How much does that log weigh?

[sd455dan]

Tractors are not made for lifting. A 90 hp tractor doesn't have the front axel to lift 6000 pounds. If you want to lift heavy loads get forklift, tehelandler, or wheel loader. Also the loader in discussion is rated to lift 2600 pounds NOT 3,600 pounds.

The tractors that have impressive lift capabilities imo are TLBs like Case 580s many can lift Over 7000lbs. to full height

here's one of the heaviest logs my grappled tractor has moved- Not as heavy as gladehounds but i am happy since it had to be grappled out of the trailer and my tractor was able to pick it up and move it around , but someday i would really like to get a 580 for the lifting capacity and the backhoe would be great to:licking:

the reality of wood getting and other jobs is, many of us
Use What We Have
to get the job done.
I also agree that FELS can lift a lot more at ground level than their rated lift# to full height- and that is very handy for some jobs

 

[LD1]

You guys are acting like the lift spec to max height is gospel and that in no way can the loader lift more than that. Which is just incorrect thinking.

IMO, the capacity at the pins is almost a useless measurement, other than comparing, because who actually lifts anything from that point? Most of my lifts are done at the bucket edge (because I have teeth, and they are convenient chain/strap points), or beyond on the clamp on pallet forks.

With my lift spec on "MY" loader being only 860# to max height at the cutting edge, here are just some of the things I shouldn't have been able to do:

Move 500 gallon propane tank with a bit of propane still left in it.....~1450# strapped to the teeth
Unload trailer with 2 25' sections of w18x60 beam with the clamp on pallet forks.....~1500# on the forks
unload 6' bushhog off trailer.......~1100# strapped to teeth
Load pallet of 14 bags (75# each) mortar into bed of truck........~1100# on pallet forks. Load center ~20" forward of cutting edge
Move boiler in progress firebox on pallet with pallet forks..........~900# load centered ~25" forward
Set my (2) 1000# weight barrels into the bed of my truck for plowing.......1000# on bucket teeth


Has nothing to do with CUT koolaide. If the need arises, I get the backhoe. I have yet to find anything it wont lift



And we also seem to forget that the LOG WEIGHTS ARE ESTIMATED. He never claimed to guess what the log weighed. That was all you guys. And the log calculators ARE WRONG. Look at the picture....it was an impressive lift. Thats all we need to take away from that. And if his DS4510 lifted it.....your jx95 would have lifted it AND SOME. What he is calling a 40" x 9' log, could easily be a 39" log (on the big end) and with a little taper to 36" on the small end, and maybe only 8.5' long. (we all round and/or exaggerate). In which case, that log would only contain ~65 cu ft of wood instead of 78.5. And if it was nice and dry at around 40-45 PCF....that log may only weigh 2600#. But even worst case scenerio of 40" on both ends and full 9' that is green at 50 PCF, puts a max weight of 3925#

 

[jimmysisson]

Awesome boulder in that Ford bucket! Estimate that!

 

[LD1]

6000-7000lbs

 

[sd455dan]

OH yeah- when push comes to shove with FELs... the TLBs are KING

Awesome boulder moving shot:thumbsup:

 

[gladehound]

Wow! sorry guys, didn't mean to start such a debate! I also didn't realize people would be so critical on measurements. So let me give you all the information I have so you don't have to guess.

9 feet long was an eyeball estimate... I didn't put a tape on it. It was certainly over 8 feet. But maybe my estimate wasn't perfect.

40" diameter was again an estimate. My 37" bar on my chainsaw could not cut all the way through the thick end (facing the camera). My 37" bar did barely cut through the thin end. So maybe the log is 38" at the fat end and 36" at the thin end. It is close to 4 foot at the bulge in the center. And it is not round, more of an oval - so figure out square footage on that!

The wood was perfect. No rot. But it was also very dry standing wood. Barely alive. So dry that I could throw it right in my fire and no visible steam, bubbles or any sign of water would come out. It was seasoned before it was cut. I know some on here don't believe that is possible. Believe me, with ash it is. This is not the first Ash I've cut that was this dry.

I could not pick it up without the rear blade on. I tried and lifted the rear (with filled rears and a 200 pound cage, so an extra 1200 over the rear axel and it still picked up the rear).

My hydraulic pressure may be a tad on the high side of spec. I've never checked it but I asked the shop that installed the loader to check hydraulic pressure and make sure it is as high as is allowable. They said they'd take care of me "wink, wink".

The stump bucket that I used actually allows me to get big logs closer to the pins than my forks. The back of that log is behind my pins and I curled fully using the curved bottom of the bucket on the ground as a fulcrum before I lifted with the lift cylinders. So the weight was far back.

That's about as much as I can tell you. I doubt it was much over 3,000 pounds if that and that is well below my rated lift at ground level - however, the center of mass was a bit farther out than the pins. I could have lifted it higher but for safety kept it as close to the ground as possible.

I can tell you that I have lifted heavier. I had to cheat to get the rock in the picture off the ground. This was roughly 5' x 3' x 22" and irregular (as you can see in the picture). With both the log and the rock, I did not need to go far, and no hills to speak of.



Some additional pictures of the same log that I showed before so you can see how solid the wood is on the other end and get a feel for length.

 

[gladehound]

I'd love to stay and spar with you, but I'm off to go trade my tractor off for a 35hp compact so I can lift 3500 logs!! No sense in burning all the extra fuel I burn to get the SAME job done!! NOW I get it, i've been buying too big of tractors, all these years! lol

oooohhh, I better stop and buy some CUT Kool-aid too, or I'm thinking it won't happen...

SR

Nobody here is drinking CUT Kool-aid! Believe me, I'd rather have a UT. And what I really would like to have is a New Holland Bi-directional. The stronger of the two loaders on that machine is rated around 12,000 pounds breakout force! But I don't have a UT or a NH Bi-directional so I use what I got.

You are right about one thing... you will need some CUT kool-aid if you want your new 35hp compact to lift 3500 pound logs! :confused3: What you're really looking for to get the job done is a 45hp compact! :laughing:

 

[Oldpath05]

"But I don't have a UT or a NH Bi-directional so I use what I got."
Amen, and I'll drink to that........

 

[Winns75494]

Thanks for the website...it will come in handy. Regarding the "wood burning (seasoned or unseasoned) most wood here in east Texas gets burnable after 29 days. Anything with less than a 20% moisture content is very burnable. For $25 you can buy a moisture meter which I use all the time at Amazon: http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B008V6I840?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o07_s00 I use mine all the time selecting what I want from my woodpile to move to my ready to burn rack on the front porch.

 

[arrow]

As a former logger for 3 decades, everything LD is stating is exactly correct. We learned to estimate log weight for trucking by the stem pile size as our trucks were subject to weight legality testing at any point. A mixture of dry stems and wet even if size equivalent, vastly altered trailer weight as opposed to a load of freshly cut stems. Throw in the differentials of wood species and even when it was cut and any guess is just that. Add to this the differentials of what tractor manufacturers state what their lift capabilities are and you have a worse reference than KoolAide.... more like Alice in Wonderland. There is no set boundary with as many variables existing in wood and machinery.