Charlie_Iliff
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Jun 13, 2001
- Messages
- 1,896
- Location
- Arnold, MD
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT1845, John Deere 2240, John Deere 950, John Deere 755, Jacobsen Turf Cat II
It was a great Power Trac Day. Hans (Bubenberg) Luginbuhl just left my place after seven hours of work and testing, and a pleasant supper. He brought down his PT425, two Kunz Acrease wing mowers, the grapple bucket, forks and brush hog, all on a 20' trailer.
First, we had to do some tire repair, since some necessary evasion on the way down had resulted in load shift and a flat on the PT. One new stem, some glue and some Slime did a temporary fix that only needed air one more time during the day. I mowed a pasture, towing the two wing mowers. I was cutting about a 14' swath. It wouldn't be too hard to convince me that I need those. Hans has welded a PT
attachment plate to each mower, so he quickly loads and unloads them, without any effort at all. While I was mowing, Hans demonstrated the grapple bucket by moving a big pile of brush and old wire fence, not to mention a 30' by 6-8" thick tree.
We then switched mine to the Lackender hoe, and I demo'ed digging with the curl on my new button circuit. Hans then played with the hoe, tested the machine on some slopes, and we talked through possibilities for modification of the 425 to a
similar circuit switch configuration. The system works well, but may ultimately need yet another circuit, for a movable thumb on a grapple. It also needs to be a lot less expensive, and some thought has to be devoted to exactly where to mount it on the PT425. The valve I used barely fit behind the lift cylinder on the right, and there are signs of contact to one of the fittings.
But, it worked, and Hans was able to further arrange the pile of brush, using the hoe and thumb as a grapple, and only one hand to control it. He will report in due course, and I will try to post a bit more technical detail within the next few days, with a picture or two. It isn't the only answer to the lever-by-knee problem, but it works well.
It was great to meet face-to-face a man who has been a friend on TBN and an influence on my buying the PT in the first place. We are planning a trip to Tazewell together to see new toys, er, equipment, and to see if we can nudge them
into a couple of fixes and improvements.
First, we had to do some tire repair, since some necessary evasion on the way down had resulted in load shift and a flat on the PT. One new stem, some glue and some Slime did a temporary fix that only needed air one more time during the day. I mowed a pasture, towing the two wing mowers. I was cutting about a 14' swath. It wouldn't be too hard to convince me that I need those. Hans has welded a PT
attachment plate to each mower, so he quickly loads and unloads them, without any effort at all. While I was mowing, Hans demonstrated the grapple bucket by moving a big pile of brush and old wire fence, not to mention a 30' by 6-8" thick tree.
We then switched mine to the Lackender hoe, and I demo'ed digging with the curl on my new button circuit. Hans then played with the hoe, tested the machine on some slopes, and we talked through possibilities for modification of the 425 to a
similar circuit switch configuration. The system works well, but may ultimately need yet another circuit, for a movable thumb on a grapple. It also needs to be a lot less expensive, and some thought has to be devoted to exactly where to mount it on the PT425. The valve I used barely fit behind the lift cylinder on the right, and there are signs of contact to one of the fittings.
But, it worked, and Hans was able to further arrange the pile of brush, using the hoe and thumb as a grapple, and only one hand to control it. He will report in due course, and I will try to post a bit more technical detail within the next few days, with a picture or two. It isn't the only answer to the lever-by-knee problem, but it works well.
It was great to meet face-to-face a man who has been a friend on TBN and an influence on my buying the PT in the first place. We are planning a trip to Tazewell together to see new toys, er, equipment, and to see if we can nudge them
into a couple of fixes and improvements.
