Boom pole for front end loader

[futuresweets10]

I am looking into building a boom pole for the front of my back hoe that will clip on the front of the FEL bucket. I plan on making the pole somewhere around 12ft long, but am not set on a length. (similar concept to this one HORST WELDING | HLA >> TELESCOPIC BOOM POLE (STANDARD OR HYDRAULIC ACTIVATED)). Anybody ever seen or made anything like this? Any advice? how much weight could I potentially lift with a set up like described?

 

[mmurphy]

I built one out of 2x8's when I built my pole shed for placing trusses. I had it sitting in the bucket with bracing going all 4 directions. Some here would tell you the dangers, I will not!!! Worst problem was slowly cracking the valve on bucket to keep it from reacting to quick. Other then that it worked great.
I take it your Cat is up a running pretty decent now?

 

[futuresweets10]

I built one out of 2x8's when I built my pole shed for placing trusses. I had it sitting in the bucket with bracing going all 4 directions. Some here would tell you the dangers, I will not!!! Worst problem was slowly cracking the valve on bucket to keep it from reacting to quick. Other then that it worked great.
I take it your Cat is up a running pretty decent now?

Knock on wood, cross my fingers, and anything else I can think of for good luck..... Yes, it seems to be doing good.

I have a 16ft 3in round steel pipe I was going to build it with. I was thinking about putting it under the bucket (with bucket sitting flat on it and welding a cross bar to the tube that runs along the front of the bucket to keep it square and then having a clamp type set up to attach it to the bucket..... I know I suck at describing things.

 

[futuresweets10]

Lets see if I can describe this better.... The green is the pole. The blue parts are 2x3 box welded to the pole. The yellow is metal hooks welded onto the front blue bar. I would drive the loader up to the assembly and tilt the bucket to get the front lip in the hooks then level the bucket to pick up the boom pole. I would then chain the assembly to the bucket to keep it from being able to move..... This is similar to how a bobcat (or skidsteer) bucket hooks up....

 

[AlanB]

I made something similar, but not as advanced. We (I) wanted one quick, my buddy wanted to lift the trusses by hand, and I am ummmm, Lazy so wanted a boom pole so I made this one to anchor onto his bale spear and give us some height.

The sky is the limit for how creative you get in your mounts. My Backhoe has big U's on the bucket to hang my forks on, if I was going to use it on that I would have built something along the lines of my hang on forks.

Weight limits? Who knows, afraid I would get sued if I put any numbers out there

 

[futuresweets10]

I made something similar, but not as advanced. We (I) wanted one quick, my buddy wanted to lift the trusses by hand, and I am ummmm, Lazy so wanted a boom pole so I made this one to anchor onto his bale spear and give us some height.

The sky is the limit for how creative you get in your mounts. My Backhoe has big U's on the bucket to hang my forks on, if I was going to use it on that I would have built something along the lines of my hang on forks.

Weight limits? Who knows, afraid I would get sued if I put any numbers out there

Any idea how long that pole you built was?

 

[AlanB]

I just measured it, and I used a 10' piece of pipe.

Just realized I left off the picture of the "hanging"

I hate manhandling stuff like that into place, it goes so bad when it goes wrong.

 

[futuresweets10]

I just measured it, and I used a 10' piece of pipe.

Just realized I left off the picture of the "hanging"

I hate manhandling stuff like that into place, it goes so bad when it goes wrong.

I know the feeling. When I did my shop we had to put steel trusses on the top of 6x6's 12ft in the air. I had two people helping me and we built walk boards along the 6x6 posts and tried to do it by hand. After about 5min of attempting the first truss I broke down and rented a pull behind JLG lift from home depot. About an hour with the lift behind my 4 wheeler and all 5 trusses were set.....

I didnt have my back hoe way back then and need to lift alot more weight than a JLG lift will hold now. Im building something similar to whats in the pic and have all done but setting the top pole

 

[dfkrug]

I had two people helping me...

Here is how I do it. I made a 3-pt hitch for my loader and installed a
rock rake frame. The frame (with rake removed) has square tubing that
allows me to fit some schedule 80 pipe in it for a boom pole. I welded a
hook on the end.

I can reach up 16 feet and lift several hundred pounds.

Here I am setting trusses, and I had no helpers.

 

[mmurphy]

Futuresweets10, of course with anything weight vs. fulcrum, But if you have braced good for amount of weight I would think it should work. Far as weight, a careful experiment would need to come in play. With that extra extension out there you could bend bucket cylinders. Dfkrug probably can give you good examples of that.
I do likeDfkrug's idea. Dfkrug has alot of nice builds you should check out.
Alanb has a nice setup there also.

 

[futuresweets10]

Futuresweets10, of course with anything weight vs. fulcrum, But if you have braced good for amount of weight I would think it should work. Far as weight, a careful experiment would need to come in play. With that extra extension out there you could bend bucket cylinders. Dfkrug probably can give you good examples of that.
I do likeDfkrug's idea. Dfkrug has alot of nice builds you should check out.
Alanb has a nice setup there also.

Youve got me scared now.... After all ive been through with the FEL on my hoe the last thing I need is to bend a cylinder. Ive been thinking about it though and im wondering how the cylinder can get bent. My machine has work port relief valves. Isn't the point of these to allow the pressure to leak down if too much force or weight is put on the cylinder? Would this prevent me from being able to bend a cylinder or at least make using my FEL for this a bit safer?

 

[Army grunt]

I used the 3 point lifting pole I made. It worked great.
A word to the wise, when you travel keep it as low as possible, the weight will make the tractor tipsy as ****.Any tip at all will be 10 fold at the tip of the boom.
Army Grunt

 

[J_J]

I just adapted one of these for the front of my Power-Trac.

 

[mmurphy]

Youve got me scared now.... After all ive been through with the FEL on my hoe the last thing I need is to bend a cylinder. Ive been thinking about it though and im wondering how the cylinder can get bent. My machine has work port relief valves. Isn't the point of these to allow the pressure to leak down if too much force or weight is put on the cylinder? Would this prevent me from being able to bend a cylinder or at least make using my FEL for this a bit safer?

I am only trying to point out that could happen with the leverage out in front.
JJ has a good idea on his too. Maybe an attachment hooked to loader frame with out bucket on?

 

[dfkrug]

Ive been thinking about it though and im wondering how the cylinder can get bent. My machine has work port relief valves. Isn't the point of these to allow the pressure to leak down if too much force or weight is put on the cylinder? Would this prevent me from being able to bend a cylinder or at least make using my FEL for this a bit safer?

Yours is an industrial machine with more protections than most compact
tractors. But any tractor can be damaged, esp when you are pushing
the force limits of the hydraulics, then add some momentum.

The cause of bent loader cylinder rods that I have run into and repaired
have mostly involved spindly 1-inch rods, and the operator was back-
dragging with the bucket at full dump (cyl fully extended). Two other
causes I know of are letting a log roll back out of the bkt onto your
cylinders, and pinching something between the cylinder and the boom.

 

[J_J]

:Here are some more samples of boom poles.

 

[futuresweets10]

::UPDATE:: I got the pole set yesterday using the boom pole I made. I ended up simplifying my design and using chains to hold everything one. It worked perfectly, with out any problems, and didn't appear to put a strain on anything on the hoe. The first pics posted are of the contraption I built, then one of me ripping the walk platform down that I had built before I owned a back hoe, then some of the completed project.

 

[mmurphy]

Did good! That sure is a pretty good looking Cat!

 

[Jd1a]

If doing a lot of lifting, look at Agkrane for the 3point.