How much weight is in that bucket?

[roger_scotty]

How do you know how much weight is in the loader bucket? How to you figure it? Or do you even care as long as the loader will lift it?
What do you think stresses your tractor more....lifting the max bucket load or pulling a stump?

 

[Thomas]

After some hours working the FEL you'll have a feel of how much weight in your bucket.

Some tractor manuels give the specs which your looking for..load limits..breaking points..relief valve settings.

I feel pulling stumps can stress the tractor more than bucket full of dirt.

 

[Bird]

Roger, it seems to me that a long time ago we had a thread on this very topic; not sure I could find it now. And with my old memory, I'm not going to say anything for sure, but I believe it was Mark Chalkley who posted the information on putting a pressure gauge on the line for the boom cylinders, and a conversion chart or factor, and you could actually use your loader like scales to pick up something and weigh it. I think that thread would be in the archives from the old forum.

 

[Tractor_Barn]

Here's a link to a table of material weight/cu.ft. courtesy of Maverick Tractors. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.mavericktractor.com/useful/material.htm>http://www.mavericktractor.com/useful/material.htm</A>

 

[normde2001]

I believe, generally, a cubic foot of solid material weighs 80+lbs., considering an 80lb bag of concrete plus a little water makes a cubic foot, and the old "pint's a pound" theory, that may be a place to start.
Norm

 

[Ym1401King]

I was just told this by a friend that is a loader dealer. He said that a good way to calculate this, is that the FEL will lift approximately 1/2 of what the 3-pt would. So, if the 3pt lifts 1500, then the loader will safely lift 750. Get it? He said it is a common rule of thumb of loader manufacturers. That is how they design them he said.

Aric /w3tcompact/icons/king.gif

 

[hosejockey2002]

I loaded concrete blocks of a known weight until the load just began to feel "uncomfortable". Beyond that, with dirt or gravel or whatever, its just a seat-of-the-pants impression. With my 1401D and a 48" bucket, I know that if I try to move a full bucket of sand or gravel I am pushing the ragged edge of disaster. /w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif

 

[roger_scotty]

Howdy Bird. I don't know if Mark has the pressure gauge in his loader line or not, though I do have one in mine. Rather than putting it in the boom cylinder circuit, mine is in the main pressure line where it enters the spool valve. At the time I was interested more in total system pressure rather than weight in the bucket. Of course it does give a rough idea of weight in the bucket....but the keyword is "rough". Frankly, a guy would do almost as well by looking to see how flat the front tires are.....which in all honesty is how I really do judge how much weight is in the bucket .

It would be interesting to gauge all three circuits and hopefully this thread will get me to do that this spring. Its been on my "fun things to-do with the tractor list" for too many years now...
Like a lot of good ideas, one ought to be able to calculate the weight from the gauge pressure, but I wonder how accurate it will be.

 

[trentay]

Thanks Roger for responding and starting this thread based on my reply on the 1401d thread, I too am curious. I have filled the bucket over full on some small compact tractors (other than Yanmar) that I have used and frankly I did not pay much attention to how they were mounted or how the tractor was made. This is the second time I have heard about needing full frame loader mounting on those machines that have a plate instead of cast bell housings, if you don't want to worry about breaking it in half in extreme use.

Since I am/was interested in the 1401d with a loader and have not actually looked at one in the flesh so to speak, I was curious if the loaders people are putting on them out here in the west (EFC, Allied, Bushog ect...) are using this type of mounting on the little guys (1100/1300/1400/1510).

I have heard that you don't need full frame mounting on the models with a cast bell housing (the theory is that you are less likely to break one of these in hard loader use) so I am leaning toward a slightly bigger Yanmar now (1600/1700/1800) with the three cyl motor and possibly shuttle shift. I just cannot decide until I drive many hours to the dealers that have them to look at and compare size to HP, and loader construction. An yes, of course, price!

I suspect that anything can be broken given the right amount of abuse, which I must admit I will probably never engage in. I guess I am just a glutton for information too, so I tend to ask alot of questions and look into everything.

Could any of you imagine what it would be like to try to learn all of this stuff rapidly without the aid of the internet or this forum!!!!! This place is great, I am getting mechanical experience and seat time based on all your experiences before I even buy my tractor!!!

Trent.

 

[gerard]

I don't know about the "half the weight of the three point capacity" theory. My 3 pt capacity is 900lb and the loader is 800lb. All I know is if the loader can't lift a full bucket of whatever I put in it I wouldn't be very happy with it!!