Floating the loader on Kubota BX

[slibrar]

Hello everyone! I have been lurking for a while, but only recently registered an account. What a great wealth of information on your forums. Really nice people too.

I received my new BX23s yesterday. Wonderful little tool. I spent about 3 hours working chores yesterday and I am really impressed what this little thing can do. One of the first things I did was install the Piranha Tooth Bar on my loader, since I have a lot of bush to clear on my land. The delivery guy was really great and spent about 1.5 hours orienting me with the BX.

One of the things he told me was to, to protect the loader, is to have the loader in the float position when I am attacking jobs with the loader. Like dirt mounds, bushes, or small roots from bushes. He said something to the effect that the tubes that are in the loader could bend otherwise. Something about the float position that protects them. I searched the entire manual and I googled a lot and I couldn't fine any information that talked about this in detail.

Anyone know about this? Confirm? Also, I would love to read up on "best practices" that keep me from breaking my family's new very important tool. Thanks ahead of time for the feedback.

 

[4570Man]

Float is useful for some things but he’s wrong about that. Using float while driving forward usually results in the tractor lifting the front end and trying to drive over the loader. To activate float you give the loader control stick a firm push forward and it should click into a detent.

 

[oosik]

Welcome to TBN and this forum - slibrar. So I checked my Op Manual(covers Kubota M5040, M6040 & M7040 with LA 1153 FEL and buckets). It very adequately describes how to put the FEL bucket in float. But NOTHING about using the float position to protect your hydraulics from damage.

Just remember - that new toy of yours - just like my 2009 Kubota M6040 - is NOT a bulldozer. You can do minor digging with the FEL/bucket but nothing that would be considered major. Heavy major digging action can damage the hydraulics.

Here is what it DOES say about float -

- a bucket in the float position will cause less wear on the bucket than putting down pressure on the bucket (DUH)

- float will avoid mixing surface material with stockpiled material

- float will reduce chances of surface gouging


But not a single word about the float position being used to save the hydraulics from damage.

BTW - I tried the float position once - just to see how it worked. It started doing exactly what 4570 man describes. The lip of the bucket caught on the ground - started to curl down - the entire tractor began to lift up and would have rolled the bucket under and walked right over it.

I caught it in plenty of time and just raised the FEL - got the bucket off the ground.

 

[atitus74]

My guess is that the instruction to use float was for a specific task -- I don't understand how float could protect anything as a general case. The main issues that I know of with risk to the hydraulics all fall into 3 cases:

1. Damaging the hoses by catching them on rocks, logs other debris.

2. Getting logs or other objects caught in between the loader bucket and the arms, or the arms and the frame such that it could bend

3. Extreme force with the hydraulics fully extended -- for example dragging backward (or going forward at speed) with the bucket tipped all the way down and you catch on something.

If you can remember the specific case with respect to float, share it, may bring up some more thoughts.

 

[TripleR]

Pretty much what everyone else said. The only time you can effectively use float going forward is moving snow on a very hard surface like concrete with the front lip angled up slightly.

I use float for back dragging, smoothing out dirt, rock etc., control the front lip to feather using curl/dump. You can also move material in reverse controlling th amount varying angle on the heel, sometimes dd a bit of weight by loading dirt etc. in the buck.

We use the same techniques on our BX, GL and M8540. I can't advise anyone to do this, it just works for us and we have six tractors with loaders and no problems since 1986 when we bought our first one good luck.

 

[diesel85]

Also, don't move heavy objects or back drag with the loader at it's fulcrum. Bad things can happen.

For your safety and others, always set the loader down on the ground before leaving the machine. You don't need a child or pet getting pinned under a loader when no one is around. Also, don't use it as a platform either or "ladder" holder.

 

[slibrar]

All excellent replies. Thanks a bunch

 

[dodge man]

The only way I use float is for back dragging, in other words while backing up. You can control the amount of material you move by the angle of the bucket. This works well on loose material, like gravel or dirt you are spreading out. I also use float when moving snow along my driveway while going forward, but its also paved.

 

[bunyip]

I use float for levelling loose material and slowly curl the bucket at the end so it is a smooth finish and not a bump, on packed material it will just ride over it so you need to use the nnormal control and adjust while back dragging.

 

[dalola]

I think everyone is offering sound advise on this, sans the original instruction. Careful operation is really the only thing that will protect your hydraulic system. Understand your job at hand, limitations of your tractor, and proper operating procedures.

I personally find float useful for "loose" material tasks, such as removing snow from my asphalt driveway, grading top soil or mulch, etc.. Otherwise, it's full-on hydraulic position for most everything else.

Enjoy your new BX!