OK, I got the hang of it now. I've been digging a hole in the back yard and filling it in repeatedly for practice. I tried the float position to roughly grade the dirt and it worked pretty well. I then used it to even out the stones in my driveway and it worked great. Thanks for your help.
Loader I found the float position--Now what?
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EE_Bota
Veteran Member
The handiest thing about float is it can place your bucket on the ground.
You can't see much right in front of the bucket.
Is is 1/2" above ground, or flat on the ground, or is it lifting the tractor up slightly, so when I go forward it will dig into the ground?
If I go to float, it is ON THE GROUND. You can know this merely by going to float, whereas without float, you may either have to get off the tractor to look, or you may be quicker just cutting the tractor off, and then going down on the boom, and then restarting the tractor. So, if float accomplished only this, it would be well worth the money.
What if you want the bucket 1/2 " off the ground. You guessed it.. It is much easier to float to the ground, then guess at a 1/2" raise than it is to lower from some height to 1/2."
I hope this helps and does not sound like nonsense:
Float is useful going forward or backwards, but has different goals depending on direction. I must be hungry, because every problem has a food analogy.
Specifically to your question, if backdragging, you are spreading butter on toast or whitebread. Whitebread requires a flattish angle generally, but you can vary the angle to leave more or less butter on the bread. Flatter angle leaves more, sharper angle leaves less, and too sharp scrapes a hole in the bread. The same is true for toast, but you can use sharper angles without scraping a hole in the toast. Melted butter requires flatter angles, butter from the fridge requires sharper angles.
In backdragging, you CAN see the material under the bucket usually, so adjusting your angle to bring more or leave more is easy with practice.
Let's dig 2" into soft ground: Visualize this as a knife peeling an apple. You know the blade will follow it's cutting edge, so you rotate the knife around its cutting edge as you push through the apple. Minor angle changes determine if you go deeper into the apple, or cut out of the apple, abandoning the peel in place.
Go to float, and stay in float throughout this scenario. Once you start your cut, you will go forward continuously with a slow uniform speed, and you will not stop until your cut is done.
Turn the bucket at an angle where if we go forward, it will dig. Go forward slowly, watching the boom drop further, and try to guess two inches drop. Done right, you should be able to note your depth by looking just behind the blade. As you approach 2" depth, level the bucket out flat, all the while staying in float.
Now, as you go far enough forward that your front wheels drop into the 2" cutting you have started, your rear wheels are now 2" higher than the front wheels. Due to float, you will not necessarily start digging deeper than the 2" you desire. If not for float, you would be digging SIGNIFICANTLY deeper at that point.
Eventually, your rear tires drop into the cut. Again, no big deal, since the boom is moving independently of the tractor angle, so there is no need to compensate when the front wheels drop in, and no need to reverse the compensation when the rears drop in.
As you continue forward, you control the bucket depth by the angle of the bucket curl. If you need a bit deeper, curl downward while going forward slowly, and when the bucket reaches the new depth, curl to flat again.
To dig less deep, curl upward while going forward, and the bucket should cut to a shallower depth.
If you ever need to cut below grade, think of peeling an apple, use your float, and you should have better luck you would have experienced otherwise.
I didn't say you will get perfect results. Cutting below grade with a FEL is needed relatively rarely and takes practice. [Rarely needed and takes practice] <= see the potential for frustration?
JOHNTHOMAS
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This is good, really good. I've learned some better ways from this post Mr. Bota. Thanks.
rdsaustintx
Veteran Member
Thanks EE. I was starting to wonder about a few post in this thread. Um, it's called float and curl. 
When skimming material off grade, *always* float. If the bucket angle is right, your front wheels just barely lift and you'll get a smooth cut the whole way.
When skimming material off grade, *always* float. If the bucket angle is right, your front wheels just barely lift and you'll get a smooth cut the whole way.
savageactor7
Platinum Member
Huh, the few times I've used float over the years was when I was moving loose piles of aggregate sand gravel etc and wanted the bucket level for another scoop.
When I'm back bladeing to level an area I'm always manipulating the bucket up/down whatever. Float wouldn't be much help to me there...maybe when I was finished, I dunno.
When I'm back bladeing to level an area I'm always manipulating the bucket up/down whatever. Float wouldn't be much help to me there...maybe when I was finished, I dunno.
KU Gator
Platinum Member
I agree the manual is not very helpful on this feature. I emailed ChuckinNH to get help on how to even get it into Float. I found it very useful this winter in removing snow drifts. Made it really easy on the concrete pad in front of the garage. On the rock drive it was a little bit more challenging. But by watching what was being left and listening to the sound, you could tell if you were digging in the rock or riding too high and leaving too much.
Good post EE Bota.
Good post EE Bota.
That kinda/sorta depends on you.
What do you WANT to do next ?
It can be a useful function for any number of tasks, but using it while driving FORWARDS is probably not a good idea initially.
With the bucket rolled forwards just a little bit from level a floated bucket can be used IN REVERSE to smooth out an area without really moving much material around.
The more you roll the bucket towards dump the more it will tend to scrape material and move it.
With practice..... you could even become one of those guys that swears "everything" can be done with the bucket (-:
Don't go too far with this, as the bottom of the bucket gets close to 90 degrees from the ground it can become a real blade. It can catch on stuff, dig in, even trash the FEL cylinders (so I'm told, though I haven't - yet).
To move material it is usually best/easiest to curl the bucket all the way in, drop it over the pile and pull using the actual back of the bucket, not the bottom.
According to how far beyond horizontal you can curl your bucket you MIGHT be able to do some of this going forwards, just riding the bucket up and over stuff, but don't expect to move much material that way, the angle will be too shallow.
If the bucket gets too much "traction" (drag) the tractor is likely to rise up on it, i.e. the front wheels will come off the ground and your loader will fold back until it hits whatever stops you have. Without knowing your particular tractor and loader I can't say if that would do damage, but this is not something to try out on day one.
IF you do this and it starts to do what you want your next frustration will be that will the front wheels off the ground you have no steering.
Ah Hahh !!!
Now maybe its time to separate the TWO brake pedals - and maybe, just MAYBE that is why some folk call those TWO brakes "STEERING BRAKES" (-:
Just be sure your loader can take it - and I don't mean by destructive level testing (-:
broncorm
Member
Float is what you want to use with a front mounted snowblower. SB just glides across not digging in.