5055E and lifting a pallet

[Laminarman]

I'm deciding between a New Holland Workmaster and the Deere 5055E. The Deere seems more robust (as does the price.) A MAJOR consideration and maybe a game changer, would be if I could somehow lift a pallet with the Deere. I often have pallets of lime delivered for my food plots, and these weigh 3,150 pounds each. Lime trucks will not deliver to my fields. So I have to take the tractor around the barn and up a grade through the woods. What I do now is put the bags, by hand, on a hay wagon and haul that up, then bring up the lime drop spreader. If there was a way I could lift a pallet of lime either with the 3 pt hitch or front bucket, that would be a huge game changer. I can't find 3 point forks robust enough to lift that weight. I'm not sure if this tractor could lift it from the front, as I'm not aware how lift capacity "at the pivot pins" translates to lifting a pallet. Any experience anyone? The dealer couldn't answer the question either and he's checking with others to see if he can find the answer. Thanks in advance.

 

[Bigfoot62]

The JD has an unfair advantage in that matchup. It's a LOT more tractor than the WM. It appears to you to be more "robust" because it is. The weight difference is almost 1500lbs.

I'm not sure that either of those tractors would be capable of carrying pallets that heavy.

Just curious, but your local fertilizer supply doesn't offer lime, by the ton, in a spreader buggy? That's common down here.

 

[Laminarman]

The JD has an unfair advantage in that matchup. It's a LOT more tractor than the WM. It appears to you to be more "robust" because it is. The weight difference is almost 1500lbs.

I'm not sure that either of those tractors would be capable of carrying pallets that heavy.

Just curious, but your local fertilizer supply doesn't offer lime, by the ton, in a spreader buggy? That's common down here.

I never checked that because I knew my tractor wasn't big enough. I have a 40HP hydrostatic drive NH and I didn't think there was a chance that could pull one of those. That would be the ideal solution if it would work. Thanks. And the weight difference without a bucket is 1,000 pounds, not 1,500, but still very substantial.

 

[Tx Jim]

I think 3150#s of lime will be touch & go.

 

[Eric102]

I would assume you would also have to deduct the weight of the pallet fork attachment which is in the hundreds of pounds.

 

[Laminarman]

I think 3150#s of lime will be touch & go.

I wish I could post what I have from the dealer. He has a spec sheet that he got on his dealer website, and the heading titled "John Deere 553 NSL on 5E Series Tractor" and down that column at the "Lift Capacity at Pivot" is 4,008 pounds. Now, I'm not sure if that's the max and specified for the 65HP model but he told me he thought the 5055 could do over 3,000 with a heavy duty pallet fork. I should just buy a skid steer and call it a day

 

[xring100]

When I bought my M8540 it was the most cost effective solution to be able to lift much over 3000 lbs to 60" at 800 mm. Most of the tractors needed to be in the 80 hp range. Some exceptions I looked at were the NH T4000 and the JD 5M I also wanted a power shuttle. The M8540 lifts close to 4000 lbs to 60"

The LA1153A 2646 lbs on the m7040
LA1353A 4144lbs m8540

Most of the 70 hp or less were under 3000 similar to the la1153

 

[Tx Jim]

I wish I could post what I have from the dealer. He has a spec sheet that he got on his dealer website, and the heading titled "John Deere 553 NSL on 5E Series Tractor" and down that column at the "Lift Capacity at Pivot" is 4,008 pounds.

lifting 4000#s at the bucket attaching pins is one thing and lifting 4000#s sticking out 4 ft in front of the pins is totally different

 

[GManBart]

lifting 4000#s at the bucket attaching pins is one thing and lifting 4000#s sticking out 4 ft in front of the pins is totally different

Sure, but it will lift 2,900lbs to 1.5m at 800mm, so it would lift a lot more to a lower height. If he only had to lift it a foot or so, it might be as high as 4K.

 

[vtsnowedin]

I don't know if it could lift a full pallet or not but I wouldn't bet against it. You would need loaded tires and a good weight on the 3PH. You could always move a third of a pallet onto an empty and go with 2000 which it should do with ease. The WM being much lighter wouldn't stand a chance doing it safely. I don't think there is a difference in capacity of a 533 loader if it is switched from a 5045 to a 5055 or 5065 tractor. The pump is the same size as are all the pistons. The only advantage is that a 5065 comes with larger tires that can hold more liquid ballast.

 

[Laminarman]

I don't know if it could lift a full pallet or not but I wouldn't bet against it. You would need loaded tires and a good weight on the 3PH. You could always move a third of a pallet onto an empty and go with 2000 which it should do with ease. The WM being much lighter wouldn't stand a chance doing it safely. I don't think there is a difference in capacity of a 533 loader if it is switched from a 5045 to a 5055 or 5065 tractor. The pump is the same size as are all the pistons. The only advantage is that a 5065 comes with larger tires that can hold more liquid ballast.

This is interesting, I thought the bigger tractor made the difference. Here is what I want to do: Lift the pallet a foot or two (at the most) off the ground and drive to the field (on firm, dry ground of course.) Part of this drive is, however, uphill, which makes it important for me to do this from the front of the tractor, not the rear. What I'm doing now is loading each bag onto my wagon, laying them out, and pulling them up, then loading each bag by hand into the spreader. I'm handling the bags twice, that totally sucks. If I could load even the top 14 bags onto the wagon (since they're layered 7 bags in nine layers) that gives me 2450 lbs on the pallet forks and a margin of error and a bit less handling overall. I think it's funny however that I"ve been hauling these 3,150 pounds of lime on this Northern Tool wagon I built a decade ago, and I thought I remembered it being a 4,000 capacity wagon. I just found the manual and it's rated at 1,200 pounds!!! So I've been pulling this thing up the hill and over dale for a while with almost three times the weight it's rated for, so I'm wondering how much margin of error they build into these stats.

 

[vtsnowedin]

On a loader the relief valve setting is what limits you as long as you have enough ballast on the back. Once it opens applying more power or RPMs to the hydraulic pump accomplishes nothing. Now the 553 fits on about forty different JD models and some of them might have different output pressures from the pump and different relief valve settings and more or less gallons per minute flow so the above is not universally true but I think it is for the 50xxe series.

 

[charleyfarmall]

Your bags of lime are 1.5 tons? I get 1 ton bags at the local farmers union. The problem I have is that my loader doesn't go high enough for me to use the handles and lift them up over the top of my lime spreader. I have to lift them from underneath and cut the bags open with a knife.

 

[xring100]

This is interesting, I thought the bigger tractor made the difference. Here is what I want to do: Lift the pallet a foot or two (at the most) off the ground and drive to the field (on firm, dry ground of course.) Part of this drive is, however, uphill, which makes it important for me to do this from the front of the tractor, not the rear. What I'm doing now is loading each bag onto my wagon, laying them out, and pulling them up, then loading each bag by hand into the spreader. I'm handling the bags twice, that totally sucks. If I could load even the top 14 bags onto the wagon (since they're layered 7 bags in nine layers) that gives me 2450 lbs on the pallet forks and a margin of error and a bit less handling overall. I think it's funny however that I"ve been hauling these 3,150 pounds of lime on this Northern Tool wagon I built a decade ago, and I thought I remembered it being a 4,000 capacity wagon. I just found the manual and it's rated at 1,200 pounds!!! So I've been pulling this thing up the hill and over dale for a while with almost three times the weight it's rated for, so I'm wondering how much margin of error they build into these stats.

If all you need to do is lift them a couple feet you should be fine I thought you needed to pull them out of the semi

 

[Xfaxman]

I wish I could post what I have from the dealer. He has a spec sheet that he got on his dealer website, and the heading titled "John Deere 553 NSL on 5E Series Tractor" and down that column at the "Lift Capacity at Pivot" is 4,008 pounds. Now, I'm not sure if that's the max and specified for the 65HP model but he told me he thought the 5055 could do over 3,000 with a heavy duty pallet fork. I should just buy a skid steer and call it a day

No not a skid steer, you need a compact telehandler! :thumbsup:

With the pallet forks, rated to lift 4,400 17' high.


Use the grapple the most.


The 1 cubic yard, 6' dirt bucket, heaped, retracted the boom and raised it.

It will go 5.5 feet higher if I extend the boom

The 7' brush hog.

The V417 is 6' wide, 6.5' high and 13' long. Tire size is 14x17.5. Top speed is 15.5 mph, drawbar pull is 7,000 pounds, boom breakout force is 6700 lbf, bucket breakout force is 4700 lbf and it will lift over 5,000 pounds, 17 feet high.

Click the link in my signature to see what else it can do.

 

[Laminarman]

If all you need to do is lift them a couple feet you should be fine I thought you needed to pull them out of the semi

Nope Xring, they place them on my concrete driveway with a little pallet truck thingy then I come home and start moving them bag by bag. Did I mention it sucks??? If I could grab one and move it up to my wagon that's great, if I could drive it up to the field, I'm in heaven.