Loader How to not damage your FEL

[buickanddeere]

Taking a run at anything or hitting anything with speed will break the loader and or the tractor.

 

[kebo]

Never use the bucket to pull, don't hook chains to it and try to pull out logs, use the drawbar on the rear for that. Hooking chains to it to "Lift" something is fine, never pull.

Sideways pressure is bad on them, for example I had a big azz round bale in my truck, I was starting to use the FEL and cut the wheel to push out the bale from the side of the truck, I didn't put much sideways pressure on it and stopped, I was a afraid of twisting the FEL frame.

If I didn't read on here about things not to do, I would have ignorantly just pushed the bale off that way but I stopped.

Another thing I find myself doing from info I picked up off here is kicking it in 4wd going down hills with my round bales, I remember a few stories of guys putting holes in barns because they were in 2wd and the rear got too light on them and away they go lol.

In 2wd only the rear locks up, in 4wd all 4s break.

I remember a forum member who had mounted a 2" receiver on top of his bucket, in the middle. That's fine, but he had shoved a 10,000 lb winch into it and was proud of it! I can imagine pulling something heavy with that winch that was off center (not in line with the loader arms) and tweaking the loader frame pretty bad.

The only thing I can add that I haven't seen here (unless I missed it) is don't carry a bucket full of material with the bucket raised up high. That's a good recipe for tipping the whole tractor on its side, if a front tire drops off in a hole that you didn't see because of heavy grass or weeds.

 

[northernsierras]

Im a noob, just bought a L4701 yesterday. Was removing some manzanita today in a tight wooded area, and when backing up and turning my bucket hit a tree. Sideways pressure cannot be a good thing. Lesson learned for today.

 

[Turbys_1700]

Go slow and keep the load low.

 

[s219]

Just remember, the hydraulics will go into relief before you can damage the front loader arms/frame by doing anything with the hydraulics. But they will not go into relief or protect you when using the tractor wheels and traction to apply loads to the loader arms, cylinders, and frame.

So the times when you really have to be careful are when the loader bucket, accessory, or arms are pressing or pulling against something solid and you move the tractor with the wheels. That's when people get into trouble and bend stuff or break a cylinder.

 

[boggen]

FEL's are strong and can be abused. but to a point.

many times plows that get attached to a FEL, have a "trip" mechanism built in. so as you going along plowing snow and hit something, the "plow" itself will bend out of the way vs coming to a sudden brick wall stop and damaging something.

with above said, "back dragging" fell on ground and going in reverse. can cause the loader skip hop around. i get a little uneasy about doing it each time. but generally running slow. with hand on FEL arm lever to raise/lower to help keep front wheels on ground or as much as possible on ground.

i have slid bucket in a couple times to pop a rock out. and tossed the rock edge into a front corner of bucket. but generally i have the FEL joystick/ levers already moving so the pressure relief valve will kick in. if i just left the joystick/levers in neutral position the relief valves would not kick in. and could damage FEL.

keep your speed slow, and keep aware of your surroundings to easy to nail something both on the front with FEL or what ever you have on the rear. and many times you will end up with blind spots.

with above said, KEEP the FEL low to the ground while you are moving. have seen folks raise the FEL all the way up into the air so they can see in front of them... *cringes* even with an empty bucket. not something i would advise, to much chance of tipping over.

i have lots of hills on property, so keeping bucket low to ground = a brake, not letting cutting edge drop, but back bottom side drop and hit ground (bucket is curled). so if bucket does touches ground the bucket just slides vs cutting down into the ground.

make sure you have rear "ballast" as in filled rear tires with a fluid and/or something on 3pt hitch for weight for using the FEL. no weight = rear lifts up and not able to use FEL to max potential in lifting.

ugly time... and getting experience, you going to be wobble dabble in the seat. as you move and lean about to see where the bucket is and what is in front of you. it gets better the more you use tractor and get that learning / experience in. and able to better judge distances and get more use to keeping track of what is in front of you in shorter distances.

brush guard is a requirement many times with a grapple or when you going out to the pasture to mow tall weeds. to many little branches will suddenly come sticking up out of no were and ram right into the radiator and oil coolers resulting in an expensive repair bill. be careful and make sure any third party or custom made brush guard does not stick out to far. for when you have bucket uncurled all the way down and bucket edge is pointing back at tractor. (when i say suddenly, see last paragraph and not able to see clearly directly in front of you)

bucket level indicator (little pipe / rod) that attaches to bucket) and runs up one of the FEL arms can be nice. it is by no means perfect but a gauge per say to help ya figure out what angle the bucket is at (with in reason)

many times FEL's come with a "lock out" on one of the cylinders on the FEL arms. so that you can raise the FEL up. pull a pin or like and let the lock down, turn off tractor, and move FEL arm joystick/lever to let the FEL arms come down and rest on the lock. keep an eye on the pin/lock, have had to replace a couple little pins due to catching on a branch or something and falling out. and 1 time the lock came completely undone before noticing. (was rather close call i care not to repeat while loading something on a truck.)

=============
new tractor = unknown how dealer put in hydraulic oil and if it was ran if at all. start tractor up, and raise / lower lift arms all the way up and down a few times, and also fully curl and uncurl bucket a few times. not part way but fully up and down and curl/uncurl (this does not to be done at same time, on or the other). this will help work out any air that might be in the system. after doing so check your hydraulic oil level to see if you need to add any. as you run machine air will be worked out regardless. but new tractor there still maybe air pockets around in the system.

=============
run around it once hitting grease zerks, run around it one more to find extras you missed, and first few times run around it a couple more times till you find all the grease zerks. there be a lot of them.

 

[coralhead]

FEL's are strong and can be abused. but to a point.

many times plows that get attached to a FEL, have a "trip" mechanism built in. so as you going along plowing snow and hit something, the "plow" itself will bend out of the way vs coming to a sudden brick wall stop and damaging something.

=============

I know I may catch some flak about this but mounting a snow plow on the front of a FEL is asking to twist the frame. Pushing with the blade straight applies force inline with the tractor/FEL but when the blade is angled a side load is applied the frame which can twist it. This is made even worse when the angled blade is forced into a large pile of snow that does not move. The blade is way out front and angled from the attachment points on the tractor.

 

[Soldier415]

Good info in this thread

 

[nybirdman]

If a lot of digging is in the cards;a tooth-bar will lessen the strain on a loader.

 

[k0ua]

FEL's are strong and can be abused. but to a point.

many times plows that get attached to a FEL, have a "trip" mechanism built in. so as you going along plowing snow and hit something, the "plow" itself will bend out of the way vs coming to a sudden brick wall stop and damaging something.

with above said, "back dragging" fell on ground and going in reverse. can cause the loader skip hop around. i get a little uneasy about doing it each time. but generally running slow. with hand on FEL arm lever to raise/lower to help keep front wheels on ground or as much as possible on ground.

i have slid bucket in a couple times to pop a rock out. and tossed the rock edge into a front corner of bucket. but generally i have the FEL joystick/ levers already moving so the pressure relief valve will kick in. if i just left the joystick/levers in neutral position the relief valves would not kick in. and could damage FEL.

keep your speed slow, and keep aware of your surroundings to easy to nail something both on the front with FEL or what ever you have on the rear. and many times you will end up with blind spots.

with above said, KEEP the FEL low to the ground while you are moving. have seen folks raise the FEL all the way up into the air so they can see in front of them... *cringes* even with an empty bucket. not something i would advise, to much chance of tipping over.

i have lots of hills on property, so keeping bucket low to ground = a brake, not letting cutting edge drop, but back bottom side drop and hit ground (bucket is curled). so if bucket does touches ground the bucket just slides vs cutting down into the ground.

make sure you have rear "ballast" as in filled rear tires with a fluid and/or something on 3pt hitch for weight for using the FEL. no weight = rear lifts up and not able to use FEL to max potential in lifting.

ugly time... and getting experience, you going to be wobble dabble in the seat. as you move and lean about to see where the bucket is and what is in front of you. it gets better the more you use tractor and get that learning / experience in. and able to better judge distances and get more use to keeping track of what is in front of you in shorter distances.

brush guard is a requirement many times with a grapple or when you going out to the pasture to mow tall weeds. to many little branches will suddenly come sticking up out of no were and ram right into the radiator and oil coolers resulting in an expensive repair bill. be careful and make sure any third party or custom made brush guard does not stick out to far. for when you have bucket uncurled all the way down and bucket edge is pointing back at tractor. (when i say suddenly, see last paragraph and not able to see clearly directly in front of you)

bucket level indicator (little pipe / rod) that attaches to bucket) and runs up one of the FEL arms can be nice. it is by no means perfect but a gauge per say to help ya figure out what angle the bucket is at (with in reason)

many times FEL's come with a "lock out" on one of the cylinders on the FEL arms. so that you can raise the FEL up. pull a pin or like and let the lock down, turn off tractor, and move FEL arm joystick/lever to let the FEL arms come down and rest on the lock. keep an eye on the pin/lock, have had to replace a couple little pins due to catching on a branch or something and falling out. and 1 time the lock came completely undone before noticing. (was rather close call i care not to repeat while loading something on a truck.)

=============
new tractor = unknown how dealer put in hydraulic oil and if it was ran if at all. start tractor up, and raise / lower lift arms all the way up and down a few times, and also fully curl and uncurl bucket a few times. not part way but fully up and down and curl/uncurl (this does not to be done at same time, on or the other). this will help work out any air that might be in the system. after doing so check your hydraulic oil level to see if you need to add any. as you run machine air will be worked out regardless. but new tractor there still maybe air pockets around in the system.

=============
run around it once hitting grease zerks, run around it one more to find extras you missed, and first few times run around it a couple more times till you find all the grease zerks. there be a lot of them.

Well he ^ said all I wanted to say...So I got nothing to say..