Grading Using a front blade skillfully

[Bob_Trevithick]

I was just out pushing down dirt, brush, small trees, etc.. and I find the blade a bit hard to get used to because the float position doesn't work quite the way I would expect. I was pushing dirt over a fairly steep drop-off, and I would be in float position. As the blade moved out into mid-air over the drop-off, but before the front tires had gone over the edge, the blade would drop some but not as far as I could push it down with the hydraulics. Hence, the blade would remain to a large extent in mid-air, resulting in my making the drop-off worse rather than better. I would expect in float position that it would drop as far as its range of movement permitted. Obviously I'm wrong. If I pulled back on the SCV a bit to take it out of float, then the blade could be manually moved down and continue pushing dirt. Otherwise, it wouldn't. Is this normal behavior? If not, can anyone suggest what might be happening?

Thanks,
Bob

p.s. It was the wrong time of year to do this anyway.. mud, buried ice, etc. I felt like I would have needed a bulldozer to do it right, but I was amazed at what the little 4300 could do in mud! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Egon]

Bob:

Only solution is seat time.

Egon

 

[beenthere]

Your blade is still floating, but is being held up by the debris that it is pushing and riding on. Either add some weight to your blade to push it down if that is what you want, or as you said you can do, pull the SCV out of float position and put some down pressure to force the blade down further than the float will let it go. Float means float. Only the weight of the blade counteracting the lift of the debris will determine the blade position when in float. Sometimes the blade will actually lift if the debris is such under the blade edge to make it come up. Float probably works best when using a blade if the ground is hard (or asphalt or concrete or frozen), or if you are in reverse backdragging whatever - loose dirt, gravel, debris, etc.
Hope this helps explain a bit of your concern.

 

[Bob_Trevithick]

<font color=blue>Only solution is seat time.</font color=blue>

You must have tons of seat time, Egon.. can you spare some? I'll pay you. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Bob_Trevithick]

<font color=blue>...Your blade is still floating, but is being held up by the debris that it is pushing and riding on.</font color=blue>

Ah, that makes sense. I guess I just though a 500 lb. blade would probably drop, along with the debris, when it went over a drop-off. What you say makes sense.. although to me it's counter-intuitive. I guess my view from the seat may have not been the best. It sure looked like what I was pushing fell over the edge, but as I followed it down my blade went right over the top with daylight between it and the debris. Probably just a bad point of reference.

Thanks.. and I like Egon's reply too.. practice, practice!! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Egon]

Re. Blade float:

Curl it down and see if it will " float "

Egon

 

[beenthere]

If I remember correctly, Bob doesn't have his blade mounted to a FEL, so he cannot 'curl' it the way you suggest. His is a JD blade mounted on the front of his 4300.
I think Bob is fortunate that he does not have to deal with the extra positions (curl and loader arm height) when using his blade. He only has height and angle to deal with (and 'float' on the height). I operated a loader mounted blade the other day, and didn't like it one bit. No good way to keep it in a position to do some good work, and constantly having to try to keep it from being too low or too high. Any slight change in the movement of the front wheels (height-wise) magnified itself greatly in the blade because the blade was so far forward of those front wheels. Working on concrete or asphalt, or frozen gravel may be okay, and then just leaving it in float might work okay (not great, but okay, IMO).

 

[Bob_Trevithick]

<font color=blue>...If I remember correctly, Bob doesn't have his blade mounted to a FEL, so he cannot 'curl' it the way you suggest. His is a JD blade mounted on the front of his 4300. </font color=blue>

Your memory is intact! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Yes, just a front blade with no FEL. I'm fairly sure, from the notes on the board, that I'm going to burn in the nether regions for not having a FEL, but, be that as it may, I don't.. at least not yet, have a FEL! /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I love my blade, but I confess I'm new to all of this and not sure what is what. I was hitting roots, stones, old pieces of boards, frozen muck, sticks and branches and growing trees.. and deep mud.. not to mention lots and lots of ups and downs.. like the one I described.. all of which conspired to prevent me from doing the job I intended to do.. push down a big hill of dirt into our garden area. Maybe I'll do better in the Spring, or maybe I'll rent a dozer. Not sure yet. I couldn't do much with the blade when I'd hit something.. just sit and spin until I raises the blade a bit.. and then I defeated the whole purpose.. to push this junk down into the open field.

I'm proud of one thing.. I got stuck, and got out by lifting the whole front of the tractor with the blade and then using the right/left pivot function to move myself slowly into a place where I could get some traction again. I was amazed as the power of this little thing! It may lose traction, but it never loses power.

Best,
Bob (on a steep learning curve!) /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[Egon]

Beenthere:

OOPS!!!
Have to put a new curl on my previous statement.

Egon

 

[JDIOWA]

Bob,

I'm running a MUCH smaller tractor and have been on the same learning curve you are experiencing. I have learned to use my rear blade and front blade to pull stuff loose and push it into place, with the respective implements. I noticed you have a rear scoop that you might use to break up the crud, maybe move a few piles, then you can make better progress with the front blade. You will also get better at feathering your blade depth without the float. I had to move quite a few five to ten ton piles of "fill" with a BX around my property after I bought it. I can still do almost all that type of work with my 455 GT with good weight balancing. I'm guessing your rear scoop is reversable which makes it a pretty good tool for grading in a forward pull/scrape mode and mound-side digging in a reverse push/scoop mode. Just keep havin' fun. It's always a great sense of accomplisment when you come up with an innovative use for those gadgets.

Brad the Cornfed Iowa Boy