Using And Abusing Your Front End Loader. What is the difference?

[npalen]

There are many good discussions on TBN about loader use and abuse. This video is about the engineering principles that go into building an FEL and what the operator needs to know.

Edit: I discovered the video after another one of the guy's videos was posted in this discussion:

DIY Root Ripper

Found this while surfing youtube and it looks real handy so I thought I would share.

www.tractorbynet.com

 

[Beaver Cove Deere]

Use the corner of the bucket not the middle when working something out of the ground but you are taking the risk of bending the loader arms.

These machines are not bulldozers or loaders. They are not nearly as strong. The only thing they have is looks, not strength

 

[oosik]

What is the difference between using and abusing - about $$$$ to repair or replace your FEL.

What Beaver Cove Deere said ............. Take heed or pay the price.

 

[diesel85]

I see so many machines on lots and in people's yards with bent buckets and tweaked loader arms. This also includes skid steers.

Tractors and skid steers aren't bulldozers or forklifts.

I've had my tractor for 22 years now and the loader is in the exact functional shape as when I bought it.

 

[5030]

I repair a lot of buckets with smiles in them, not just front loaders on tractors but on bucket loaders and excavators as well and most times, bucket damage is caused by using it as a lifting device or by Ill placed lifting hooks, Especially prone to smiles are the light duty, general material buckets sold by tractor dealers with new machines. All the manufacturers offer 2 designs, the light duty material bucket and the heavy duty excavation bucket which has to be ordered separately. The excavation buckets will have a double floor bottom and reinforced cutting lip, most times replaceable.

Poor hook placement as well as clamp on forks are the big bottom sheet benders on light duty buckets.

 

[5030]

The big no no when using a bucket is back dragging with the curl cylinders in full extension and the cutting lip down. In that position, hitting a buried rock or stump will almost surely bend something, usually the curl / dump cylinder rods and second is attempting to dislodge something using the corner of the bucket and curling back the bucket while lifting it. Puts tremendous strain on the loader arms and mounts and can tweak them, sometimes real bad. Both are wallet draining abuses.

 

[WranglerX]

I sneak up on object with FEL, if I engage it and FEL says no.... Time to back off...IF I keep hammering at object then its abuse....

 

[oosik]

I sometimes backdrag with my bucket. Bucket fully curled up - backdragging with the "heel" of the bucket. If that's not good enough - drag with the rear blade fully reversed.

 

[Mud2Money]

I think a lot of loader damage comes from materials it’s used on as well. Our basic tractor loaders are really intended for moving already disturbed materials like manure piles , mulch , topsoil , stone etc. I see a lot of people smashing them into hard clay not touched in decades. The frames are not robust enough for constant use doing this.

 

[ptsg]

I think a lot of loader damage comes from materials it’s used on as well. Our basic tractor loaders are really intended for moving already disturbed materials like manure piles , mulch , topsoil , stone etc. I see a lot of people smashing them into hard clay not touched in decades. The frames are not robust enough for constant use doing this.

Exactly. And if that wasn't enough, they will slap some oversized and overweight implements on it and keep on pushing.

 

[rScotty]

I backdrag a lot. Always have. It's the best way I know to put a nice surface finish on a project. The trick is to keep the bucket just angled down enough to slide and spread the top material. Draggng with the bucket vertical or anywhere near vertical would defeat the purpose - it would gouge the surface and also risk bending things.

Just pay attention and use your head when backdragging - same as any tractor work. If you can spread jelly on a piece of toast you can backdrag successfully. Otherwise maybe not.....

rScotty

 

[Xfaxman]

The 42" wide bucket curled all the way down:

I backdrag with the bucket curled down, but in float:

It won't move with to much down pressure on the bucket:

 

[tacticalturnip]

It won't move with to much down pressure on the bucket:

You and your weird backwards tractor.

 

[scaredychicken]

it's a fine dirt line

 

[/pine]

IMO...The only thing an operator needs to know ( as far as use design principles)...is that it's a LOADER...meant to scoop, move, load, dump materials...that's it...
...sure it will do a lot more than that but I wouldn't take any chances with a tractor that was still under warranty...
...especially on smaller compact tractors I'm curious what warranty providers have to say about bucket hooks...on small tractors it would not take much to wrack a loader frame...

 

[Xfaxman]

You and your weird backwards tractor.

Yep, sometimes it pushes the 4' box blade going forward:

Sometimes it pulls the 4' box blade going backwards:

 

[metalbender]

Watched a Tube vid of a guy digging a pond with a little Kubota. It's not a dozer.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Watched a Tube vid of a guy digging a pond with a little Kubota. It's not a dozer.

If you take it easy and go slow you can get a whole lot done with a subcompact, though the way you emphasize them not being dozers leads me to believe he wasn't.

 

[Mud2Money]

I think most people don’t know the fine line of abuse and not. I have used my loader to move 120+ yards of grey clay ditch tailings that sat for 40 years in a pile. Gotta take it slow and easy. I only try to strip a few inches deep at a time to not stress the loader. Just because you can does not mean you should.

Now my business partners 333e skidder. I’m convinced jd just shrank a d8 dozer and came up with that piece of machinery. He decided to go for the remaining tailing piles. He hit a 25 yard pile in a line and had it loose in about 5 minutes. Still not a indestructible piece though. Jd only uses 3/4 bolts at the curl pins and they will break if forces hard enough.
If anything rent some heavy equipment for the few hundred $$ a day and save the possible thousands in damage to vulnerable equipment.

 

[PILOON]

I lift heavy, back drag, dig--you name it.
Often my weighted rear is in the air.
BUT NEVER do I bash into the load or object.
I inch up close and let hydraulics do the work.
A hose can always be replaced plus pressure relief valves are there to CYA.
My CUT is close to 2000 hrs and I never had to even replace a hose and my bucket is still nice and straight.
And with my tooth bar I work it like a skid steer.
Coming to rocks that won't fit my bucket I resort to flipping and or rolling them.