Just farm use, my roads are going to crap with all of the rain…seems a dozer would fix it ricky tick but I have a loader…thinking about buying a piece of maybe i beam..not sure something I could bolt onto the bucket for road smoothing…maybe I just need more experience running what I have
If you dont have miles of road to do try running backwards with your bucket in float and just roll the bucket towards dump to cut or flatter to grade .Ive done that with wheel loaders lots and it does a decent job.
Do you have a bolt on smooth edge on your bucket? Even with teeth you should be able to loosen the surface and back blade it either in float position or with a little down pressure on the high or packed parts.
do you have an extra valve spool?
Take a length of 8 to 10 inch thick wall steel pipe a foot of two longer than your bucket is wide. Cut a slot full length but leave the last six inches on each end uncut so your cutting edge will slip right into the slot. Put that on the edge and away you go. You can also put chains on the ends to hook to hooks welded on your bucket to keep it on. If your loader linkage is badly worn, its still going to be a tougher task to level.
My bucket has big teeth so backing in float shreds the ground…this is sort of what I was thinking
Not that I know of
It was a thought. Sometimes there is a spool in there that is not yet connected to a lever or hoses.
Not a bad idea, my loader pins and bushings are all new
Pretty unlikely on a loader but I suppose.
4 in 1 plumbing.
I like Grandpa's idea. I caution that even a 6 way blade is NOT a miracle on a dozer. It is only as good as the operator. Smoothing out processed material is easy even with your machine. Smoothing native dirt is near impossible. If it were me I'd place & level the dirt with the loader, then buy or build a back blade for a tractor with gauge wheels. I see land levellers do a nice job, or even a good box blade will smooth things nicely. I don't have a track loader, but I find I can do better backward with a smooth edge backhoe loader bucket back blading. I do have a dozer, but after shaping the road, smoothing is best done with backing up. My friend owns IH TD7e, he grew up in the seat. He climbs on the seat of my TD7G & lays down a surface smooth as a tennis court. He explains angle the blade a bit so tracks don't both dip into the same dip. Overlap a bit to where you can see the the corner of your blade pass over your last pass. Every year after the tractor pull he climbs on my dozer, 1/2 hout it is ready for seed. I'd spend three hours, it wouldn't look as good.
What I would want is something with tilt. I can do a lot with a straight blade with a little tilt. That is why I was asking about a spare spool.
Takes some practice but you can do it with your loader and bucket. I've finished many a SF of building pad and graded a lot of road footage with our 953C. Actually a loader is handy if the road has a lot of potholes as you can use the teeth to scarify then re-grade and compact.
Common for 4 in 1 bucket
As far as tilt. Can work the pad 2 ways, 90* and get it level. Least that's what I do
I had a JD 355D with an extra spool. It could be for a 4 in 1 bucket or a ripper.
I bought the one In Minnesota- it’s now in Georgia- I’ll share additional pictures. It’s ok, but a 6 way on a TD8-E/G is superior.
A 4-N-1 has the extra spool for tilt already.
That is exactly what I was saying. The OP in this case does not have a 4 in 1, but I was hoping he had the spool anyway.
You could weld a cutting edge on some of the your bucket teeth. When you don't a smooth edge take it off and put new teeth on the shanks.
That's what we do with our 3' mini ex bucket. Keep the blade on most of the time.
I like this