NEED HELP USING MY FRONT END LOADER?

[JHFV]

Man I about hurt my self 3 times this saturday trying to move dirt out of a huge dirt pile. I had a guy come with a big cat and dig out some of my pond. The dirt pile left is about 60' wide 30' deep and 12' tall. It has alot of big clay balls in it and alot of good black dirt. I kept spinning my tires try to get a good scoop full. I have a MAHINDRA 3525 35hp with a ML230 60" loader on it. I just bolted on my new markham toothbar on it and I thought I was gonna kick its asp! Boy was I wrong. I mean I got some good scoops but it took me a while. It took him 4 hours to dig it out and it looks like it will take me months to get rid of it! What gear are u supposed to be in? What about pto speed? HI or LO? Thought i was gonna flip it once.

 

[roxynoodle]

I guess I'm wondering why you would use your PTO with your loader

Is your tractor 4wd? That helps a lot with dirt moving. Do you have a differential lock? If you find yourself slipping and sliding, step on that to lock your rear wheels and I bet it will come right out of whatever it's stuck in.

Other than that, you just need some practice. You'll be an old pro in no time. My loader has a built in toothbar. I do find that trying to come at the dirt with the loader at a bit of a down angle works better than coming at it with the loader level to the ground.

 

[JHFV]

Well not the PTO but the handle that controls the speed? It is not 4wd. Should I be in LO 1 or HI 1?

 

[wushaw]

You need to be in low going into the dirt pile and raise/curl the FEL while going fwd.
You also need weight on the rear like filled rear tires and a heavy rear emplement.

 

[RalphVa]

You need not only filled rear tires but also at least 300-400# of weight on the 3 ph. A weight box or carryall loaded with about the same amount of stuff you're loading into the loader would make the operation a lot safer.

It works the best if you can go forward (in lowest of gears) and curl the bucket up a little at the same time. Otherwise, the tractor can easily be stalled or spin.

Filling the bucket will also take some practice. Once you get going forward and curling up a tad, you'll be able to fill it first try. Before that, you'll be lifting, shaking it down a bit and then finish filling.

Don't go into the pile while the tractor is on a slope. Either come at the pile while turned uphill or downhill. Otherwise, lifting and, in particular, bouncing it a bit to shake some loads back could result in turning you over sideways.

There'll also be some learning when you want to reshape some of the pile for better loading or when dumping and smoothing things out. These actions are probably best down with the bucket curled down about 45-90 degrees from horizontal and backing up.

Carry loads as low as possible and very slow forward speed.

Ralph

 

[Dirthog]

Also realise it is going to take awhile to get rid of all that dirt you have some were around 500 cubic yards of it! If your bucket would hold a 1/4 yard at a time thats 2000 buckets

 

[HTWT]

Use your bucket to loosen up some of the pile by putting your bucket in full dump and then raise it up on the pile and scrape back down to pull some of the material down. This will give you some loose material that you can easily load into your bucket.

 

[Glowplug]

Definitely use low gear, ballast the rear, use enough engine speed (what you meant by PTO) to move the loader arm. Don't try to move too much at once. It sounds like you may be diving straight into it. Scrape a finer layer to accumulate a full bucket. You have pretty heavy dense clay dirt too; that makes it more difficult. A CAT dozer can move a heckuva lot of dirt in 4 hours. It's gonna take you longer to disperse it with a tractor FEL. It can be done but you have to be patient.

 

[roxynoodle]

Engine speed: you definately want your rpms up on the higher side. For my Yanmar that is 2200-2500rpm depending on what I'm moving. Horse manure is not as hard to scrape up and move as clay or gravel.

And yep, need to start curling bucket as you move slowly forward. My tractor has 3 ranges and I tend to use my medium range for manure and my low range for dirt/gravel.

Also agree with others that advised to keep your bucket as low as possible when transporting it. I use my box blade as ballast but my loader is pretty small (about 38" wide). The larger your loader, the more ballast you will need to keep it safely balanced. If you are transporting this dirt on any kind of slope, be prepared to drop your loader at all times just in case you start to tip. I also have noticed my tractor prefers to back up slopes and come down forward whether anything is in the bucket or not. Don't traverse a slope at a diagonal if at all possible.

And, try to remember tractor work is fun. As soon as you get the hang of it, you will love it.

 

[MrJimi]

You mentioned clay, put your bucket in dumped mode, straight down and try and loosen the dirt, like grab the dirt high and pull it down. That should get ya going, if your trying to bite solid clay? I don't think it will work too well. Like others have said, after you loosen your dirt, go in with a level bucket and curl as you go in and if you have to? just fluff some of it before you try and get a fuller bucket.
Thats how I learned. Shh.
Jim