Breaking tractor in half?

[rockquarry]

Last pic. more rock taken from where my basement is.

 

[KrisHansen]

I wouldn't worry much about breaking it, just inspect it carefully where the halfs mate, if the flanges are good and thick, it should be fine.. IMHO, if this were a common problem (breaking in half) we would have heard about it more.

 

[jinman]

I see what you mean about all that rock. In my opinion, the last thing you will need to worry about will be the tractor breaking in half. I think you are gonna have lots of days with a sore back before you get that wall done. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Lifting the stones into place with the FEL will be a big help.

Keep us updated. This looks like a really interesting project. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[Rip]

This breaking-in-half is a rare (but obviously not unheard of) event with any of the name-brands (and still rare with the lesser known brands) of CUT.

Just follow the "Easy Does It" school of life and tractoring and avoid the "Ram & Cram It" and all but the stupidest acts should work out in the end.

As you are loading those rock in the bucket and think "yeh... there is still room for one more..." Don't! In your whole project you may make a couple of extra runs back and forth, but nothing will break!

I have a TC-30 with the same FEL and the main thing to watch out for is tipping.... keep your loads low and be ready to drop the bucket like a hot potato if need be. (Be sure to wear your seat belt also!!)

Good Luck

Rip

 

[rockquarry]

on the mating flanges how thick is thick enough? mine appear to be 1/2 inch thick at all the mating flanges. Is that the standard?

 

[have_blue]

Danged if I can remember how thick my TC29 flanges were. 1/2" seems about right, if not a tad thicker. My TC35 is definitely thicker than .5, but that's apples and oranges.

 

[yellowsocks93]

I'm kind of scared to use the loader on my Deere after reading this. I don't use it more than 3 times a year for moving snow but I hate to have the loader on and put stress on the tractor. I need it to last for another 90 years so I never need to buy a new one in my life.

 

[BGL990]

I have to think that this sort of thing must a freak occurrance and there should not be much to worry about with a matched tractor/loader pair. If you had the bucket chained to an immovable object and tried to lift it, and assuming you had enough rear ballast to keep the tractor on the ground, the hydraulics should just stall and fluid bypass through the relief valve. If the loader is strong enough to break a sound tractor in half, then it is too big for the tractor IMHO, and I doubt that such a situation would occur if one sticks with the manufacturer's recommended loader on their machine. I would say that brg's TC33D breaking in half was a very unfortunate case of a manufacturing defect that went un-noticed at the factory.

Having said that, one does still need to exercise caution when travelling with heavy loads as bouncing over bumps can exert more force on everything than the hydraulics alone can.

Brad.