180 hydraulics question

Hello,

I have our 180 in the shop getting it ready for the season ahead and have a few questions about the hydraulics.

We have a 500? series loader on the tractor and would like to add forks so we can use the tractor to unload pallets of material. However from past experience I've only been able to lift ~1600 pounds with the loader and many of the pallets we'll be getting will be around a ton or a little heavier.

I've measured the hydraulic pressure and we're right around 2,000 PSI at 2250 RPM, going through the books it appears this is about right. However when I try to lift anything heavy with the loader it always sounds like I'm tripping a pressure release? Is there an adjustment on the valve block that I can make to help?

How much capacity should I be getting with this loader? I would expect well over a ton as our 160 will lift a ton with no issues.

Am I expecting too much from this machine?

Thanks,

Erik

I have an AC 500 loader on my 1967 One-Seventy tractor.  I experience the same load issues as you are explaining.  I have all 4 hydraulic lines attached at the rear of the tractor, which flows all the oil through the tractor valves.  

Ok,

I've done a little more playing around, I have 2k PSI (or just a bit more) on all four remote outlets on the tractor that the loader is plumbed into.

Eric,

Does the spec sheet mention a pump pressure? The only possibility I can see is the loader being designed to run on a 2500PSI pump, that would give roughly 25% more lift and explain my issues.

That is nearly all you should expect but boosting the relief to 2300 would help. The factory relief spec is 2350 + or - 50. The pump flow output is rated at 2000 psi but the relief is higher. Also check to see if you have any drift down when holding a load - if so you cylinder piston seals could be leaking internally which would cause a lazy lift. Bill at S>L>I

Fellenz wrote: CTuckerNWIL wrote: Fella I used to work for, went out and bought a set of forks off an old fork truck. We made brackets for the 3 point lift arms and added a top link bracket. Hooked to the 170 with a hydraulic cylinder in place of the top link and we could load or unload anything on a pallet. It puts the weight on the back instead of the front spindles. Unfortunately that option won't work for us unless we built a full fledged three point forklift as most of the pallets we'll need to unload will be coming off a semi trailer. Thanks for the suggestion though!

Make sure your guage is accurate, you can adjust the relief valve up a bit, but dont go over 2350, and adjust it when the oil is warm.   If the relief valve seems like its "kicking out" you may have a weak one that doenst hold,  if while your checking pressure with the guage, the pressure goes  very low and you hear a pop sound, probably the relief is popped open and is dumping oil  back to sump.  HTH