Rich,

It's a little surprising how much some construction materials weigh. Dry sand weighs right at 100 lbs. per cubic foot or 2,700 lbs. per cubic yard. Your bucket holds approximately .22 cubic yards for a level scoop which would be nearly 600 lbs. of sand. That's getting close to your max weight limit and you'll need some rear ballast. By the way, moving a level scoop each time, that will be 1,364 bucket loads to move 300 cubic yards. Damp sand weighs about 110 lbs. per cf and mixed fines has little impact on the weight. A box blade might be a great help.

 

My backyard is full of sand (not sure how it compares to what you are getting) and I have been moving it around easily in 4wd in preparation to lay down about 6" of loam/topsoil so I can grow some grass around the house in the backyard. Traction becomes the only challenge if the sand is really dry and not compacted, but judicial use of the throttle and HST pedals while modulating the loader allows me to get a heaping bucket everytime. I'm going to take off the BH and hookup my new 48" Everything Attachements box blade to do some final grading tomorrow in the "sand" before I spread the loam. I don't anticipate any limiting traction issues pulling the box blade, 4wd is key to success though. I'll take a pic of what the "sand" in my backyard looks like so you can see what I've been working.

What size bucket do you have? Do you have a BH or some heavy rear ballast? The BH is great rear ballast as it's over 600lbs hanging off the back of the tractor.

 

What size bucket do you have? Do you have a BH or some heavy rear ballast? The BH is great rear ballast as it's over 600lbs hanging off the back of the tractor.

While the backhoe may keep you from doing a nose-dive over the front axle, it will compromise your roll-over stability because of the relatively high center of gravity. If your project involves driving with loaded bucket across inclined slopes, I would recommend swapping the backhoe for a ballast box with a fixed load (no shifting load like rocks, sand, chain, crushed concrete, etc.) Fill it with concrete and let it set up solid. Carry the ballast box in the lowest possible position, close to dragging on the ground where required. But don't drag on the ground or you will lose the benefit of the ballast box. Also be sure the turnbuckles on the drawbars are tight since any sway of the ballast box could upset the balance.

Also, load the rear wheels. That is the lowest C of G you can get, it doesn't get in the way. The down side is that it doesn't give the best mechanical advantage because it is not behind the rear axle. Ballasted rear wheels can be augmented by rear wheel weights. Of course all that extra weight can cause tire tracks in your lawn when mowing.

I find that my 1026R with 49" bucket has plenty of hydraulic power to lift the heaviest full bucket (wet sand). With a 53" bucket, you should have plenty of hydraulic power to lift the load, but you are getting closer to "tip-over territory" because of the additional weight of the bucket and load.

Be careful. Know your tractor's limits!

The link to the following post should be required reading for all 1026R with FEL owners who anticipate approaching the stability limits of our "little" tractors. These tractors get very big very fast when things go out of control.

http://www.greentractortalk.com/forums/tractor-equipment-safety/4947-1026r-rollover.html
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That's great information Green Man. It sounds like we have similar projects to expand and level the backyard. I have the 53" H120 bucket with a backhoe and ballast box, if I remove the hoe. It's helpful to know your machine handled this without any major setbacks. If you get a chance take a picture of the box blade working the area if you could. Thanks for the post. Rich

 

Great read SailorDon - Things can go bad real Quick and it's good to have a reminder every once in a while to stay focused on operating our tractors safely. Thanks for takng the time to bring the link to my attention - it was extremley helpful. Rich

 

Thanks for takng the time to bring the link to my attention - it was extremley helpful. Rich

The thanks should really go to Adamski. I've already posted my thanks to his topic.:thumbup1gif:

 

With the 53" bucket and a loaded ballast box (or attached backhoe) you will run out of lift capability before you can get light on your rear tires. With a dense material (wet crusher run, for example) I can't lift a completely heaping load to full height, but instead need to shake (curl back/forth) the excess material out down to level-ish with the bucket mouth and then proceed. I still have several hundred pounds of weight on the rear tires throughout that process, so JD did a pretty good job at sizing the lift capacity on the 1026R vs recommended ballast.

The only exception (when I can bounce the rears for example) is through poor operation and shock loading the system, such as dropping and the "catching" the load or driving over a bump at speed with a similar heavy load. Not things i discovered on purpose, but things i discovered nonetheless and now avoid. Of course, running ballast-less is an even faster way to get in trouble...

 

The nice thing about having the BH on and driving on slopes is you can position the BH to the up hill side and you also can lower and outrigger half way or even more on the down hill side. I feel much safer with the BH on than with the ballast box and driving on slopes.

 

That is "thinking outside the box". It makes good sense.
The down side is that if the inclined path you are driving across varies or has limited clearance (trees, bushes, rocks, etc.), that could mean a lot of backhoe manuvering to keep your tractor in balance.
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RichInNH - The worlds worst video from the driver's seat... so you have been warned before you watch! :thumbsdown: I promise that future videos will not be anywhere near as awful as this one! I have a GoPro camera, so I'm going to try to set it up on the ROPS which hopefully will work well!

In the video I'm doing very light work with the 48" everything attachments box blade, but the 1026 has NO trouble filling the box blade and pulling it. The material is all sand.

 

RichInNH - The worlds worst video from the driver's seat and sideways - so you have been warned before you watch! :thumbsdown: I promise that future videos will not be anywhere near as awful as this one!

In the video I'm doing very light work with the 48" everything attachments box blade, but the 1026 has NO trouble filling the box blade and pulling it. The material is all sand.

Is there a video in there somewhere? Did I miss it?

 

Some pics of the blade on the 1026R...

 

Green Man,

Nice video of your box blade work. Thanks for posting.

You've got some nice sandy soil to work with. I've got mud and muck. :-(

Yesterday I was trying to level the surface of a parking pad for my 1026R. I almost stuck the tractor even in 4WD.





I'm going to have to wait for a couple of days for it to dry out.
I don't have enough grading work to justify the cost and storage of a box blade. I just tip the bucket down on the front end loader and drive backwards.
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I've moved over 70 yards of screened loam with my 1026r no problem. I would definitely recommend getting a box blade. I got mine from Everything Attachments High quality and great service. The box blade will easily level your sand and has the added bonus of giving you the ballast you'll need. My tires are not loaded. I moved this 40 yd pile of loam in 5 hours and was as level and firm as fresh blacktop when I finished.