 The Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency has developed the following video program to support the Air Force qualification training program. This video covers step-by-step procedures for a specific task identified in the specialty training standard of the Career Field Education and Training Plan. This video does not take the place of on-the-job training. It is not intended to replace the applicable technical reference. However, this program is intended to enhance the on-the-job training process, standardize the training procedures, provide just-in-time training, and provide the minimum knowledge on a task or piece of equipment when a unit does not have the equipment. We hope you'll find this video program a valuable training tool. This Civil Engineer Air Force qualification training program videotape contains front-end loader operations, level, stockpile, spread, and backfill. Driving to work can be a rewarding experience for those people who take an active part in the base's appearance. Just take a look around and you'll see well-maintained buildings and neatly trimmed lawns and landscaping. Most bases have flag displays and vintage aircraft depicting their history. Your civil engineer organization is responsible for these facilities and grounds. How well they fulfill these requirements is a direct reflection on the proficiency of the people in that organization. The pavements and construction equipment operators have a significant role in the maintenance and appearance of the base's real property. They'll use a wheeled, mounted front-end loader to accomplish this mission. This versatile piece of equipment is used almost daily for a variety of jobs. Today's program will discuss four typical tasks that you'll be expected to perform with the wheeled, mounted front-end loader. These tasks are leveling an area, stockpiling material, spreading material, and backfilling a ditch or trench. There are two different leveling techniques that can be accomplished with a wheel-mounted front-end loader. These techniques are commonly referred to as the dozer position and back-dragging. Either technique is suitable for knocking down small piles of material or filling in and leveling irregular surfaces. The dozer position can only be accomplished with a front-end loader equipped with a multi-segment bucket. If your loader is equipped with a standard bucket, you'll have to use the dragging technique. Let's discuss the dozer position technique first. Open the bucket segments and tilt the bucket back until the bucket position indicator aligns with the dozer position mark. The front segment should be opened a couple of feet above the ground. The rear segment should be almost straight with the cutting edge angled approximately 45 degrees. With the bucket set in this position, the cutting edge will just skim the surface and pile the material up against the back of the bucket. Set the cutting edge on or slightly above the ground. In this operation, you do not want to dig with the blade, so you'll have to pay close attention as you move the front-end loader forward. Slowly ease the front-end loader into the material to be leveled and watch the bucket. Your vision will be obscured, so you'll really have to feel what's happening to the loader and listen to the sound of the engine. As you move forward over the low spot, raise the blade in small increments for better distribution of material. Continue moving across the low spot. It's better to go slow and make an even distribution than trying to level too much too fast. When you're across the low spot, stop the front-end loader. Raise the bucket and return for additional material. Make as many passes as necessary to level the material and fill the low spots. You may have to change your front-end loader travel directions in order to fill all the low areas and level all the material. The other leveling technique is back-dragging. This technique can be performed with either type of bucket. Buckets with the front teeth removed generally produce smoother back-dragging operations than buckets with teeth. To set the bucket up for back-dragging operation, verify the bucket is in the bucket position on the bucket indicator gauge. Lower the bucket to the ground and tilt it backwards just slightly. This backwards tilting will raise the bucket teeth and keep them from scarring the ground and leaving small ruts. This technique is accomplished only in the reverse travel direction. Place the bucket boom control in the float position. This will allow the weight of the bucket to catch the high spots of material and float over the low spots. Slowly start backing the loader. The bucket will travel across the ground catching the high spots and depositing the material in the low areas. When you reach the end of the pass, raise the bucket slowly to feather out the remaining material. Return to the starting point for another pass. Don't forget to set the bucket up correctly and back slowly as you level the material. A number of passes may be needed to level the area. The direction of travel may also need to be changed in order to get the area as smooth as possible. These wheel-mounted front-end loader leveling techniques are generally considered a rough level. For small areas, the front-end loader works extremely well. However, for large areas, you'll probably need to bring in the grater to put the finishing touch on the leveling operation. Anyway you look at it, it sure beats the alternative. There are two pieces of construction equipment used to establish stockpiles, the crawler tractor or dozer, and the front-end loader. Most stockpiles established on a job site are created with the front-end loader because it's usually easier and faster than a crawler tractor. Plus, the piles of material can be stacked higher without the equipment walking on and compacting the material. Stockpiling is best accomplished on a flat hard surface free of larger rocks and debris. You'll also want to avoid areas that are prone to flood and have poor drainage. Place the front-end loader bucket in the bucket position. Lower the bucket until it is flat and level on the ground. If you're not familiar with this particular front-end loader, there are a couple of items to check to ensure the bucket is flat and level on the ground. First, make sure the bucket position indicator gauge is pointing to the bucket position. Over time, these indicators can be abused and therefore not be real accurate. Dismount the front-end loader and physically check to make sure the bucket is resting flat and level on the ground. You'd be surprised how many times it isn't. If everything is okay, remount the front-end loader for the next step. Move the front-end loader forward toward the material to be stockpiled and continue to skim the ground as the material flows into the bucket. Push the material until you reach the designated stockpiling spot. This spot might be indicated by a grade stake or an existing stockpile of material. Stop the loader, raise the bucket. This might be a good time to engage the clutch cutout feature and dump the material. A number of passes will be required to collect the material for the stockpile. As you make another pass, keep the engine speed only high enough to move the loader forward without spinning the tires. The bucket may have accidentally started to dig into the ground instead of just skimming over it. If this is the case, roll the front edge of the bucket back just a little and continue moving forward. Likewise, the bucket may also be curled back a little too much and it just skims over the ground. When this happens, the bucket will tend to create a slope or ramp as it approaches the stockpile. To eliminate these problems, double check the bucket position indicator gauge pointer. You may have to set the pointer on either side of the mark for the bucket to be perfectly flat and level. Continue making passes around the stockpile area until the area is smooth and level. The material gathered should be piled as high and uniform as possible. On some projects, dump trucks will deliver material to be stockpiled. Have them dump as close to the stockpile as possible. As the stockpiler, you should plan on assisting the dump trucks. Indicate where you want the material dumped. You may also need to spot the trucks when backing is required. Clear directions by the front end loader operator and accurate placement by the dump truck driver will significantly reduce the stockpiling effort. Stockpile this material as high as possible to make room for additional loads and to reduce the area needed to store the material. Clean up all the little mounds of material around the stockpile. The area should be smooth and level. This will help the trucks entering and leaving the area. Plus, it's a lot easier on the front end loader operator. Try to keep the stockpile shape uniform to prevent material shifting during inclement weather. Be aware that loosely compacted stockpiled material may give way and cause the loader to turn over. The last point we want to make on stockpiling is to be aware of the different types of material and sizes of aggregate that you're handling. Material that has a mixture of fines and large particles will tend to segregate if handled too much. Build the stockpile in layers to avoid segregation of material. Stockpiling material is a simple way of gathering material in one central location. When a dump truck brings fill material to the construction project, they can easily spread the material and save a lot of work. This is great if you have a lot of material to be spread. But what do you do if you only need a small amount of fill spread at various locations throughout the site? The front end loader can easily make quick work of this task. There are several different spreading techniques available depending on the type of front end loader bucket. First, let's discuss the spreading technique using a front end loader equipped with the multi-segment bucket. Load the bucket with material to be spread. Proceed to the low area with the bucket positioned close to the ground. Watch your speed as you don't want the loader bouncing and spilling material. Spreading a small amount of material within a specified area is a real challenge. It's hard for the front end loader operator to accurately judge material placement. While grade stakes establish the boundaries, a spotter can really assist you in placing the right amount of material where it's needed. When you reach the area where the material is needed, follow the spotter's directions. If you don't have a spotter, raise the bucket slightly so you can see the bottom of the bucket and the ground. Open the clamshell slightly. Material will start to flow onto the ground between the bucket segments. Back the front end loader across the low spot. Gradually increase or decrease the loader's speed. Depending on how thick a spread is required, adjust the bucket segment opening accordingly. At the edge of the low area, close the segments. If you still have material in the bucket, pull forward for another pass across the low area. This method works well when spreading thin lifts of material such as topsoil or sand over sod or grass. The loader tires won't be running over and compacting the material being spread. The result of this effort produces a pretty smooth fill. To really finish this effort, a little back dragging is all that's needed. If you're out of material, refill the bucket for another pass. This time, instead of backing across the low area, we're going to spread with the front end loader traveling forward. Position the loader bucket at the edge of where the material is required. Once again, raise the bucket slightly so you can see the bottom of the bucket and the ground. Open the clamshell slightly so the material will flow onto the ground. Move the front end loader forward slowly while gradually filling the low area. Proceed across the low area in this manner until your signal does stop. You may have to make a number of passes across the low area depending on the size and depth of the fill. With this spreading technique, we tried to level the area using the bulldozer bucket position. As you can see, this technique takes a lot of practice to be real proficient. So the back dragging technique was again employed with fine results. The next spreading technique would be applicable if your front end loader was equipped with a standard bucket. However, this technique can be used with either type of bucket and can be accomplished driving the loader forwards or backwards. Load the bucket and proceed to the area requiring the fill material. Stop the loader and raise the bucket just high enough to see under it. It's hard to see how much you're spreading if you can't see the ground. Place the front end loader in reverse and uncurl the bucket in small jerking movements to shake the material out of the front of the bucket. Slowly back across the low area. As the front of the bucket tips forward, raise the bucket slightly and keep uncurling the bucket as you move backwards. At the end of the pass, curl the bucket back. Return to the beginning of the area requiring the fill for another pass. Continue this spreading technique until the low area is filled. It's hard to get a real smooth even spread with this technique. You'll more than likely have highs and lows in the material just placed. Back dragging the area can easily level this fill and dress up the area. Spreading material using the techniques just described will significantly improve the serviceability of this unpaved road. Backfilling ditches and trenches can be accomplished with a number of pieces of construction equipment. The dozer, grater and front end loader can all be used to backfill. Each piece of equipment has advantages and disadvantages for this particular task. The dozer can handle large quantities of backfill material but cannot operate on hard surfaces such as asphalt. For real long backfill operations, the grater would be a good choice but it can move only small quantities of material with each pass. Numerous passes will be required to complete the backfilling operation. So for a piece of equipment that can operate on all types of surfaces and still handle large quantities of backfill material, the front end loader is probably the best choice and most versatile. Backfilling operation can be accomplished with a wheel mounted or track mounted front end loader using either a standard or multi-segment bucket. We'll cover both bucket techniques in this lesson. Before we cover the different backfilling techniques, let's talk about a safety issue that's bound to surface. Keep the front end loader out of the ditch or trench. Pushing the material back into and over the ditch will produce soft, loosely compacted material that generally won't support the weight of the loader. Keep the tires away from the edge because they will easily collapse the sides and may crush the items installed below. Getting a front end loader out of a ditch could take hours. Let's cover the bucket backfilling technique that can be used with a standard or multi-segment bucket. Position the front end loader at a 90 degree angle to the ditch or trench. Place the bucket in the bucket position and lower it to the ground. Slowly move the front end loader forward until it moves squarely into the pile of stock piled material. Fill the bucket but do not spin the tires. Continue the forward movement until the bucket is centered over the ditch or trench. Raise the bucket until you have a clear view of where the material will be deposited. Slowly tilt the bucket forward. If the material is not centered, move the loader forward or backwards until it is centered. Place the bucket back in the bucket position and back up to reposition the loader for another pass. Continue this sequence as you backfill the ditch. Make sure the bucket is centered and rotate it over until all the material has been emptied from the bucket. If the front end loader acted like it's going to stall, you may be trying to move too much material at one time. In this case, position the front end loader so that only half of the bucket will enter the pile of stock piled material. This bucket backfilling procedure can be used in most situations. Another technique you can use is to fill the bucket with material first. Approach the stock piled backfill material with the bucket level and just skimming the ground. Push the material forward into and over the ditch line. Do not empty the bucket. Raise the bucket slightly, back up and reposition the loader for another pass. This technique is a little faster because you don't have to empty the bucket on each pass. Either bucket technique will work just fine. It's a matter of adapting whichever technique works the best for your particular situation. Now let's try a technique that can only be accomplished with the multi-segment bucket. This backfilling technique is very similar to the leveling procedure covered earlier in the video. It's hard for the front end loader operator to accurately judge the bucket action in this procedure. A spotter will help ensure accurate material placement and speed up this backfilling effort. The front bucket segment must be opened all the way up. Place the bucket position indicator in the dozer position. Position the front end loader at a 90 degree angle to the ditch or trench. Lower it to the ground and move forward until the back of the bucket moves squarely into the pile of stock piled material. Continue moving forward, pushing the material into the ditch. As you reach the edge of the ditch, raise and tilt the bucket forward slightly to help slide the material off the back of the bucket. Back up and reposition the loader for another pass. Don't forget to set the bucket back to the dozer position before moving into the stock piled material again. As you move forward, keep an eye on the edge of the ditch. It's easy to accidentally drive into the ditch. Continue down the ditch line with the backfilling operation until it is completed. Each backfilling operation is different. Sometimes you'll be short of material. If you're short backfill material, additional material will have to be brought in. Other times you'll have an excess amount of fill material. Excess material should be placed over the ditch line to allow for settling action. Some ditches and trenches will require the fill material be compacted in layers while others won't need any compaction. Likewise, driving over the excess material may be all that's required on other fills. There's nothing worse than leaving the construction site a mess. Clean it up. Level or back-drag the ditch line to knock down any loose material and make the area look presentable. When backfilling around buildings and foundations, use extreme caution. Do not use the dozer method because the front bucket segment can easily hit the structure. Backfilling can easily be accomplished utilizing the different techniques just discussed. When the material is stockpiled beside the ditch, just push it in utilizing the bucket or dozer techniques. If the stockpiled material is located away from the ditch, the load, carry and dump technique would be the best choice. As you can see from the information presented in this program, the pavements and construction equipment operators can use the wheeled, mounted front end loader to accomplish a variety of projects. They include leveling an area, stockpiling material, spreading material, and backfilling a ditch or trench. This versatile piece of equipment is used almost daily. Just let it go in the shop for maintenance and you'll soon realize just how important it is. A lot of hand work will take its place, so take every precaution to keep it operating. Civil engineers can't afford to be without this key piece of construction equipment. This program was produced for headquarters, Air Force Civil Engineer Support Agency, Operations Support Directorate, Training Division. We gratefully acknowledge the 96th Civil Engineer Group, Horizontal Repair Section, Eglin Air Force Base, Florida for their support in producing this program.