Front-End Loader How much can I lift

[Cool Hand]

Just caught these posts from a decade ago. These are all the same questions I have. Everyone out here seems very helpful! What a great community. Thank you all for helping answer these questions. Even though I am reading them a decade later...

 

[oosik]

Tryoung - FEL lifting can almost be black magic. For me - hydraulics is a mystic art form. You need to get ahold of your FEL owners manual. If it's like mine - it has loader lift graphs. How far ahead of the pivot pins and how high.

With my M6040 I'm able to lift quite heavy loads. This is because the center of mass ( whatever I'm lifting ) is closer to the pivot pins than the factory stated 24". AND I only lift high enough so the grapple does not leave knuckle drag marks on the ground.

I always lift with the 1550# of Rimguard in the rear tires and my 1000#+ Rhino rear blade on the 3-point. If the tractor starts to feel - "light in the loafers" - I know I'm at or close to the max lift.

For me - an absolute max lift is 3100# to 3200#. I would never have the capability or desire to lift this heavy a load much over 6" off the ground.

 

[newbury]

Tryoung -

Last seen Nov 22, 2014

FEL lifting can almost be black magic. For me - hydraulics is a mystic art form. You need to get ahold of your FEL owners manual. If it's like mine - it has loader lift graphs. How far ahead of the pivot pins and how high.

With my M6040 I'm able to lift quite heavy loads. This is because the center of mass ( whatever I'm lifting ) is closer to the pivot pins than the factory stated 24". AND I only lift high enough so the grapple does not leave knuckle drag marks on the ground.

I always lift with the 1550# of Rimguard in the rear tires and my 1000#+ Rhino rear blade on the 3-point. If the tractor starts to feel - "light in the loafers" - I know I'm at or close to the max lift.

For me - an absolute max lift is 3100# to 3200#. I would never have the capability or desire to lift this heavy a load much over 6" off the ground.

Good points but the OP probably won't see them.

 

[oosik]

My point being - keep the load low and as close in to the lift pins as possible. You can safely lift more in this manner.

If you MUST lift high - split the load into lighter packages.

An example I have. I move chunks ( five foot and ten foot ) of LARGE pine tree trunks around the property. If the average diameter of the trunk is 26" or more - I cut it into a five foot chunk. If it's 26" or less - a ten foot chunk. Keeps the load at a reasonable weight.

 

[Beeenvenue]

Just caught these posts from a decade ago. These are all the same questions I have. Everyone out here seems very helpful! What a great community. Thank you all for helping answer these questions. Even though I am reading them a decade later...

I “lifted” a pallet of material weighing 1680 lbs chained off of the bucket on my kioti ck3510. The bucket weighs 330 lbs. That’s well above what my tractor is supposed to lift, and that was due to the height of the pallet and it being on a trailer my pins were about 8’ above ground.

I didn’t actually lift it, but I did move it enough to drive the Trailer out from under it. It held just fine. Even with a 550# bushog on the 3 pt as ballast (I like the length of it as ballast for the same physics reasons - moment arm) it was a very squirrelly 100 yard ride to the barn.

The only real pucker time was lowering the load. Each slight movement of the joystick and the whole tractor jumped and made me think it was going to go. But remember, that was well above what I was supposed to be doing.