SAFETY WARNING: Using Loader to Lift with Chains

[gerard]

This is the longest post I've seen since being here. Have any posts gone longer than 4 pages?? If not doesn't glenmac get some kind of award for starting it? Maybe a cupie doll riding a toy tractor drinking a cup of coffee??
(With chains hanging from the loader of course!!!)

 

[Kelvin]

McDonalds Hot Coffee Suit: I too initially thought that the suit was a stupid one by a greedy lady (based upon initial MEDIA reports). After hearing more of the information I now agree that the suit was probably one of the few that I would agree with. I believe that a typical home coffee maker warms the water up to 120-150 degree F range (I don't remember the exact number) which is uncomfortable but not dangerous if spilled. McDonalds decided to heat it up to a unnecessarily dangerous temperature for monetary gain (as mentioned in previous post). As far as I know, McDonalds ignored all of the "coffee temperature" complaints prior to the suit, and still has not lowered the coffee temperature since the suit (they may have, but I haven't heard).

For those who still think that the coffee suit was rediculous, I hope that you never buy a cup of McDonald's coffee and trip while walking to the seating area in such a way that you spill it on one of your clildren/grandchildren.

 

[TomG]

Guess I'm guilty. I used the Mac Coffee thing among several illustrations that manufacturers seem to be using labels to reduce their liability for some pretty obscure injuries related to use of their products. I was speculating how much of the motivation is due to a desire for safety in the use of their products and how much is due to a desire for safety from litigation. I also wondered if the proliferation of safety materials actually promotes safer operation.

For a change thought I was sticking pretty close to tractor subjects. So, since I haven't, I'll note that some people who made presentations at a recent conference on ethics in the public sector concluded that the economics of privatization aren't generally positive. The main motivation is for public agencies to protect themselves against liability suits. So, here's a subject perhaps hotter than the coffee, but maybe in another place, since it has nothing to do with tractors.

 

[ddl]

Mike H

All that is true, except when the spring's K is changed. It is changed when the chain links deform or break. If they break the energy is used up in the breaking of the chain. Thus that is why chain does not span back as a tow rope does.

 

[QuadDriver]

Well, I do chain lifting from the FEL on smaller stuff. For example, I needed to pull a 400lb motor from the bed of my truck and onto an engine stand. The FEL has a lift capacity of 1200lbs. I have noticed that when the loader is lifted above the c.g. of the tractor (center of gravity) a heavy load starts pulling the frame in a direction where it can tip - I have lifted 1 rear wheel off the ground, albeit not much, but on a non-sprung vehicle, 1-2 inches seem like 3 feet. so you learn. fast.

However, cub cadet (I have the 417 FEL) has 3 hooks welded to the top of the bucket. If not to attach chain then what? I have found that when the loader is left low, a chain here allows for a LOT of pulling power that cannot tip you over - unlike pulling from a drawbar.

So aside from being aware of the loader-high/tipping concern, it seems safe to me and given my engineering background, I rely on it to point out stuff that is patently unsafe.

btw - stickers are just that. sometimes they are CYA for the manu....for example, if you read the stickers on my atvs and sum them up, they read 'dont have fun', they implore me not to exceed 15mph (on a machine that does 55), do not jump (even tho it has a suspension designed for it), no wheelies, no night riding (that would explain the 55W halogen light they put on...) no riding in mud, no riding on gravel, no riding in sand, no riding on pavement. Yards only then?

See what I mean? My opinion is everyone has to evaluate thier own safety/skills and never exceed the capabilities of the machine. If your FEL lifts 1200lbs, dont try and lift the front end of a buick...

If you want something done faster, increase the voltage. But dont lick the black wire.

 

[glennmac]

Did a little unintended FEL rope lifting today. It reinforced how potentially dangerous FEL work can be.

I bought a 10' section of 24" plastic culvert pipe for my creek bridging project. Carried it home on top of my Honda CRV on my canoe roof racks. In my driveway, I positioned my upraised FEL right next to the racks, and rolled the pipe onto the bucket. The pipe only weighs 110 lbs. I tied a 1" rope through the culvert pipe and also through the cross-pipe on the loader arms, cinching it tight (I thought). Then I had to travel about 200 yards to my creek, balancing the cinched pipe on the curled bucket.

There is a 4' embankment I have to go down to get to the creek, which is about a 40 degree slope. As I descended the slope very slowly, I didn't anticipate that I wouldn't be able to fit the 10' wide load between the trees on the hill. As I was trying to descend and maneuver at the same time, the pipe fell out of the loader onto the ground, still attached to the rope. There I was standing on my brakes on a 40 degree slope with a culvert pipe in front of my front wheels. So I lifted the loader a little and the pipe lifted. Encouraged, I then lifted the loader high, and of course the pipe came back and banged into the grill guard. (Think, dummy, things don't lift vertically; they lift in an arc.) No harm done because the the pipe was so light. I continued to the bridging site with the pipe lightly banging against my grill guard the whole way.

There never was any significant danger. But there sure could have been if the pipe had weighed 850 lbs and was made out or metal or concrete.

Glenn

 

[TomG]

I've got a rule: 'If it can fall off, it will.' Fortunately, I came by that rule before I dropped anything.

I've seen hooks on loader buckets as often used to secure over-sized loads to the bucket than for directly lifting loads. A couple loops around the load and bucket and into grab hooks is pretty good for most loads, although not completely safe.

Using slip hooks allows the chain to be tightened easier, but there has to be at least one grab hook, so the chain can't just slip around the bucket. Investing in some load binders to tighten the chain really helps. Handles on the new style binders stay closed. I have to tie the handles closed on my old-style binders.

If you haven't discovered them, clevises also are very handy for all sorts of lifting, securing and towing jobs. Clevises go through holes, behind pins etc, where chain couldn't be pulled, and provide strong steel loops for the chain to run through. I keep pairs of clevises in assorted sizes up to 1." I use an incher for towing from the draw bar. The inch pin fits neatly in the draw-bar hole (with the top plate removed). The clevis gives me a good big loop to run chain with grab hooks through. It's the only way I figured out to easily to tow something from the draw-bar. You can sort of get 5/16th chain through the draw-bar hole, but a hook has to be removed, and serious pulling might damage the chain in the hole. No way to get 3/8th chain through a draw-bar hole.

'Pull only from the draw-bar' is one of those safety things. If I didn't have a clevis, I might be tempted to do something else.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Always use the CORRECT kind of chain for overhead lifting. Some chains snap; others stretch before snapping. Just because a chain is Grade 8 doesn't mean it is suitable for overhead lifting.

 

[Harv]

dacarlson -

Interesting that you should reply just now (10 months later /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif), since I had an interesting observation of chains over the weekend.

I was trying to remove some 1" diameter pipes from the ground that my dad had used as anchors for stretching some kind of cable. The ground is very hard right now, and there was about 10" of these pipes poking out at about a 45-degree angle (just enough to reek havoc with my DR Trimmer/Mower during weed season). I couldn't get the tractor to them, so I whipped out my 48" HiLift jack and had at it.

I had a little trouble getting just the right angle on the first one, but this jack offers several thousand pounds of pull, so I just kept cranking away to see if I could at least loosen the dang thing up a bit. I was using "standard" grade 3/8" chain, and when I really applied the elbow grease, I swear I saw the links start to elongate! /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif That's when I decided to back off and re-arrange my setup.

When I got that first pipe out, it was bent into the shape of the letter "C", so I at least know where all that force went. The second came out rather easily since I was one rung up on the learning curve.

Oh, and I have no intention of lifting anything heavy "overhead", no matter what kind of chain I'm using. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif

 

[mlmartin]

While I was using my 4 ton come-a-long to pull my tractor back onto a travel surface I positioned the CAL hook carelessly. I hooked it through a link instead of around the loop of chain. That link is now much more square than oval. I dodged a bullet on that one.

Matthew