Tractor neophyte asks: "Is this safe"?

[dochockin]

I'm close to making the purchase decision on my first tractor (a B series Kubota) and came across this video while researching. To my inexperienced eyes, the section at around 2m50s looks pretty sketchy...

Digging a pond with a Compact Tractor - Kioti CK20s - YouTube

 

[dragoneggs]

You will love your tractor... so much you will find to do with it. I don't see any problem with his project and the hill he is climbing other than he needs to keep his FEL as low as possible at all times. No reason to have it up in the air like he does. A tooth bar would have helped him on that project as well.

 

[Baby Grand]

As dragoneggs says -

... so much you will find to do with it.

Please keep in mind while you're doing all these many things that digging with the
FEL is hard on our CUTs & SCUTs. Digging with the FEL without a counterweight on the 3pt is very hard on our tractors. It really tests the mettle of our front axles, which often prove to be the Achilles heel of our otherwise mighty machines. Rear ballast also greatly improves your tractors traction and stability. Be kind to yourself & your orange friend and ballast up!
-Jim

 

[k0ua]

In a word, NO. not the way he worked.. as pointed out, No ballast on the 3pt. Needs 500 lbs or more on the 3pt for even that small tractor to unload the front axle and keep the rears on the ground. Never carry a full loader up high like that. It can easily lead to a rollover accident.. Only raise the loader when you are on the dump location and are nearly stopped. You saw the rears raise many times. This is never good, as the front axle is on a pivot bolt and the tractor is free to roll to one side or the other when the rear tires are off the ground.. Did he survive? yep he got lucky. Don't count on your results being as good. Loaded rear tires would have helped stability also. There are many unsafe working tractors on You-tube. What you don't see is all the turned over tractor pictures like you see posted here. I am not on the safety police force, but having owned 5 tractors, and almost turned over a few from doing stupid things, I have learned a thing or 2 from these near misses.

James K0UA

 

[CobyRupert]

eh....
Sure, he could of been safer (you ALWAYS can be more safer, no matter how riduculous.)Everbody has their own comfortability/risk tolerance. Personnally, I would tend to keep the bucket lower, but he really didn't have too much weight in it, and I never saw the tractor in a situation where it was even close to going over. -Though when he raised the bucket pretty high when tipped sideways to "settle the load" I sort of though winched and thought "hope he doesn't drive that way"

 

[rd_macgregor]

It looked to me like he also wasn't wearing his seat belt...at least near the end.

 

[dragoneggs]

eh....
Sure, he could of been safer (you ALWAYS can be more safer, no matter how riduculous.)Everbody has their own comfortability/risk tolerance. Personnally, I would tend to keep the bucket lower, but he really didn't have too much weight in it, and I never saw the tractor in a situation where it was even close to going over. -Though when he raised the bucket pretty high when tipped sideways to "settle the load" I sort of though winched and thought "hope he doesn't drive that way"

Except that it only takes a stray rock under a rear wheel when the bucket is raised, especially if you are turning a bit to flip you over quickly. The higher the bucket the less chance of recovery.

 

[k0ua]

Except that it only takes a stray rock under a rear wheel when the bucket is raised, especially if you are turning a bit to flip you over quickly. The higher the bucket the less chance of recovery.

Yep, and you have some "puckering" experience on that terrace project right? And that is with a BX... a machine noted for low center of gravity.

 

[dochockin]

I don't mean to criticize the guy, perhaps he is a Tractor Master... The hill climb did seem pretty steep to me, especially coming down with an empty FEL... I didn't even think about the height of the loader.

@Baby Grand: Is digging hard on CUTS just for balance reasons, or for abnormal wear and tear? While watching the video, despite my safety concerns, I was excited at the idea of being able to dig ponds like that, but not if it takes years of the tractor's life.

 

[flusher]

I'm close to making the purchase decision on my first tractor (a B series Kubota) and came across this video while researching. To my inexperienced eyes, the section at around 2m50s looks pretty sketchy...

Digging a pond with a Compact Tractor - Kioti CK20s - YouTube

The FEL on these little Kubota's are more suited for scooping loose material than digging in compacted soil. You can do it, but you have to be careful not to twist the FEL arms.
Be careful when scooping material that's setting on concrete. The front wheels need to be able to spin when you push the bucket into the pile of stuff and the tractor's forward motion stops. If you do this on concrete in 4WD, you may end up damaging the 4WD transfer box since the front wheels may not spin when the motion stops. Better to use 2WD in that case. That's one of the first things the dealer warned me of when I bought my new 2005 Kubota B7510HST with 4WD.

Good luck