Working Off Of a Front Loader?

[Anonymous Poster]

Hi,

The other thread concerned walking under a loader. Bad practice! Best to be avoided as others have said.

But how about working off the loader? Wouldn't that be "almost" as dangerous?

All the things that could go wrong to cause the loader to crash down and crush someone, could also cause the loader to crash down with someone in it, or in/on a platform attached to it...

I know it's better land on top, rather than have it land on you, but still...

I guess it's a gamble...but seems like one we are willing to live with...or should that be "live" with...?

Bill in Pgh, PA

 

[rdbrumfield]

I work out of mine limbing trees, getting on the roof, and such. I like it much better than a ladder.
When you think of firemen, powerlinemen, construction lifts, we all trust hydraulics to a point. Inspect you hoses and fittings. All things mechanical can fail at any time.

 

[frank_f15]

it's not that i would not trust the hydrulaics, i use manlifts and sky lifts at work, i just don't think a fel is a good working platform. but that is just mho.

 

[BB_TX]

I, too, have worked out of an FEL trimming limbs. Not my favorite thing to do but sometimes there is no other good way. My neighbors big International FEL goes up about 12' and that gets a little scary./w3tcompact/icons/shocked.gif And the potential for a cut limb pulling you out is certainly there. I have only done it out of his a couple times and was careful to the point of being ****, but????????????/w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

 

[cowboydoc]

I do a ton of work off of mine. Whenever I've built a house or a barn the loaders are the handiest tools. I don't see how it's much more dangerous than using a skillsaw or a ladder. I'd much rather be 20 feet up in the air in a loader bucket than a ladder anyday. If you're smart and watch what you're doing you should be ok.

 

[markie61]

It's funny you should ask....

I have spent a few hours up in the air with chain saws cutting limbs while my father-in-law moves me around in the bucket of his '55 Ford. ( I am very, VERY good to his daughter /w3tcompact/icons/grin.gif!!!)Probably not the safest, but I have always thought of tree work as risky anyway.

I got pallet forks for my new tractor and am going to build a "scaffold" platform to do some house siding work. I plan to join two 4-foot pallets with beams into a 4x8 platform and make a permanent 3-sided safey railing with a removeable 4th-side rail. I also plan to "rest" the assembly against the wall in case the hydraulics fail or bleed down. Finally, I plan to used wheel-chocks to prevent rolling. My loader arm has a boom "lock-out" switch which prevents unintended boom movement.

If there is anything else to consider, I would appreciate the suggestions.

Mark

 

[rdbrumfield]

I put together this platform in a few hours. Lucky that the tractor is equipped with a quick detach for the bucket, just takes a minute to change.

 

[markie61]

That's EXACTLY what I had in mind, except pick it up with the pallet forks. Is it metal or made of wood?
Mark

 

[rdbrumfield]

It is made of metal. I put a 3/4 inch plywood floor in it though. At first it was just the bottom without the rails, I used it to lift the stove, piano, fridge up on the deck for the house. I did stand on it to do some tree trimming, but the rails not only keep you in, they are great to lean against when reaching out. I have one of those extendable chainsaws, with the lift I can reach a little over 25'

 

[beenthere]

The most dangerous thing I do every day is get into my car and drive out on the road. Everything else by comparison is less dangerous. If I want to live my life in fear, I could. But I don't. Warning people of dangerous things is fine. But doing dangerous things, in my opinion, is part of my life. I won't stop driving my car.
If I need to get up in the air, and I think I can do it in the bucket of my tractor, I will. I will plan to do it as safely as I know how.
When I was 16, I was spray painting the side of a barn that was about 50' to the eaves. The 40' extension ladder didn't reach that high. So the son of the farmer and I put the 40' ladder in the bucket of the little "C" Farmall (maybe it was even a "B") and raised the ladder the extra 10' needed. It worked well until it became tiring coming down every time to move the ladder over a few feet and then go back up to spray the next strip of barn. So the farmers' son and I thought if I would stay on the ladder, he would jockey the tractor around on the ground to move parallel to the barn, and I could stay on top and position the ladder. Worked well until the rear wheel of the tractor dipped into a hole. Down along the barn came ladder, paint bucket, and spray equipment, along with me on top. The top of the ladder landed on a 12" oak post at the corner of the barn, and I went through the ladder breaking it into many parts and pieces. When I stopped, I was standing on the ground amongst the broken ladder pieces and sprayer parts, with my hand resting on top of the 12" oak post. No more jolt than stepping off a chair. Yes, I think I was very lucky. Did we finish spraying the barn? Yes, but first had to get another 40' extension ladder. No other way to paint it, that we could figure out. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[markie61]

<font color=red>OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!</font color=red>

Mark

 

[Anonymous Poster]

Got to ask...

Did you put that second ladder into loader and jocky it around too with you up on it?

Now I will guess the answer. You did use the ladder in the loader, but came back down before moving it...

How'd I do? /w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif I was younger once too.../w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I'm going to have to stop taking this notebook [with the wireless link to our home network] to my wood shop with me...ain't getting anything done! /w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

Bill in Pgh, PA

 

[beenthere]

You did great. Caution prevailed, and the ladder was tied to keep it from moving sideways along the barn too. Could have thought of that earlier too.

An additional thrill came when the ladder was in the pig pen, and the 40' just barely reached the window of the cupalo on top of the grainary (corn bin) where the elevator was. To reach the trim on the top eaves, had to stand on the top rung and hang on to the trim. The pigs decided that the ladder in their pen was a good place to itch, causing the bottom of the ladder to move about a foot or two. That sudden drop at the top was about all I could take, and still stay up there. Locked the pigs out after that. Live and learn (a little). /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

The old barn still stands, amid the Walmart, Lowes, Sears, etc, etc, to remind me of those days (even included a near crash in an airplane while flying over that farm) long ago.

 

[Tedman]

I too have a story for working out of a loader. We have a JD 450C crawler loader. We were putting a new roof on our house and was using the loader to lift bundles of shingles up to the roof line. As I creeped closer to the house with the bucket at full height, my father was standing alongside the loader guiding me closer and my brother on the roof ready to step into the bucket to unload the shingles. Just then the hydraulic hose burst! The bucket came crashing down in about a second just missing the house and my father standing alongside. Meanwhile my brother and the house were drenched with about 10 gallons of hydraulic fluid. Luckily nobody was hurt. That was about 6 years ago, I think I have only gotten back in the bucket once since then. On the bright side, the wood siding on the house hasn't had to be restained in that area since. Stain still looks new. Maybe I should stain the whole house with it.

 

[Anonymous Poster]

I guess you just never know!

At this end I am going to try to make it a practice to be VERY careful if ever working on the loader bucket, and to NEVER let myself or anyone else get under it for any reason.

Glad no one got hurt. Guess all involved learned an important safety lesson. Thanks for sharing that with us.

Bill

In Pgh, PA

 

[yonahforge]

Not quite a loader story, but I had 2 different forklift hydraulic hoses burst with the forks at 10+ feet. One drenched me in hydraulic fluid, the other covered the floor in it. Both times the forks dropped like a stone to the floor. One time the forks were empty, the other time I had a pallet of light fixtures on the pallet (what a mess!).

 

[centex]

The hot water heater for my house is in the attic. When I had to replace it the only way to get the new heater into the attic and the old heater down was to remove the siding on the gable of the house and move them between the studs. I put the forks on the FEL and built a platform to stand on and to set the tanks on. I stood on the platform to remove and replace the siding also. I felt a lot safer than working off of step ladders.