I’m going to be building a loft in part of my barn and I’ll need a way to lift some 2x12s and set them in place. Since I have a hitch receiver on my pallet fork frame, I decided to build a simple boom pole to give me enough reach to lift the boards. With the boom straight up, it measures 11’ 2” from the hook to the floor. The end will also accept a pulley in case I decide to add a winch to the boom.
Loader boom pole
- Thread starter BXHoosier
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i7win7
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BX2370, B2650 grapple, tree puller, trailer mover, 3 point hoist, mower, tiller
Used a set up to lift 2, 2x12x24s but with the FEL and a pipe boom. The bucket had a 2x10 with a socket pipe for the base of the boom. built the beams on the drive then lifted onto the post beams with the bota, 2301. Worked out great.
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Just a caution for your boom.
Your loader valve has a relief valve to protect it from lifting too much weight.
Once you release the joystick back to its neutral position the relief valve is no longer in the circuit protecting your loader.
In this situation you can grossly overload the loader cylinders and bend or break something.
This is why owners of pallet forks get into trouble. They start pulling stuff back with the end of the forks. The forks have a much greater lever arm working against the cylinders than the bucket and often failure happens.
Messicks has a demo video but I cannot find it right now. They installed a recording pressure gauge on the bucket cylinder circuit and then used a grapple to pull back a log. The pressure spiked to around 6,000 psi.
Dave
Your loader valve has a relief valve to protect it from lifting too much weight.
Once you release the joystick back to its neutral position the relief valve is no longer in the circuit protecting your loader.
In this situation you can grossly overload the loader cylinders and bend or break something.
This is why owners of pallet forks get into trouble. They start pulling stuff back with the end of the forks. The forks have a much greater lever arm working against the cylinders than the bucket and often failure happens.
Messicks has a demo video but I cannot find it right now. They installed a recording pressure gauge on the bucket cylinder circuit and then used a grapple to pull back a log. The pressure spiked to around 6,000 psi.
Dave
torch
Well-known member
Equipment
B7100HSD, B2789, B2550, B4672, 48" cultivator, homemade FEL and Cab
I'm trying to picture this. Are you saying the lift arm cylinders fail because the operator curls the load with the bucket cylinders?
Not exactly as you describe. I am describing actions after the operator has released the loader control. The bucket cylinders are supporting the boom pole but now the operator is using a winch connected to the end of the boom pole which is increasing the forces on the bucket and lift arm cylinders.
With the back dragging operation, it is the movement of the tractor which is increasing the cylinder pressure.
What is happening in the scenario I described is that the cylinders become pumps. A force on the cylinder piston generates a hydraulic pressure which is trapped by the loader valve. Given the right leverage on the loader cylinder the pressure can go extremely high causing damage.
Tractor designers protect the 3 pt hitch by including two relief valves. One is in the circuit as you try and raise a load on the lift arms. This relief valve limits what can be lifted. Once the arms are raised and the control is in a neutral position this relief valve is no longer able to protect the 3 pt hitch.
Designers, anticipating shock loads as a tractor is driven with a raised heavy implement, include a second relief valve called a safety valve. It is directly plumbed into the 3 pt hydraulic cylinder and is always there to protect the 3 pt. Its setting pressure is much higher and is set using a fuel injector tester.
The loader valve has no such internal protection. Newer tractors can be ordered with a hydraulic accumulator connected to the loader arm cylinders. This acts like a shock absorber and smooths the tractor ride. After market versions called Soft Drive.
Imagine you lift a load with your loader that it can barely raise. Now, wanting to move more material you start shoveling more stuff into the bucket. You can continue adding material until something breaks as the hydraulic pressure will continue to increase to support the load.
Hope this all make sense.
Dave
Makes good sense to me. I'd be extremely careful about lifting anything with a small CUT and a boom pole because the farther you get out from the pivot point, the more chance you have of something bad happening.
Something I considered when I set my GSI grain tanks. They got assembled on the ground and I lifted them vertically into place. I have plenty of tractor to lift an empty tank but my situation required the use of a utility pole strapped to the forks with a choker on the end and a hook and spreader to lift the tanks.
I thought to myself, I don't have enough tractor so I borrowed my buddy's Volvo excavator and strapped the pole to the stick and used that.
Better to err on the side of caution than have a 'whoops'.
Something I considered when I set my GSI grain tanks. They got assembled on the ground and I lifted them vertically into place. I have plenty of tractor to lift an empty tank but my situation required the use of a utility pole strapped to the forks with a choker on the end and a hook and spreader to lift the tanks.
I thought to myself, I don't have enough tractor so I borrowed my buddy's Volvo excavator and strapped the pole to the stick and used that.
Better to err on the side of caution than have a 'whoops'.
torch
Well-known member
Equipment
B7100HSD, B2789, B2550, B4672, 48" cultivator, homemade FEL and Cab
Yeah, that part I understood. I was trying to figure out how the use of pallet forks caused similar results.
It is only when using forks to pull back something using the tractor's wheel power that the forks pose a risk of damage.
Lifting, the relief valve protects the cylinders.
I found the Messicks video showing how mis using a grapple can subject the tractor's hydraulics to excessive and damaging pressures in the same way a boom pole or forks can.
Messicks video
Dave
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It sounds like the OP is just using it to lift some 2x12s up to set them. It doesn't sound like a lot of weight is going to be lifted, probably 100# max. I would think that wouldn't be any problem. I would not want to pick up anything with any larger amount of weight with that setup, but this will likely save some time and effort. The older I get, the more I try to work smart, not hard.
I guess I should have been more specific when I mentioned adding a winch. If I add a winch it will be a simple 600lb manual boat trailer winch. I can only imagine what kind of damage could be done with a 2000lb+ electric winch trying to lift a ton 3-5 ft out past the loader arms.
If the pole is near vertical...........It sounds simple but a 600# load on a cable over a pulley at the end of the pole doubles the force exerted on the end of the pole to 1,200#
The winch cable has 600# of tension to support the load. There are two segments of cable going over the pulley. One on the winch side and one on the load side. Each segment exerts 600# or a total of 1,200 #.
It is the same scenario as using a snatch block to double a winch's pulling power.
My only caution is to be careful as there can be aspects of this implement that are easily not fully understood.
Dave
Correct me if I am wrong Dave. It was my understanding that 1 pulley in a line is nothing more than changing the direction of pull, and that adding a second pulley then the lifting would be doubled and halfing the load on the cable. allowing a 600# winch to lift 1200 pounds. And by adding more pulleys the load weight can be increased with out increasing the winch cap. Or do I have it wrong?
If you have the pulley on the boom, with the rope on one side of the pulley attached to the load, and the rope on the other side is being used (say by a person pulling straight down) to raise the load, this is the equivilant of having two balanced loads hanging from the pulley, or twice the weight.
Now if you are raising the load with a winch attached to the tractor, then the force at the pulley is simply the weight of the load.
Now if you are raising the load with a winch attached to the tractor, then the force at the pulley is simply the weight of the load.
Russell King
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L185F, Modern Ag Competitor 4’ shredder, Rhino tiller, rear dirt scoop
I don’t think that this is correct. The pulley should see the same load in both situations you described (1200 pounds). The tension in the rope is always 600 pounds on both sides of the pulley and directed downward. Please explain why you think the situation is different in case I misunderstood what you meant.
If you raise the 600 lbs using a winch attached to the tractor or loader frame, the tension on the winch side is between the winch and the pulley, not between the pulley and the ground, hence only 600 lbs is seen by the FEL.
North Idaho Wolfman
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L3450DT-GST, Woods FEL, B7100 HSD, FEL, 60" SB, 743 Bobcat with V2203, and more
I used a boom pole with an electric remote 3000lb UTV winch on the end last year to lift and set all my trusses on my house it worked flawlessly and the remote on the winch allowed me to be on a ladder and set them by myself.
The trusses are not lightweight trusses either, 2x6 top and bottom cord 44 feet long and 9'6" tall.
The trusses are not lightweight trusses either, 2x6 top and bottom cord 44 feet long and 9'6" tall.