FEL Techniques

[lakngulf]

I have some experience using an FEL, and will no doubt learn a lot by trial and error. Among the jobs I anticpate are scooping and moving piles of dirt, scooping and piling rip-rap around my sea wall, filling and turning a huge compost pile, clearing log roads of fallen trees and limbs, clearing debris from open ares in the woods for food plots, clearing and preparing an additional driveway/parking area in the woods behind my house, setting in place some 20' 6x6 posts, rebuilding the ditches on each side of my 1/4 mile driveway through the woods, preparing a couple of sections of the ditch for 20' culverts, etc.

My question is this: What are some good techinques to keep in mind when doing these types of jobs? Better yet, what are some "don't do this"? For instance, as I pushed some debris and limbs from a log road recently I found it difficult to do with the bucket level to the ground. This scooped too much soil. I tried it with the bucket perpindicular to the ground, as though you had just dumped a load of dirt, and this seemed to work pretty good. But I wondered it that would cause damage.

All tips, and avoids, will be appreciated.

 

[bigdad]

I have some experience using an FEL, and will no doubt learn a lot by trial and error. Among the jobs I anticpate are scooping and moving piles of dirt, scooping and piling rip-rap around my sea wall, filling and turning a huge compost pile, clearing log roads of fallen trees and limbs, clearing debris from open ares in the woods for food plots, clearing and preparing an additional driveway/parking area in the woods behind my house, setting in place some 20' 6x6 posts, rebuilding the ditches on each side of my 1/4 mile driveway through the woods, preparing a couple of sections of the ditch for 20' culverts, etc.

My question is this: What are some good techinques to keep in mind when doing these types of jobs? Better yet, what are some "don't do this"? For instance, as I pushed some debris and limbs from a log road recently I found it difficult to do with the bucket level to the ground. This scooped too much soil. I tried it with the bucket perpindicular to the ground, as though you had just dumped a load of dirt, and this seemed to work pretty good. But I wondered it that would cause damage.

All tips, and avoids, will be appreciated.

Milton,

All equipment has different characteristics and it's what you get used to. Try different things and you will get the hang of your particular FEL and what works best for your chores.

Does your FEL have a float feature? If it does, there are some pretty handy things you can do while it's in that mode.

Before you know it, you will moving around like that FEL is another part of your body.

BD

 

[Deano]

ALWAYS keep the load in your FEL as low as you can travel with it. When the tractor starts tipping, you will never be quick enough to lower it to prevent roll over.

Deano

 

[6thgpSF]

read your manual for your fel and practice,practice,practice. go low and slow when moving stuff. russ

 

[MossRoad]

For loose material learn how to "crowd" the bucket with the forward momentum of the tractor. With the bucket parallel to the ground and a couple inches off the ground push into the bottom of the pile. Curl and lift the bucket at the same time you move forward. Those motions combined together will fill the bucket very fast as you lift it, crowding material into the bucket with gravity. As you start to back away, lower your bucket to a few inches above the ground so you do not carry the load higher than necessary.

If you have a truck to load, park the truck at a 45 degree angle to the pile instead of a 90 degree angle. That way you can back out of the pile and only turn a little bit to one side and be perpendicular to the truck. Don't lift the bucket high as you make a turn. Wait until you are perpendicular to the truck before lifting.

Get a quick attach system for your FEL arms and get adapters for your bucket(s).

Get a bucket with teeth or a removable tooth bar. They are indispensable for loading rocks (you mentioned rip rap) as the teeth get between the rocks. A straight edge is he** to get through rocks.

Get some pallet forks that are adjustable side to side. Great for moving stuff AND for fluffing up compost!

Get a grapple. I wish I had one.

Practice slowly and have fun.

 

[carpenter383]

You're not supposed to curl the bucket to the dump position and use it to move material. It could bend the curl cylinders.
If you get a floppy bucket then you can bleed the air by dumping the bucket with the lever in fast dump and hold it at it's stops for a couple seconds. I find that if I keep the rpm's up around 1600-1800 or more I don't get a floppy bucket. If I use the fel at low rpms the bucket gets floppy.

 

[Thomas]

When in doubt back off..watch good operator for tips.

 

[SPYDERLK]

For instance, as I pushed some debris and limbs from a log road recently I found it difficult to do with the bucket level to the ground. This scooped too much soil. I tried it with the bucket perpindicular to the ground, as though you had just dumped a load of dirt, and this seemed to work pretty good. But I wondered it that would cause damage.

All tips, and avoids, will be appreciated.

You're not supposed to curl the bucket to the dump position and use it to move material. It could bend the curl cylinders.

This works especially well with a tooth bar. You cant bend the curl cylinders when pushing, but go slo so you can make appropriate height adjustments.
larry

 

[MarkV]

Although many do it, I agree that pushing or back blading with your bucket in a full dump setting puts the cylinder rods fully extended and in their weakest position. Use caution.

A tooth bar is a wonderful attachment for the jobs you have mentioned.

An other general tip is do not lift or pry from one corner of your bucket. Not only can it cause stability issues it is also possible to bend a loader arm in extreme situations.

Be sure to have enough counter weight on your 3pt hitch. Again stability is a big point and it also transfers weight from the front axle when doing heavy loader work.

MarkV

 

[Scotty370]

I had many of the same chores, and found the bucket itself, just isn't the right tool. With help frrom members on this board I was able to fab up a root rake/ grapple. Works awesome! Especially for brush/branches/compost that you speak of: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/build-yourself/143329-unveiling-willl-da-beast-ii.html

This is a home-built but they're available for purchase. Search "grapple". ~Scotty

 

[deepNdirt]

I know what you mean! I'm kinda a beginner with the Fel myself, just yesterday I attempt to load from a large 5 ft x 10ft wide pile of leafs I've been gathering to put in the Garden, the 1 st go at them only pushed the pile over very little went into the bucket the second attempt I laid the bucket level with the ground and then got what i thought was a full scoop, but when I dump them was only about half bucket,
I'm moving these leafs from a pile 200 ft away from the garden spot, many trips would be needed, I've come to realize because of the leafs being so light weight and not easily loaded I've decided to simply rake them into the bucket and then move them over to the garden although this will be a lot of off andon the tractor so actually I may simply rake them onto a large tarp and drag them over there all at one time so much for the convenience of having a FEL.
some task are just not worth the hassle of trying to use a FEL,

On another note: it took me a while to get the hang of using a single joystick ya know the thing of being up is down down is up, left curl up right curl down
though I have got quite handy at scooping up dirt, I find if you go into the ground at about 2" or at approx 10/15* angle and pull straight forward until the tire just start to break traction I can then curl the bucket back to being level with the ground and finish pulling forward grabbing a full scoop then go to full curl lift and drive away, having a tooth bar would help break the soil loose before scooping,
I have also learned to back drag the driveway although not as have been suggest to me by using the heal of the bucket, this just made the tractor hop and spin wheels resulting in digging ruts, I can however drop the front cutting edge of the bucket just enough to barely lift the tractors front end i then locked the diffy and back dragged until it was nice and smooth,
.........as said before "practice makes perfect"

 

[dave1949]

Moving brush with a bucket is a pain, but if that's all you have it can be done. I pile the brush or push it into a pile so all the sapplings, limbs etc. are parallel to each other. Then I push the pile from the side with the cutting edge of the bucket raised just slightly off the ground. Sometimes it will start to roll under the bucket, you have to back up and get below it again. It will make a fairly tight roll after a bit that hangs together. A big pile is easier to push than a small one.

Never cut brush and sapplings into short pieces if you intend to push them with the tractor bucket. You will chase those forever and probably end up gathering them by hand. Keep things at least 8' long. 12' to 15' is even better.

Logs are easier to move by pushing on either end rather than the side if you are going any distance. You can steer them a bit too. Watch out for too much speed, if the log you are pushing gets stuck it will jump sideways in your bucket. This is hard on equipment and will jerk the front of tractor to the side too.

Obviously a grapple would be nice to have, especially if you want to move things more than 100'-200'.
Dave.

 

[lakngulf]

Thanks for the tips so far. Keep 'em coming. Few more questions:

1. Explain more how the float function can help with some of the jobs. I have that setting, kinda know how to get there, but have not tried it.
2. I thought the pushing with bucket completely dropped might put the FEL in an awkward postion pushing forward. What about using it to pull things backward, and level, as has been mentioned. I have used it that way several time.
3. I will look into some bucket attachments, like tooth bar, forks. At this point I am trying to use the equipment I have.
4. What is a "floppy bucket"
5. Thanks for the rpm tip. I have probably been operating at rpm too low

 

[Egon]

I'd suggest the first thing you do with the bucket is cut off the existing cutting edge and replace it with some 1/2 by 4or6 inch. cutting edge. Do the front edge on the sides too. Also place several strips on the bottom.

That will really stiffen up the bucket.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Thanks for the tips so far. Keep 'em coming. Few more questions:

1. Explain more how the float function can help with some of the jobs. I have that setting, kinda know how to get there, but have not tried it.
2. I thought the pushing with bucket completely dropped might put the FEL in an awkward postion pushing forward. What about using it to pull things backward, and level, as has been mentioned. I have used it that way several time.
3. I will look into some bucket attachments, like tooth bar, forks. At this point I am trying to use the equipment I have.
4. What is a "floppy bucket"
5. Thanks for the rpm tip. I have probably been operating at rpm too low

Float is good for back blading since in that mode the bucket is free to follow the ground under its own weight. Since you are not pushing it down with the tractor the front wheels are still effective for steering. You can vary the bucket tip angle to adjust the aggressivenes of action. There is some danger of bending a cyl rod when backblading at hi tip angle because the geometry of the pivots multiplies the force pushing on the rod, so be careful especially if not using float and instead pushing down with the weight of the tractor while backing... or pulling logs backward etc. A bucket tipped way down in these cases is verry stressful. The setup on my 7520 seems to be be able to take it, but there are plenty of stories of rod damage on the forum.
Seldom would you use float when pushing forward. Its a little touchy because the arms want to knuckle under.
Floppy bucket is when hydraulic fluid does not completely fill both sides of the cyl ram. It can occur after dumping a heavy load because the fluid in front/rod side of the ram is forced out by the dump weight faster than your control valve replenishes the back side. The result is an unfilled volume on the back. Cycling the hydraulics will bring it back ti normal.
larry

 

[slan]

Back blading works very well using the heal of the bucket and it being half full of material when using float. It then has more weight on the heal so it cuts more effectively. Its also handy when you have a hole or low spot as you already have material in the bucket to fill it.

You can also have it almost flat as well if the material is wet or sticky enough not to roll out of the bucket.