Buying Advice: Tractor Sizing

[RSR]

I would use an old car hood from the junkyard, attached to tractor Three Point Hitch cross-drawbar, as a sleigh to skid boulders. You can push large boulders onto the car hood with an unadorned FEL bucket and lift boulders modest heights where you want retaining walls, perhaps securing them with nylon straps during lift.

You will need heavy Three Point Hitch counterbalance when lifting boulders in the FEL to place for walls.

Kubota offers optional heavy duty SSQA buckets. With your conditions a heavy duty bucket would be advisable. The 60" heavy-duty, round-back bucket is option model L2296

CROSS DRAWBAR: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/owning-operating/404017-tractor-three-point-hitch-cross.html

I have heard this suggested before. Can you do it without tearing up a gravel road? That is, how large of divots and craters will it leave in the road?

The way my property is arranged I would drag everything downhill to the main road, and then along the main road to where I want to place them. I would hate to have to take extra time to repair the road each time I want to move some boulders out of the woods.

 

[jeff9366]

Boulder weight is well distributed on a car hood. Cross-drawbar will allow front of hood to be raised 3" or 4" to act as a bow. Elevating front of hood will also retain load when dragging cautiously down hill. While my conditions are different from yours, I predict zero load effect on your roads.

 

[Citydude]

I have heard this suggested before. Can you do it without tearing up a gravel road? That is, how large of divots and craters will it leave in the road?

The way my property is arranged I would drag everything downhill to the main road, and then along the main road to where I want to place them. I would hate to have to take extra time to repair the road each time I want to move some boulders out of the woods.

Wranglerstar on You Tube uses this technique if you care to take a look.

 

[4570Man]

I doubt the car hood will last long on gravels. Is dragging in the grass not an option?

 

[jeff9366]

My tasks:
First and foremost, snow removal and road maintenance. I live on a private road, with about 1/8 mile to clear and maintain. We get around 70-90 inches of snow a year, and it is extremely cold. It seems a cab is a must. The plan is a rear mount (not front due to cost) snow blower. There is nowhere to pile significant amounts of snow along the road. The question, then, is how much PTO Hp do I really need to complete the task in a reasonable amount of time?

What I can't seem to get a handle on is, for example, if I have 20 Hp at the PTO, how much quicker can I expect to remove snow compared to my current setup? What about if I have 30 Hp at the PTO? If I could compare impeller size and RPM on my snowblower to RPM and impeller size on another model, it would be straightforward to figure out how much more quickly I would be able to move snow. However, it seems virtually impossible to find those specs. So, practical experience please?

As a Floridian I cannot offer an answer based on personal experience. My last snow was .00032", which is not a lot of snow, but it drifted bad.

But here is my opinion:

The two tractor tasks which require careful consideration of tractor PTO horsepower are snow-blowing and mowing with a rotary cutter.

More PTO horsepower will permit you to throw snow farther, or cut a wider swathe with a wider implement.
FARTHER may be more important than wider to you.

 

[RSR]

Wranglerstar on You Tube uses this technique if you care to take a look.

I know he has a lot of episodes. Are you aware of the particular one?

 

[RSR]

I doubt the car hood will last long on gravels. Is dragging in the grass not an option?

Unfortunately, no. I would have to cross right over my newly installed leach field.

 

[Rock Crawler]

I know he has a lot of episodes. Are you aware of the particular one?

Heck, he did that one about a year ago. I remember it.

 

[Slowpoke Slim]

I understand your desire for a cab tractor. However your conundrum is that cab tractors and work in the woods is an impractical combination. Cabs are fragile.

That is pure horse feathers.

Cabs are NOT fragile.

You just have to actually pay attention to what you are doing, a little bit.

That may be a tall order for some.

 

[Citydude]

I know he has a lot of episodes. Are you aware of the particular one?

I think it was back to basics. A good watch.

 

[RSR]

I think it was back to basics. A good watch.

Found it. It's "Back to Basics - Full Movie". It looks like it starts at about 25:00.

Thanks!

 

[Citydude]

I think it was back to basics. A good watch.

Your welcome!

 

[Citydude]

That is pure horse feathers.

Cabs are NOT fragile.

You just have to actually pay attention to what you are doing, a little bit.

That may be a tall order for some.

Yep, my neighbor has a cab. Been in the woods with it for 15 years. No issues and he doesn't baby it.

 

[4570Man]

I don’t like cabs. Although if I was snow blowing on a regular basis or working in the heat 10 hours a day I’d have a different opinion.

 

[ericm979]

The one disappointment with my grapple (EA Wicked 60" double lid) has been picking up firewood rounds. It's no better than the bucket was.. maybe slightly worse. I think it'd be even worse at picking up split firewood. It could be that I need more practice but I have loaded a couple large gooseneck trailers with rounds using it and I have not gotten even a little better. For every other task it's been better than expected. So I'm not disappointed. But you may be if picking up firewood was the primary reason for getting it. I'd at least talk to people who have tried to pick up split firewood with a grapple and pay close attention to the spacing between the tines. Most grapples (like mine) have wide enough spacing that burnable size material can fall through.

Could you task the boys with stacking firewood in the boxes (or do it yourself) and then use forks to move them?

Kubota rates their loaders at a distance from the pins (I think it's 18" but could be wrong) while most everyone else rates them at the pins. You don't often pick up something by the pins so that inflates the rating somewhat.

My Branson dealer ships. Others do as well. So far I've only needed filters.

 

[4570Man]

I could pick up split firewood off concrete pretty well, but not so much off dirt. I couldn’t pick up very many at a time but picking up rounds of firewood was no problem. What is your setback with it?

 

[Citydude]

I could pick up split firewood off concrete pretty well, but not so much off dirt. I couldn’t pick up very many at a time but picking up rounds of firewood was no problem. What is your setback with it?

Are you picking up rounds one at a time? Trying to pick up rounds out if a pile is fruitless in my experience.

 

[rngrrymd]

No.

More properly two questions.

1. What percentage of neophyte tractor operators damage their tractor due to lack of experience during first five years of operation, to an extent requiring dealer repair?
[Neophyte operators do not know what they do not know.]

Answer: 100%


2. What percentage of neophyte tractor operators buy a too light tractor first, then operate it constantly at 100% trying to compensate, leading to repetitive damage requiring dealer repair?

Answer: 25%


It is not the hardware. It is the software.

Jeff, can you please provide the proof to back up this asinine statement. 100% of first time users damage their tractors in 5 years?? Bull. Or maybe you just speak from your own experience?

 

[4570Man]

Are you picking up rounds one at a time? Trying to pick up rounds out if a pile is fruitless in my experience.

I could usually pick up big ones 3 at a time off the ground. Picking up rounds under 12” took forever and I threw those in by hand. I could get a few out of a pile but you had to get under the bottom. Moving rounds isn’t a very common occurrence for me since I try not to cut them until I’m ready to split them because as you’ve found out moving rounds is hard.

 

[Citydude]

I could usually pick up big ones 3 at a time off the ground. Picking up rounds under 12” took forever and I threw those in by hand. I could get a few out of a pile but you had to get under the bottom.

I usually lost more than I packed out of a pile. I guess I expect more productivity than I should.