Lift Ratio

[Josef]

I"m building a private rifle range and was having railroad ties delivered this weekend. Over the phone I was asked how we were going to unload them and I replied that don't expect very much out of me as I'm an old disabled veteran but I did have a tractor. He shows up at my place and the 1st question he asks is what's my tractor's lift ratio?? I replied that if he was asking me the tractor color that I surely could answer that. To make a long story short, he had the ties in bundles of 25 and my tractor could just clear the bed of his trailer and he would drive out from under it. Can anyone give a simple explanation on what I can expect to lift and if I had known my lift ratio would it have been of any help. Could I have damaged my tractor??

 

[85Hokie]

in the simplest terms, the ratio of your bucket get weaker as it moves from the pivot pins outward.

Your lift capacity is simply that amount you can pick up and settle. But.....

If you were to place "concrete block" in your bucket and picked up as much as possible, you could them place forks on that same bucket and project out another 3' and only be able to pick up 1/2 to a 1/3 of that same load.

And a load of 25 ties........thats about 5000 lbs......I would not have anything hooked front end wise to that load..........take a long chain, hook to lower part of tractor below axle and pull it off and let it hit the ground!!!! IF you try to "lower" a load like that with front end, you will be riding the steering wheel when you finish......and then that will cause a great deal of pain to you and tractor.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

The max lift on your loader is in the 2400# range, and that's pushing it.

If you have forks you could do it in lifts but no way are you going to be able to pick the whole stack in one pick.

 

[Josef]

In simple words, he didn't know any more than I did but was simply pretending that he did. My 1st thought was to simply drag them off as they were on rollers. I take it that on heavy loads you always want to stay below the axel and pul them with a heavy chain.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

In simple words, he didn't know any more than I did but was simply pretending that he did. My 1st thought was to simply drag them off as they were on rollers. I take it that on heavy loads you always want to stay below the axel and pul them with a heavy chain.

Bingo, thats the ticket!

 

[Grouse Feathers]

If you lift the ties off the truck or lift off the ground to move to your rifle range, you will want to stay well under the 2400# capacity of the loader unless you have a ballast weight. The ballast weight goes on the 3 point hitch to balance the weight in on the loader.

 

[Tooljunkie]

Driver asked what lift ratio was, but actually meant capacity. He was tryin to sound smart. I was unloading cement recycling bins, two on a pallet at 700 each. Almost laid tractor on its side because they werent centered on pallets.
1400 lbs is a lot to deal with on forks,6 feet in the air. Dangerous unless a few inches off the ground.