“Forcing” the FEL to lift?

[S854]

Yesterday Julie and I began turning next years compost pile… me in the tractor seat - she was armed with a hose… the pile was incredibly dry throughout…

At first pushing into the pile and lifting the dry contents was easily a full-bucket endeavor… as the pile began to get more saturated, the lifting challenged the capabilities of the loader, eventually to the point there was no lift without backing out of the pile just a bit… so…

Are there issues with holding the function lever in the lift position while adjusting the tractors position (backing out of the pile) until the FEL begins to rise? There were no untoward noises, smells or excessive heat encountered whilst trying to lift when the lift wasn’t sufficient to overcome the weight of the heavy bucket load… still…

I’m aware of the pop-off valve in the system… will engaging the relief for more than a brief period weaken it’s capacity over time?

 

[oldnslo]

Depends on the length of the brief moments and how frequently they occur. Heat is main concern and as long as directional control valve and lines going to don’t get scalding hot you probably aren’t doing any damage to the system. Pumps are designed to last xx amount of pressure cycles and the normal user of a utility tractor will never use the tractor enough to exceed that number.

With practice you “learn” how to ease into a pile with HST while lifting. Lifting and pushing at max force gets very hard on front axles.

 

[RayIN]

Water is 8.3#/Gallon, back off on water usage.
holding the FEL lift lever will quickly heat up the hydraulic oil, you know the damage that can cause. Not only that, consider the front axle load. How much would breaking the axle cost compared to not filling the bucket?

 

[WranglerX]

Think the process is learning how to lift.... You are supposed to come into edge of pile and scrape up with lip of loader.... Not bury bucket deep into pile then try to lift....

 

[dodge man]

You’re forcing the pump into relief. I agree, it’s how long you do it and how often. If it’s just brief moments it’s not hurting anything.

 

[SPYDERLK]

A bucket moves forward as it lifts for the 1st foot or so. If youre pushing it makes it much harder to lift.

 

[S854]

I’ll practice the “lift as I enter the pile” technique next time we douse the pile…

Effectively it sounds as though I should be scraping the wet soil off the face of the pile… from bottom to top… no?

 

[mikester]

When you overload your SCUT/CUT you are stressing components not designed to handle the loads. Overloading occurs when you doing things like pushing into a pile, cranking up the hydraulic pressure to give you more lift, bouncing loads when carrying max capacity over rough ground. Your hydraulic system designed to handle 2,500psi can see 10,000psi in shock loads.

I ruptured the main hydraulic line on my CUT TLB last summer that required pulling the cab, floor, wheels. Would have been a $$$$ one week job at the dealership plus 2 weeks wait to get in the repair queue. The hard line had an invisible split at the weld seam on a factory bend that was only visible under pressure. Fortunately I have a shop with a forklift but it still cost me $300 for the part plus a week of down time.

 

[Runner]

If you have pallet forks, you might try using them to fluff the pile. There is less resistance as the compost falls between the forks, but it still does a good job of mixing. If I'm adding water, I do it after fluffing.

 

[deezler]

Your 2022 Kioti has a strong loader, KL4030 with a 66" bucket yes? It should always be able to lift a full, heaping scoop of soil, no matter how wet. The thing is that lifting a heaped bucket while also trying to break the pile apart is harder. It's really a matter of technique.

If your loader can't do that, it might be that your hydraulic system pressure is set too low.

But my 2c is don't sweat it at all. There are many thousands of compact tractor owners who hold their loader control levers down continuously while trying to dig things. It takes a while to overheat the whole hydraulic system to the point of a component failure.

The advice about protecting your front axle is also wise though. Hopefully you are doing this work on level ground? If you dig down into a hole and then have to back out with a full loader bucket, that's essentially putting the entire weight of the tractor on the front portal axles. Easily to hurt those pieces with repeated abuse.