On 5/1/2011 4:01 PM, Pieter Litchfield wrote:
The stock spindles are "L" shaped, and mine broke at the corner of the "L." I was thinking about fabricating a set that had a "C" shaped spindle bracket to hold the stub axle so that it was better supported top and bottom. Haven't got to it yet. I too have added a weight box to the rear of my E-15. Helps the traction (and so do the tire chains), but given the poor leverage ratio (the rear axle is the fulcrum), the weight box doesn't really take much weight off the front axle.
Hm. I've found that with the weight box on the back and nothing on the front the tractor is somewhat "lifted" and starts to lose steering. If I have the tiller on the back I can easily lift the front off the ground when starting in L. So I'll put the weight box in the *front* to weigh it down a bit.
Still, we should be able to calculate the up-force pretty quickly. I'll run out and measure my tractor this week.
The other issue with the loader is frame flexing. I have heard that they may cause the frame (platform) to break in half, although I have never experienced that. It probably would be a good idea to make a subframe that spread the load on the chassis the entire length, not just on the brackets at the midpoint. Truthfully, the bucket loader is really too big for the ET.
That could be a problem, however the loader uses the front stabs for mounting as well, correct? If it's got the mount point over the front wheels (and not on the end) then it should have a good head start over the snowblower (which hangs off the nose of the winch).
If so the front should be taking a majority of the load without a distance multiplier when down and in front, moving to the center of the tractor when the bucket is over the hood.
Maybe we should model it. Do you know how far it is from the center of the bucket to the front wheel spindles, and how far back the mid-point attachment is? Should be an easy calculation to find the mass and potentially moments around the various points (assuming pin connections and ignoring friction for the moments)
Chris