Help: How to level with a front end loader

[Ivan49]

Best advice I can give you is go slow and make sure the ground is soft before you start. I have done it many times but won't say how many times I messed up.

 

[nschneid]

OK, what implements do you have, Mate?

I have a FEL, brush hog, and 12" auger. So not much of any of what you used.

 

[k0ua]

I have a FEL, brush hog, and 12" auger. So not much of any of what you used.

maybe some photo's of what you are trying to do, with the tractor parked in the middle of it for scale?

 

[Mechanos]

It's not too difficult if you have the skill to make dynamic bucket adjustments on the fly. I can tell you that you won't be able to much of anything without a toothbar on your bucket. The "trick" is start scooping up some dirt and dump it on the low side of your "launch pad". It doesn't have to be finish graded... just build up the low side. Drive over it a few times to pack it down. Keep doing this until you have the bucket sitting at the slope (or level) that you want the finished grade to be. Whatever angle the bucket is at when you start determines the angle of the finished grade. Now that you have established your grade... have at it.

Here's a couple pictures of my first ever dirt moving project with a FEL. In the first picture you can see the rolling, sloped terrain that I started out with. The second picture shows the area dug out and leveled. The project is not finished in the second picture but it shows the once uneven terrain nice and level.

 

[duroc]

Edited: This picture shows the area dug out and leveled. View attachment 327005

Looks pretty good, but I bet it took a month of Sundays to move that much dirt.

 

[94BULLITT]

Go to youtube and search grading with a skid steer. The same basic principles will apply. The best thing is seat time. It is hard to grade with a tractor because you can not control the bucket side to side.

 

[Mechanos]

Looks pretty good, but I bet it took a month of Sundays to move that much dirt.

It was a fair amount of dirt... and the stock pile was big.

 

[Mechanos]

... It is hard to grade with a tractor because you can not control the bucket side to side.

I disagree. You control the attitude of the bucket with the dirt you're moving. If the left side of the bucket is low... you dump some dirt in your left side wheel tracks to raise that side of the bucket. Once you get the get the bucket on the plane you want, it digs out at that angle. Then you can turn around and sit on the "level" area you just dug out to dig out the "launch pad" you created to set the bucket angle.

 

[Midniteoyl]

When you level for a pool, you do not want to fill in low spots. Always take down the high.

Youtube is your friend

 

[Egon]

Suggest you lay out the pool area and determine the present elevations and the final one.

If its even hillside their are sorta two options. One is cut and fill. The other is just straight cut.

In either case start your cut at the bottom facing straight uphill. Do a full length bucket width keeping it level. Then move over 1/2 a bucket width and do the same thing until the cut is finished.

On the fill side start dumping dirt right at the transition point and keep it level as you keep dumping dirt.

If it starts to get outa wack go have a pint or two, relax and then return working by picking a spot to level and work from there.

Easy to talk but a lot harder to do.