Pulling Rebar

[sheepfarmer]

Thanks Ray! That was super helpful! I ran out to the barn to see if I had a notch in my bucket, but no. It is an L2236, quick attach. The lip it has looks like it would be fine to slip a hook on though.

When is it useful or necessary to have hooks mounted on the bucket?

 

[CaveCreekRay]

I think hooks allow you to use plain chain without attached hooks. I have not run across a task that this chain wouldn't work for so I'll have to leave that answer to those who have hooks on their buckets. At around $30 that's cheaper than having hooks welded to your bucket. And, for $30, you get a lot of additional utility out of your FEL.

The only negative I can think of with hooks welded to your bucket is that might limit you to one size of chain because the hooks only have a specific gap.

Even though you don't have the notch on your bucket, that is really not important. As I said, I do nearly all my chain pulls with both hooks hooked to the bucket and they just clip on the upper bucket edge.

Forgot to mention: This 14' chain weighs about 35 lbs.

Ray

 

[Mike9]

The point of my post is chains are awesome. They don't store energy like ropes do and if something lets go, its a non-event.

Actually chain will store energy as it stretches. It is one case where overkill is your friend. At a grinding shop I worked at decades ago we were getting ready to load an 18 ton block of steel onto my delivery truck. The chain broke and sliced through a 55 gal. drum of coolant like it was paper in less than the blink of an eye. We all stared at each other and felt ourselves - no one was missing anything. That chains was probably EOL, but who knew?

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Good safety tip Mike. Sounds like that chain was either overloaded or over stressed from prior loads.

At our levels of stress (around a 1000 lbs) most good size chains like the one pictured, wont rebound much, if any. I have my chain pop off items regularly under heavy tension and it hardly moves at all. Mr K. can only impart so much yank or pull. At 36,000 lbs, anything can happen. 36,000 lbs is approaching anchor chain capacity for larger ships! Those links are nearly half a foot long! How big was the chain you saw break?

Even Muletape, which is a pretty strong nylon tape, can be near its breaking point at only 1000 lbs. If you have a long enough piece, you can get a serious snap from it.

My dad was in the NAVY. The steel arresting cable on carriers is only used so many times at a given weight class jet. After that, they throw it overboard. The reason is, as jets got heavier, they saw failures of the cable occur almost randomly. A friend of my dad watched a cable slice a seaman's legs off as it whipped across a deck at knee height. Analysis of the cable showed broken strands all through the cable.

I am all about overkill for the task at hand. More load capacity leaves more margin for safety. Especially with Chinese chain! (I have been totally impressed with their higher rated chain thus far...)

Be safe out there!

 

[sgtboz]

I've had really good success pulling things out of the ground with my 3pt quick hitch. We all know the 3pt lift is much great than the bucket, although the trade off is the amount of stroke. The 6x6 corner post in this pic was set in about a foot of concrete but with some wiggling and lifting, it came up with a large chunk of concrete still attached. I wrapped some chain low around the post and again around the hook on the hitch and voila!

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Another great technique, especially for those without an FEL to use!

 

[jay2]

I've had really good success pulling things out of the ground with my 3pt quick hitch. We all know the 3pt lift is much great than the bucket, although the trade off is the amount of stroke. The 6x6 corner post in this pic was set in about a foot of concrete but with some wiggling and lifting, it came up with a large chunk of concrete still attached. I wrapped some chain low around the post and again around the hook on the hitch and voila!

Just what I was going to say. With more lifting ability on the 3 pt. That seems the way to go on a tougher job.

 

[MagKarl]

Chain hooks welded onto the bucket and a chain with one hook are much more useful than hooks on both ends of a chain. With hooks on the bucket, you can shorten your pull to any length and the hooks can't slide along the bucket edge. I have 3 hooks on my bucket and use them all the time.

 

[ShaunBlake]

Good safety tip Mike. Sounds like that chain was either overloaded or over stressed from prior loads.

At our levels of stress (around a 1000 lbs) most good size chains like the one pictured, wont rebound much, if any. I have my chain pop off items regularly under heavy tension and it hardly moves at all. Mr K. can only impart so much yank or pull. At 36,000 lbs, anything can happen....

I've been researching working and fail limits on chain, rope, and synthetic because my faith isn't strong enough to tell my remaining dogwood to get up and go into the sea, and the efforts I've been able to make have only bent it. I learned an interesting fact about chain that in retrospect should be obvious: when chain is stretched, it doesn't spring back to its original condition; in fact, its reduction is only a tiny amount.

The federal requirements for chain is that it stretch at least 15% before failing. So your new 40' logging chain, stretched beyond its limit, will have stretched to 46' -- all of which is under tension, and the failure will cause the chain to whip back those six feet.

Funny thing (to me), though: if the chain is overloaded only, say, 7% beyond it's limit, then next time it's overloaded and breaks, it will have only 8% (well, minimum, but manufacturers aren't going to build in 25% margin, or even 18%, or any more than they must to ensure the 15%, eh?) -- so let's say 8%, which means that it will only snap back three feet or a bit.

This means that those times that chain broke from an overload and didn't seem to snap back, it must have already had all it's "stretch" stretched out of it.

None of which is getting that dogwood out of the ground.

 

[sheepfarmer]

Ok, time for update and thank you for how-to directions above. I pulled two t-posts for practice today, could have dug them out, but it wouldn't have been as much fun. I bought 10 feet of some heavy (the nice salesman carried it to my car for me since I already had an armload of Xmas presents) chain (made in USA) which I outfitted with 2 grab type hooks that are attached with a removable pin (not made in USA ) I pulled one post with the hooks on the lip of the upside down bucket as Ray described, and one using the hook on the Quick Hitch. Both methods worked great. I was surprised that the chain would stay wrapped around the base of the post well enough to lift it out, but it did. The advantage of the QH method is you can see what you are doing better, and the advantage of the bucket method is whatever implement you have on the back can stay there and you may be able to reach into a smaller space with the bucket.

Thanks guys!

 

[CaveCreekRay]

SF,

Good for you! A length of chain is really handy to have around. You are right, its amazing how the chain will grab a hold of something and yank it right out.

Remember, for pulling really stubborn posts/rods/tree parts using your bucket, the "curl" mode has more power than the "lift" mode.

-Curl the bucket lip as far down/back as it will go (upper edge as far forward as it will go).
-Lower the upper bucket edge to the post you want to pull.
-Hook up your chains with the least amount of slack.
-Lift the bucket to take out the slack and make sure the chains are tight. If the post starts out using "up bucket", by all means keep going.
-If the bucket stops and won't go any more, use the "curl" to rotate the bucket backwards. That should pop it loose.

Your "China" hooks should work just fine! Digging things out of the ground is a pain in the body (the next day!). My machine never complains as much as its owner.

 

[Grouse Feathers]

SF,

Remember, for pulling really stubborn posts/rods/tree parts using your bucket, the "curl" mode has more power than the "lift" mode.

The curl will definitely have more power. Be careful when pulling with the curl you can lift your rear wheels off the ground and become unstable due to the front axle pivot. Some extra weight on the 3 point can make it safer.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

So can backing up or moving forward to try and "wiggle" something stuck out.

I had it happen with me and before I knew it, my rears were almost a foot off the ground!!!

Be careful with these lightweight machines...

Ray