So the deere I've been driving for the last 4 years has a squared right angle rear bucket edge. I've gotten really dependent on it for two reasons. First is judging the angle of the bottom of the bucket against the ground. If I put the front or rear edge down first I can feel where flat hits when I tilt the bucket and make adjustments from there. Gotten pretty fast at this. Second is dragging the back edge, mostly backwards but forward too in some cases. The thing is like an adjustable on-the-fly box blade. Scrape it backwards when flat and it cuts, tilt it up a little and it spreads it out and flattens nicely. This is a very important tool for me. There's other neat tricks I've found but suffice to say I've gotten used to the square edge. So this case I'm playing with now has a rounded back edge, and I've noticed this on several other brands. Judging flat on the bottom I'm sure I could get used to any old thing, but I'm not sure I can get by grading and scraping in the same way without the square edge. There's better more experienced operators than me around here that obviously figured something out but I dunno what it is. Backdragging with the cutting edge vertical has its place but doesn't incorporate the flattening and compacting quality of the bucket bottom in the same way. What do y'alls do? I bought a big ol piece of angle iron and some pieces of plate iron and I'm about to add on a custom square edge with my 6013 glue gun.
I like the idea of gluing a square piece on! I have a rounded back and have not had great luck grading or flattening with it. I think mine also has ribs that connect the bucket to the arm that gouge out the material I'm grading/flattening.
All you need is a bucket with no teeth and angle the cutting edge down to back drag.
Not the same effect as that bucket sitting flat and carrying, filling lows.
What DM said. Same goes with any bucket - CTL, skid, backhoe, real track loader - the grading is done with the cutting edge, forward or reverse. The rear of the bucket is to carry excess material during back dragging and the cutting edge does the grading. A 90 angled rear bucket is a little easier to pull out the high spots on a back drag but a rounded rear bucket will do the same, albeit not as easy.
Yeah, three of the old school dudes around here obviously make their rounded back buckets work pretty well. But ima still gonna glue a piece of angle iron on my back edge, it's what I've gotten used to. Scraping the cutting edge backwards at 90' works but not as well for me.