"No digging with Kioti's"?

[ManAtArms]

CPM, the dealers are correct. You can dig with your tractor, but a tractor is more or less a "loader". The arms are designed to lift and scoop piled material, not drive into hard objects as encountered during excavation. You CAN twist you loader arms out of alignment with the uneven forces of digging.

With bobcats and skid steers, when you lower the lower arms to the bottom position the arms come to rest on hard stops that direct the forces encountered by the bucket into the entire frame...sort of like a mini dozer. In short, they are designed for excavation.

-Mark

No. All the dealers I've spoken to, have a sharp intake of breath and tell you to buy a Bobcat if you want to dig. Apparently, damage is done when hitting rocks on one side.

I know people do use them for light digging but I was wondering how commonplace this is and what experience people had - which brings up another point. Would this affect a warranty?

 

[CPM]

CPM, the dealers are correct. You can dig with your tractor, but a tractor is more or less a "loader". The arms are designed to lift and scoop piled material, not drive into hard objects as encountered during excavation. You CAN twist you loader arms out of alignment with the uneven forces of digging.

With bobcats and skid steers, when you lower the lower arms to the bottom position the arms come to rest on hard stops that direct the forces encountered by the bucket into the entire frame...sort of like a mini dozer. In short, they are designed for excavation.

-Mark

Thanks for the insight. I'm not looking at heavy duty stuff but I would like to be able to do some light digging - mostly to reclaim some slippage and after that shore up the bank with some treated timber, which would mostly be decorative anyway.

 

[k0ua]

here is a little light digging I did last fall. with the bucket and the bucket shovel I made. You can see the piles of dirt are pretty good size.
Several posters said I would tear up the bucket etc.. I did not. No damage, no "racking the arms" Nothing out of whack. The digging was not easy due to all the rocks and roots, In fact it was difficult.. A backhoe would have done much better, much faster. But I don't have a backhoe:ashamed::ashamed: The tree is out, the yard is reclaimed and in full grass now with the local deer herd grazing on it constantly.

 

[CPM]

here is a little light digging I did last fall. with the bucket and the bucket shovel I made. You can see the piles of dirt are pretty good size.
Several posters said I would tear up the bucket etc.. I did not. No damage, no "racking the arms" Nothing out of whack. The digging was not easy due to all the rocks and roots, In fact it was difficult.. A backhoe would have done much better, much faster. But I don't have a backhoe:ashamed::ashamed: The tree is out, the yard is reclaimed and in full grass now with the local deer herd grazing on it constantly.

Cool. Thanks for that. I'll have to get myself some chain, too!