FEL; leave up or down when parked

[Ozykioti]

Hi all, just like to know if I should leave my FEL up or down when parked. I leave it down for safety reasons but some people have said I should leave it off the ground to maintain pressure against the seals? I have noticed that most dump trucks leave the bed up over night, but have always thought this was so any rain can drain out???

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

 

[shortthrow50]

Hi all, just like to know if I should leave my FEL up or down when parked. I leave it down for safety reasons but some people have said I should leave it off the ground to maintain pressure against the seals? I have noticed that most dump trucks leave the bed up over night, but have always thought this was so any rain can drain out???

Can anyone shed some light on this for me?

All buckets or any type of heavy attachment should be left all the way down. Never heard of such thing as leaving pressure on seals with implements. Been in heavy construction most of my life and have never heard of such practice. We would get fired if we got caught leaving an excavator bucket off the ground or dozer blade.

 

[k0ua]

I have always been taught to lower all implements including the FEL. I do tilt it slightly down to let water run out

James K0UA

 

[Ozykioti]

WOW, Thanks for the quick response. Like I said I leave down anyway, now I know I was right in doing so. I didn't think it sounded right to leave it up, just wanted to find out for sure.
Thanks again.

 

[aczlan]

Down unless you have a physical cylinder lock to keep the loader arm up and in the air no matter what.
See below for an example of one:

Aaron Z

 

[bcp]

About 40 years ago I visited a friend in a new house one evening. The lot next door was being prepared. Neighborhood kids were playing on a parked Case TLB, with the bucket, backhoe, and stabilizers left up. They left when I headed over there to lower everything. That still scares me thinking about what could have happened.

Bruce

 

[creekbend]

There was a thread circulating in regards to your inquiry recently here on TBN. I leave my FEL bucket down. My Kubota L4400 stays parked under a shed, so I don't tilt the bucket.

 

[beppington]

Another thing, I had just stopped operating my tractor for a moment to talk to friends that just pulled up with their 2 boys; turned it off but left the FEL still about 2' off the ground; was only stopping for a moment I figured, didn't really think consciously much about it. Their little kid, about 2 years old wanted to get on it, so I helped him up onto the seat thinking it would be fine, heck it's turned off after all. The first thing he did was yank every single lever, steer, shift, horn, the works. Had he pushed the FEL lever, of course it would've gone quickly onto the ground; push hard enough & it goes into float, aka free-fall onto the ground ... & his brother could easily have wandered under there. Then I'd have had to actually re-start the tractor to lift it off him, & hope that it hadn't completely crushed him - I had my grapple-bottom bucket on, which seller said weighs about 500 lbs, & that doesn't even include the loader arms, or any possibly head of steam. Even for that moment, I now wish I had set the FEL on the ground.

Fortunately this was a learning experience not the hard way, but certainly could have been.

 

[20 20]

ALLWAYS leave down for safety and to keep things in better shape. I have a dump truck and yes I do leave it up in the winter, BUT it has a block, it's not using the hydraulics.

 

[kiotiken]

Another thing, I had just stopped operating my tractor for a moment to talk to friends that just pulled up with their 2 boys; turned it off but left the FEL still about 2' off the ground; was only stopping for a moment I figured, didn't really think consciously much about it. Their little kid, about 2 years old wanted to get on it, so I helped him up onto the seat thinking it would be fine, heck it's turned off after all. The first thing he did was yank every single lever, steer, shift, horn, the works. Had he pushed the FEL lever, of course it would've gone quickly onto the ground; push hard enough & it goes into float, aka free-fall onto the ground ... & his brother could easily have wandered under there. Then I'd have had to actually re-start the tractor to lift it off him, & hope that it hadn't completely crushed him - I had my grapple-bottom bucket on, which seller said weighs about 500 lbs, & that doesn't even include the loader arms, or any possibly head of steam. Even for that moment, I now wish I had set the FEL on the ground.

Fortunately this was a learning experience not the hard way, but certainly could have been.

Scary for sure. I left my 3 year old in the seat of my JD955 a few years ago, shut off obviously, and got out to shovel the remanence of a gravel pile off my driveway. Right when I was down to the last couple shovel fulls, she decided to move the joystick and ended up moving it to the right, or dump. Shoveling the gravel a second time served me right.

My Kioti has a FEL control lock that I use all the time if the kids are anywhere close by and I'm off the tractor loading the bucket by hand. No I would never park it that way, everything is in the full down position, the backhoe is locked with the steal bracket if it's on or the 3 pt hitch is down if there's an implement.

 

[Groo]

why would leaving pressure on the seals make them last longer? I'd think just the opposite? I wiggle all the controls after the machine is shut off to make sure there is not pressure in the system. All the hydraulics I've ever used will settle in a few days if left up anyways. Now that my young children might be playing around with the stuff, it is even more important to put it all down.

 

[J_J]

Just good common sense tells one to put the bucket on the ground, and lower the 3pt also.

 

[joshuabardwell]

Per the owner's manual, I leave the bucket down to release pressure in the hydraulic lines and to prevent an injury if the bucket were to fall unexpectedly. One of the first things I learned when I got the tractor was that the FEL will go down if you press the control lever, even if the motor is off! Never mind if a hydraulic seal fails or something like that.

When parking, I level the bucket and set it close to or on the ground. Then, after turning the engine off, I jiggle the control lever left and forward a couple of times to work out the last of the pressure and let the bucket settle. I don't do this every single time I stop, but I would if anybody was around.

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Gravity is real. The only think did normally do not put down is the stabilizer pads on the back hoe since I do not want to trip over them but if I had small kids I think I would even do that.

I do not like water in my bucks so I let both down on their cutting edge plus it is safer should a 4 wheeler, go-cart, etc hit it when it is parked.