Neil from Messicks here today. We're outside with the Kubota BX Series tractor, the load cell hooked to the bottom of it down here. We're going to go through and give you a couple of examples today of why it's important to properly size the duty of your implements to your tractor's loader. The setup that we have out here today is a tire that I've buried about six or eight feet down there underground attached a chain to it and then put this 3,000-pound load cell here in the middle. This is then chained up around our loader.
We're going to use this to do a pretty simple demonstration. It's that every pound that you add to your loader out here is a pound that you don't have in lift capacity for the materials that you're trying to use. A couple of good examples that we can come up of where that matters. Every one of these tractors now has an option for a skid-steer quick coupler on the front. This quick coupler has added weight to it that a pin-on bucket would not have.
If you have an application where you're not going to be say removing your bucket to put on a snow pusher or a pallet forks or some other attachment on the front of your tractor, it may be in your best interest not to buy this quick coupler because of the weight that it adds to your machine. We're going to show you the impact that that has here very simply. The very first thing that we're going to do is go ahead and take our loader, lift the load up and get a lift rating without any additional weight from implements down on the end of the loader.
Now, one other interesting thing that you're going to see here when we do this is how loader specifications work out. This LA344 loader is rated it just over 600 pounds at the pivot pin at full height. The very first thing you're going to see is how that compares to the rated specifications. You can see 1,069 pounds, way over what Kubota actually publishes on the specification sheet. Part of that is because as a tractor's lift goes up, it's lift capacity raises so you can lift much, much more off the ground down here at low heights than you can way up in the air.
Just keep that in mind when you're looking at these numbers. What we're going to do now is take this 26-kilogram weight or 55 pounds and hang it up here on the front loader and check and see how this added weight say be it up an oversize set of pallet forks. It's not really sized properly for the tractor or added weight from this quick coupler is going to impact the amount of weight that we can now lift.
Seriously, I am not Bill Nye the science guy here or anything, but that is really interesting. We came up 1,006 pounds basically almost spot on the added weight here being taken away from the lift capacity so it is mathematically that simple. Every pound that you got out here on the loader that you don't need to have is taking away from the amount of lift capacity that you have to lift. Now, keep in mind, those weights are all going to vary depending on where they sit.
If they're back here where the load is being lifted like this weight is, it's going to be pretty mathematically even. As you come away from the loader and get further away, every pound is going to have a greater and greater impact. When you're thinking through your implements, take a look at them in that way. You want to keep that load as close to the loader as possible. The next thing we're going to do is walk up here and show you a couple of examples of implements where this sizing could really play out.
You can see here, I've got two different styles of grapples that you could put on the front of a small tractor like this. The more compact, what's called root rake style grapple that's going to hold a lot closer to that loader and then the larger high-capacity traditional grapple that's got a lot more space here for the material. When you're looking at the two different applications and designs of these implements, you can see where this lift capacity concern is going to come into mind.
This type of style with the weight further away from the tractor and more iron that it takes here to make this larger opening and the heavier bottom, is going to weigh more than what this more compact brush type grapple is going to. Now, granted, these are also going to grab two very different loads, right? These things being a lot smaller, don't grab large objects quite as well and these don't take looser material like brush and briars and that stuff as well.
They've got two different applications too that you certainly want to keep in mind. Think through the lift capacity implications of your implements as well and the fact that this being overall closer to the tractor and having less iron in it is going to allow you more weight to be available to lift. Interestingly enough, these are fairly inexpensive implements. This one right here is only $1,300. If you've got the third function on your loader there, piece of cake to operate.
Say between the third function kit and the grapple itself, you say you're at basically $2,000 all in for something that's going to make clearing operations a lot easier. That's a little bit about the impact of added weight on your loader. To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect this test to come out like this at all. I was really surprised how mathematically accurate it came out to be. Loader geometries are fairly complicated and oftentimes, you don't get the readings that you may always expect.
I think our lift capacity down here low to the ground is a good example of that, right? We've got basically 600 pounds of lift capacity but come up with a number over a thousand because of the geometry of the situation. In this case, it really does look like you drop extra pounds over the lift point and you're simply going to lift less weight. A couple of interesting things I think you can draw from that, one, buy implements that are suited properly for your tractor.
Pallet forks is probably one of the best examples that I can think of. You can buy say skid-steer engineered pallet forks for a lot less money than ones that are specifically made for a BX tractor simply because of sales volume, right? There's a lot, a lot of forks sold for skid loaders. Even though they're larger and higher capacity, they can usually be purchased for a lower price than one specifically made for a subcompact. You can see there by buying the cheaper set of pallet forks, you are ultimately probably going to lift less weight because of that added impact on your loader.
Beyond that too, a lot of other interesting things that you could talk about for say, duties of grapples, same thing, right? Buy things made for your application and think through where is that weight going to sit out on my loader? If you have attachment needs that we can help with, parts need for machines you already have or service work that can be done, give us a call at Messidks, 800-222-3373, or online at messicks.com
