Does anyone have a reference for a technical definition of what breakout force is?
A few yrs ago someone posted a link to a site with the ISO standards for
breakout force diagrammed and explained. I can not find it now. As I have
always said, it is very hard to do a fair apples-to-apples comparison of
FELs (or hoe attachments) using published specs. For hoes, I have collected
lots of field measurements to do a better comparison.
For FELs, let me add a few comments:
As your FEL boom rises, the force moment arm get shorter, so net lifting
forces are less. If one FEL uses a longer cylinder, it can lift higher than
another FEL, but the force at max lift is less. Note that the KL120 and
the 7TL FELs both do not lift as high as the KL130.
As stated, one of Kioti's brochures specs the KL130 at 2000psi, instead of
the 2500psi that I measure at the FEL (stock).
Finally, Breakout Force. Some brochures describe this as a force about a
pivot. That makes little sense as that would be a torque, which is not
a useful spec here. For a backhoe, the breakout force is the max linear
force at the bkt teeth, so the bkt size (length, not width) affects that.
For a FEL, the BF also is the max force seen at the bucket edge due to
curl action. This force is essentially upward, but could be max at a slightly
non-vertical angle. Perhaps WESTENDORF, as a manufacturer can tell
us his company's definition of BF.
One more thing: the curl action of a FEL is much stronger than the boom
action as we know. Using pallet forks, you can lift a load with curl only
action, which puts pressure on your boom cyls greater than your tractor
can deliver. I have done this numerous times when I have more than
maxed out the boom lift capacity.