Barely Smokin'
Silver Member
Who says you need a big tractor for earthmoving? 
I thought I'd take some pics of my 790 this morning, showing some of the projects I've done with it.
As you can see, I've managed to do a fair amount of excavating and earthmoving, all with the box blade and bucket. For the garage approach you see here, the earth moving was done first with scarifiers all the way down and the box blade pitched back (so as to collect the spoil). If you can't tell from the pics, that's some pretty serious clay, too. About 1/3 yd at a time, I would scrape the area that needed to be excavated then, using the box blade, transport the spoil to the area that needed filling/leveling. I would dump consecutive loads in a straight line, driving over top of the previous loads until I had 5-6 loads all piled up in a rough line, then I'd push them all with the bucket to get a rough grade on the next pass. I'd use the box blade level and without scarifiers to achieve final grade, along with back-dragging the front bucket.
Most of that big ditch/embankment, however, was excavated with the front bucket. Most people would think you couldn't do this with a CUT, but here's proof. No teeth on the bucket, either. The trick is to spend some time establishing an initial pitch for the ditch by excavating into it perpendicularly then, once you've created a low trench in otherwise level ground, align one set of tires down in that trench and excavate forward along it's length, being careful to average out the high/low spots with frequent back-dragging. With practice you can develop a 'feel' for how much dirt the bucket can excavate while moving forward. I keep the bucket level and shave about 1/2 - 3/4 inch at a time. I watch the dirt just behind the bucket to gauge how much I'm excavating. Also, the bucket will want to cut more aggressively as it fills with spoil, so you need to constantly lift the bucket up as you go along.
Hydraulic relief is somewhere up around 2500 PSI.
Also, on the topic of "tippiness" in the 790 and CUTs in general---note the banks that I've cut into for veggie gardens and roads. Again, these are done almost exclusively by digging into the bank with the bucket and depositing the spoil on the low side until you achieve a level approach. Once you have the tractor at the correct attitude, you can really get to work. This would include using scarifiers to help rip into the bank. When I cut those roads and terraces, I still had the front and rear tires in the 'narrow' configuration, with the rears filled with water. Sure, it was a little dicey but I was just careful never to get sideways and always keep both implements as low as possible to the ground. In the pics, however, you'll notice that I have since turned both sets of tires around. It seems to make a HUGE difference in stability. I think the only meaningful increase in wear and tear may the added stress on the 4WD when turning in a tight radius.
I rarely use the rear scraper blade for anything (I much prefer the box blade for clearing ditches) although if you turn it around and drive forward it works great for spreading gravel.
Anyway, I hope this inspires you guy out there to think big with your little tractors!
I thought I'd take some pics of my 790 this morning, showing some of the projects I've done with it.As you can see, I've managed to do a fair amount of excavating and earthmoving, all with the box blade and bucket. For the garage approach you see here, the earth moving was done first with scarifiers all the way down and the box blade pitched back (so as to collect the spoil). If you can't tell from the pics, that's some pretty serious clay, too. About 1/3 yd at a time, I would scrape the area that needed to be excavated then, using the box blade, transport the spoil to the area that needed filling/leveling. I would dump consecutive loads in a straight line, driving over top of the previous loads until I had 5-6 loads all piled up in a rough line, then I'd push them all with the bucket to get a rough grade on the next pass. I'd use the box blade level and without scarifiers to achieve final grade, along with back-dragging the front bucket.
Most of that big ditch/embankment, however, was excavated with the front bucket. Most people would think you couldn't do this with a CUT, but here's proof. No teeth on the bucket, either. The trick is to spend some time establishing an initial pitch for the ditch by excavating into it perpendicularly then, once you've created a low trench in otherwise level ground, align one set of tires down in that trench and excavate forward along it's length, being careful to average out the high/low spots with frequent back-dragging. With practice you can develop a 'feel' for how much dirt the bucket can excavate while moving forward. I keep the bucket level and shave about 1/2 - 3/4 inch at a time. I watch the dirt just behind the bucket to gauge how much I'm excavating. Also, the bucket will want to cut more aggressively as it fills with spoil, so you need to constantly lift the bucket up as you go along.
Hydraulic relief is somewhere up around 2500 PSI.
Also, on the topic of "tippiness" in the 790 and CUTs in general---note the banks that I've cut into for veggie gardens and roads. Again, these are done almost exclusively by digging into the bank with the bucket and depositing the spoil on the low side until you achieve a level approach. Once you have the tractor at the correct attitude, you can really get to work. This would include using scarifiers to help rip into the bank. When I cut those roads and terraces, I still had the front and rear tires in the 'narrow' configuration, with the rears filled with water. Sure, it was a little dicey but I was just careful never to get sideways and always keep both implements as low as possible to the ground. In the pics, however, you'll notice that I have since turned both sets of tires around. It seems to make a HUGE difference in stability. I think the only meaningful increase in wear and tear may the added stress on the 4WD when turning in a tight radius.
I rarely use the rear scraper blade for anything (I much prefer the box blade for clearing ditches) although if you turn it around and drive forward it works great for spreading gravel.
Anyway, I hope this inspires you guy out there to think big with your little tractors!
