Front bucket level

[Clawed Backster]

I was taught to keep the bottom of the front bucket flat on the ground to keep wear of the cutting edge to a minimum.
Drives me nuts to watch operators scraping up material off of asphalt with the bucket tilted down. I recently watched as an operator caught a pot hole in the asphalt with his bucket tipped down, and tore up a big section. He was on a front end loader, not a backhoe, but the principal is the same. I probably would have fired him on the spot.
Thoughts?

 

[Bls repair]

Once the edge starts to round over it won’t scrape tight to the asphalt unless you tilt the bucket down some.

 

[DMiller]

Many times watched as operators would try that to just skim the surface, most often times rode up on a crown and failed to cut at all.

 

[Ronsii]

I'd rather wear the cutting edge than the bottom of the whole bucket.

 

[Welder Dave]

Usually need some angle but the worst are inexperienced skid steer operators tilting the bucket almost straight down to dig up packed snow and then going full speed ahead with the wheels a foot off the ground. Usually results in bent cylinders and even snapping the cylinder rods right off.

 

[Bls repair]

Worked for a company milling roads .I was running a loader doing cleanup ,I would wear out a bolt on edge in 2-3 days.

 

[cuttin edge]

If a company is worried about wearing out teeth or cutting edges, then it's time to give up.. If you're wearing that stuff out your working. Grading the road to one of our gravel pits, I can wear out a brand new cutting edge in 2 days. I once wore out a cheap cutting edge that came on the snow wing on my grader in 25kms plowing on asphalt. The loader man on our pipe jobs likes a thin cutting edge for cleaning up materials off the road

 

[Clawed Backster]

I'd rather wear the cutting edge than the bottom of the whole bucket.

Yep, but there is a sweet spot where you are on the bottom flat part of the cutting edge, without hitting the bottom of the bucket.

 

[Ronsii]

Yep, but there is a sweet spot where you are on the bottom flat part of the cutting edge, without hitting the bottom of the bucket.

Sounds great.... in a perfect world but like BLS said... the leading edge gets rounded and then you have to increase angle to make it work... or you have to put a lot of extra unneeded down pressure to try and counteract the roll lift.... and that induces more problems.

So I look at it for how it's designed to be used... cutting edge is designed to cut/wear and that's what I do with em'

Plus we are usually pushed for time and need to get things done in a timely fashion - if I can do the job in half the time by putting some wear on the part designed for it then it's a done deal

 

[Clawed Backster]

The guy who I used to work for in the excavation business many years ago was basically the only person who ran his equipment. He always used the flat portion of the cutting edge, so it didn't really ever get rounded on the front edge. I don't have any way of knowing the exact number, but I would say that he probably got hundreds, if not thousands of hours out of each one.
Real miser.

 

[cuttin edge]

I hate a bucket with those big wear plates on the heel of the bucket. if you try and run your bucket flat, they drag. pain in the ass if you're trying to fine grade. I don't tip the bucket down hard unless I'm trying to pick up something like concrete or asphalt without taking any gravel. I tip it down so I can see the cutting edge, get the piece lifted, and sliding up my bucket, then slowly level out my bucket while lowering and driving ahead. other than that, I let the leveler kick out then give the tilt lever a quick shove enough that you're riding on the CE but not digging in. one thing i noticed about the bucket on our new L180 is that the CE nuts are counter sunk in the bucket which would be great for picking up concrete and pave and not having it catch on bolt heads. nothing I hate worse than shoveling a bit of gravel or hot asphalt out of a bucket and hitting a cuttin edge bolt.

 

[Bill Edwards]

Constant problem where I work, as soon as it leaves the workshop the tip gets rounded over and doesn't clean up properly, and I end up replacing edges that have had the tip worn to nothing but loads of meat underneath.

It's too much for them to process that you should have the bucket close to being flat to wear the edge, but not so flat that it's dragging the bucket and wearing it all away.

 

[Nige]

I was taught to keep the bottom of the front bucket flat on the ground to keep wear of the cutting edge to a minimum.

It surprises me that you would do that when generally it's the only bolt-on wear component that can be replaced on the bucket. It's designed to wear out, unbolt it, fit a new one, and carry on.

Generally speaking the GET (bolt-on cutting edge, teeth, whatever) should always be the FIRST thing on the bucket to come into contact with the floor.
The heel of the bucket should come into contact with the ground when the loader is basically stopped in the pile at which point the tilt function is being used to crowd and fill the bucket. There will be some forward movement at this point but it's minimal. What should be avoided as much as possible is the bottom of the bucket sliding long distances across the ground.
We usually set the tilt kickout so that in the "return to dig" position the heel of the bucket is somewhere between 3-6" (depending on how big the loader is) off the ground when the tooth tips/cutting edge are just touching the ground. That measurement might be 2" or less on a BHL or a skid-steer.