Grading with Bucket is hard. Any tips?

[BAP]

if you have the room to manuver, try grading in different directions. Go one way the first time, then go at a 45 degree angle to that, then move again another 45 degrees and so on. That will help work fill in the low spots and take off the high. Keep going back and forth and you will get it smooth.

 

[CountryBumkin]

3 points down 'hard' always float, they don't get a choice. They can be stiff on the upswing but that's usually not applicable to actual land operations. It can certainly apply to hand lifting the mechanism though.

I think this is where my error is - I am only lowering 3-point to where rake teeth just touch ground. I guess I need to go to "full lower" position and leave it there.

Thanks for all the help.

 

[ShaunRH]

I think this is where my error is - I am only lowering 3-point to where rake teeth just touch ground. I guess I need to go to "full lower" position and leave it there.

Thanks for all the help.

The scarifers are only used to break the soil up down to the level you need it. Once you are down where you want to be, pull up (or remove depending on the box blade) the scarifer teeth and just use the blade of the box.

Don't forget pushing with the back blade as well. The push action of a box blade is very powerful for leveling if you are starting with a mound of dirt and it makes the tires run on a perfectly smooth surface. (It does require a box blade with a rear blade or the ability to 'flip' the box around.)

So if your box has a mound of dirt in it, pull it just past where you want the edge of the level surface to be.

Lift the box, dumping the dirt, continue forward past the mound. Lower the box to the desired level height and back into the mound. It will start to spread out behind the tractor.

The tractors tires are now running on the level spread and the box blade keeps the material to the height you have set.

If you need dirt moved around, you can use your FEL to make the dirt mounds as well.

 

[ShaunRH]

One more thing, leveling work takes a lot of time. It's not fast. The finer level you are trying to achieve, the more time and diesel you will have into it.

It takes massive practice to get really good at it. I still consider myself a relative novice and I have a lot of time and several projects under my belt doing leveling work. I'm always finding a new trick that works for me. Probably because each job has its challenges to overcome!

 

[D2Cat]

Never seen one of these, "I also have a 3-point rake attachment that I'm trying." with scarifers.

Leave your rake all the way down and go in as many different directions as possible over the area you want level. Keep playing, you'll get it the way you want it.

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

CountryBumkin,
I rake set square to the tractor will give you a series of speed bumps, set your landscape rake at an angle and drop it all the way down so it floats and like others have said run it in multiple directions.

ShaunRH,
Your advice would be great if he was using a box blade, but using a landscape rake makes your advice a little on the well... on the worthless side.

 

[CountryBumkin]

CountryBumkin,
I rake set square to the tractor will give you a series of speed bumps, set your landscape rake at an angle and drop it all the way down so it floats and like others have said run it in multiple directions.

Another good tip - thanks!

 

[windsolar]

. My first road building in my yard. Scraped up the turf, added large gravel and after each dump of loader pulled back and leveled it with loader. Worked well. Did a little side raking to finish it off.


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[hitechredneck]

If you have a three point implement on the ground or even above the ground and your rear wheels drop into a rut the implement will float until your rear wheels come out of the rut and the implement returns to the position setting. The 3 point never provides downward force to an implement. If it did you would lose traction.

ah! Light bulb just came on...
I think that when I put my lever at 3, the hydraulics allow it to float up (as would happen if wheels hit a dip) but not down past 3 height.

If I put my lever all the way down to float position, then the implement can travel the full range of motion.

I learned something today! Thanks guys

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[CaveCreekRay]

HTR,

Watching your learning curve reminded me of mine last year when trying to "figger out" the box scraper! I didn't know the box (3-pt) floated either. It wasn't until I watched a buddy who has probably dragged his box around his horse property a few thousand miles...

When the box is laid down and the lever sunk to the bottom, the box has the most freedom to float. If you have someone else drive slowly and walk behind as the box begins to move, it will dig in until it fills up, then it will rise and "float" on the dirt inside. Except for the spillage out the sides, it will not displace any material once it gets full, except what it moves a foot or so in the "scrape and dump" cycle.

I share your frustration about leveling. Some of the suggestions are great ones but on a driveway with concrete curbing I am limited with one way or the other. I have a wonderful "roller coaster" going on and I have tried a zillion methods to attack it. The best was running in reverse using the rear blade to cut away the bumps. It took adjusting the "angle of attack" of the box to level on the ground. For some reason, my box sat front lip down about 2" from the back. I adjusted it so the back was about 1/2" to 1/4" higher than the front lip. That way it "cleaved off" the start of the bumps. I am going to reverse that when I get a longer upper bar so that the front lip is an RCH (technical term for very tiny amount) above the rear. That way, moving forward, the front lip will cut any bumps off. Who knows, perfectly level may work out to be the perfect setting.

Its fun playing around with the implements. I have decomposing granite on my driveway as well as in my horse arena. I bought some fan rakes and am going to try and weld up a lightweight rake finishing drag for that material. I'll post my results when I get time to get to it.

Play with the pitch of the box when you get one, be careful, and have more fun. Diesel is cheap!

Ray

 

[CountryBumkin]

There have been a few posts referring to "position 3", but on the BX there is no numbered positions on the Hydraulic Control Lever.

I just reread the manual and the Control lever has 5 positions:
A is "Down", B is "Slow Down", N = "Neutral", C is "Slow Up, and D is "UP".

It says "position B and C enable you to control the valve with ease in increments of approximately 4.5mm (0.25 in.) at the lower link end."

So do I "float" in Neutral position or all the way down? I'll spend some time this weekend trying the various settings.

 

[Grouse Feathers]

There have been a few posts referring to "position 3", but on the BX there is no numbered positions on the Hydraulic Control Lever.

I just reread the manual and the Control lever has 5 positions:
A is "Down", B is "Slow Down", N = "Neutral", C is "Slow Up, and D is "UP".

It says "position B and C enable you to control the valve with ease in increments of approximately 4.5mm (0.25 in.) at the lower link end."

So do I "float" in Neutral position or all the way down? I'll spend some time this weekend trying the various settings.

The BX does not have the 3 point position control referred to in this post, it only has an up/down control. With full position control you set the 3 point lever where you want the 3 point hitch to control to and lever remains in that position. With the BX you move the lever up or down and the hitch moves up and down, but when you release the lever it returns to neutral. One consequence of the BX control is a loaded 3 point will sag over time even with the tractor running. On a full position control the pilot valve in the 3 point will maintain the 3 point position.

 

[ShaunRH]

CountryBumkin,
ShaunRH,
Your advice would be great if he was using a box blade, but using a landscape rake makes your advice a little on the well... on the worthless side.

I misread what he has. I thought he said he had a boxblade, so yeah, it's useless with a rake... though you could rig up a blade on the rake face and reverse it and it would work then! LOL!

 

[North Idaho Wolfman]

So do I "float" in Neutral position or all the way down?

Go all the way down and then let the spring loaded control return to center neutral to float.

 

[NetMagi]

Where I live, the soil is so hard, rocky, "clayish" that I usually have to backdrag with the front wheels off the ground to get anything done. Even with weight in the bucket, it just rides over stuff.

When I had a foundation done last summer, the guy that did the backfill and grading was doing it the same way. Front wheels of his full-size TLB were usually off the ground when backdragging.

Maybe we're doing it wrong here in Pennsylvania

One plus with this method though is that the loader is supporting the weight, so ruts don't much matter.

 

[ShaunRH]

Backdragging with the fronts off the ground is common, you steer with the brakes. You are looking for max weight on the loader bucket.

 

[tcrote5516]

I don't have much to add that hasn't been said already but I want to reinforce a few concepts. I'm by no means a pro but I've accumulated a lot of experience grading with a FEL at my house.

Float was used for all the finish work. I did use my backblade for some of the rough work as it makes a wider pass but lacks the finesse of the fel on float with the ability to adjust the curl.

#1. Backdragging on float is your friend. Use the curl as you are backdragging. Curl down to scrape off more material and curl up to fill in the low spots.

#2. Pull out of float where you really need to cut and push up on the lever to put the weight of the machine into the cut. Slowly curl the bucket up to dump that material into the low spot and back into float to smooth out the transition.

#3. Make changes to the direction you travel. I would make a line of passes then come at those pases from a 45 degree angle and hit it again. Go another 90 degrees and hit it again. Repeat this until your back to the original angle.

With that all said and done, I have a lawn I can mow with my zero turn at 7mph and not spill beer in the cup holder Not bad for a little FEL tractor. Here are some pics:






Backyard (was as bad as the front yard):

 

[Lil Foot]

Man, that is some leveling job! Excellent work!

 

[CaveCreekRay]

You 'da MAN!

Gorgeous...

 

[tcrote5516]

Here's a better pic of the front now that the grass has come in. Nice and smooth to mow and I no longer have to worry about flipping over!