using the loader to dig Holes for trees = EASY!

[tydp]

A toothbar helps a lot with this type of FEL use.

However, you risk bending the FEL bucket and/or frame by digging in sun-baked soil.

My approach would be to break up the ground with a middle buster plow or a subsoiler and scoop out the loose dirt with the FEL.

That's a bunch of road apples. If you bend a front end loader frame or bucket simply by digging, then it was junk to start with. Never seen or heard of this happening. Now it can be done, but not this way.

 

[jeffinsgf]

Just FYI, if you decide to do more tree planting next year, there is a HUGE wholesale nursery east of Dayton and north of I-70 that has an auction the Saturday after Labor Day each year. It's A. Brown & Sons Nursery. My wife's folks live about 7 miles from it, and we just happened to be visiting that weekend. I went down "just to see" and ended up buying 3 shade trees, a spruce, a crabapple, and some shrubs for about what I would have paid for one of the trees at retail. Rented a U-Haul to get them all home.