FEL Use/Damage

[laketractor]

I have a BX2370 with a LA243 FEL. This is my first tractor and have had the tractor for about 18 mos. and FEL for 4 mos. I am working on my yard and recently used loader to distribute 18 tons of top soil. I was filling the bucket full with each pass and working the machine hard. My question is, what kind of actions or use might damage my FEL or tractor other than the obvious lack of maintenance.

 

[85Hokie]

I have a BX2370 with a LA243 FEL. This is my first tractor and have had the tractor for about 18 mos. and FEL for 4 mos. I am working on my yard and recently used loader to distribute 18 tons of top soil. I was filling the bucket full with each pass and working the machine hard. My question is, what kind of actions or use might damage my FEL or tractor other than the obvious lack of maintenance.

Not sure you can really "damage" it under normal use....
things to think about:

Dont run into something hard.....stump, etc and allow the bucket to take blow

Dont overload one side with something real heavy, like dont place 50 bricks on the right side only.....

Dont chain to one side only and pull , try to stay in the center when pulling with chain or if you have two hooks , use them both at the same time to even out the load.

If back dragging , dont tuck the edge under, so that it is pointing backwards.

Many have problems when they pick up bucket and notice one side is "higher" than the other......they bent something, or need air in a tire !!!

off the subject - keep the full bucket low as possible,, cause if you get too high and turn....well it will not be the tractor that is gonna be hurt.

someone else will add to this list ...

but - most important one........

Grease the ol girl - often !!! (10 hours or earlier)

 

[Daren Todd]

Pulling and prying can sometimes bend them. Hooking a chain to the bottom of the bucket got dads bucket on his l2250 pulling fence posts. Put a nice "V" in his bucket He welded hooks to the top of the bucket after that.

 

[ShaunBlake]

What they said! Mostly the bad things you might do won't hurt it, it'll hurt you. Things like raising a loaded bucket up high and curling it back, or getting crosswise on a slope tipping it over -- not much damage other than a dent, maybe, but likely serious injury to you.

However, there is one thing that lots of us new guys do that is very harmful: lugging the motor, and not working it hard. Since you mention you've been loading the bucket very full, I'm guessing you've been running the RPMs pretty high. The expression I've seen in the forum is WOT: Wide-open Throttle.

Oh, one more thing you might do to it: polish it too much and rub the paint off!

 

[Tooljunkie]

Common thing,scraping and pushing with front wheels off ground. Hitting something hard wil distort loader frame. Will also grind off cutting edge pretty fast. Good quality grease and do it frequently.

 

[CaveCreekRay]

One of the biggest mistakes with small equipment is "ramming" the pile with the bucket to fill it. This only works at slow speeds with giant end loaders that have tons of power and weight. Smaller machines will crack mounting supports, bucket arms, or bend cylinders.

There used to be an awesome CASE video online on how to use the bucket. The best and safest technique is to "scrape" the pile, starting at the bottom with the bucket parallel to the ground and gently into the material. Then, as you raise the loader arms, you curl the bucket back as you slowly move into the pile. It takes a heck of a lot of practice to get down in one fluid motion but, its a thing of beauty when mastered. I get it right less than half the time!

Out here in Arizona, we use a lot of decomposing granite (DG), which is essentially small granite rocks less than 1/4" all the way down to granite sand. ( I dumped 80 tons of this material on my driveway this spring on top of the 200 or so tons that were laid there 20 years ago.) When it dumps out of the truck, its light and fluffy compared to dirt or clay. Even then, sometimes its all my 37hp can handle when you are moving the FEL arms, curling the bucket slowly and tip-toeing the machine into the pile -all simultaneously. Imagine doing this with harder and denser material.

Jarring and slamming moves are bad mojo. Take it easy.

 

[Dave_eng]

I have a BX2370 with a LA243 FEL. This is my first tractor and have had the tractor for about 18 mos. and FEL for 4 mos. I am working on my yard and recently used loader to distribute 18 tons of top soil. I was filling the bucket full with each pass and working the machine hard. My question is, what kind of actions or use might damage my FEL or tractor other than the obvious lack of maintenance.

My FEL is larger than your but the manual cautions against tipping the bucket forward so that the cutting edge is vertical and then pushing forward like a bulldozer. The linkage, which allows the bucket to tilt back so that nit is like a "U", is not designed to withstand the forces that striking the cutting edge can send back through the linkage if you hit something. It says when pushing the bucket must be flat on the ground.

Just remember you have a tractor not a backhoe!

Dave M7040

 

[p t farmer]

Using the bucket to compact trash in a dumpster!
Had the front end of the tractor tight to the side of the dumpster so I could reach towards the middle and push down construction trash. When I pushed down something caught the edge of the plate that shields the hydraulic lines, broke the plate bolts and ripped the hydraulic lines.

 

[laketractor]

When you guys say WOT do you really mean MAX................ really wide open.

 

[Daren Todd]

I usually run it at the 540 rpm mark on the tach. If I'm using the foot throttle I tend to be all over the place depending on what I'm doing. I don't like running mine full throttle to the pin all the time, but do reach it occasionally

 

[p t farmer]

If your FEL is jerky when you raise and lower it, your RPM's might be too high. Tone it down to the point that the movement is smooth, then add RPM's if it bogs a little. A lower gear will dramatically increase you scoop ability.