Loader OK to leave my loader up?

   / OK to leave my loader up? #21  
Ever been working in the field and get off of one tractor and be working on another for a while and hear a dog start yiping scared to death only to see that it fell asleep under a piece of 3ph equipment and it leaked down on it and trapped it? Dad ran and started the tractor and lifted it off of the dog and the dog was fine, but. If we had gone to lunch or to get parts, dead dog. I will never forget that as long as I live. All that to say leave it down.
 
   / OK to leave my loader up? #22  
If you have a limited length for parking and it will be stored for a while, just drop the bucket off and leave it outside. With the QA FEL, It Just takes a couple minutes to take off and put back on.
 
   / OK to leave my loader up? #23  
If you have a limited length for parking and it will be stored for a while, just drop the bucket off and leave it outside. With the QA FEL, It Just takes a couple minutes to take off and put back on.

I think to your point above, curling the bucket under will give the same effect, thats how I get mine to fit. (see attached)

2013-01-27 16.14.32.jpg
 
   / OK to leave my loader up? #24  
I got into the habit a long time ago of setting the bucket down every time I got off the tractor when all I had was a tractor without brakes. Now that I have brakes I still set the bucket down.
 
   / OK to leave my loader up? #25  
I drop them. Never know when the kids might go out in the barn and one of them climbs on the tractor and one of the is under the FEL. The one on the tractor grabs levers and you can guess the rest. Lower your implements. Safety first.

I don't have kids; but I need to raise the 4200's bucket up high so I can drive the L130 in and out. When the bucket is up high, I engage the loader lever lock that Deere provides. It won't prevent a slow leak-down, or a rapid drop due to pressure loss; but it will prevent the loader lever from being moved. Once the L130 is in or out, I drop the bucket and depressurize (de-energize) the system.
 
   / OK to leave my loader up? #26  
Personally, I would leave the loader down... for safety's sake. :2cents:
 
   / OK to leave my loader up? #27  
I think to your point above, curling the bucket under will give the same effect, thats how I get mine to fit. (see attached)

View attachment 302826
I had suggested that earlier, which is what I do with mine, but he could save another 12-18" by removing it completely.
 
   / OK to leave my loader up?
  • Thread Starter
#28  
Again, point taken fellas... :thumbsup:

I'm the only one that has access to them in the barn (kids are too small and the wife doesn't really go in there unsupervised) so safety wasn't really the focus of my question... I was asking more for the short-term effects (any damage) that could occur from parking them that way. I typically have them down all the time (and I always take the pressure off the system by jiggling the joystick :rolleyes: after I turn off the system) but was doing a couple projects where I needed the walking room in the barn, so they were only kept "up" for a couple days.

Thanks again for all the responses though!
 
   / OK to leave my loader up? #29  
Safety aside, there is no reason to expect damage from leaving it up, unless of course it leaks down and damages part of your shed. ON subject but slightly getting off is the story of my fuel tank leaking.
When my fuel tank cracked and I thought I may have to get it hauled to the dealer, I left the FEL up for 4 weeks. It did leak down about half way in that period. No one here but me and the wife and she doesn't go near the tractors. I left it up so if we needed to load it on a trailer we could without cranking it since the tank was leaking dry. Finally after 4 weeks, I took the tank off and put JB Weld on the cracked out bolt area which stopped the leaks. About 2 weeks later my new tank came in. This was almost 2 years ago and the old tank is still installed and new one is in my shop taking up space waiting for the old one to start leaking. The hydraulic valves on the LS are amazingly leak proof. I have left the 3PH up for 3 months at a time with a heavy disk on and absolutely no leak down. And as stated above the FEL lowered very slowly. The valves on my Kubota backhoe all leak down even overnight I can see movement of the bucket, boom and dipper, even the stabilizers leak when in full up. But I am getting off topic again.
 
   / OK to leave my loader up? #30  
For a safety stop all you need is a couple of pieces of angle iron cut to the correct length and ty-raps to hold them in place. We put two angle iron edge to edge on each piston, hard to explain, cross section would look like this: <O> You could probably use velcro instead of ty-raps so you don't have the hassle of cutting them each time.
 
 
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