Is knowing where your front bucket is a problem for everyone, or just me?

As a new operator, one of the things I find challenging is knowing the orientation and position of my front bucket. It's impossible to see anything, and estimations of distance to the ground, or angle are rough at best.

Am I the only one who finds this challenging and annoying? Curious.

Thanks.

Put your bucket where it’s flat and level to the ground. Then take some spray paint and paint a line across your bucket tilt linkage where you can see it from the seat. After a some time of using it you will get the fill of it and won’t need that indicator as much. I have been turning wrenches on this stuff 20 plus years and still can’t get the bucket level. It’s just takes practice and I am no operator.

This is why return to dig was invented.

good idea Paul.
Emmett, put your bucket flat on the ground on the flat area like your driveway. Snap a picture from your seat looking at the top back bucket corners on each side. Post them up.
I don't know your particular machine but I have run many different models of hoes and loaders. Each one presents some visual cues to use.

Most of the time (most but not all), the top of the bucket is boxed and squared off and it is parallel to the cutting edge, you can get a good idea of the angle of the cutting edge by looking at that. You can look at the back of the bucket as well and see how much space there is between the heel of the bucket and the ground when the cutting edge is level on the ground and make adjustments like that when you’re grading. Im pretty sure your machine should have a bucket indicator on the right hand side of the loader arm close to the pin or attached to the pin that the loader arm uses. I really hate to say it, but the best way to figure it out his time in the seat, as an old timer used to tell me when I first started running equipment as wee little lad, “you need to feel it with your a$$”. What the machine transfers through the seat will tell you all you need to know.