3-Wheeling on my CUT :o

[Anonymous Poster]

Hi,

Had an interesting experience today...surprised me so I thought I would post it here.

Brought home six 16' 6x6s which will hold up the roof on the shed addition...and provide cover for the Kubota B2910 and implements.

I brought them home in the back of my van, and had them strapped together, so I could pull them out with the tractor, lay the end on the ground, and then lift the works up with my pallet forks so the wife could drive the van forward and I could set them on the ground for transport down to the shed area.

I could not carry them with the pallet forks, because the path to the shed is narrow. I planned to hang a couple at a time on the side of the tractor and take them down that way. That part of the plan went well...

Here is a shot of the start...about to pick up the load with the pallet forks. I guess the weight exceeded the rating of the loader. I estimate it to be between 900 and a thousand pounds. I don't know what a pressure treated 6x6x16 weighs, but I do know one of these was the "heaviest I've seen" according to the 84 lumber guy that helped me load them.

Pic one if all goes according to plan... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Here I am lifting the bunch. I did my best to position myself so I was in the middle.

I don't have anything on the back, but my rear tires are loaded with WW fluid. Normally I would have my box scraper or backhoe on there. Anyway, the back did not lift off the ground, but it might have felt a little light...don't remember.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

The wife pulled the van forward and I was adjusting the angle so I could set the wood down and get ready to hang a couple pieces on the side of the tractor.

I could not believe how easy the tractor wanted to tip. Now, it was not a worrysome situation. I did drop the loader, but the wood was sticking out so much on both sides that I did not feel like I was in any danger of tipping over. Just amazed me that I could be lifting ONLY ONE rear wheel off the ground, when I made an effort to center the load. There is a slight side slope there...but not much.

Notice the right rear wheel is about 8 inches off the ground and the wood on the left end is touching the ground. I was not expecting things to be so unstable, since the load looked like it was in the center...

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I think I just turned the wheels a little and picked up the load again, and was able to move it to the front and get ready to set the wood on blocks for the second stage of the move.

The thing that amazed me the most, and which I don't have a picture of, is that I lowered the wood to about 8 inches off the ground, and set the parking brake and got off the tractor to place some 4x4s down to set the wood on. As I was getting off the tractor, it started to tilt slowly in my direction and the right rear wheel lifted. I reaced over and dropped the load while standing on the ground. Now it would not have gone anywhere, because the end of the wood would have hit the ground [and may have before I dropped it]...BUT the thing that impressed me was that my weight was enough to make the tractor+load stable...and taking my weight away was enough to make the tractor unstable and want to tip over!

Here's a back view of how I hung the wood on the side for transport down to the shed area...

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blueclass=small">( I could not believe how easy the tractor wanted to tip. )</font>

I can. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif Not surprising at all. That lumber is not only heavy, but just the slightest bit off center with your forks gives it a tremendous amount of leverage. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif I loaded some 30' power poles one at a time on a trailer for my brother without using my forklift forks; just slipped the toothbar under them, curled the bucket and lifted them that way. No strain at all for the FEL, but sure needed to have them balanced.

Pretty neat arrangement you have for transporting those beams.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

And a front view...another use for the toothbar...to hold things like that 4x4 sticking out...

The tractor was totally comfortable carrying a couple 6x6s on the side like this.

I am still amazed at how easy a centered load [as far as I could tell] sticking out the front could cause severe imbalance!

Keep this in mind if you put something long and wide on your bucket forks!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

looks to me like you should have hung a couple on the other side and then you would have balanced out the load. This just goes to show how a heavy load in the fel can tip a tractor on its side in a hurry. If you had had that load up higher and it wouldn't have hit the ground you could have had four wheels up and tractors just don't go good that way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Anonymous Poster]

No, there was no problem with carrying them on the side of the tractor.

The surprise was that the tractor wanted to tip when they were centered on the front. Obviously, they were not perfectly centered, but they looked like they were.

I thought about carrying some on each side, but it would have been a pain to deal with as I would have had to turn around at both ends to load and store them. The Tractor was totally stable [if we can ever know that for sure] with only two of them hanging on one side...

 

[thcri]

When did Kubota start making brown seats?

 

[longway5]

You're right. It is amazing what a heavy load up front will do. I once lifted a pallet stacked three or four high of concrete pavers with our L2850, even with the rears loaded and a heavy duty box blade, there was so much load on the front end that I couldn't steer. All I could do was lift the pallet off the back of the truck and put it on the ground.
Did you consider only using one fork and picking up as close to the back of the van as you could? That would have limited the load the FEL would have had by a little bit, and with the one fork there would have been no problems with stability since the load was already tipped. Just a thought.