Bolt on Forks?

[MikePA]

<font color=blue>and horse manure. and hay bales. The stuff is light enough </font color=blue>
Mulch and leaves I can understand, but horse manure and hay bales?

 

[gerard]

hay bales weight about 45 lbs. My loader has 800 lb capacity so by weight I could lift 17 bales. Most I can stack now is about 7-8. Right now I have a 3 x 5 piece of 3/4 inch plywood with two eye bolts in the end. This fits over the loader lip and two chains go to the eye bolts, effectivlet extending my lower lip out an extra 3 feet, but with no side panels. I've mounded manure as high as it goes before spilling off the sides and it's still not nealry as heavy as a bucket of dirt. Even wet horse manure is not even close to being as dense as dirt.

 

[MikePA]

Do you have to use a counterweight?

 

[gerard]

I almost always have an implement on the back, usually the backblade or box blade, and make sure I have one of those on when doing heavy loader work. Even my rake does pretty well. Having the quick hitch helps even more since it pushes the weight farther back, effectively using leverage to increase the weight. Moving manure, mulch, or stacked hay just doesn't push the envelope as much as wet sand or wet dirt does. Getting a full bucket of that stuff can really squat the tires and make the back a little light if going down a decline.