ADVANTAGES
Advantages
The Front End Carrier has many advantages, for several applications, over other popular equipment. Such equipment includes bucket and fork lift attachments on front-end loaders, pickup trucks, trailers, carts, etc. Some advantages are briefly described below:
1. The Front End Carrier is much larger than a bucket, with a deck area of 10' * 4' = 40 square feet (10' wide model). This is about the same as the area of the bed of a full-size pickup truck with the tailgate up, which is about 8' * 4' = 40 square feet. Thus, the Carrier has a relatively large area for lifting and carrying materials and tools, or for using as a work surface.
2. For material that is stacked like brush or hay bales, the Carrier has a relatively large volume of 10' * 4' * 4' = 160 cubic feet. For hauling brush, the Carrier can be tilted backward, with the deck and back forming a V shape that permits piling the material quite high without it falling off. Experimental results have shown that, for this purpose, the Carrier has as much capacity as a full-size pickup truck with the tailgate down and stacked as high as possible. (See photograph of loaded pickup truck in Gallery.)
3. For materials such as brush, the operation of unloading requires virtually no manual effort, thus providing a major advantage over trucks and trailers for brush collection.
4. Unlike a bucket attachment, the Carrier can conveniently carry objects that are longer than its width, such as pipes, logs, brush, lumber, etc.
5. Unlike a fork lift attachment, the Carrier can carry many small objects lying on the deck, such as tools, lumber, nursery stock, roofing, bricks, firewood, fertilizer and seed bags, etc.
6. The Carrier can be raised high to facilitate unloading material onto a high surface such as a second floor under construction, a barn loft, or a roof.
7. The deck can be raised to the level of a trailer or truck bed to ease the movement of certain heavy objects onto or off of the truck or trailer.
8. The deck can be lowered to within a few inches of the ground, thus facilitating the loading of objects, especially heavy objects. For example, tree trunk sections of several hundred pounds can be rolled onto the deck.
9. A tractor is much more maneuverable than a truck and especially a trailer, enabling the operator to get very close to the material to be loaded.
10. A tractor can move into muddy, soft, or weedy areas that might be inaccessible to a truck or trailer.
11. The treated boards used for the deck and back have excellent strength, stiffness, durability, and ease of assembly.
12. The Carrier has several possible miscellaneous applications, including a work bench, a portable loading dock, a water tank transporter, etc.
