Advantages
- The Front End Carrier is much larger than a bucket, with a deck area of 10' * 4' = 40 square feet (Model 700). 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.
- 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.)
- 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.
- Unlike a bucket attachment, the Carrier can conveniently carry objects that are longer than its width, such as pipes, logs, brush, lumber, etc.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- A tractor can move into muddy, soft, or weedy areas that might be inaccessible to a truck or trailer.
- The treated boards used for the deck and back have excellent strength, stiffness, durability, and ease of assembly.
- The Carrier has several possible miscellaneous applications, including a work bench, a portable loading dock, a water tank transporter, etc.
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:
