How does a EFL work for grading and yard work???

[BigD23]

Originally Posted by bake321

Be very carefull. I just replaced a hydraulic cylinder on my loader. Snapped a piston rod in two doing a little dirt work.

Bake

Sorry to hear that Bake...What happened?

Don

[AidanWeisz]

This information was a lot of help. Like cmb1998, we're in the process of landscaping our yard since it's the summer so we want our place to sport a new look.

[Gary Fowler]

For efficient dirt movement and digging, I used my FEL to move the loose stuff after I used the scarifiers on the box blade to loosen it up. My soil has a lot of rocks and is hard clay so the FEL doesnt do well by itself. I levelled this hill in one day taking about 2 feet off the top and moving the dirt down the hill to flatten the area to build my shop. I would scarify / drag it with BB, carry it with the FEL and back drag to keep it level. Brother in law used his little JD 750 with a back blade to continuously circle and pack down the fresh dirt. The shop is 52 X 30 and I went about 70 feet to the front to control the slope

[Ken45101]

Yes, I wonder what the risks are to a FEL in trying to dig in hard soil. We have very heavy clay here and I have to really work at it to dig with the FEL or even a demo skid steer (smooth buckets on both).

Personally, I've settled on doing the digging with the mini-excavator and either moving with the excavator blade or with the loader bucket. In the current project, I'm digging out a hillside about 7' high.

As I mentioned in another post, the clay is so hard that even a 20,000# bulldozer blade is gliding over it rather than digging

That's why we don't have earthquakes here, they can't penetrate this soil (just kidding, we do carry earthquake insurance).

Ken

[bake321]

Originally Posted by BigD23

Sorry to hear that Bake...What happened?

Don

Well according to some it was operator error, I'm glad they weren't handling the warrenty repair. I was digging into a pile of dirt and believe one corner of the loader caught on the ground and twiked the bucket and then pow. Now this is a 95 hp machine, so it has a lot of tractor behind the loader. I'm really surprised it didn't just bend the arm. With my damage policy my cost was $250.

Bake

[Reg]

Originally Posted by bake321

Well according to some it was operator error, I'm glad they weren't handling the warrenty repair. I was digging into a pile of dirt and believe one corner of the loader caught on the ground and twiked the bucket and then pow. Now this is a 95 hp machine, so it has a lot of tractor behind the loader. I'm really surprised it didn't just bend the arm. With my damage policy my cost was $250.

Bake

Another way to wreck a loader cylinder is to dump the bucket all the way forwards and then try to use it as a dozer.
Tempting, since the bucket bottom has a down slope to it, but the cylinders are extended just about all the way and are vulnerable.
{So I have been told, but I've never trashed a loader doing this}

OPTION B:
Go into the pile too fast, if an edge catches the inertia of the tractor, being 1/2 m v squared, can do all kinds of damage.
{I havn't done that one either}

[BigD23]

Originally Posted by bake321

Well according to some it was operator error, I'm glad they weren't handling the warrenty repair. I was digging into a pile of dirt and believe one corner of the loader caught on the ground and twiked the bucket and then pow. Now this is a 95 hp machine, so it has a lot of tractor behind the loader. I'm really surprised it didn't just bend the arm. With my damage policy my cost was $250.

Bake

For some reason, even on your best day, unfortunately Murphy is alive and well...Thanks for the follow up and hoping this never happens again.

Don

[Scooby074]

Fel works great for yardwork. Float is your friend.

[archerm3]

Originally Posted by Reg

Another way to wreck a loader cylinder is to dump the bucket all the way forwards and then try to use it as a dozer.
Tempting, since the bucket bottom has a down slope to it, but the cylinders are extended just about all the way and are vulnerable.
{So I have been told, but I've never trashed a loader doing this}

OPTION B:
Go into the pile too fast, if an edge catches the inertia of the tractor, being 1/2 m v squared, can do all kinds of damage.
{I havn't done that one either}

Kinetic Energy is 1/2 M*v^2