I have 5 tons of wood pellets be delivered next week and was wondering if I would be able to lift a pallet off the of the truck. Each pallet will weigh 2,000 pounds(50-40#bags/pallet) I will be doing this with QA pallet forks. I have a DL120 loader for my 1643. I don't want to over do it with the tractor. Should I take 10 bags off of each pallet? What do you guys think? I think the loader book says 1900# capacity and then it gets into details of pivot, height, etc and I really don't know what all that stuff means.
1643 Lift capacity
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eatenabean
Bronze Member
I made a fire pit with some big rocks that they said we're around 2000 pounds. I could get under them to move them but not get any height, maybe 5 to 6 inches. But the forks should be alot lighter than the bucket. Wish they would have made the loaders a little stronger. Its the only thing I don't like about my tractor.
WilliamBos
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The front axle is rated for something along the lines of 3,800 pounds TOTAL. Taking a few bags off of each pallet would be a good idea, and a safe one.
Rancher Ed
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I would go for it. If your loader won't pick it straight up you can always tip the pallet forks down while raising the loader to get the back of the pallet 6-8" off the truck and then curl the forks to lift the front of the pallet. We lifted a 3000 pound pallet of wood pellets this way with our M7040 (it will lift ~2600lbs to full height) It wouldn't pick it straight up but lifting the back and then curling the forks to lift the front of the pallet worked.
One thing to make sure you have is enough ballest on the back when you do it. It looks like your brush hog weighs a little over 600 pounds and with it sticking out a long way behind the tractor I think it would be enough counter weight. (As I think about it I think I would set 4 or 5 bags of the pellets on the brush hog just to make sure you have enought weight.)
I think you would have no problem picking them up if you chose to take some of the bags off first. You could also just take off 4 or 5 bags. That would be less work but it would still make the pallets 200 pounds lighter.
Ed
J_J
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You could try it without removing anything, and if the relief goes off, remove some bags until the relief stops squealing . Tilting the bucket up some will give you some advantage. If the tractor is bouncy, remove some bags and place on the back attachment.
Thanks guys. I will go for it next week. WillBos, thanks for the heads up on the front axle load rating, that never crossed my mind. I was more concerned about blowing a hydraulic hose/cylinder. I was also planning on putting my brush hog or tiller for ballast and my rear tires are loaded also so that is a plus. Good tip on tilting the forks up, that should work a lot better than trying to pick the pallet straight up first.
Well, the pellets came yesterday. I had to take 15 bags off of each pallet, 35 bags/pallet was all the tractor could lift. I would have figured the tractor would have at least picked up 40 bags/pallet. I was a little disappointed. On a positive note the tractor was not bouncy at all lifting the 35 bags/pallet. I sure wish the hydraulics were a little stronger for a tractor like this.
WilliamBos
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Each bag weighs 40 pounds and the skid, maybe 30 pounds.
