New Owner / Must haves?

[Skwerl711]

New member here, been watching and searching this page while shopping for my first tracor.

Waiting for my New LS XG3140H to be delivered and already thinking about Mods and accessories.
I plan on doing a lot of grade work, brush hogging, firewood, and general utility.

What are some accessories or DIYs that you guys use alot or can't go without?

I'll be shopping for a Back Blade, and Rotary Cutter, and maybe a rototiller soon.

 

[tractorshopper]

For grading work, you will want a box blade (helps with ballast also when using your loader) and a tooth bar on the loader bucket is very very useful for grading/digging.

If these grading areas are vegetation currently, then a grapple would be also very high on my list. It can also help a lot with firewood gathering/moving, etc.

Those happen to be my top 3 list of useful accessories. Tooth bar, box blade, and grapple. I won't own another tractor without those 3.

 

[The Deerslayer]

New member here, been watching and searching this page while shopping for my first tracor.

Waiting for my New LS XG3140H to be delivered and already thinking about Mods and accessories.
I plan on doing a lot of grade work, brush hogging, firewood, and general utility.

What are some accessories or DIYs that you guys use alot or can't go without?

I'll be shopping for a Back Blade, and Rotary Cutter, and maybe a rototiller soon.

Welcome to TBN and congrats on your upcoming tractor! You will get many suggestions here and ways in which to spend your money!!:laughing:

Unless your new rig comes with a toolbox of decent size (not likely), you will want to consider installing a toolbox. They are great for essential tools, pins, washers, shear bolts (get several for each implement that needs them and keep in separate marked zip-loc bags), gloves, etc... Here is a pic of the one I mounted on my new tractor. Cost was minimal.



As you mentioned firewood, a chainsaw holder and/or carry-all will make life easier. Always a danger placing saws in the FEL and forgetting when you attempt to load the bucket

Having a fire extinguisher is handy as well.

If the deck of your tractor does not have any rubber, fabricating one will not only protect the paint (if that matters to you), it also adds better traction.

Good luck, and enjoy that new tractor!!

 

[TerryR]

Waiting for my New LS XG3140H to be delivered and already thinking about Mods and accessories.
I plan on doing a lot of grade work, brush hogging, firewood, and general utility.

I'll be shopping for a Back Blade, and Rotary Cutter, and maybe a rototiller soon.

Those would be (and were) on the top of my list. The rototiller, assuming you plan to prepare a substantial garden or other seedbed.

For firewood, as Deerslayer says, a carryall. The FEL bucket suddenly gets pretty small if you want to move much wood. They are cheap, and have lots of other uses too.

I don't think there is anything else that's essential. But if you have money to burn there are a few things that can be useful. For example, a pto chipper to get rid of all the brush from all that firewook.

 

[FatTire]

Pallet forks. We use them all the time, unloading stuff, moving stuff (including other attachments), tilting something up to work on the bottom, rocks, lumber, flagstone, the list goes on.

 

[breadtrk]

Grease gun and rags.

 

[Gary Fowler]

If you have a sufficient amount of clearing and brush hauling to do, a grapple would be handy. I sure wish I had bought one when I was clearing my land of underbrush. It would have been much easier than piling everything on the FEL arms by hand.

If you can burn, not much use for a PTO chipper, just pile up unwanted brush, let it dry and set fire to it.

Tool box is about the first thing you will want to put on your tractor to keep your spare pins and a few wrenches. I mounted mine above the left fender by using self tapping screws into the FOPS upright.

A box blade is likely a necessity if you plan to do a lot of hillside leveling.

A rotary cutter is needed if you plan to keep the underbrush down. Lots of small stuff can just be shredded up and left to rot in place, a couple of years and it is gone or you could then use the grapple to scrape it into piles for burning.

A roto-tiller is great for preparing a garden spot, just don't overdo the tilling. You don't want it in a powder.

Lots of folks build a 3 PH carryall which is OK for hauling if you don't have anything else to do it with. I prefer to use my Kubota RTV 900 with hydraulic dump bed to haul everything I need to haul. I couldn't do without it. I would likely give up my tractor before my RTV.

Hopefully you have an air compressor because that and an air powered grease gun makes greasing a one man affair. They are much cheaper than the $120 battery powered ones and I have never had to grease my tractor or equipment out in the field so portability is not an issue. Also need that compressor to keep your tractor tires aired up properly. Nothing spoils the day like rolling a tractor tire off the rim due to low air pressure. R4 tires with their 8 ply or more side walls don't flex the sidewalls much when low, they just roll off the rim when the air pressure gets too low <BTDT>

 

[Sysop]

Grapples are great also! That's been my most recent addition, and for general cleanup of brush, limbs, entire trees, large rocks, and other stuff I'm still discovering, it is something that turns many big jobs into just a few minutes.

When you do like I did, and buy the grapple a few years after the tractor; you tend to kick yourself thinking "How many hours of runtime could I have saved had I just bought the grapple with the tractor on day one?"...

 

[jeff9366]

I do NOT have a grapple.

I cleared a lot of Florida jungle, transporting the debris on aluminum Debris Forks. Debris Forks require significant hand loading and carry a lot of soil with the debris. However, very good for transporting firewood.

Later I bought a Dirt Dog (brand) Field Cultivator to clear out wild grape vine roots, wild rose corms and soft-wood tree roots. I found the Field Cultivator, lifted 6" above grade, to be an excellent method of transporting snarled debris without having to load by hand and without carrying dirt in the debris.

Just offering this as an alternative thought should clearing vines, corms and roots be on your agenda. <$1,000

The best attachment for COLLECTING and PILING debris is a Ratchet Rake bucket attachment.



Photo #10 ~ Probably 1,100 pounds of snarled, damp, jungle debris.

 

[nybirdman]

Extendable end links,sure saves the back.Third function for my thumb&snow plow.Tooth-bar on the bucket.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

As many aux hydraulics that your dealer will supply you. 3rd function for the loader, 2 at a minimum if not 3 for the rear.

 

[DieselBound]

Sometimes one just has to be creative with whatever one has on-hand! If you look at my avatar you'll see:

1) Toothbar on bucket (had I had this from the start my life would have been a LOT easier- really hard to move logs and stuff around with just a smooth bucket edge!);
2) Way out back there you'll see my wood hauler/skidder- an old car hood (or truckhood- I think 70s era Ford truck hoods are best), had several hoods I unearthed from the property- no longer use them because I ran out of them (they wear, and I have a totally different firewood scheme now);
3) Box blade - a VERY stout box blade which one can also use as a push blade (in reverse- I've run backwards curling a bunch of brush while pushing another pile behind me), and, as I did for a stint, turned the rippers backwards and set plywood inside the box (curl in back edge of box held the other side of the plywood) which made it into a box for hauling (hauled cut wood), and, of course, it makes for a great ballast piece;
4) Rotary cutter - most used item for me as I've got a lot of brush and grass to deal with (have two tractors and two bush hogs).

Have a winch around, or, in my case, a cable puller (I have one of these: The More Power Puller®, Portable Winch, Cable Puller, Come Along Winches | By The Wyeth-Scott Company - steel cable because I've got a lot of stuff to snag on). I got one of these after using a regular come-a-long for a long time, having them jam and just outright start feeling less than stable. Viable for smaller equipment rescues. I thought about an electric winch that can mount to a receiver hitch, but that's a fair amount to lug around and then one has to have available battery power (in most cases getting unstuck really only requires a few feet, and this is readily done by a hand winch).

At least one grab hook on the loader bucket: I have three on my B7800; dealer would only install ONE on my KIoti's bucket- I will look to add more.

Carry an assortment of lynch pins and other clips.

Be sure to outfit work lights if you don't already have them. My wife was telling me that she didn't want me out working at night. After I installed work lights on my B7800 I was able to react to many emergency situations when it was dark out: wife no longer suggests a night time work ban

 

[teg]

If you plan to get the most out of your rear blade or box blade, I echo MtnViewRanch's comment to add extra hydraulics - I would add 4 to be on the safe side. Hydraulic Top Link and Side link (TNT).

 

[IslandTractor]

Grapples are great also! That's been my most recent addition, and for general cleanup of brush, limbs, entire trees, large rocks, and other stuff I'm still discovering, it is something that turns many big jobs into just a few minutes.

When you do like I did, and buy the grapple a few years after the tractor; you tend to kick yourself thinking "How many hours of runtime could I have saved had I just bought the grapple with the tractor on day one?"...

x2. Grapples are extremely useful and save all sorts of hassle when doing land clearing. I own a "light duty" 48" grapple, a ratchet rake, a 4n1 bucket, fork set and the one implement I would keep above all others is the grapple. You cannot move sand with it but it can do just about everything else. A grapple plus standard bucket is a killer combo. Ratchet rake is nice for prepping soil to seed or just removing light brush but you cannot dig or load debris when the RR is attached to the bucket so that is a negative. A 4n1 bucket is kind of a Swiss army knife but I would MUCH rather have a true grapple and standard bucket. I can get four of five times as much work done with the grapple than with the 4n1. Forks are great for moving big things but extremely inefficient for removing brush.

I've never used a back blade but many find that a boxblade is also useful for grading soil. A boxblade can also rip soil and move dirt efficiently.

Rotary cutters are the standard for clearing land if you are not near dwellings or traffic. I use both a rotary cutter and a flail mower. Unless I was only doing initial clearing of overgrown land, I would opt for the flail if I could have only one. There is a long thread on TBN on flail mowers that might be useful to read before you make a decision.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Pallet forks
Backhoe
Grapple is on my wish list
Ratchet rake

 

[Skwerl711]

Wow you guys are all over this one. Great replies!
A grapple is on my wish list for sure along with at least a hydraulic top link.

I was actually looking for the smaller thing in this thread like the toolbox, fire extinguisher, chains, etc.... I'll be after this stuff soon after the tractor arrives. Unfortunately this snow storm is delaying delivery.

What is a carry all? These are homemade? Any pictures of good ones? Im assuming its a "truck box" on the 3pt.

The Handi hitch with short boom look like a huge help too.

Thanks for all your input guys!

 

[txdon]

Must haves all depend on the land you are using your tractor on.

Lots of grass - mover
Want a big garden - tiller
Dirt/gravel roads - box blade
Lots of trees - teeth for bucket (to push brush and pop out of ground) or a step up - grapple
Hauling digging with FEL - teeth

Beginning maintenance items:
Diesel gas can (10 gal)
Grease gun
air compressor
set of large metric sockets
pressure washer

This should get you going for the first 50 hours.

 

[IslandTractor]

I like txdon's list. I would point out however that a couple or three 5 gallon diesel cans are a lot easier to manage than a 10 gal can as most fill spouts are at or above shoulder height.

Consider a sunshade. Even in NY and NE, the summer sun can be brutal when mowing and it also provides comfort during rain. I'd get an aluminum one if I were to do it again.

Also, as I learned here on TBN, the Lock N Lube tip for a grease gun is a fairly cheap and very effective investment that saves lots of frustration. Amazon.com: LockNLube Grease Gun Coupler - Zerk Grease Coupler Fitting Tip - Easy Lock-on, Clip-off - Stays on - Grease goes in, not on the machine: Automotive

And, though it shouldn't be an issue in the first few months of ownership, some method to clear clogged grease zerks is very useful. Strategies vary. You can just have extra zerks and simply replace clogged ones to be cleaned later or you can get a zerk fitting rejuvenator device. Point is you'll certainly run into clogged zerks and need a way to deal with them that doesn't delay you from greasing effectively. I use this one but there are others that probably work just as well on the same principle (forcing oil through the clogged zerk) Amazon.com: Innovative Products of America 7862 Grease Joint Rejuvenator: Automotive

 

[TerryR]

What is a carry all? These are homemade? Any pictures of good ones?

Here is a photo of mine:




Typically the metal frame is purchased, and the user builds the platform or a box on that.

As you can see from the chips in the first photo I use mine for carrying firewood. The ropes you see on the left are used to secure a big load. I also use to carry my big-wheel string trimmer up and down our hills - the cord looped in the center catches a hook on the front of it to hold it in place.