Sod Installation with Compact Tractor

[MidGALandscaper]

According to the manual, my JD4310 should be able to lift at least 2200 lbs with the 3pt hitch. I had a 3 pt sod installer built that handles 42 inch rolls. My brother hauls sod and we tested a 103ft roll. The JD4310 would not bulge it. We are going to ask the farm to cut the rolls back to 80ft and try that. Any one have any ideas of how much one of those rolls might weigh? Could they weigh more than 2200 lbs or is the owner's manual incorrect. Can a compact tractor lift those rolls or even a pallet of sod?

 

[JackIL]

Landscaper.

A couple of questions. Is the 42 inches you specify the width of the roll or its final diameter? I assume it is the width. Then what is the final diameter and the average thickness of the mat when rolled?

The spec is determined when the center of gravity of the total load (carrier plus sod in your case) is no more than 24 inches behind the draft link balls. For the 4310 the MAX load is listed at 2200 pounds. Note that even though it will lift that much, it will lift very, very slowly when maxed out. In addition that will require an enormous amount of weight on the front loader bucket to balance it out.

In order to get a better estimate of the weight of the roll, could you perhaps cut off a one foot square of it and weigh that on a bathroom scale. With that info, it would be easy to calculate the weight of a roll given the width, thickness of the mat, and length of the mat.

JackIL

 

[JackIL]

Landscaper,

Well I am going to take a crack at estimating the weight based on a length of 103 feet, a width of 42 inches, and various sod thicknesses (2 inches, 1.5 inches, and 1 inch). My reference on soils gives a range of densities for firm packed soils as 95 pounds per cubic foot to as much as 125 pounds per cubic foot.

Lets assume the lowest --- 95 pounds per cubic foot.

The volume of your "rug" is length times width times thickness with appropriate conversions of all lengths to feet.

This gives the following:

Vol (2 inch thick) = 103 x 42 x 2 / (12 x 12) = 60 cubic feet

Weight (2 in thick) = 60 x 95 = 5700 pounds

Correspondingly, if the thickness is 1.5 inches,

Weight (1.5 in thick) = 4275 pounds

and

Weight (1 inch thick) = 2850 pounds

It is obvious that your tractor could not lift this much sod weight regardless of which thickness we have, and we haven't even accounted for the weight of the sod cutter / carrier yet.

In view of these estimates, I doubt that you will be able to lift even an 80 foot sod roll, but, of course, it depends on the thickness and the carrier weight.

Dirt is heavy stuff isn't it. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

JackIL

 

[smilingreen]

OK....Here is the magic question of the year.......What was the moisture content of the soil when the sod was cut???? Recent rain??

 

[AndyMA]

I'm not sure of the size of the rolls, but I used a Sod Unroller from a company called Sodco in RI and had no problem unrolling their standard size rolls on several jobs with my Ford 2120. We watered the sod all durintg the day to keep it wet before unrolling. I thhought they told me the rolls were somewhat more than 2000 lbs. I would say their unroller was a couple of hundred lbs.

Andy

 

[slowrev]

It could be a matter of leverage on the lift. The lift arms might lift 2200 lbs at the lift pin point. Different manufacturers rate their lift capacity at different points on or beyond the lift arms.
However with the weight extended behind the lift arms it becomes a matter of leverage. Not a math whiz by any means, but 2200 lbs 3 feet behind the lift arm pins equals a lot more weight at the lift arm pins.

 

[jonnwarne]

There are different ways to install the sod for example if you want to install for your lawn then it's area may be less as compare to when you're planning to install Commercial Sod like in public parks and play grounds so in that eras you can use the tractor for leveling the land.

 

[edgarrian]

Without doing the math and working with sod. Thats a really heavy roll sod. Heck the little sod rolls that you see people picking off the trailer and carrying are heavy 50-100lbs. It seems they have gotten away from this bc that **** was terrible to do. Or i just dont see it being done as often. Either way your tractor is not every going to lift that roll of sod.

 

[duffer]

I knew a 100' roll was going to be too much for my CUT. So I ordered ½ rolls from the sod farm. Cost me just a couple $$ more, but rolled it out with no problems. Did 8 half rolls.