How much weight is in that bucket?

[roger_scotty]

How do you know how much weight is in the loader bucket? How to you figure it? Or do you even care as long as the loader will lift it?
What do you think stresses your tractor more....lifting the max bucket load or pulling a stump?

 

[Thomas]

After some hours working the FEL you'll have a feel of how much weight in your bucket.

Some tractor manuels give the specs which your looking for..load limits..breaking points..relief valve settings.

I feel pulling stumps can stress the tractor more than bucket full of dirt.

 

[Bird]

Roger, it seems to me that a long time ago we had a thread on this very topic; not sure I could find it now. And with my old memory, I'm not going to say anything for sure, but I believe it was Mark Chalkley who posted the information on putting a pressure gauge on the line for the boom cylinders, and a conversion chart or factor, and you could actually use your loader like scales to pick up something and weigh it. I think that thread would be in the archives from the old forum.

 

[Tractor_Barn]

Here's a link to a table of material weight/cu.ft. courtesy of Maverick Tractors. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mavericktractor.com/useful/material.htm>http://www.mavericktractor.com/useful/material.htm</A>

 

[normde2001]

I believe, generally, a cubic foot of solid material weighs 80+lbs., considering an 80lb bag of concrete plus a little water makes a cubic foot, and the old "pint's a pound" theory, that may be a place to start.
Norm

 

[Ym1401King]

I was just told this by a friend that is a loader dealer. He said that a good way to calculate this, is that the FEL will lift approximately 1/2 of what the 3-pt would. So, if the 3pt lifts 1500, then the loader will safely lift 750. Get it? He said it is a common rule of thumb of loader manufacturers. That is how they design them he said.

Aric /w3tcompact/icons/king.gif

 

[hosejockey2002]

I loaded concrete blocks of a known weight until the load just began to feel "uncomfortable". Beyond that, with dirt or gravel or whatever, its just a seat-of-the-pants impression. With my 1401D and a 48" bucket, I know that if I try to move a full bucket of sand or gravel I am pushing the ragged edge of disaster. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[roger_scotty]

Howdy Bird. I don't know if Mark has the pressure gauge in his loader line or not, though I do have one in mine. Rather than putting it in the boom cylinder circuit, mine is in the main pressure line where it enters the spool valve. At the time I was interested more in total system pressure rather than weight in the bucket. Of course it does give a rough idea of weight in the bucket....but the keyword is "rough". Frankly, a guy would do almost as well by looking to see how flat the front tires are.....which in all honesty is how I really do judge how much weight is in the bucket .

It would be interesting to gauge all three circuits and hopefully this thread will get me to do that this spring. Its been on my "fun things to-do with the tractor list" for too many years now...
Like a lot of good ideas, one ought to be able to calculate the weight from the gauge pressure, but I wonder how accurate it will be.

 

[trentay]

Thanks Roger for responding and starting this thread based on my reply on the 1401d thread, I too am curious. I have filled the bucket over full on some small compact tractors (other than Yanmar) that I have used and frankly I did not pay much attention to how they were mounted or how the tractor was made. This is the second time I have heard about needing full frame loader mounting on those machines that have a plate instead of cast bell housings, if you don't want to worry about breaking it in half in extreme use.

Since I am/was interested in the 1401d with a loader and have not actually looked at one in the flesh so to speak, I was curious if the loaders people are putting on them out here in the west (EFC, Allied, Bushog ect...) are using this type of mounting on the little guys (1100/1300/1400/1510).

I have heard that you don't need full frame mounting on the models with a cast bell housing (the theory is that you are less likely to break one of these in hard loader use) so I am leaning toward a slightly bigger Yanmar now (1600/1700/1800) with the three cyl motor and possibly shuttle shift. I just cannot decide until I drive many hours to the dealers that have them to look at and compare size to HP, and loader construction. An yes, of course, price!

I suspect that anything can be broken given the right amount of abuse, which I must admit I will probably never engage in. I guess I am just a glutton for information too, so I tend to ask alot of questions and look into everything.

Could any of you imagine what it would be like to try to learn all of this stuff rapidly without the aid of the internet or this forum!!!!! This place is great, I am getting mechanical experience and seat time based on all your experiences before I even buy my tractor!!!

Trent.

 

[gerard]

I don't know about the "half the weight of the three point capacity" theory. My 3 pt capacity is 900lb and the loader is 800lb. All I know is if the loader can't lift a full bucket of whatever I put in it I wouldn't be very happy with it!!

 

[roger_scotty]

Without having measured the actual weight, my impression is that most tractors will lift about the same amount in the loader as the 3pt.

As far as a full-length frame goes, I prefer them. But certainly a reasonable alternative to a full frame would be to not abuse the loader like I do do through rocks and roots. I commonly jam the loader teeth into a disintegrating granite rock face, gun the engine, and work the hydraulics until the frame creaks because that is the only way to dig into a hillside out here. But I never "charge" into a pile at any speed higher than low/low. So far, no problems.

My belief is that any loader mounting can is not hurt by any amount of weight that the loader can lift as long as the lift is kept low, the bolts are kept tight, and the speeds are low too. If weight were the only aspect of loader use then I would never worry about the type of loader frame. It is when I'm using the corner of the loader to pry a rock out of the hillside or to pull a stump that the loader really stresses the tractor and makes me glad that I've got a full length frame. I wouldn't do this kind of work with a tractor without that extra support. But you may have a situation where you don't do that kind of work anyway.

I wouldn't base my tractor decision on the loader support system. It would make more sense to just use whatever you get within reasonable limits. Sure, it is known that loaders can break tractors. It happens, but it is a real rare event and I'm not sure we ever hear the entire story.

 

[Youare]

The weight of material in a full bucket depends on the material you are trying to lift. There was a post a coulpe of months back where some one aked how much a cubic yard of something weighed.

There were several different types of material that you would commonly lift with a FEL and the approx. weight per cubic foot.
I don't have the book here at home or I would repeat them.

Water content will make a big difference in how much gravel and the like will weigh. I think most compact tractors will lift a full bucket of material. Without a counterweight on the back a full bucket may make the rear tires really light on the ground, without 4WD you will not move.

I know that trying to lift things that do not fit in the bucket is going to be your heaviest loads. Digging in the ground as someone has already said with the corner of the bucket probably puts the most damaging loads in the FEL. There is a lot of twisting that goes on when only one side is loaded.

I have a Ford 8N with a loader that will lift over 1,000 pounds, which is too much. One day when moving a stump I just dug out the front end dropped, I broke a front spindle.

My Kubota FEL is rated for around 800 pounds. I watch the squatness of the front tires when lifting heavy loads. I figure two trips are better than one that stresses the tractor front end and it's frame work.

Randy

 

[MossRoad]

What weighs more, a pound of lead or a pound of feathers? /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[yanman]

It seams to me that the FEL designer/maker would consider the materials used to build the FEL and size the scoop not to exceed the capacity of the Material used. As an Engineer myself, I would anticipate the densest material that would be put in the scoop, and size the scoops cubic foot capacity and cylinder size accordingly. This being said, I guess the real question becomes how many PSI can your specific tractor offer.

 

[RobS]

I had an interesting experience yesterday moving concrete waste. One piece was too long to fit in the bucket, but I thought I'd give it a shot anyway. I knew it was at, or above my loaders limits. I chained to it and my loader wouldn't pick it up. Started backing with it and the geometry caused my rear tires to go up in the air /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif Once I got my head back on, I did a bit of playing and ended up picking the concrete up by virtue of the terrain I was on. I was proud, but nervous. At that point I realized the loader will support more than it will lift /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif When I looked down and saw my front tires almost flat, I wisely put the whole thing down and drug it from my drawbar. An interesting little experiment none-the-less /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[hosejockey2002]

My FEL will physically lift much more weight than my tractor will safely handle, IMHO. If the bucket were sized for the heaviest material moved, say wet pea gravel or something like that, it would take much longer for me to move light materials like bark or chips. My machine can't really handle a completely full bucket of gravel, but at the same time I want the bucket big enough to handle a high volume of the lighter materials. So if I'm moving something heavy, I have to use common sense and take smaller bites.

 

[roger_scotty]

Most tractors offer approx the same PSI. Lifting power is regulated more by cylinder diameter.

 

[Soundguy]

trentay, I'm so used to using my tractor now, that sometimes at work, my right hand will naturally fall down and rest on the valve that you use to rais and lower the office style chairs. Sometimes absentmindedly, I will find myself trying to pull back on it to go 'higher',.... untill I relize im not on my tractor...

Chris

"This place is great, I am getting mechanical experience and seat time based on all your experiences before I even buy my tractor!!!"