AF oil drum loader futility rate:-)

Low voltage usually cures the problem.  I am talking 12 volts or less.

I have two. One works great. The other 50-50.
I did see one at I think the NE Highrailers open house that worked flawlessly on a small interactive kids layout.
I noticed a small shim was added under the right angle bend on the hinge pin for the barrel tipping "thingie".
I figured I will try that someday.
Plus as others said. Lower voltages sometimes does it alone.

Mine works perfect all the time, sometimes the height of the car makes a difference. 

Make sure the "Small Foam Rubber Pad" is intact on the FORK LIFT where Barrel first makes contact!

 

 

FREDSTRAINS

Mine works fine at low voltage say 10-12 volts.  They are a bit touchy to operate.

 

--Greg

Thanks for the ideas! I will try them out after the Bear football game, or sooner if they don't start playing better!

Cheers

Denny

Mine is a great accessory, but didn't work well out of the box. After alot of experimentation I found that the two most important things I did were.....change the angle of the "prongs" on the front of the cart (they impact the "wall" on the edge of the platform) and.....use 8-9V.  Two other things that matter are......the distance between the edge of the platform and the edge of the gondola and.....the height of the gondola (for me, a PW gondola is perfect). I do have some foam shims under the whole loader platform.  After a few barrels go in, though, you may have to move the train forward a bit. Once you dial it in, it's a wonderful accessory.

 

Roger

Mine has worked fine from day one.

 

I added a relay, a push button, and an IR sensor.

 

Now, when the button is pushed momentarily and providing that there are drums on the rack, the relay latches on and the operation starts. Once the truck has picked up and delivered all the drums, the IR sensor detects the absence of drums, unlatches the relay, and the operation stops. I adjusted the timer on the IR sensor so it stays on long enough for the truck to deliver the last drum that it picked up, and back away from the edge of the platform.

 

Alex

DON'T forget to check that FOAM Rubber in the Receiver!!! THAT, Plus a Low Voltage is CRUCIAL!!

 

Fredstrains

A friend gave me his AF barrel loader because of the same problem of dropping barrels.  I had to elongate the adjustment hole to allow more travel on the arm to make the barrel tip a little further when dropping the barrel into the forklift.  Now it rarely drops a barrel.

 

It was interesting that FREDSTRAINS mentioned a foam pad in his post above.  My barrel loader does not have a foam pad, which may be the reason it was dropping barrels.  Could you submit a photo showing the foam pad?

 

Good Luck...

Earl

According to PortLines the AF guy, the pad is not needed or on the Original. Only on the later versions. 
It usually disintegrates.

Yes, the Foam does disintegrate. That is why it drops barrels. I will try to send a picture tomorrow.

 

Fred

 

UPDATE:

I took advantage of the strong recommendation from these replies and focused on the voltage. Sure enough! I was supplying 10.5V. I knocked it down to 9.0V and it now works flawlessly. 

Thanks everyone for the great advice.

Cheers

Denny