What a brute!!!

[Mechanos]

Did my first heavy work with the 955 tonight. I finished up the rebuild late Friday night a week ago, and then woke up sick as a dog the next morning. That put me out of commission all of last week. Over the weekend, all I got done was mowing... the place got away from me and was way overdue. Some areas I had to use the brush hog to knock it down and then come back and finish mow it the next day.

Anyway, I've got an area next to my barn that I've been wanting to excavate for a trailer parking pad. The calculated volume of dirt that needs to be removed is about 78 ydｳ. Got about 30 to 35 of that dug out and moved to a stockpile in a about 2 hours. I absolutely love the 4wd with R1's for dirt work! A brand new set of loaded Goodyear DynaTorque II's are just plain mean when it comes to traction. The extra ponies under the hood didn't hurt either.

I was also quite impressed with the 70A loader... quite powerful for this size of machine. The 60" bucket with a 7-tooth toothbar easily took heaping bucketfulls out of the undisturbed clay. It's so much fun, it's almost like I'm not working!

Not sure I really like the new subbed exhaust pipe's exit location, though. Seems like I'm eating more exhaust fumes than I did with the original "exit through the side panel" exhaust pipe.

In summary, this thing is a beast.

[kebo]

All that and no pictures???? Shame on you! Really though, sounds like you got it running very nicely, glad you are having a blast on the beast!

[jenkinsph]

Glad it worked out for you and you are getting such good results. Don't forget we want pictures or it didn't happen.

Don't forget to pet your dog either.

[Mechanos]

Too busy working to take pictures, I can't take a picture of myself working, it was dark when I quit for the night. So, close your eyes and imagine a big pile of dirt...

[Mechanos]

OK. For all you picture mongers out there....
Here's the rough cut:


And here's the stockpile:

[Mechanos]

More pictures for the non-believers

Scooping up a bucket-full:


Backing out of the cut:


Headed to the stockpile:


Headed back in for another bucket bite:

[dminer]

OK. For all you picture mongers out there....

Thanks for the pics.

What hydraulic pressure does a 955 run? And if you dont mind, what gauge material are the arms of the loader made from?

Thanks agian.

[Gator6x4]

The only line (s) I can see are the screw heads holding the metal siding on in the first photo and I am looking at the photo's on a very large high resolution monitor.

[Mechanos]

...One question. How did you manage to get it level when the tractor was starting out on a grade? Not being experienced that is always a hard task for me...

Simple. You take your first few scoops and dump that dirt on the low side of the grade. Back drag it or whatever to level it out, run over it a few times to pack it down. Basically build yourself a level pad to get the tractor sitting level and the bucket on the plane you desire. Then begin digging with the bucket. Once you get far enough into the cut, you can back in and cut out the pad you just built to the elevation you want. As far as staying on that elevation, it's just bucket control that you'll get the hang of. I usually do end up with a few high and low spots and use the box blade to do the final leveling and grading.

[dex3361]

OK. For all you picture mongers out there....
Here's the rough cut:


And here's the stockpile:

Do you have a tooth bar on the bucket? Looks like it is doing a great job.