FEL how long 'should' bucked remain up when parked?

[dieselcrawler]

I honestly have never tried this. I always park with the bucket on the ground and the joystick "wobbled" to relieve any pressure.

X2...

Dad taught me that as a kid, and now that I have my own curious kids, I rarely leave the seat with loader or 3ph off the ground. Last thing I need is a box blade dropped on some toes because a munchkin got on the tractor and started jiggling levers without my knowlage. I do my best to watch em, but them lil buggers can be quick. Until you tell them to fold laundry or clean their room...

 

[murphy1244]

I'm with ya there Murph.

No kids here so no problem.

 

[KWentling]

All for trucks I've been around have had pilot operated check valves, so they don't leak down. It's a safety feature so if a hose or line fails, the load doesn't fall.

I owned two Yale forklifts for over a decade.

Yale truck components are a little higher quality than tractor parts.
The trucks were old, I paid $3,500 each for them,,, O L D !!

Either forklift could hold the front of my 2500 Silverado off the ground indefinitely,, I have had it up all day with no lowering.

The smaller truck was right at its lifting rating, 3,000 pounds,
the larger truck was rated at 5,000 pounds.

Both trucks had over 5,000 hours on them when I bought them.

 

[DK35vince]

We have a local Branson dealer the raises em high and leaves them there and they don't appear to move...

Are you sure he doesn't have something to lock the cylinders so they can't fall.
Sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen if a loader would get dropped on someone if they're not. (customers checking them out and moving the sticks)

 

[npalen]

I made a pair of "clamp donuts" for my FEL as it does leak down at, probably, an "overnight" rate. They're handy when working on the tractor as the loader can be raised up out of the way so don't have to keep walking around it. Originally made them when using a scaffold on the FEL for house painting.

 

[sixdogs]

Always fully retract your cylinders to keep unintended dirt and grit off of them that can slowly damage cylinder wipe seals and create more leakdown. Lower the bucket all the way.

By the way, I occasionally wipe the cylinders with light oil every now and then, plus before storage, to keep the grit out. Must have worked with my 90HP, 14year old JD 5520 since still no discernable leakdown after a couple weeks and maybe longer.

 

[oosik]

I've left my FEL a foot or so off the ground for months and never had bleed down. I got tired of bringing up half my property frozen to the bottom of the bucket. Now with the grapple on the FEL, I drop it to the ground. I put a small chunk of 4 x 4 on the ground to rest the grapple or bucket on.

 

[nybirdman]

I recently hung a couple deer off the FEL out-doors so they would cool.Three days and it barely dropped at all.My tractor(L4240) is a 2008 and has 1,000+hours on it.

 

[TripleR]

That's totally Redneck!!!

I prefer to think of it as rural ingenuity.

Redneck would be hunting coyote out of a raised bucket.

 

[Code54]

I often leave my bucket about 1' off the ground on my tractor (a 2012 Kubota in this case). I do this so I can step into the bucket and fasten a locking latch on the top of the barn door. It will sit like this in the winter for weeks or more at a time and never drop any noticeable amount. Now the loader on my 2014 BX25 will do the same but the backhoe will drop down from the normal transport position to the ground in under a day. Seems to just depend on the machine and I'm not too sure the age really matters.