The lathe that took two tractors.

[Braeden P]

5 of us on the ashend were used as counterweights .

Did that at my friends house with a lawn tractor dragging trees so that it would stop doing burnouts, my friend shoved the stick forwards to get up the hill and it did a huge wheelie and when it fell back down the hood fell off. Luckily no one got injured other than a sore butt.

 

[Bi11Hudson]

My tractor is an archaic 'grey market' Japanese machine. I don't have a 'roll over cage' but don't really use it on grades. The front end loader is retro-fitted (read jacklegged) but has a weak point that I consider a safety break. If I push it too hard, it'll break. Likely has a history of handling manure around the barn. The hardest I have ever pushed it was loading shingles to the roof of an old house.

.

 

[Papa Charlie]

There is nothing fun about having the rear end of a tractor, forklift, loader or any other piece of equipment coming off the ground. I have had it happen way too many times in my life. But sometimes you just have to get the job done. There is plenty of time to change the shorts and have a drink later.

 

[f350ca]

My Kubota seams to spend a lot of time on three wheels, while moving logs to the sawmill. Usually will come back down if you back up a bit. lol

Greg

 

[RJSakowski]

My Ford 8N has a utility box on the 3 pt. It extends 3 ft. to the rear of the 3 pt. and when loaded with firewood, can lift the front end off the ground. Not to worry since I can drop the 3 pt. to correct. I have driven a quarter mile over field roads with the front end off the ground, steering with the brakes.

I don't know that I have ever had the rear wheels lift on the Nortrac. Maybe one time trying to dig into a frozen sand pile. In most cases, the front end loader bucket will be at or near ground level so the travel is small and the correction is to drop the bucket. Conceivably, a load with the bucket tilted back and high in the air and tilted forward could shift the center of gravity forward of the front wheels. Once the tractor started to tilt, the center of gravity would move further forward and exacerbate the situation. Another scenario would be moving on a down slope with the load high. The change in level would shift the center of gravity with potentially disastrous results. Yet another would be a sudden rearward acceleration with an elevated bucket. The force generated, combined with gravity would temporarily shift the center of gravity causing the tractor to tilt. Once the tilt starts, it would continue.

I am very cautions whenever I have the bucket elevated. My strategy is to lower the bucket prior to any movement. My biggest fear is tilting to the side, raising the wheels on one side of the tractor because of the the narrow wheel width, it doesn't take much to shift the center of gravity outside of the wheels. I have had a few close calls but have had the presence of mind to drop the load and recover.

This brngs to mind a true story about a friend. He happened to own a blacksmith supply store and fly a Beechcraft plane as well. On a trip to a trade show, he loaded some anvils into the back of his plane, not bothering to strap them in. In the course of his flight, he nosed the plane down and the anvils started to move forward. This of course, altered his trim and was quickly heading for an irrecoverable situation. He managed to recover though, and landed at his nearest opportunity, to reposition the anvils and strap them in securely. The morel of the story is never discount gravity. It usually wins if ignored.

 

[mmcmdl]

My Kubota seams to spend a lot of time on three wheels, while moving logs to the sawmill.

What's your opinion on the Woodland Mills sawmill unit being you're up that way ?

 

[Bi11Hudson]

I can't count the number of times I have had a tractor lift the front wheels off the ground. This goes back years, to my childhood early teen years. I've only had a tractor of my own the last 20 years or so. I've worked around tractors since I was old enough to go to school. At age ~10, I watched a fellow on a back hoe rig pick up a dime without breaking the ground. Someday I'll be that good, maybe. . .

Having the front end off the ground is no big deal. That's what steering brakes are for. Years ago, when three point mounts were 'rare', steering brakes were commonly used more than the steering wheel. Having the back end come up, now there is a scary thought. Scary is an understatement. . . I've never had it happen with a load. A few times on rough ground I've had one rear wheel float. No big deal again, that's why differential locks are put on tractors. But both rear wheels, no thank you. That is indicative of the tractor being grossly overloaded on the front end. Front end loaders are for handling manure or filling in the ditch after the tile is laid. Or lifting a crate off the back of a truck. But heavy pallets, that's what the rear forks are for.

.

 

[f350ca]

Just had a look at their website. Seam to be a pretty standard mill. With the dollar they'd be a great deal for you. Most of the small commercial ones seam pretty similar.
Mine is home made, probably built way heavier than necessary but stands up to a bit of abuse when loading heavy logs with the tractor.

Greg

 

[strantor]

I can't count the number of times I have had a tractor lift the front wheels off the ground. This goes back years, to my childhood early teen years. I've only had a tractor of my own the last 20 years or so. I've worked around tractors since I was old enough to go to school. At age ~10, I watched a fellow on a back hoe rig pick up a dime without breaking the ground. Someday I'll be that good, maybe. . .

Having the front end off the ground is no big deal. That's what steering brakes are for. Years ago, when three point mounts were 'rare', steering brakes were commonly used more than the steering wheel. Having the back end come up, now there is a scary thought. Scary is an understatement. . . I've never had it happen with a load. A few times on rough ground I've had one rear wheel float. No big deal again, that's why differential locks are put on tractors. But both rear wheels, no thank you. That is indicative of the tractor being grossly overloaded on the front end. Front end loaders are for handling manure or filling in the ditch after the tile is laid. Or lifting a crate off the back of a truck. But heavy pallets, that's what the rear forks are for.

.

I disagree that front wheels off the ground is no big deal. It depends why they are off the ground. If in the case of carrying a heavy load on an attachment like @RJSakowski described (carrying firewood) then sure, no big deal; as soon as that attachment hits the ground, that's as far back as it's going to go. But one of the most often fatal tractor accidents is the rear-ward rollover, caused by pulling against something that's attached to the rear of the tractor at a point higher than the axle. The front wheels come off the ground, then they keep going higher, and the ass of the tractor drives up under the nose, and then the whole thing falls backward on top of the operator.

Imagine if that tractor had no ROPS. That dummy would have been squashed like a bug.

 

[Provincial]

My little Kubota 7510 has had its back wheels off the ground more than a few times . The surface grinder and the Lagun FTV-2 had my neighbors Bobcat skid loader's wheels off the ground also . 5 of us on the ashend were used as counterweights .

Once, when recovering a DC-3 that had landed on a small, isolated airstrip because of an engine failure, I was part of such a counterweight. We were removing and replacing a Pratt & Whitney R-1830 1,800 HP radial engine. With the engine mount, baffles, and whatever else we couldn't remove, it still weighed over 1,500 pounds. All that was available was a very small Allis Chalmers track front end loader. It must have had a great hydraulic system because it was able to lift the engine off the airplane and put the replacement back on. We had to scrounge up blocks of wood, rocks, brush, and whatever else in order to make a ramp for it to climb to reach high enough to do the job. There were at least four of us acting as counterweights, and it was still light in the back end!