KL120 Loader Flexing

[Steve_Miller]

To carry on from what I started in Highbeam's post about his loader question. My loader does flex and I was curious as too how much any other loaders flex as a comparison, not to bash, just for my own interest and anyone else that is interested. I noticed this on my loader before but it was never really as prominent as it is now to me. I first noticed it last spring/summer when I was digging some top soil out of a bank on my property. I would go into the bank for a scoop of soil and I started to get into some clay. Each time one corner of the bucket would get into the clay and it would flex more in that corner for obvious reasons. Then I would start moving one way or the other to get out of the clay. I guess the only reason I noticed this is that my old B7200 didn't do this near as much as the CK20 does, this from the twenty years that I owned the Kubota. Some things your brain remebers and tucks away that you don't remember until your memory gets jogged. Anyhow I am just curoius about this, please don't flame or bash anything here as I would like to keep it about civil.

Thanks Steve

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Steve, in the interest of contintuity, I copied my reply to you that was posted in the other thread and put it here.

</font><font color="blue" class="small">(
( This is a six inch block of wood under one corner of the loader and down pressure until the front end starts to get light. My CK20 loader will twist this much. Is this too much or is it engineered to flex? ... Are other brands of loaders or tractors similar to this or are they rigid enough not to flex at all? I'm curious, are you??

Steve ))</font>

Steve, I just walked in from dinner and saw your post and was very curious about my New Holland loader. While this thread has been about a 130 loader, it is a curved arm loader similar to my NH loader, only larger than mine. My curiousity was heightened when I saw you have a Kioti 120 loader since your 120 is almost equal in all specs to my 12LA loader.

So attached find a photo of my loader sitting on 2 pieces of 4" concrete landscape block. I put enough down pressure on my loader to lift the front wheels completely off the ground. (you can see the airspace under the wheel is at least 1") So while your loader is deflecting what appears to be about 3"??? with your front end "light" my front end is completely lifted off the ground and I have about 1/2" of deflection. (you can see the top of the loader is nearly parallel with my headlights) I suspect that the curved arm loaders have a bit more flex than the dogleg loader arms. However it strikes me that your loader is flexing way too much? BTW, the loader on this tractor has just about 200 hours on it.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Steve, also to help with the discussion I've brought over other information from the prior thread.

KiotiJohn correctly pointed out that the test shown in these photos is NOT a typical use for a loader.

JerryG pointed indicated that he believes less flex is better, which I agreed with but neither of us can prove, it is just our guess.

Glen Ippolit pointed out correctly that your loader may be flexing because of the cracks.

Below are my responses to their posts which I summarized above.


John. . . I agree this is an atypical test. I simply followed the lead of Steve becasue he asked the question and posted the test. And while Dargo did the same, Dargo has a loader that is constructed in a completely different way than Steve's and my loader. Dargo's loader is also substantially heavier built that Steve's and my loader. I duplicated Steve's test simply because the 120 and the 12LA are virutal twins if you look at the spec sheets and are very similar if you look at them physically. In the real world, it is unlikely that I would use the corner of my loader to lift my tractor off the ground.


JerryG. . . I agree, we are making the assumption that less flex is better. We have both been wrong before so we may be wrong this time. Further, I speculated that the flex that Steve has is related to his stress cracks in two ways. I believe that excess flex is what caused his loader to crack. I further believe that he probably has more flexing due to the stress cracks. I'm only a hobby welder/metal worker, but I've seen plenty of stress cracks and it strikes me that they often start due to metal deflection/flex.

I am not a metalurgist, but I do know that some types of metal are stronger than others, some are more subject to flex than others, some are more brittle than others, etc. It is possible that the metal used in the Kioti loader is different than the metal used in the NH or Kubota loaders and that is the reason for the flex?

At this point it is all speculation as to what is causing cracks.


Glen . . . Good point but did it crack because it flexed? I suspect that excessive flexing is what caused the cracking. That would be a typical way to crack metal. And now that it is cracked, I suspect it can just flex to a greater extent. Remember his 120 loader and my 12LA loader have virtually identical specs. My loader has more hours than his loader. I neither have flex nor cracks.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Steve,

Two more thoughts on this.

#1. MONTANA tractors are now making a curved arm loader that is similar to the loaders on the smaller Kiotis and the Case/New Holland designs. I'm not sure if they have a curved arm loader for small tractor like you and I have, but if they do, then it would be interesting to see a Montana owner with a similar size/weight tractor & loader do this test.

#2. My tractor weighs a couple hundred pounds less than yours, but you will notice that I have my Mid-Mount-Mower installed so I would suspect that the weight being carried by my loader is at least equal to the weight of your tractor and perhaps a bit more?

 

[shvl73]

This is my mahindra 2810HST with the KMW 108H loader on a 6x8 timber. Both wheels off the ground, but as much flex as I expected.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Just so we can try to keep this relavant can you tell us a couple things?

#1 -- What is the weight of your tractor? (factory spec weight)
#2 -- Do you have a mid-mount mower installed, a 3pt implement lifted as counter-balance, or any modification that would affect the weight for the purpose of this test?
#3 -- What is the lift capacity of your loader? (to the pivot pins)
#4 -- Any chance that you can repeat this test on concrete? I noticed yours in on soil and that may have some effect because it actually looks like you have a little flex but your tractor whole tractor is lifted to the side which may be due to the ground it is on.

 

[Dargo]

Should I put my other pic on this thread? I'm enjoying the variety of hooks, hitches, etc. on the loader buckets as much as anything. No offense, but as I stated earlier, I don't really know if this proves anything, but it is interesting to me to even see the different configurations.

Okay, you caught me, I'm really pleased with my hitch I put on my bucket. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif It makes it really easy for me to move both my bumper hitch trailer as well as my gooseneck trailer.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Brent,
Obviously your loader is much heavier duty, but it sure is not flexing.

What is the weight of your tractor?

Capacity of your loader?

How many hours do you have on it?

 

[Dargo]

I think it may be flexing an inch or two. I never thought about it, but right now I don't have anything on the 3 pt hitch for whatever that's worth. I'm pretty sure that when I ran my tractor across the scales at the landscaping place when I was buying landscape rock it weighed 6900 pounds with me in it. The rear blade I had on it is a beast, and I think it weighs about 1300 pounds. That would leave the tractor weighing about 5400 (6900 less 1300 rear blade less 200 pounds of me).

Capacity? Heck, I don't know. I'm sure somebody can tell us. I thought I'd read somewhere that it's about 2000 pounds at bucket center.

I do know the hours. I cheated and looked yesterday; that would be 378, so not very many.

As I mentioned in the other thread, my Case 580E backhoe did a far better job at back-blading my gravel driveway and I bet it had at least a foot and a half of flex from side to side. It seemed to follow the contour of the ground better.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Why did the Case have so much 'flex' in it?

How many hours were on the Case? Any idea on the capacity?

I'm not familiar with that model but is it an old commercial unit that was 'loose' when you bought it?