Using Grapple to pull brush tips tractor forward

[stevenf]

I have to ask this and I'm sure I'll get plenty of eye rolls but I've got hundreds of huge brush piles on the ranch that I'm slowly making into more manageable burn size piles. Once in a while when I push into the pile and close the grapple I take what is obviously to biga bite and when I go to back up the tractor begins to raise up in the rear other than the obvious take smaller bites does anyone that uses a grapple for this type purpose have a better way of doing it as its just a might frightening to have the rear tires of a M9000 with urethane filled tires coming off the ground and the only thing that keeps you from going into a nose dive is clutch or shift into forward quickly. It is amazing the power of these little machines but they can sure try to hurt ya if ya let em.
Steve

 

[DUMBDOG]

Have you tried to put some weight on the back of the tractor such as a heavy box blade, etc. The more weight back there the better.

 

[Morgan1952]

Well, even if you add weight to the back of the tractor using another heavy implement, or a balast box, You will still need to use caution when backing up. I have picked up some pretty large trees with my loader and the rear came off the ground with my 60" box on the back. Adding weight to the rear and using caution are the only things that will help you.
Good luck
Bob

 

[KiotiJohn]

This is a case where a big ballast box, or a backhoe would be in order. It'll take a lot of weight to counter that load, but maybe you should take a smaller bite, because even with the extra rear weight, you may be picking up more than you should. If you get one side a little too heavy in the bucket, you "could" turn it over sideways. John

 

[slowzuki]

You need counterweight! Urethane doesn't weigh as much as calcium and you still need counterweight with calcium in the tires!

We use a big honking snowblower on our ag tractor, it weighs about 1500 lb and sticks out 6 feet or so.

Even with that sometimes I can get a rear tire in the air, but at least I can use the loader close to full capacity.

 

[Henro]

<font color="blue">Urethane doesn't weigh as much as calcium and you still need counterweight with calcium in the tires! </font>

slowzuki,

I don't know the relative density between foam and liquid calcium solution, but I believe that a foam-filled tire is frequently (maybe always? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif ) heavier than a liquid-filled tire.

Now this (if it is true) could be because the foam-filled tire is 100% filled with foam, while the liquid-filled tire is only 75% filled with liquid. So with foam there is 33% more ballast material in the tire (75 x 1.33 = 99.75).

So I guess foam could be lighter than calcium, but a foam-filled tire could still be heavier than a calcium filled one... /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Myself, I would stay happy with the foam filled rear tires and find something heavy to hang off the back of the tractor, as suggested... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[stevenf]

Dang ya'll got me again tell the whole story when asking a question and you get better answers. In addition to having all 4 tires filled with urethane which added 3000lbs I also have my 1200lb woods XB84 Box Blade on the back as I have learned a lot on this site and everyone has said lots of ballast for loader work.
Something I've tryed but it doesn't seem to make the work go as fast because I don't get the compression of brush in the load is I raise the grapple up high and open the jaws and come down on it from the top like a crane would do this seems to limit the amount I pickup to much so then I go back to just driving forward with the jaws open and then close them when in the pile to the hilt of the grapple rakes bottom jaw. Just every once in a while when I start to move its like reeling in a big fish for every inch the tractor goes backward the back end goes upward.
Steve

 

[beenthere]

You have more lift power on the FEL than you have counterbalance on the rear. Putting it simply, it works like a teeter-totter. The light end will be in the air. Preferably, the load in the grapple should be the 'light' end, or you could become a statistic in the local paper.

Another thing to learn, is when the rear end raises, one lowers the FEL to get the rear end down. Clutching and trying to drive under the load isn't, IMO, the 'way' to react to the rear wheels being up.

 

[PineRidge]

If I use the bucket grapple to pick up a good sized downed tree without counterbalance it happens to me too.

In the past I have used a box blade for counterbalance but most of the time the added width of the box doesn't work in the woods since it catches on trees.

I normally bolt 950 pounds of cast iron on the backside of my Class III Boomer to get her to settle down and go to work in the woods without acting nose heavy.

 

[lmiller]

Steven: I looked at the Kubota site for the weight of your M9000 without luck, but a 90b hp machine has got to be at about 3 times the weight of my 30 hp B7800. I can pick up the back end and 4-600# of brush hog if I chain too big a stump to the FEL. I'm sure someone will chime in but seems to me a rear weight bar for for your machine could be set up for way more than 1200#.
Also to respond to Henro "foam" means it has air mixed in, so I would bet urethane filled tires, althought 100% puncture resistant, are lighter than tires filled 80% with water/calcium mix.
Have you tried to figure out how many pounds or yards your bucket & grapple are picking up?

Lou