Reinforcing front axle of a YM 1700

[deepNdirt]

You'd be surprised what chores you can find to do with a mobile crane.

however.. unless you put quite a few hundred pounds of rear ballast on a yanmar 1700.. you'll not get 1000# of fthe ground in a front bucket. 1000# hay bales make my 33-45hp fords light int he rear and they have 2x the weight of that yanmar, plus a few hundred pounds of ballast. I think you may find that 400ish or so may be a practical max..

soundguy

yes you are right! I really have no plans on lifting anything close to 1000 lbs.
I know the "little" 1700 is not a bulldozer I purchased this size tractor because of the ability to maneuver in tight spaces, up close to objects thru wooded area's etc,etc, and after owning a bit smaller Kubota for many years and realized how much I would benefit if only had a FEL and would help me with my chores and be my strongback, but I also knew I would need a bit larger tractor in order to use a FEL capable of lifting things on average,
a Front loader can only be as strong as the tractor its hooked to, thus the reason I have concern about the front axle load..... Now with the frame reinforced and if I reinforce the front axle and perhaps changing to heavier duty front tires, I will then have a strong enough "Little tractor" to do mild to moderate work instead of lifting 1000 lb loads, I'll simply lift 3- 333.3 lb loads

 

[Soundguy]

IMHO.. you don't need to reinforce the front axle... it's not going to be the weak link for lifting anything that the rest of the tractor can lift... a subframe for the laoder might be nice.. that helps spread out the stresses..

the basic fixed or leaf/tube front axle design most older tractors use are fairly bullet proof. the king pin and bushing will wear when abused.. but there is little to do to actually beef up that area, vs just watching it and repairing it as needed.. which in your case.. may be decades away with the loader lift values you would be dealing with.

I've included a diagram of the 2wd front axle on a 1700.. you will see it uses a double yoke designe with fixed axle/kingpin setup.. not at all a weak design.. I'd expect parts that the yokes attach to to fail -before- the yokes themselves.. or the axle itself to fail.. (ie.. the plate/frame rails)

soundguy