CT335 & 8TL vs. concrete slab observations

milkman636 · Aug 10, 2011

Found the lifting limits on the 8tl loader Sunday. I had a 8.5' x 7.5' x 4 concrete slab that was pitching water into a recessed inside corner where the house and garage meet. During the last couple of heavy rains there was noticeable water and sand down in that corner of the basement. It was time for that slab to go. The slab only served foot traffic for the man door on the front of the garage. It is a tight location that makes an L off the drive and could only be approached from one side.

Using a BFH, some wedges, and some solid round stock I had in the garage, I was able to shim up one of the corners and get the forks under it. Couldn't lift it at all, so I drove the 6000 lb. tractor onto the wedged up slab and fortunately it cracked on an angle into 2 pieces about 2/3 and 1/3 in size. Tried the forks again and success. It took three picks to find a point where the big piece would balance on my forks, but I was barely able to tilt back and lift it up about 18" It may have been able to go higher, but I had no need to try it. Based on a concrete volume of 21.25 cu. ft. at a nominal 140 lbs/cu. ft., the entire slab weighs in at roughly 2975 lbs. 2/3 of 2975 lbs would put the load at roughly 1985 lbs.

After doing the math, I am actually surprised to find that my CT335 was able to lift a 1900# load.

Once I started moving, it was apparent that there was not enough weight on the rear drivers to keep the load moving over any uneven ground. It moved forward over the lawn in 2wd, but when the front tires hit a little dip the rears would both spin. My rear tires have over 900 lbs of rim guard and my box blade weighs in at about 850. Once I hit the woods it was 4wd all the way to the slab's new home at the back of the woods. It never felt dangerous, but I know that I was at the upper limit of what this tractor could do. The smaller 1/3 that was left was handled easily even though it weighed about 1000 lbs.

I also learned that the full 68" loader bucket is basically 11 cu ft of dirt. It took two scoops to fully fill in and level the spot back to a finished grade. Given a nominal dirt weight of 95# per cu ft, each bucket of dirt is moving 1045 lbs. With some practice, the ballasted CT335 will scoop up a full bucket easily in 2wd and handle it without a hint of straining. Overall I am impressed with this little machine.

milkman636 · Aug 16, 2011

Moved another slab this evening. There was an old slab just sitting out in the north side of the back yard. I have no idea why it was there, but after 5 years I finally gave up the idea that I was going to find a use for it. So I hauled it out and did a little more loader math to see how this machine stacks to the advertised specs.

The slab measured 46"x84"x5" inches after it came out of the ground. It was plain to see from the aggregate that it was transit mix and not ready mix. Maybe it was left overs from the footings when the familyroom was added on to the back of the house.

Using a volume of 11.2 cu. ft. of concrete @ 140 lbs per cu.ft., the slab had an approximate weight of 1568 lbs. Biting under it from the 84" side, the 46" width put the center of gravity @ 23" out on the fork. The 8TL was able to lift and tilt it up out of the ground nicely. I lifted up over 6' without any trouble.

The only difficulty that I had was trying to back up a grassy grade while turning. The rears broke loose, and I didn't want to tear up the grass, so I put it in 4wd to finish my turn.

The owners manual lists a fork lifting capacity of 1000 lbs. at 24" out on the forks for the 8TL with Bobtach. Based on my observations they have a generous safety margin built in.