My neighbor bought a Deere, green, 3 series, small backyard tractor with the FEL, backhoe, and weights. It has already been serviced under warranty for starting issues. This past week, he was lifting something with the FEL, and apparently whatever it was, sheared the mounting bolts off the FEL, ripping it off of the tractor. The repair bill was substantial. I have a Deere 310 L backhoe. In all of the times that I've used it, both the FEL and the backhoe seem to have safety systems installed, where if I try to do something too heavy for either end, the hydraulic system switches into bypass, and prevents me from doing damage. The attachments just stop moving, and I make adjustments. I was under the impression that as long as I didn't slam into anything with impact, I probably would never damage my hoe. What happened? Are green Deere's not equipped with that sort of safety item? Or did my neighbor drop a rock into the FEL bucket, and the impact did the damage? Is my assumption about how to avoid damaging my hoe valid? Enquiring minds want to know!
sounds to me like he either rammed something or he dropped something hitting the float detent, got scared at the descent speed, then tried to stop it?
Makes me wonder what grade of mounting bolts were used and were they tightened properly.
Pretty much all tractors have a bypass to prevent over pressure. I have heard of some loader and frame mount bolts loosening. My frame bolts on my John Deere 4310 all have white paint lines on the heads to give a visual indicator. If i try to exceed the loader capacity it just doesn't pick it up.
It is not terribly difficult to damage a bucket by lifting from the corner, or prying, that is using the bucket tilt as a lever rather than the boom as the lever. That is still harder than damaging a garden tractor though, generally construction equipment is suitable for the use, you won't break them quickly by slight abuse, even if they might crack eventually. Swinging the backhoe is another weak spot. they're usually not meant to push anything sideways, only the free loaded bucket. Compact equipment is not the same quality, JD makes lawn equipment, some compact stuff is imported, relabeled, rebadged. Easily abused and damaged.
My neighbor told me years ago, remember this is a farm loader and not an industrial loader. I suspect your neighbor may not be telling you the whole story. It's also very possible the JD dealer never went completely through the pre-delivery inspection making sure all the bolts were tightened properly.