Digging with a FEL..

[texasjohn]

black rat, go ahead and get tooth bar....you'll wonder how you got along without it...many TBN threads discuss how to mount and use, just search them out.

 

[vtsnowedin]

If your going to dig full buckets of dirt all day you need to have your tractor fully ballasted as per it's loaders manual. Most of the implements you hang on the back are too light and a lot of ballast boxes and concrete barrels are still not enough. For example my 5045E needs 2000 lbs on the 3PH plus filled tires or wheel weights for heavy duty use (Digging or loading manure) . That takes the large size ballast box full of concrete. A 55 gallon drum full of concrete will only weight 1100. The width of the rear tires is not a problem and wider is better for safety. Just make one pass down the right side then the next down the left keeping the face your digging out wider then your rears. I loaded for years with a four foot wide bucket on a seven foot wide David Brown.
I too would save those bricks for road fill. push them into the wet spots in a foot thick layer then cover with six inches of gravel.

 

[clovergamecock]

Thanks! I think my rear tires are only about half full of water. Should that be more? I have my box blade on the back but yes I am getting a good bit of tire spin. Is there a way I can increase the ballast weight without having to buy a ballast attachment. The tooth bars are about $300 so that is about all in the budget for now.

For the road base. Are you all saing to crush the bricks and then spread? If so, what can I use to crush them? I have a 900' gravel driveway that gets holes in the same place everytime I fix them. These are in 2 turns so I am guessing it is the weight of the vehicle going around them? Having the well drillers trucks out here this weekend just made things worse!!!

 

[dex3361]

Keep in mind weight on the 3PH keep a portion of the weight off of the front axle much of the time. Think of it this way if you put to much weight on the 3PH the front wheels will lift off of the ground. No weight on the 3PH and enough weight in the FEL bucket and the rear wheels will lift off of the ground. The right combo lies somewhere in between.

 

[newbury]

Strap weight on the box blade. Concrete blocks for a starter, or a box of broken bricks . The further back without damaging the BB the better.

 

[vtsnowedin]

Thanks! I think my rear tires are only about half full of water. Should that be more? I have my box blade on the back but yes I am getting a good bit of tire spin. Is there a way I can increase the ballast weight without having to buy a ballast attachment. The tooth bars are about $300 so that is about all in the budget for now.

For the road base. Are you all saing to crush the bricks and then spread? If so, what can I use to crush them? I have a 900' gravel driveway that gets holes in the same place everytime I fix them. These are in 2 turns so I am guessing it is the weight of the vehicle going around them? Having the well drillers trucks out here this weekend just made things worse!!!

Properly filled tires are about 70% full. This covers all the metal with fluid but leaves an air pocket that allows the tire to flex. Covering the rim is important if your tires have calcium chloride in them for antifreeze. Not as important with rimguard ,the modern product. Again you owners manual will tell you how much weight you get from fluid filling your tires and the right amount of ballast to protect your front axle from excessive wear while doing heavy loader work.
If cost is a problem put on the heaviest thing you have and take smaller buckets and travel loaded as little as possible.
No need to crush the bricks. You can mix some sand with them and make a "cubist gravel" or just push them in in a thick layer and tread them in by driving over them with your tractor which will break some and lock them together. If your at the max grade you want, dig out a foot and a half of the failed soil that is there then add you bricks and gravel cap to get back to grade. If grade isn't critical just push the bricks into the mud and add your gravel on top raising the whole road and improving drainage. You might be able to dig off the top gravel you have and stockpile it then dig out and install the bricks then put the old gravel back on top.

 

[radioman]

Many good advice here -- my advice is going to be redudant - You can dig with the FEL - it just takes time and you can't exactly scoop up more dirt. I used my fel to dig a ramp down to where I need to use my BH since it wouldnt reach the depth I was aiming for. (20 ft deep with 6 ft BH reach.)
The hardest part is backing up the 45% ramp with a FEL full of dirt and it was all the way up to prevent dirt falling out. Talk about pucker factor all day long.

You cant have too much weight in the back. loaded tires and whatever you can put on the back for weight.

 

[vtsnowedin]

I looked up your L2800 on tractor data. 3PH will lift 1433lbs and the front loader will lift 1142 at the pins. A 55 gallon drum on the 3PH should be plenty for your tractor but check your loaders om to be sure.

 

[TripleR]

Excellent advice on which I cannot improve beyond my father in law paid to have some rip-rap buried before I found out about it and regretted it the rest of his life. We have used rip-rap as well as ricks for filler etc. on our farms and get it anytime we can.

 

[rbarker]

Many good advice here -- my advice is going to be redudant - You can dig with the FEL - it just takes time and you can't exactly scoop up more dirt. I used my fel to dig a ramp down to where I need to use my BH since it wouldnt reach the depth I was aiming for. (20 ft deep with 6 ft BH reach.)
The hardest part is backing up the 45% ramp with a FEL full of dirt and it was all the way up to prevent dirt falling out. Talk about pucker factor all day long.

You cant have too much weight in the back. loaded tires and whatever you can put on the back for weight.

WOW! Talk about dangerous! I'm sure you were very careful but I suspect a good deal of luck was involved too.

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[creeky]

I don't know how much digging you need to do, but I used my fel to dig a 100 foot ditch in an afternoon.
Basically I rocked the fel back and forth on an angle (kinda like texasjohns pic) until I got under the grass/weeds. then I took off the top layer. then I went back to area and just dug it out. took a rock back and forth sometimes to get started but once it was in it would cut through the soil okay.
The soil was mostly silt though. so ...
One thing for you guyz with soft soil driveways. i'm using road tarp, kinda expensive, but once you put it down your gravel can't migrate into the ground. then I used 3" crushed rock (the jagged crushed rock locks together) 4" deep and then put a 1-2" layer of 5/8 road surface. two years and it's still good. probably dress it a bit this year.
I got this technique from a U of Minnesota I found online.

 

[like2wheel]

Many good advice here -- my advice is going to be redudant - You can dig with the FEL - it just takes time and you can't exactly scoop up more dirt. I used my fel to dig a ramp down to where I need to use my BH since it wouldnt reach the depth I was aiming for. (20 ft deep with 6 ft BH reach.)
The hardest part is backing up the 45% ramp with a FEL full of dirt and it was all the way up to prevent dirt falling out. Talk about pucker factor all day long.

You cant have too much weight in the back. loaded tires and whatever you can put on the back for weight.

WOW! Talk about dangerous! I'm sure you were very careful but I suspect a good deal of luck was involved too.

Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

Yeah, sounds interesting.
20 feet down w/ a BX? I'd like to hear more about that project!

 

[Deano]

Many good advice here -- my advice is going to be redudant - You can dig with the FEL - it just takes time and you can't exactly scoop up more dirt. I used my fel to dig a ramp down to where I need to use my BH since it wouldnt reach the depth I was aiming for. (20 ft deep with 6 ft BH reach.)
The hardest part is backing up the 45% ramp with a FEL full of dirt and it was all the way up to prevent dirt falling out. Talk about pucker factor all day long.

You cant have too much weight in the back. loaded tires and whatever you can put on the back for weight.

Pictures!!!

 

[radioman]

Sorry guys -- I know you gonna hate - but these are the only pics I took. It was for a sewer project I was working on and couldnt find pic that had me driving down digging out a ramp to go deeper for my BH. If you can picture this - its a single lane going straight down to hole. I literally had to sit back on seat hard to keep the cutout from kicking in. The top of the ground was waaaayy above the rops and all I saw was walls going down and back up. I was trying to find the old sewer pipe from the sinkhole I found in the yard and was trying to figure out what happened. The old clay pipes actually sunk over 8 ft from original position in middle of yard. It was over 6 feet deep at house end,, the old main sewer was even deeper then that under the street. It actually sucked there since most of the soil was ashes from old landfill from 1920's. Found lots of intact old bottles too.

 

[mike69440]

use a toothbar but expect to move 10x more dirt than using a backhoe/excavator.

More more dirt than an excavator? Huh? Same size excavator as tractor with toothbar should outdig tractor at least 5X-10X. Problem with excavator is you need dump truck or trailer to haul away spoils.
PS my L39 with HD toothbar bucket digs well, but it is no excavator.

Toothbar for a bolt on Try Long.

 

[bucktaker]

I have used my pallet forks as kinda of a pick. Stick them in and break up the ground as deep as it will go then switch to the bucket to dig it out. never needed a hole deeper than 3-4 ft deep

 

[David Devuono]

Just thinking about how much more traction I have with AGs on my MF135 going forward as opposed to reverse. Makes my wonder if during the ramp digging process if one could reverse out of the hole easier with the Rear tires flipped side to side? Don't know if there would be much difference with R4's. My plan is to dig out a basement for my retirement home. As it will be in a hill side I won't be backing out of much of a hole though.

 

[cartod]

Seems like a middle buster with a whole lot of weight strapped to it, combined with a toothed FEL would be the perfect setup for a dig.

 

[jobguy]

I sharpened the cutting edge on the bucket which made a world of difference. By the time you finish the lip will be dull (and safe) again. When I dig out Lilac bushes I also sharpen the side edges which helps cut roots.

 

[bullockcm]

More more dirt than an excavator? Huh? Same size excavator as tractor with toothbar should outdig tractor at least 5X-10X. Problem with excavator is you need dump truck or trailer to haul away spoils.
PS my L39 with HD toothbar bucket digs well, but it is no excavator.

Toothbar for a bolt on Try Long.

Not to speak for sierradmax but I am fairly certain you aren't understanding what he meant. I believe he meant you would need to move significantly more dirt with the tractor than the backhoe/excavator to accomplish the same result. Not that the tractor would out dig the backhoe/excavator by a factor of 10.