Front end loader/dirt moving tips ?

[newbury]

A tooth-bar is a must-have tool for this project. It will go sooo much faster and easier with one. And after you get the bucket heaping full, you will see the need for an 800+ lb. ballast box to ease the pressure off the front end and to stabilize the tractor on that hill to the house.

Another vote for a tooth bar

If just a toothbar does the job OK and or with a subsoiler etc...for loosening enough to remove with the FEL...and if there is a place to stock pile a few loader buckets where it could be accessed with a 3ph rear scoop pan...it would add some capacity and help balance the load for the 300' haul...

I see 3ph scoops all the time for anywhere from $100 -$150...on CL...

Or instead of a scoop get a set of 3pt pallet forks like

these and mount a box on it so you can tip the box off. And they will come in handy afterwards. If your FEL will carry 1/2 yard you can probably put 1/2 yard or more in the back.

I'm glad you started this thread because it was just last week I found out I might need to do similar. So now I need to figure out a box, because I have those 3pt pallet forks.

The scoop looks good also.

/edit - /pine - where do you "see them all the time on CL" for those prices? I'd like to get one at those prices instead of $600
or maybe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfwYD9arSSI

 

[KYKub]

Beautiful lake view. And I always thought OK was flat!

I am considering an excavation project on a similar slope so I appreciate the tips folks are offering. My machine (BX1860) is smaller, but I do have a tooth bar and access to a dump trailer. Just not sure the little guy can handle rocky clay soil! Our local rental place has a BX25 with backhoe for $220/day. I can probably handle the digging part in a day if I go that route (digging into slope for a 16x16 shed), but would have more fun on doing it with my machine FEL.

 

[/pine]

Another vote for a tooth bar


Or instead of a scoop get a set of 3pt pallet forks like

these and mount a box on it so you can tip the box off. And they will come in handy afterwards. If your FEL will carry 1/2 yard you can probably put 1/2 yard or more in the back.

I'm glad you started this thread because it was just last week I found out I might need to do similar. So now I need to figure out a box, because I have those 3pt pallet forks.

The scoop looks good also.

I actually have a set of those forks from agri supply...and although it would tax the 3ph arms etc...had I not had the backhoe (for my excavation) I probably would have tried using the forks (and the hydraulic top link) to loosen the earth...

 

[SPYDERLK]

I am using my Kubota L3301 to dig into a wooded clay bank below my house bucket by bucket and bring it up to where I am filling in an area under my deck for parking.
The trip is about 300 ft one way up a 15 degree slope.

Rather than bucket by bucket, should I just stack up a pile of loose dirt then bring it up a scoop at a time or even load it on a trailer or my old flat bed pickup but that means unloading it at the other end also.

This is virgin dirt so I have to work at it to get a scoop full for the trip each time.

I'm thinking of getting a subsoiler to break it up or a toothed bar also.
The box blade doesn't raise high enough to get into it with the scarifiers.

I am going to put the grapple back on and see if it'll loosen up a load a little easier also.

You guys that move a lot of dirt, any tips are appreciated!View attachment 457774

If you are indeed able to get a full bucket of virgin/compact dirt you will make fewer trips. Loose dirt is "expanded". ... With HST it should be possible - no clutch to worry with. Put on lots of weight, push and wiggle the bucket to penetrate.

 

[Streetcar]

You need to make sure you are correctly building your retaining wall
The wall will need a foundation and drainage for the water that is behind the wall.
These are two of the biggest reasons for walls failing.
What are you planning to store under the deck?
Due to confined area there is not a good method to dump and compact the soil

 

[bdog]

I will add another vote for a tooth bar. I welded some bucket teeth on one of my skid steer buckets and it helps a lot.

When we are doing a lot of digging I typically do one of two things to make it easier. If it is a big open area I run my chisel plow over it a few times and then use my loader bucket to scoop up the loose dirt. If it is a smaller area I will use the backhoe to break it up and then turn it around and scoop it up with the loader.

I had someone helping me on the skid steer and I was breaking the ground with the backhoe and it was amazing how fast we could move dirt.

 

[lennyzx11]

Got a little accomplished today. Had to go into town to visit my 72 year old dad in the hospital after they pulled his kidney and a foot of colon for cancer. He quit smoking 38 years ago. So Quit!
OK off my soapbox and don't throw the fact that I usually have a bud lite close by. I'm a hypocrite.
The rocks are all showing their SHORT side. And have a slight slope into the hill. Yeah, after I look at the picture, I think "****, them coulda been a little straighter.


I know how look at my porch! Oh well.

 

[Streetcar]

lenny
How high do you plan on making your wall
What do you plan to park there
It appears that the wall has no foundation. If so it will move from lateral force and frost heave

Ps nice views

 

[lennyzx11]

lenny
How high do you plan on making your wall
What do you plan to park there
It appears that the wall has no foundation. If so it will move from lateral force and frost heave

Ps nice views

It will only go up about to where the top of the dirt is now leveling from the bottom of left post(side view holding up center of the deck) 3 ft is the normal limit for dry stacked rocks. In the photos, I have pushed the dirt back uphill off the wall in prep of laying another course. This will be a "tie back" course with the long sides oriented up and down the hill and level. Then more dirt compacted on that. I figure one more course after that one.
The "foundation" is unseen. I dug back into the hill on the bottom sloping back slightly and laid sand and about 3 inches gravel for a bed. Then laid BIG flat rocks on that.

I'm in southeast Oklahoma. Our frost upheaval isn't a concern here mostly. The temps rarely get below freezing. I learned how to stack rocks in Vermont from an older gentleman who had done it for years. I remember some of those footings were four feet deep for a three foot wall showing.

I enjoy rock work. Here's my fireplace. But I hate mixing mortar in the old wheelbarrow and put rock projects off or halfass them. Trying to talk myself into getting a proper mixer.

I plan on parking the implements there mostly but wanted it relatively level and smooth for hooking up to them. ( and it's a nice shady area to kick back and look at the lake and the tractor under there with a cold one!)

 

[Ed of all trades]

One thing I haven't seen as far as good advice on digging dirt is how to do it. If it is an area where you can skim off a thin layer, no thicker than 4" and you will be better able to get a scoop full quickly. I have a sub-compact and have dug a lot of dirt just pealing off a layer at a time. Ed