I need to move my JD 544K loader to a jobsite 45 miles away. Road is pavement and loader has ride control. I don't have a truck and trailer. Quoted rate to haul is $7.00/mile. How many of you drive a loader this far? Thanks.
45(miles) x2 (got to get home) x $7= $630. I'd have it hauled vs. what I could tear up and/ or get hot roading 45 miles. But that's just me. There's loaders that push snow for two shifts a day/ night and put way more than that for miles on in a night. I wouldn't pick a 100 degree day.
If you think that you have no other choice than to road it at least remove one drive shaft so that it is only 2WD and isn't trying to constantly wind the diffs up because of tyre size difference. Make sure your tyre pressures are set correctly when they are cold and check tyre temps frequently with a heat gun. Shoot temps of axles & differentials as well. Don't let anything get too hot. Try for an early morning start when things are cool.
I've seen guys walk crawlers for over 50 miles when the truck/trailer broke down. 45 miles should be no problem for a loader, they're designed to do 25mph for roading. Heat buildup in tyres and transmission is the only thing you need to watch, as Nige says.
I wonder how legality and liability figure into this move. is it common to see construction equipment on the road like that?
Not to **** in your Wheaties, but is that the only thing you ever think of? Good Lord, how anxious you must be to always grab this handle. The LAST thing I ever think about when working is am I legal driving on the highway. I'm so glad I live in ND where I don't have to worry about it. Oh, wait a minute .........the OP is from here. We must be the only place normal left in this God-forsaken country.
Drive the loader. Unless you can be making more money with a different machine while it's being hauled, in which case have it hauled. Otherwise, grab a few Mountain Dews, turn on some BTO and Roll on Down the Highway.
Triggered
As long as you have the time and as Spud says " you can't be earning better money doing something else" then just jump in and take your time, just because it can go flat out doesn't mean you have to, break it down to 10 mile stints have a quick break then go again.
I dont know you but i probably do more sketchy stuff in one week than you do all year but it is a vehicle on the road with a lot of $60.000 pickups on the same road . If i had a good reason money wise were it needs to be i would pay to have it hauled.
Ya'll settle down. No sense in getting panties in a wad over a loader driving down the road. Now back to OP's question - If I was the one that had to road it 45 miles it's going on a lowboy.
I've roaded loaders and backhoes several miles before. the 25 MPH is on the fantasy level landscape. We have hills here, and you drop to 3rd and then 2nd, and the torque converter starts to warm up and you are a sitting duck at ~8 MPH. Toss in some corners and folks are on you fast. You may as well be a broken down truck sitting in the traffic lane at that differential speed. I saw one of those on I-90 yesterday in a thunderstorm, on the steep downgrade eastbound to Lake Easton. He was half in the traffic lane and had set out his reflectors and they had all been destroyed by near misses. Man that gave me the shivers. About 5 minutes later the state patrol went by opposite direction and I was hoping it was not to respond to a wreck there and he was just going to cover the guy.
The difference between living on the left coast and living in wide open country.
Well, for sure the OP probably has a real nice loader with tight pins and round tires. Loaders were the first machines I learned to operate, the boss had a bunch of them, mostly old Komatsu 500's. All those loaders had egg shaped tires and plenty of breathing room between the various pins and bushings. Roading those things was like riding a drunk duck with a broken leg. A 45 mile trip would have taken 4 operators, 2 mechanics and two days . . . lol
Thanks for all the replies and advise. I am leaning towards driving it. The area is very rural so sparse traffic and I have the spare time to do it. I think I'll haul the bucket to lessen the front axle weight.
I would suggest to leave it on. Taking it off would make the loader very tail heavy and even more susceptible to bouncing. I’d suggest to rack the bucket right back and chain it to the loader arms so that it can’t roll forward while you’re travelling. I have no idea what the recommended tyre pressure are but I assume that the fronts will probably be 20psi or so higher than the rear. To road the machine set both front & rear pressures to the recommended pressure for the rear axle.