tractorshopper
Veteran Member
Beltzington,
Honestly I have had others say that could be abuse on the loader, but I can assure you, I have dug a lot with mine with no negative consequences at all (and I am not the only one). The tooth bar really breaks the ground up so the bucket slides right in. I look at it like many people change the wheels on their tractors by raising the front end with the loader. Also many people push into piles (which I have also done a lot of) with their loaders. I don't see much difference in pushing into virgin soil other than it could be a little harder on it, but pushing into a pile has the same stresses especially if you approach it at the lower point and curl up and through. It always felt about the same with the tooth bar. You'll lose traction when you can't go in any farther. In virgin ground it's no different and you're basically pushing in until your bucket length is reached or you can skim or peel in over a longer distance until the loader bucket is full or heaping.
I have also popped stumps and trees out up to 6" with my loader. In my opinion that is much more of a stress on the arms and bucket itself and needs to be done with more care since the stresses need to be equalized as much as possible and with using a tooth to pop under a stump you've already dug around some with curl and forward tension, I always tried to alternate between the two most center teeth. Have lifted one side or the other of the tractor off the ground while doing so on an outer tooth several times. If you put all the force on an outer tooth, I could see where you would run into an issue with a potential loader arm overstress to one side.
Seriously, these are very capable machines. Your tractor is no joke and in my opinion is more than qualified enough to perform this task and much more. Look at the stuff the BX and 1026 guys accomplish with theirs. I would take my brothers BX and do your pad job using his loader with tooth bar in about 30-45 minutes. You could do it even faster with yours (assuming it's hydro). I have spread two 20 ton tri-axle loads of crusher run with mine to top off my and my neighbors driveways each taking less than 2.5 hours to lay about 2-3 inches deep. You probably won't be moving 1/4 that volume if only 18" at one end tapering to 0 at the other.
Honestly I have had others say that could be abuse on the loader, but I can assure you, I have dug a lot with mine with no negative consequences at all (and I am not the only one). The tooth bar really breaks the ground up so the bucket slides right in. I look at it like many people change the wheels on their tractors by raising the front end with the loader. Also many people push into piles (which I have also done a lot of) with their loaders. I don't see much difference in pushing into virgin soil other than it could be a little harder on it, but pushing into a pile has the same stresses especially if you approach it at the lower point and curl up and through. It always felt about the same with the tooth bar. You'll lose traction when you can't go in any farther. In virgin ground it's no different and you're basically pushing in until your bucket length is reached or you can skim or peel in over a longer distance until the loader bucket is full or heaping.
I have also popped stumps and trees out up to 6" with my loader. In my opinion that is much more of a stress on the arms and bucket itself and needs to be done with more care since the stresses need to be equalized as much as possible and with using a tooth to pop under a stump you've already dug around some with curl and forward tension, I always tried to alternate between the two most center teeth. Have lifted one side or the other of the tractor off the ground while doing so on an outer tooth several times. If you put all the force on an outer tooth, I could see where you would run into an issue with a potential loader arm overstress to one side.
Seriously, these are very capable machines. Your tractor is no joke and in my opinion is more than qualified enough to perform this task and much more. Look at the stuff the BX and 1026 guys accomplish with theirs. I would take my brothers BX and do your pad job using his loader with tooth bar in about 30-45 minutes. You could do it even faster with yours (assuming it's hydro). I have spread two 20 ton tri-axle loads of crusher run with mine to top off my and my neighbors driveways each taking less than 2.5 hours to lay about 2-3 inches deep. You probably won't be moving 1/4 that volume if only 18" at one end tapering to 0 at the other.
