Float question

[simonmeridew]

What's happening is that even though you are in "float" position in the up/down of the FEL, the cutting edge of the bucket is set to an excessively aggressive angle by tilting it too far down,and because you are in "float" for the up/down position the blade edge is actually digging in and pulling the bucket DOWN, being allowed to do so because it can "float".
In a rather gross example think of a safety razor blade set at too aggressive angle and will dig in and cut off your skin in pieces rather than glide across at whisker level.
Back to the FEL, the solution would be to lessen the angle of attack of the bucket by tilting up slightly. If the surface you are plowing off is very level, that is no ups and downs, no dips and rises, you can set and forget, but if there are ups and downs the angle needs to be adjusted as the surface changes. You can tell by the sound of the scraping when you need to bump the control angle back or forward.

simonmeridew

 

[rk246]

I was spreading gravel yesterday and experienced the same thing, I found it works great going in reverse, but trying to go forward would not work well with the bucket edge at a right angle to the ground. I then just started going in reverse instead and found that worked much better. With snow I guess that would be tougher to do. I will soon find out we just today started getting our first real snow for the winter....

 

[daTeacha]

Let me toss a couple of things into this mix. I use my FEL, which does not have float, to make my gravel drive on a hill passable with ice on it. I have a gear drive B7100 with factory loader, a 630 I believe.

I have made a set of 4 forks out of 1x2 channel steel. The forks are welded square to another piece of the same material, all of them with the open part of the channel facing up. The cross piece and each fork are drilled for bolts. The forks bolt to the heavy cutting edge of the loader, the cross piece is set back about 6" and the bolts anchor through another piece of the same stock on the bottom side, reinforcing the bolt holes. The whole thing looks like a 4 bar letter E with the forks sticking out about 10" from the front of the bucket. The leading edges are cut at an angle of about 30 degrees from the horizontal. I made this thing for ripping out multiflora, moving manure, picking up logs, etc.

When working the driveway, I set the loader at a downward angle to put the forks on the ice, but not vertical. Driving forward, the edges dig in and rip grooves in the ice along with the occasional good size chunk. Going backward, I lift the bucket, dump it completely, lower it enough to just about take the wheels up, and then back down the hill. The forks tear up the ice, and the front end comes up fairly often. I make several trips down the drive, using the steering brakes to guide my path. If it's really icy, I also make some cuts across the drive.

Then I use the rear blade to more or less smooth things over and get the ruts and big chunks out. It also brings the stuff from the sides, which is full of gravel, back into the main traffic way. The end result is a very nice gravel/ice chunk layer over the roughened up frozen gravel drive. It's easy to navigate the hill and curves for all comers.

If you have a tooth bar, I think it will work like my rooter forks, but use the weight of the front end to put some pressure on the points. Don't use float.

Of course, if your driveway is paved, this whole thing is not a good idea unless you want your driveway all scratched up. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif