420 loader questions

[gus]

Your theory on the air over jacks and presses is incorrect.

Darn, another theory shot

Another option is my old 7U D4 and using it's hyd system since it has the same type of oil as the JD did. I could rest the dozer blade on the back frame of the JD and keep things stable as the loader was lowered.

[Gil]

If you have something as substantial as a Delta4 around, why don't you just push the crawler over on its nose like Jim Anderson said and take off the bucket? The bulldozer blade can control the decent.

I would still be leery of using the loader;s hydraulics. You don't know what kind of crud could be in there and you might have rotted hoses that could bust, etc.

Kind of fun for us to noodle around with your problem and come up with solutions. But you are the one who has the equipment and gets to make the call. Good luck. Gil

[Paul Buhler]

Piece of mind is worth a price.
Most heavy equipment owner/operators remember when they were first trying to solve problems and think about the risks they took in doing so.
If you ask a local excavator operator (beers help), if they could help you out (at their convenience), you might find one willing to swing by, off-load, lift your bucket to release the angle irons, and lower your bucket gently to the ground with out fanfare.
They'll drink that beer (or two), ask about your project, charge you for a move and some time, (and maybe not) and be a resource in the future.
I know that this has worked for me. I still get dirty fill from a guy who likes that I can push it over the bank with my old machine and he doesn't have to saving him time and money. We both win, and we like sharing a beer together now and again.
Good luck. I, like others, noodled over the various options, and think you've gotten some good ideas to consider. Be safe. Paul

[roadbuilder]

Hi Gus

Hopefully they do the task before they drink the beers

If your mini excavator has front blade, raise blade and walk the exc. up to the rear of the loader frame. If blade doesn’t go high enough, you may need to block up or ramp up with dirt to gain elevation. Set blade down on track frame at least a foot from the end of the frame. Use blade down pressure to transfer exc. weight to counter weigh the loader. Now the loader frame is much more stable,

Extend out to see if you can reach past loader bucket. If you can, put the excv. Teeth into the center of the loader bucket. You want the teeth to contact the loader bucket at the joint (seam) where the top bucket skin meets the back skin. Try bringing bucket toward you slightly, using combination of bucket curl stick crowd and boom lift. You want the bucket to roll back to it’s carry stops. You need to keep the excv. teeth at the seam so you don’t want to get in a hurry. DON’T RELEASE LOCKOUT CLAMPS OR ANGLE IRONS YET.

Now using the same techniques you used rolling the loader bucket, try to raise the loader boom. This will let you test your lift capability. An excv. is most efficient pulling rather than pushing. Also you will find out if the clamps were put in with any stroke left in the boom lift cylinders. So after raising the loader boom a few inches, stop lifting, and idle down the machine. If your excv. teeth are still at the joint, and none of the excv. cylinders are relieving without your having to keep applying controls, I would say you could shut the excv. off and listen and time any bleed off or change in bucket relationship. I only suggest this, so you know what to expect while you loosen clamps. Depending on how the clamps come apart, you might want to let boom down to the clamps for safety as you back bolts off. Maybe the clamps can’t be loosened without pressure removed. Maybe at this point adding a stout post as a safety bar is a good idea ( in conjunction with the excavator still in position).

Once the clamps are removed, you can start to lower the loader boom. Excavator technique: Boom down while extending stick slightly to keep bucket teeth at seam. As the loader bucket/boom gets lower, you may have to slightly curl/uncurl exc. bucket to keep a hold of the loader bucket. The further down and out you extend the less your lift capacity of the excavator will be. If you feel that you are starting to over relieve the hydralics, dump (uncurl) bucket fast.Also you may run out of reach and have to drop it. If it drops, expect it to jar you a bit. Best advice- don’t have your tongue sticking out in deep concentration.

If you don’t have the reach to do any of this, you can use a length of 1/2in high tensile chain looped around the entire loader bucket middle. Make a large eye with the other end and with excavator bucket bottom flat( teeth towards operator)go under the excavator bucket and loop it over 1 tooth. Rolling loader bucket may be unneccesary, and you probably want only about 3-5 feet beween buckets with the chain tight. If you have too much length of chain, you could double it, and hook back into itself near eye. You don’t want the chain eye too tight around a tooth, because if you need to let the boom fall, a tight eye doesn’t come loose from a tooth very easily. I’ve seen tight loops catch on the gap between the tooth and its adapter with a straight pull on chain, in line with the tooth. Sometimes they don’t just fall off. Tension can do strange things.
Dale

[gus]

I will check the excavator reach next time it's running. That is an easier possibility. Having the JD track frame is very important as it will roll on the planks it's sitting on. That's how it got there.

If the excavator won't reach, then...
I'm thinking the D-4 is the best and safest way. I'm inclined to want to use the loaders own hydraulics to raise it to get the angles out and then lower it. I also think having the D-4 blade firmly anchoring the machine is by far the safest. It is sitting on several planks and the rollers are on 2X6's and it will roll when pushed hard. The D-4 will keep it from tipping while lowering the bucket and the loaders own sytem will remove any chance of side pressure that another machine trying to hold the bucket and lower it would apply.

I will put an extra can between the D-4 and JD hydraulics to prevent any contamination and it will also allow me to do some bleeding to remove any air in the system.

Having live hyd will also allow me some jiggle to remove the pins once it is one the ground. At some point I think I want all of the loader off. I will want to sand blast and paint it. Right now it has several missmatched coats of ??? paint. It's ungly but will be a very nice crawler once aI get to it!!