Mechanical Self Leveling Forks ?

[PaulR]

I see this is standard/optional whatever on LX series tractors.
Would sure be cool to have something like this on my BX.
Has anyone looked into this? How it is devised? Feasibility on a BX sized tractor?
Yes, I am daydreaming with this idea.
Thanks
Paul

 

[OrangeKrush]

 

[Njtool]

They are called load levelers. Or a load leveling kit. I love mine. They are great. It took some getting use to but I would definitely buy them again.

they say the LX are mechanical but there is also hydraulics to them. I looked at the kit and decided to let the dealer install them.

 

[torch]

Mechanical self-leveling would require extensive modification of the lift arms. Basically, the upper cylinder gets mounted to a pivot and a second arm parallels above the horizontal portion of the lift arm, forming a parallelogram to the pivot. As the lift arm raises and changes the angle to the vertical support posts, the pivot maintains it's orientation, which in turn maintains the bucket (or in this case, forks) orientation.

I nearly did this when I built my FEL -- had it all calculated out in the design stage. However, I decided the extra weight was too high a penalty on a small tractor, and opted to maximize the FEL payload instead.

 

[mikester]

Whats the point of adding self levelling linkage and reducing the already limited lift capacity?

The writing on the wall is you need a bigger tractor designed to make the lifts

 

[torch]

Whats the point of adding self levelling linkage and reducing the already limited lift capacity?

The writing on the wall is you need a bigger tractor designed to make the lifts

Sorry, were you responding to my comment? The long and the short of it was that I decided the capacity was suffiient for my needs if undiminished and the extra feature was not worth it. To me. Others may have different priorities.

 

[Henro]

Sorry, were you responding to my comment? The long and the short of it was that I decided the capacity was suffiient for my needs if undiminished and the extra feature was not worth it. To me. Others may have different priorities.

After using a carpenters level for several decades building my own home and renovating the house next door, it took me ages to understand that self leveling on tractor buckets has nothing to do with level, and rather simply means that the bucket bottom ( I suppose) is set to be in alignment with the contact patch of the four tires. OR probably with the contact patch of the rear tires, since the front axle is on a pivot.

Just seems like in my past use and experience, this is only something I would need or want maybe 10 percent of the time or less. AND my bucket has a little bracket welded on, that tells me the position of the bottom of the bucket with respect to the angle the tractor is sitting on.

Bottom line is for me, seeing the angle the bucket is on with respect to the ground or perhaps a truck flatbed, is more meaningful than the position of the bucket with respect to the tire contact patch(or tractor angle).

I guess I am in the minority, or maybe stand alone.

Nothing flat here where I live, at least 99 percent of my property.

Does one really need to know the position of the bucket with respect to the tractor, rather than with respect to the work being done?

I do not dispute that I may be misguided in my thinking...

 

[torch]

I may have misunderstood the term. I thought he was referring to the system of linkages that ensures the forks (or bucket) stays in the same orientation as the arms raise and lower. Here's a sketch I made during the design phase as an example: