FEL as scraper

[fenneran]

Hello all,

I have about 100 yards of my 1/2 mile driveway that is uphill. The driveway itself is made up of "milled material" (ground up roadway) with little base underneath. The hill tends to wash into "woopdies", so about every month or so I have been using my FEL to scrape the stuff back up the hill and smooth out the hills and valleys. (I don't have a scraper or box blade)
My question is: Is this a bad thing to do to my FEL? It doesn't seem to compain and the process, while a little tricky going backwards, it seems to work OK.

Thanks,
Frank

 

[DarinRay]

I dont' know about the stress on the pivot areas but that's why they make parts. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Shoot my fel is a dozer scraper pan & anything else I can get it to do. I think if the unit will do it then it is it's own fault. ha,ha. I say run it to a point but maintain it very well and you shouldn't have trouble I mean that's why we have them to get certain tasks that need to me done>>>>done. But hey that's just me. You will find the limits that you won't push past but I think you are right on board.

Darin

 

[EFC]

Your doing fine just try not to point the bucket perfectly straight up and down and pick up the front tires. There is just an incredible amount of stress and not just on the loader. The big no no is to never plow fwd with the bucket pointed down and the tires off the ground. It will ruin your loader every time.

 

[Thomas]

If your fel has a float..you might want to curl the cutting edge down in the float,than back drag for a finish touch.

 

[fenneran]

Thanks guys. I have had the FEL at an angle, but the tires do sometimes come up. I found it a little hard to steer in that mode /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif.
Thanks for the advice.
Frank

 

[EFC]

Brake steering does work a little but takes some practice

 

[fenneran]

Thomas,
This is a elementary question, I'm sure, but what is "float"? I have a Bush Hog 1846QT loader. Its control box is just a joystick with 4 positions on it. (Up, Down, Dump, Scoop).

Frank

 

[CSAW]

fenneran

To get to the float position on a loader you usually push the joy stick all the way forward past the down position. This allows the loader to just lay on the ground with the weight of the loader and no downward pressure from the hydraulics. This allows the loader to go up and down with the terrain. Not familiar with the Bush Hog loader it may not have this feature.

 

[Soundguy]

Would that be a gravity down, as opposed to a 'powered' down system?

I've seen a few 9n's with a system like this.. but havn't used a tractor mounted fel, only the big iron stuff.

Soundguy

 

[CSAW]

<font color=blue>Would that be a gravity down, as opposed to a 'powered' down system?
<font color=black>Soundguy, it works either way. If you push the stick forward it has power down. If you push it all the way forward past the power down it bypasses and you get gravity down or float. There is a detent you can feel. On mine the detent will hold it there for float. I believe most are this way.