What would be the first thing you do after taking delivery of your new tractor

[k0ua]

I believe you mentioned this was your first Front End Loader experience. Don't be disappointed if you don't get the hang of FEL usage just right off. It takes some time to get good with one.

Gary mentioned digging a pond with one, but he had the help of his box blade rippers to loosen the soil and then scooped it up with the FEL. Keep in mind digging big holes with a FEL is certainly possible, but a lot depends on your soil type and how much time you have. If you live in Rockville, it might not go as smooth. If you live in Loamtown it might go really easy! As pointed out before never move with a full bucket up high.. Always move with the bucket no higher than the top of the hood, preferably lower. This is the fatal mistake that newbies make that leads to the shiny side being down. Anyway, have fun, take it slow and learn as you go! Welcome to the pack.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I believe you mentioned this was your first Front End Loader experience. Don't be disappointed if you don't get the hang of FEL usage just right off. It takes some time to get good with one.

Gary mentioned digging a pond with one, but he had the help of his box blade rippers to loosen the soil and then scooped it up with the FEL. Keep in mind digging big holes with a FEL is certainly possible, but a lot depends on your soil type and how much time you have. If you live in Rockville, it might not go as smooth. If you live in Loamtown it might go really easy! As pointed out before never move with a full bucket up high.. Always move with the bucket no higher than the top of the hood, preferably lower. This is the fatal mistake that newbies make that leads to the shiny side being down. Anyway, have fun, take it slow and learn as you go! Welcome to the pack.

Correct in all accounts, plus I had the 6800# weight of my tractor to force the FEL to dig without a tooth bar. I find that on small CUT tractors, it is almost impossible to dig into hard ground without a tooth bar as regardless of the angle, it just skips along on the grass. By using the box blade scarifiers to loosen up the soil and drag a big load behind me, I pulled a lot more dirt toward the dam than I could just scooping it with the FEL. I had some practice doing that with my old Yanmar when I cut down a hill and leveled it out for my shop. It takes a bit of coordination to work all the levers at the same time but well worth the effort. When building the pond, I still had to use the FEL to push up the stuff the box blade drug up but that was accomplished in the next pass. It was always enough loose stuff to fill my FEL even after dragging all the box blade would hold.
Photos #1 is pushing up the loose dirt to make the lower dam. Photo #2 is backdragging the loose stuff in the bottom when I started to hit shale rock. It was much easier to gather it to one spot by back dragging than going forward and hitting a rock that would stall the tractor. After piling up the dirt to a height above what I needed, I ran the top using both the FEL and dragging the box blade to level off the top and make it wider. That was pretty scary in the first couple of passes as the dam wasn't as wide as my tractor so I had to use the steering brakes to keep it centered on top

 

[Gary Fowler]

Also in the second photo you can see the topsoil spoil pile to the right next to the pine trees. This was all the grass and roots that was removed and used on the back side of the dam. If I had put it in the dam, it would surely have leaked

 

[k0ua]

As for your first few tries to scoop and dig with a FEL, I am man enough to "fess up" and say my first results were pretty pathetic. Although I started on an old 2 stick valve, and that does not help, but still I think it will take a while to get really good with FEL operation for anyone. And about the time you think you are getting pretty good, then try holding a smooth grade while removing a small amount of material.. Smooth enough to run a lawn mower over. It will take all of your skill and concentration. Of course there are other ways to smooth things out.!

 

[Beltman60]

make sure you look the tractor over very well
look for hoses that looked kinked or maybe not routed the best or protected the best and have your dealer fix things like these before it becomes a problem
also look for leaks
a drip now could be a big problem later

keeping it clean helps locate some of these areas

my :2cents:

 

[jel1988]

First take some pictures, I dropped some asphalt chunks on the hood before I got the camera out.

 

[KiotiJason]

Yep definitely plan on taking pictures. I'm not to worried about digging a pond for the time being as I have plenty of stone and rock to clear up with the four in one. I like he idea of he box blades, I've been watching them on utube. My driveway is in need of a fair bit of work I thought I would see how the 4 in 1 goes before I get to purchasing any more attachments. I'll still have the old grader blade but with old tracker it really was next to useless as the ground is very compacted. Thanks again for the advice and tips. I'll pic up a touque wrench and a couple of tubes of grease. I've thought about arming up the 4 in 1 as I happen to work for a company called Bisalloy that makes Q&T plate for the mining and quarrying industry. I've seen some I'd the buckts on here with dogs on the side edges of the 4 in 1 to grip Logs which I thinks a good ideas and I cannot recall if my machine has those. Now Just waiting for the dealers call on a delivery datevand time......