First real day on new BX25D... need encouragement!

[dragoneggs]

Okay title of thread not so appropriate anymore. Not discouraged anymore. A beautiful day, sunny and 80+ degrees and lots of seat time. Gravel delivered as perfectly planned. Driver a master. Half of 10 yards dumped at top and the rest at the bottom. Moved most all of the bottom pile up the hill and finished off about 100ft. Now I am falling in love with my FEL. Got pretty decent spreading a nearly full bucket each load without hardly spilling a drop. Four wheel drive a dream, most of time did not have to lock the differential. Got off every once in a few loads and used my a landscape rake and my foot to finish grade. I didn't backdrag down the hill with my FEL for safety reasons but with such a nice spread the rake was a piece of cake.

Here are a couple pics. First one is my 'snotty' clay spot that is will consume small children left unattended. Putting in drainage pipe and lots of gravel. Second pic looking down hill (steeper than it appears)... happy guy tonight. Weekend will be fun! Might need to install misters on my ROPS! Heard it here first? :cool2:



Thanks to all for the advice and encouragement received! :drink:

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Looks great. OK, next lesson, if you haven't already learned it. When you drive up and especially down your road, drop your bucket with the front edge turned up till bottom smooth part and rear part of bucket is sitting on the ground (where front edge won't grab anything) and push control stick all of the way forward till the bucket is in float and drive. This will smooth/spread out your gravel and push it down into the ground some. After you perfect doing this in float position you can then do the same thing with tractor weight on the bucket by stopping your push on the stick before it goes into the float detent. The tractor will start turning its own direction when you do it under pressure but just push into float, return to pressure after you straighten direction and go again. Loose gravel on top of other gravel isn't good on a slope so you want to get it packed in and then maybe later get a bit more or bunch more if it needs it to finally get a packed gravel road that may even have some bits of dirt showing for awhile.
Next, after some rains you'll see where the water plans to go due to Gods plan. Then ponder what you can do where to understand Gods way of making water drop down instead of go up or crossways, it always goes DOWN if there is a down and it will always show you what down is. Usually will show you with ruts and ditches and washes if there is enough rain. You can fight these indicators if you like but you'll lose eventually or you can use them to show you where you need to plan/build your own ditches/crossovers to get the water down (and it's going to go DOWN) that won't wash your road out and require you to keep adding gravel. Some times there will be places that don't drop radically but they're still going down that may need some big gravel several inches deep with more normal sized gravel at your desired level on top so the water can cross the road going thru the dig gravel that's under the regular sized gravel. Buying plastic pipe can do this but if there are several places that just need a bit of drainage the big gravel may be more appropriate/less expensive/better job.
Always keep your BX25 in 4wd, always except on blacktop/paved roads and if they are steep, then on them to. Never drive it on steep down hill on wet grass, never. Snow is better than wet grass so maybe go snow but not wet grass.
Be really careful operating BH off tractor. It may seem safe but bumping the wrong lever could trap you or your body parts between some pieces of unbending solid steel and your body and its parts will lose that battle.
Again good luck and keep us watchers informed.:thumbsup:

 

[k0ua]

Congratulations on becoming better friends with your FEL. I can remember over 20 years ago my first baby steps to learn about my new "toy" and how to operate its Front End Loader.. I was pretty discouraged at first. In fact I will tell a little story on my self.. I probably shouldnt, but here goes.. I would sometimes station my wife out front to look at the front bucket to act as a spotter to see if I actually scooped up anything. I felt like such an idiot the first few times. But I learned, all it took was some practice. Good luck with your new machine.

James K0UA

 

[dragoneggs]

Looks great. OK, next lesson, if you haven't already learned it. When you drive up and especially down your road, drop your bucket with the front edge turned up till bottom smooth part and rear part of bucket is sitting on the ground (where front edge won't grab anything) and push control stick all of the way forward till the bucket is in float and drive. This will smooth/spread out your gravel and push it down into the ground some. After you perfect doing this in float position you can then do the same thing with tractor weight on the bucket by stopping your push on the stick before it goes into the float detent. The tractor will start turning its own direction when you do it under pressure but just push into float, return to pressure after you straighten direction and go again. Loose gravel on top of other gravel isn't good on a slope so you want to get it packed in and then maybe later get a bit more or bunch more if it needs it to finally get a packed gravel road that may even have some bits of dirt showing for awhile.
Next, after some rains you'll see where the water plans to go due to Gods plan. Then ponder what you can do where to understand Gods way of making water drop down instead of go up or crossways, it always goes DOWN if there is a down and it will always show you what down is. Usually will show you with ruts and ditches and washes if there is enough rain. You can fight these indicators if you like but you'll lose eventually or you can use them to show you where you need to plan/build your own ditches/crossovers to get the water down (and it's going to go DOWN) that won't wash your road out and require you to keep adding gravel. Some times there will be places that don't drop radically but they're still going down that may need some big gravel several inches deep with more normal sized gravel at your desired level on top so the water can cross the road going thru the dig gravel that's under the regular sized gravel. Buying plastic pipe can do this but if there are several places that just need a bit of drainage the big gravel may be more appropriate/less expensive/better job.
Always keep your BX25 in 4wd, always except on blacktop/paved roads and if they are steep, then on them to. Never drive it on steep down hill on wet grass, never. Snow is better than wet grass so maybe go snow but not wet grass.
Be really careful operating BH off tractor. It may seem safe but bumping the wrong lever could trap you or your body parts between some pieces of unbending solid steel and your body and its parts will lose that battle.
Again good luck and keep us watchers informed.:thumbsup:

Good stuff JT... yes I figure the fall rains will 'unearth' several issues to deal with. I noticed that I could be in for a little trouble with water run off as I tended to tilt the path in toward the hill. The path sort of traverses the hill as it descends and I guess I was 'leaning' toward the safe side. I wonder what the water might do when it rains hard.

I do need lots of practice and understanding of the float feature. I find myself floating sometimes but not really knowing what I am doing.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Good stuff JT... yes I figure the fall rains will 'unearth' several issues to deal with. I noticed that I could be in for a little trouble with water run off as I tended to tilt the path in toward the hill. The path sort of traverses the hill as it descends and I guess I was 'leaning' toward the safe side. I wonder what the water might do when it rains hard.

I do need lots of practice and understanding of the float feature. I find myself floating sometimes but not really knowing what I am doing.

The tilt toward the inside is good and will make its own ditch but you can decide where you want the water to run to and then cross over to the down hill side while paying attention that you make it cross over where it will cause you the least damage on its continuing decent.
The float is good for what it does. It sits the bucket on the ground using just the weight of the bucket and the weight of what's in it (load it for more weight) to press down. If you want to crush someone or some thing, get them/it under the bucket and drop it in float and if you want to crush them/it with more weight, put more weight in the bucket. Or compact dirt, gravel, anything you choose. Before the stick reaches float your pressing down with the weight of the tractor and what's on it. When you go into float then the hydraulics releases to allow the bucket to float on its own weight. If you'll work on it you'll discover a useful and great feature of your tractor. I mostly use the float while backing up but there are times it's great going forward but the front bucket edge has to be tilted up or it will just dig in. Float isn't for digging, it's just for pressing weight down while maybe spreading some loose material or object.:thumbsup: