</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Steve,
sorry, i already posted on the other thread ref Bob's mis management of his blocks( /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif).
RD )</font>
What is it pick on Bob day? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif I don't see that on my calendar!
Seriously if you go back a page or two you'll see I did agree that my blocks were in the wrong place and I will retest. I was not able to test all weekend and I work late tonight but should be able to get out there Tuesday night to retest.
But in the interest of accuracy, we need to look at several things.
1) Any weight/implement on the 3pt hitch will act to lighten the front end using the rear tires as a fulcrum point so the test must be done without anything on the 3pt hitch.
2) We should measure the spread of our loader arms, wider spaced arms will exert torque twist differently than arms held closer to the center of the bucket.
3) We should measure the distance from the loader arm to the end of the bucket (see point #2 for similar logic)
4) Any QA system will add additional flex, so buckets with QA systems attached should not be compared to buckets that do not have a QA system
5) Buckets of different widths should not be compared each other. 54" buckets should be compared to 54" buckets. 60" to 60" etc.
6) We should compare loaders with similar # of hours (give or take 50?) to other loaders with similar hours because a new loader should have less play/slop/wear than a loader with 500 hours.
7) We should compare loaders with similar load capacity.
8) We should compare loaders with similar construction (curved arms vs curved arms, dogleg vs dogleg).
9) All tests should be done on a similar hard/smooth/flat surface (concrete or asphalt)
10) Comparing a loader with stress cracks to one that does not have stress cracks probably will show that the loader with stress cracks flexes more, but still won't give us any indication as to WHY the loader has stress cracks!
Now if we were to actually get some accurate results for each class/size/type of loader we could run a matrix and then we would have some real results. It would be interesting to see all that. I wonder if the moderators of the site would move this thread outside of the Kioti forum and into a general discussion area to get more participation?