FEL techniques

[goody]

Are there any techniques for leveling dirt/gravel with a FEL. I have several dips that I am trying to level out and cannot seem to get the right combination. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Matt

[Stonewall]

If you have level ground in front of the heaves you can level the loader bucket, force it down on the grade and run into it. this will cut the heave and the remains go into the bucket. Try going slowly so you can adjust the bucket as needed. To fill in dips dump a loader full on the far side of it then move forward and drop (float) the loader down and drag the fill into the dip w/ the bucket in dump position. by using the float position on your joystick the bucket will follow the contour of the ground as you reverse over the dip. To pack it in, roll the bucket all the way back and then back over the dip again using down preasure on the loader arms. Loader work takes practice and you need to get to know how your machine reacts to the task at hand. CUTs are light and don't "dozer" well on hard ground with out some help. If you have a lot of uneven road to work on (cordoroy) then invest in a box blade.

[GFB]

Stonewall gave some good tips. The main things is practice. Since you have a blade that is another tool to fill in dips, provided you have the loose gravel. Whereabouts in Southern Illinois do you live, I'm in Cobden?
Gerry

[FamilyFarm]

I'm still pretty new to loader use. I'm getting there with about 15 hours dedicated to loader, but I have not used the float position. Do I push the lever forward, then release, does the bucket have to be in a certain position??
Thanks in advance for any advice!
Terry

[Thomas]

Curl your bucket little more than half way down,than use your float and back drag slowly..that might help.

[MikePA]

The float position on the FEL on my TC25D is full forward, no release, on the control.

[gmason]

The float position for in my 2 tractor experiences are FEL level full forward and you can let go of the lever and it will stick there until you pull it back. I've used it well with moving snow. Float the FEL but use the bucket angle to determine the down force for the FEL.

gary

[MossRoad]

The term "curl" refers to the dumping motion of the bucket. Curl the bucket forward(dump) until the leading edge of the bucket is at a good angle to the ground like a blade. You can then push the joystick forward, putting pressure on the leading edge of the bucket. This usually raises the front tire off the ground. You don't have to raise them that much, as it won't add any mre weight to the leading edge. Then you can back drag and use it as a scraper to pull the high spots into the low spots.

Another tip for leveling off a small hump is to lay your bucket flat on the ground, then curl it forward just a little(you'll have to get experience as to how much angle to use) then drive forward with the joystick locked and you should scrape off an inch or so at a time, depending on soil type, etc. If your tractor can handle more, you can take more aggressive angles. The material will fill the bucket, which you can then take to the low spots and dump.

Once you get some material into the low spots and you want to level it, you can curl the bucket back toward you and use the rear or underside of the bucket. Move the joystick all the way forward past the detent until it clicks. This is the float position. You can then back drag over the fill material to level it out with the rear of your bucket.

Float doesn't work well when going forward if you are trying to remove material. It tends to make the tractor ride up onto the loader. Float does work OK if you keep the leading edge of the bucket off of the ground a little, like in snow removal.

I've got some videos of my loader in action on my homepage. If you want to look at them, they demonstrate some of these techniques. You can see them by <A target="_blank" HREF=http://pt425.godollei.net> by clicking here </A> and then clicking on the videos link. Scroll down to the small tooth bucket section. They take a while to download and are kind of grainy, but you'll get the idea. They require windows media player to view.

Hope this helps. [img]/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[goody]

Thanks for all of the help. Looks like I just need to practice a lot, but this has given me a lot of good ideas of where to start. One thing I was doing wrong was trying to backdrag the bucket too fast. I tried some of the tips from you guys gave me today and it worked a lot better. Still haven't perfected it, but maybe I'll get there. Thanks again.

Gerry, I live in Louisville (Clay County IL)

Matt