The Handiest Thing I ever Built (Manlift)

[Charlesaf3]

A thought on safety-ing cylinders if no ones mentioned it - something like this is stock on my m59. Put angle iron on top of the exposed cylinder, so if the hoses fail the FEL still can't move.

Problem with this is that it is not adjustable - once you've cut the angle iron there's your height etc, but I bet most people end up using more or less the same height each time, and even if the angle iron (or C channel?) is short, it'll limit the fall.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Message for the guy that said that a bucket with a guy in it is safer than say a load of bananas or dirt or some thing as the loader should handle it ok . You would think so but there is allways the unforseen factor. A friend of mie has a cat loader and just recently got the moter runnimg. To test every thing he loaded several trucks with gravel--- no problems. As he explaned it the old biddies at the museum in town wanted the branches cut of a large tree high up in the air. He climbed into the huge bucket with a running chainsaw and got his brother inlaw to lift him up. WWWWWWHHHAY up in tha air . His weight in the bucket added about as much weight as a fly on a flyswat. His brother in law lifted him right up to the cylanders hit the ed of the stroke and then probably held the lever as he was gasing up and out the window. This put a much heavier load on the hy than any load in the bucket. Of coure you know a hy line bust and down came man and running chainsaw. Soon the brother in law was running . All in all no body was injured very bad but the musium got a coat of hy oil. Like some body said that bucket didnt come down really fast but that was cold oil and may have been a lot faster with hot oil. You can allways figure out every thing in advance but there is allways the dum *** factor!

YES! A real good reason to dial the relief valve wa-a-y back when using the loader as a man lift....
larry

 

[Stampeder]

Thanks for the detailed pix.
My tractor has the skidsteer loader front end so mine will be a little different.
Question: Why did you offset the riser? Looks about 1/3 of the way forward?
Thanks again for posting them.

Glenn.

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

Great Project,
I was thinking about doing something similar, but using a
boom pole off the 3PT and hanging a basket/cage that would
swivel to stay vertical. Any thoughts/laughter about this?

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Great Project,
I was thinking about doing something similar, but using a
boom pole off the 3PT and hanging a basket/cage that would
swivel to stay vertical. Any thoughts/laughter about this?

Would you be able to get enough lift off the 3 pt. to make it worth doing?

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

Well,the wife doesn't weigh all that much. HEHE
Seriously though, I figure appx 250-300 lbs and
back about 10 ft from the 3pt, would be do-able.

 

[Iplayfarmer]

Well,the wife doesn't weigh all that much. HEHE
Seriously though, I figure appx 250-300 lbs and
back about 10 ft from the 3pt, would be do-able.

Weight is not my concern. I was wondering if the difference between all the way up and all the way down would make it worth it. I'm thinking you'd either end up only 2 feet off the ground or you'd have to get a tall ladder to get you up that high to begin with and then the 3 pt. would lift you only the last 2 feet. Either way doesn't seem like it's worth it.

 

[FallbrookFarmer]

The end boom pole at rest is about 4 ft off the ground, fully raised it probably about 11 ft in the air, not super height
but helpful for picking those macadamias.

 

[jimgerken]

Thanks for the detailed pix.
My tractor has the skidsteer loader front end so mine will be a little different.
Question: Why did you offset the riser? Looks about 1/3 of the way forward?
Thanks again for posting them.

Glenn.

I guess that is a carry-over from the days of building it originally for a JD 4100. That tractor did not have as much mass as it needed for most jobs, and I tryed to keep the loads close to the tractor when possible. If building for a heavier tractor, like mine now at 4000 lbs with loader, I would not worry about that.

 

[o2batsea]

Nobody is thinking here, obviously. The reason this kind of contraption is unsafe does not lie in the hydraulic system, rather with the disconnect between the operator and the person in the lift. It's all well and good if you have good communication with the person driving and they know, literally, where you head's at. A cherry picker/manlift works because the operator in the bucket is manning the controls.
Personally I'd be kinda shaky about getting into something like this that someone else is driving. They may be the best operator on earth but they can't see what's happening from the vantage point of the "bucket's eye view". This is where it gets a little dicey. What if they go too high without realizing the amount of headroom needed and mush your melon against a beam or limb? Say you are working up there and they slip the clutch by mistake? ( I would hope the parking brake is on and the engine shut off) You just don't know.
I would wonder what the insurance company would say if you were injured using a home built thing like this that is explicitly warned against in every owner/operator manual ever printed? ( I know of no FEL vendor who would say that you should ever use it to lift people)
Whatever. You go on and do what you like, just don't become a statistic.