights on it I might very well blow a seal in the hydraulics. They had no idea how much weight I could safely lift.. or whether the seal-blowing problem might occur if the engine were running (I always lower the blade before shutting down.)

Anybody got any ideas? It would sure be handy to just hang suitcase weights on the blade, but I don't want to damage anything. I can find nothing in the manuals about this.

So, I'm just looking for opinions at this point. Do you think I could lift a few hundred pounds with this blade, or would that be stupid? (No, I can't afford a FEL at this point.. so says the CFO! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif)

TIA for any thoughts, opinions, musings, etc.

Bob
 
   / Easy way to add front weight? #5  
Trev,
I doubt that you will find any information on lift capacity since the blade was not designed with that in mind. On the other hand, if you want to load on some suitcase weights for a particular job and then remove them afterwards I don't see how you could get into trouble. If there is a means for mechanically locking the blade in the up position, then you could leave the weights on all the time. Your dealer is right in saying that you could blow a hydraulic seal if you left them on all the time. Another problem is that the inherent internal hydraulic leakage will allow the blade to slowly settle and with the extra weight from the suitcases, it might settle rather rapidly.

The applications you mentioned (pulling a post, using the boom pole) are only occasional uses. Why not just put the suitcases on when you are doing something that requires them?

Jack
 
   / Easy way to add front weight? #6  
I use suit case weights from a large tractor (if the loader is off) I hang them off the front frame bracket. Since there almost 100lbs each it don't take long to get 600 lbs on the front.
 
   / Easy way to add front weight? #7  
Hi Jack,

<font color=blue>The applications you mentioned (pulling a post, using the boom pole) are only occasional uses. Why not just put the suitcases on when you are doing something that requires them?</font color=blue>

Well, that was my intent.. but I guess I wasn't sure the blade was designed so that even occassional and brief loads would be okay. To me, it looks rugged enough. And I suspect the JD engineers take into account that people will be people, so they built in some safety margin. I just don't want to damage something needlessly. But it's such an attractive idea, it's hard to let it go. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I think I'll just go ahead and try it next time I find a need for it.. and then I'll report back here in case anyone else wants to know. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

Anybody have any extra suitcase weights lying around that they'd like a few bucks (and of course shipping expenses) for? Geez, I bet the shipping costs could be a killer for a few hundred pounds of weights! /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

Thanks,
Bob
 
   / Easy way to add front weight? #8  
Bob,

<font color=green>I suspect the JD engineers take into account that people will be people, so they built in some safety margin.</font color=green>

You are probably OK temporarily putting the weight on the blade.

However, as an engineer, I doubt that JD is sitting there going, hmmm I think Bob T is going to lift stuff with this instead of pushing snow or dirt. Let's make it strong enough so that he doesn't break it when he uses the product in a way it wasn't intended for.

Everything today is faster, better, cheaper. By definition, faster & cheaper are better, so you only have to worry about those two aspects. Less safety margin is cheaper, therefore better, thus they probably don't overdesign the blade.

If you are spending the $$$ on the suitcase weights, why not remove the blade & mount them on the front frame where they are designed to go. Your PTO shaft problems not withstanding, JD is known for easy on - easy off products. It shouldn't take but a couple of minutes to drop the blade & install the weight.
 
   / Easy way to add front weight? #9  
Hi Hazmat,

<font color=blue>If you are spending the $$$ on the suitcase weights, why not remove the blade & mount them on the front frame where they are designed to go. Your PTO shaft problems not withstanding, JD is known for easy on - easy off products. It shouldn't take but a couple of minutes to drop the blade & install the weight.</font color=blue>

Probably a good idea. The truth is, I haven't ever taken the blade off. I read over the manual, and the section about installing and removing it looked a bit intimidating. But then, all of the stuff in the manuals looks intimidating until you actually do it and find it isn't so bad after all. I should know how to do this in any event.

Also, you gave me an idea.. I'm not certain that I can't hang the weights on the frame even with the blade on. I may have limited travel of the blade, but it might be possible. I'll have to double check that.

Thanks for the thoughts..

Bob
 
   / Easy way to add front weight? #10  
Trev,
While I was going through this thread, I came to the description of your 300 lb friend sitting on a front blade to keep the front down since an earlier pull had lifted it like a wheelie. My vision was a large person being hurled backward as the tractor did another wheelie. I knew a guy who got killed when his tractor dumped him like that. I'm sure you did it carefully and slowly, but when stuff happens, it always happens faster than you can react to it. I'd go for the suitcase weights.
 
 
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