Tweaked FEL

[4570Man]

Excuse me for interpreting your comment. Hitting the relief valve should not cause failure. Every time I use my FEL for heavy work I hit the relief valve with no mechanical failure. This failure has nothing to do with the relief valve. Pressures were exerted on the structure of the FEL frame way before the relief valve could save it.

That was the point. The relief valve is supposed to profit from mechanical failure.

 

[VroomVroom]

The loaders are used I think harder then their intended for sometimes. Some pushing is ok and necessary to scoop up a load. But it really was designed more for lifting . However, when I push anything or lift anything I try to keep the bucket square with the load. Lifting on one side can put a twist in the loader frame I would imagine. Though some of the other cats on here would know a little more about the loader then I. First loader we've had here besides what was on the old farm all has been only 10 years ago. I don't like pushing with one corner, or lifting with one corner of the bucket. You can see a twist starting so I just don't do it. If your going very fast at all, and I mean half the speed of low gear while grading a road and strike a stone 1 or 2 inches high sticking out of the ground I can see the forces on the FEL so I'm very soft when doing that too. Lifting straight however, either the end will come off the ground or it will just stall and not lift.

 

[ovrszd]

Lifting straight however, either the end will come off the ground or it will just stall and not lift.

And that's the description we were given.

 

[ovrszd]

Lifting straight however, either the end will come off the ground or it will just stall and not lift.

And that's the description we were given.

 

[oldtimer 66]

on a repair. Try to confirm that the locks were engaged and if not maybe you can engage them now. You will need to cut out the center cross tube and maybe remove the bottom torque bar. The 2 arms would then be relaxed and you can evaluate the repair and see if any new parts are required. I have tried to straighten a loader frame before and it is almost impossible doing as a whole asmy. Later.

 

[Wilco]

The fact that the loader mounting frame is sloped on the front of the tractor looks to me like the failure was at the loader mount somewhere. A failure elsewhere should not tweak the mounting frame.

 

[mercdv]

I'm also still having a hard time wrapping my head around the damage from the description of what happened. Every time I have seen something like this it involved a tractor in motion. That makes it a little hard not to make assumptions but since I wasn't there to see what happened, I'm just gonna try to help the OP figure out a way to get things fixed. It isn't like the JD warranty will cover any of the damage because the OP already said he tried to lift something too heavy. I'm hoping he comes back with a list of things damaged or more pictures so we can give him some specific advice on the best path moving forward.

 

[mercdv]

The fact that the loader mounting frame is sloped on the front of the tractor looks to me like the failure was at the loader mount somewhere. A failure elsewhere should not tweak the mounting frame.

I'd definitely like to see a good series of pictures taken of the masts and mount points from several angles. That could possibly clear some things up quickly.

 

[goeduck]

:liar: That will buff right out. :liar:
Here, hold my beer again :drink:

 

[UtahJock]

Holy carp, that's a lot of good comments. Who I thought was my eye witness was in the house at the time. So it's only my word. The tractor was new this spring, and unless the dealer messed it up, it should be set-up properly. My previous tractor, a 1025R, was put through a lot of abuse, and nothing bad happened to it ever. I can't take more pictures until this coming weekend. And I will take some measurements. Thanks again for the help.

 

[Ford850]

The bent rams interests me. I've never saw a cylinder have the ability to bend the ram with a straight up lift. Just doesn't happen. Bent rams are caused by outside forces beyond the hydraulic pressure being exerted on the cylinder. When a properly installed cylinder has hydraulic pressure applied to extend the ram there is no forces present to bend the ram. It will simply lift the load of go into relief with no bending.

I agree, they would only bend as the loader racked out of square.

 

[WVUNUT1985]

I am curious as to just how much weight you were lifting. A pallet of 10 foot 2x4? From what I have researched, looks like this loader has about 1100 lbs lift capacity and scary thought that only 200 lbs exceeded the safety margin built in to the loader and caused this much damage.

 

[bigtiller]

Were the loader frame mounting bolts a little loose?

 

[CincyFlyer]

Were the loader frame mounting bolts a little loose?

I can see mine bending if one side of the loader frame mounting came loose. Not a likely scenario, but not impossible.

 

[oldtimer 66]

The lock ( cam in the parts cat. ) on the right side of the tractor is not in the same position as the lock on left side of the tractor. Zoom in on the pics. It appears that the right side lock was not engaged. The center web is rolled down and against horz support which is the unlock position. On the left side of the tractor the center web is not rolled down against the horz support. Just a thought have the locks been moved after the accident and before the pics? I have a pic of my loader in the parked position showing the right side lock ( cam ) in the unlocked position as it would be when not mounted on the tractor. Pic to follow . Later

 

[oldtimer 66]

Here is the pic.

 

[Threepoint]

Here is the pic.View attachment 562209

UtahJock, I'm no mechanical engineer, but oldtimer 66 may have this sussed out. I'm guessing one of the cam locks may not have been correctly engaged. Even so, hard to see how a pallet of 2x4s being lifted straight up only 6" off the ground, could have done this. So I'd also suspect a failed component or weld, as others have mentioned.

Here's my thinking. It's very unlikely that the load could have exceeded the FEL's limit at that height. When you say you were 200 lbs over, what weight are you using as the limit? If it was the 1,122 lbs that JD's website gives in it's basic description, keep in mind that this is at full lift height. At only 6", lift capacity would be much closer to the breakout force. The breakout force is spec'd at 3,327 lbf at the pivot pin. At 20" forward of the pivot pin, the breakout force is still 2,417 lbf. Even at a carry height of 59", capacity at the pivot pin is still given as 2,125 lbs. Here is the link to the manual:
OMPXX10906

Since your tractor is new this Spring, I'd sure get the dealer involved right away. Your warranty should cover component, weld or assembly or set-up failure, if that was the cause. Another question. Had you detached and reinstalled the FEL between the time of delivery and the mishap? If not, and if one of the cam locks was never engaged and caused the damage, the warranty may still be worth looking into. JD did not get the good reputation it has without excellent product and warranty support.

 

[Coyote machine]

I'm not a Deere owner, but here's my take. Pics don't lie, and paint always tells the tail.
Look where in front of the radiator grille in several of the pics; and blow them up to where the area where a 'bolt to' plate shows up. Under it is part of the FEL assembly, and in most of the pics that show this area there is, on the left side of the pic, a noticeable section where the paint is missing, down to bare shiny metal. This is apparent in a bunch of the pics and from several views. A scratched torsion bar or tube would show a recent damage area, possibly from the OP's description of what he 'thinks' happened when the failure occurred. The bare metal, polished by rubbing of misaligned sheet metal above shows where rubbing/scraping, friction was taking place OVER TIME, and the end result of whatever wasn't hooked up properly finally gave way when the OP lifted his pallets. Evidence of something not properly installed worked it's way to releasing the item(s) and finally shows as a failure of the erroneous installation, which went unnoticed for some substantial amount of time. Once the lock lever, for instance, got to point of no return, it let go and result is what is shown in the pics. The missing paint shows that the fault was not a failure so much as a letting go of parts that were not, possibly ever properly engaged, and finally blew apart - as evidenced by near explainable weird FEL racking...
Not OP's fault, except for not noticing it, (missing paint/bare metal scraping) sooner, prior to failure. Scraping noises probably masked by engine noise. Daily walk around/inspection is a valuable free tool to engage before starting any tractor.

 

[UtahJock]

Thanks again for the comments. I will examine everything better and take better and more pics this weekend. And get it to the dealer!

 

[UtahJock]

Good morning. I have some new pictures with side views, close-ups showing some major parts out-of-square. I was careful to avoid parallax error when taking these. The lock on the right side is completely dis-engaged; I will add some pics of this later. The loader has not been removed since I've had the tractor. I recalculated the weight and it was 1232 lbs - this includes the extra weight from the pallet forks versus the standard bucket. I will be taking it to the dealer this week.