Owning a small tractor is a blessing.

[bigtiller]

I did the same thing yesterday.
But I got lucky, no damage was done.
It was a nice calm day so I put the forks on the loader and set the sprayer in the Gator.

Finished spraying and returned the sprayer and the tractor to their parking spots and lowered the loader.

I heard a clunk and looked. I never did pin the forks to the loader.

 

[Jstpssng]

I did something tonight, I'm not sure what. I went up and swapped the grapple for the bucket because I wanted to bury/compost some food waste and sawdust. First decided to run some material down to the scrap metal pile...
I dumped it, backed up and found myself wondering where the water in the trail came from. Then the loader started working slower and slower... and the tractor stopped moving. Looking down I saw a stream of hydraulic fluid and realized I must have caught a hose coming out of the transmission. I will crawl underneath tomorrow morning when it's done dripping to find out what I broke.
Day 7 of the month and that seems to be the way things are going.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Oh that's no fun at all, I hope it's not too bad of a fix. How far from the shop/garage/barn is the Kubota sitting?

 

[BackRoad]

I'm commiserating with you Mr. Jstpssng. Hope it's an easy, low cost fix. Just the cost to replace the lost hydraulic fluid is bad enough!

 

[Jstpssng]

I went out with a flashlight and looked... just a broken hose fitting for the loader. I still am not sure how I broke it but will pull it off tomorrow and get a new hose after work.
It's only the second breakdown in 8 years... the first was because I got some bad fuel.

 

[Razzmatazz]

I agree with this statement. My dad had an old 8N Ford until he was in his mid-70s. He used it weekly for getting firewood, etc. I finally talked him into selling it and buying a used Kubota BX2200 with a loader. He would then call me weekly and tell me everything he used that little Kubota for. It was so much easier for him to get on, and more compact and maneuverable, that he found way more uses for it than his 8N. He had significant mobility issues and could only walk/stand for about 5 minutes at a time. So he used the ATV and now his Subcompact tractor a lot.

When I'm older, in my 70s or 80s, God willing, I will live that long, I will own another Subcompact tractor.

Like your Dad, I got to the point (70) where I had trouble getting off and on my YM1700. Moving to the Yanmar SA425 was a blessing. Adding the hydraulic top link made a huge difference.

 

[mmaliga]

I call it "Adaptive Equipment". A lot cheaper than the medical supply houses, and definitely a lot more effective!

 

[CalG]

I call it "Adaptive Equipment". A lot cheaper than the medical supply houses, and definitely a lot more effective!

Whenever I feel the need for another piece of equiment, I rationalize (to my wife mostly) "If it saves a trip to the ER, it will be money ahead". She mostly agrees, but then counters with "At your age, you shouldn't be doing that sort of thing".
She IS right, but I can't seem to stop.

Remember, At our age, "A dollar saved is a dollar wasted"!

 

[jigs_n_fixtures]

I bought a Japanese tiny Truck to carry a snow plow at the insistence of my girl friend. WE got about 14-inches of fresh snow. So, I came home and spent three hours shoveling out my driveway. Forgot my phone in the house. Got done and she had been calling for 2-1/2-hours. I called her. She asked where I'd been, and her immediate response was to get something to move snow, because folks our age have heart attacks shoveling snow. So, after looking at UTVs and ATVs to carry a plow, and noticing everybody suing them to plow with looked cold and miserable, I bought a JDM pickup with 4-wd and a high-low range transfer case, and a scissors lift dump bed, and most importantly a real cab with doors, a heater, and windshield with wipers. One of my more useful purchases.

Needed to move some rocks and sand, and spread some gravel. Bought a friend's used TYM T233, with a SSQA FEL, with the bucket and a set of forks, that included a rear blade and landscape rake.

Kind of a toss up between which is more useful the tiny truck or the tiny tractor. But the tiny truck with a dump bed, and the tiny tractor with a loader make a great combo for moving dirt and rocks around.

 

[EscapedSuburbia]

Today my wife and I buried almost 2000' of wire for our underground dog fence using something I cobbled together out of a cheap Amazon subsoiler, some conduit, and a few hose clamps. Worked like a champ The dog fence company quoted me $2200. The first photo is stopping to splice the wire after the first 1000' roll ran out.

I sharpened the leading edge of the subsoiler and it cut through some pretty hefty roots without a problem but if I had to do it again I'd buy a better quality subsoiler that mounted directly to the 3 point quick hitch instead of having the intermediary Chinese receiver. The receiver mount isn't made to take the kind of forces involved in cutting roots and I had to stop midway through and straighten it out on the hydraulic press and re-weld it.

 

[BackRoad]

Better for the mount to have cratered rather than one of your tractor components...you found the best point to fail!

 

[Jstpssng]

Today my wife and I buried almost 2000' of wire for our underground dog fence using something I cobbled together out of a cheap Amazon subsoiler, some conduit, and a few hose clamps. Worked like a champ The dog fence company quoted me $2200. The first photo is stopping to splice the wire after the first 1000' roll ran out.

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I sharpened the leading edge of the subsoiler and it cut through some pretty hefty roots without a problem but if I had to do it again I'd buy a better quality subsoiler that mounted directly to the 3 point quick hitch instead of having the intermediary Chinese receiver. The receiver mount isn't made to take the kind of forces involved in cutting roots and I had to stop midway through and straighten it out on the hydraulic press and re-weld it.

View attachment 4239563

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That surely beats a shovel! That's a long ways to bury wire no matter how you do it!

 

[CalG]

When "trenching" wire, It would seem that a first pass with just the tool would be justified. A second pass to lay the wire.

I've made up a similar tool using the the box blade scarifier. Makes short work of setting asparagras or raspberry rows. I haven't had to "plant" cable.

Had you considered the "HALO" gps dog fence system?
As of this evening, we are "sitting" my son's dog. They have her collared with the Halo unit. It does seem to work.

 

[Sodo]

Regarding threat title: Owning a small tractor is a blessing.
If you have a tractor, and you NEED it, it's a good life.


You can see the weld that had no penetration.
Easy repair. I'd weld the other side too.
Add gussets to be much stronger.

 

[thebmrust]

A tractor is a force multiplier:
Hydraulics and the right attachment multiplies our energy input.
Speed of task completion multiplies time.
More time means more tasks completed.

 

[tacticalturnip]

We got a pretty good storm on Tuesday night, so I had quite a bit of that unregulated white stuff from the sky. I took about 3 hours moving it around, could of done it faster, but I love piling it up for the kids.

 

[tacticalturnip]

Did some preparation for the forthcoming storm. Got the Kioti all fueled up, moved the vehicles out of the way for the clearing of snow I'll be doing, and discovered the generator doesn't want to start.

Hopefully moving the Honda to the basement to warm it up will give it incentive to work.

 

[dnw64]

I'm not sure I'd use the word "blessed", but it sure is one of the best purchases I've made! Makes so many tasks easier, even possible, hard to imagine not having one!

To be fair, he didn't say "blessed" (which implies a completed state of holiness), but "a blessing", which means "a statement of good will and happiness that is said about another". Now, while giving the attributes of human life to a tractor may not be entirely accurate, the sentiment holds true, as well as the defining result of "a blessing" which could be stated as "the condition that fulfills those good words".

 

[dnw64]

Yes tractors are cool and handy. If you were ever in a position to need/want/could use/ a Forklift......
Now that's another whole level of handy. I have several that are currently under my care.

We have two, 6,000 and 10,000#. Couldn't live without them. Almost had to the other day - suddenly discovered the propane company hadn't been by since November and we were down to one. Had to swap the tank back and forth until they showed up. The 10k one has studs and we had two trailer loads of lumber to unload (we're in VT, gravel/snowy/icy lot). The 6k one is used in the shop for work in progress.

 

[dnw64]

Again! Where and how do these rocks hide out for so long and then one day just show up?
Not just the fist sized ones but the big SOBs.
Then where does driveway gravel go?

It's the power of water. Waters carries things ways with momentum, wears things down by friction and builds things up by freezing.

Can't live with it, can't live without it.