Cat 0 Implements?

[dougtrr2]

I had a John Deere 318 and I added a Cat 0 three point. I had a bucket scoop and box blade. I moved a lot of dirt with it, albeit slowly. At one point I had a load of black dirt delivered. I found that the bucket scoop was just the right size for filling in areas in the lawn. It was a significant amount of dirt but yet easy to spread with a rake. One of my fondest memories is when my elderly dad came to help. He sat on the tractor and got dirt out of the pile. I stood in the yard and pointed to the hole or area. He would drive up, I would trip the bucket. While I was raking it out he went a got another load.

There is a place for Cat 0 implements, just realize their limitations.
Doug in SW IA

 

[Gt junkie]

Hey Board,
We had a designer of implements come to us last year asking us to launch a new line of implements for Cat 0 spacing tractors. CAT- Implements. Well priced and have worked very well. More popular than I would have guessed.

We are considering expanding the line and are open to suggestions about what implements people use. Is a post-hole digger a big deal, for example?

Thanks for any input you have.

I realize this post is old, but there are MANY garden tractor enthusiasts, as evident on many forums and FB pages who are searching for cat 0 implements because they really no longer make these machines. While it is true that scouts have became very popular as well as practical, there still remains a reverence and strong following for machines such as older John Deere, Simplicity, Ariens, Gravely, Massey Ferguson, Cub Cadet, Wheel horse, ect. And on and on. Many have PTOs and are looking for mowers, brush hogs, post hole diggers, tillers, ect. Most are 2000 rpm, although a couple brands use engine speed implements. Expanding your advertising could help as I have just found your implements. Tillers are a particularly sought after item.

 

[Gt junkie]

I realize this post is old, but there are MANY garden tractor enthusiasts, as evident on many forums and FB pages who are searching for cat 0 implements because they really no longer make these machines. While it is true that scouts have became very popular as well as practical, there still remains a reverence and strong following for machines such as older John Deere, Simplicity, Ariens, Gravely, Massey Ferguson, Cub Cadet, Wheel horse, ect. And on and on. Many have PTOs and are looking for mowers, brush hogs, post hole diggers, tillers, ect. Most are 2000 rpm, although a couple brands use engine speed implements. Expanding your advertising could help as I have just found your implements. Tillers are a particularly sought after item.

I have collected around 30 of these machines and they will surprise you as to their capabilities, plowing ground for gardens , pushing snow, to pulling wood, or using a quick way front loader. Many weigh 900to 1100 pounds without attachments or weights. Even those in the six to seven hundred pound range can plow up a garden in no time.

 

[Vigo327]

I bought an ATV landscape rake which mounts on a 2" square tube (which fits in a regular receiver hitch), and then adapted that to a sleeve hitch adapter, which was mounted on the Cat0 3pt.. on my Case garden tractor. I've considered buying other Cat 0 implements AND i've considered whether I can replace any of my Cat1 stuff for my Kubota with Cat0 for my Case because they're so much easier to mount and dismount by hand, and to store. Not everything requires a lot of hp or traction.

 

[oosik]

My first tractor - Ford 1700 4WD. The Cat 1 rear blade was good for snow removal on my long driveway. It was WORTHLESS for any type of summer driveway maintenance. Just too light. Same with my Cat 1 disk. It just bounced along behind the Ford.

I have slowly but surely upgraded to Cat 2 implements - now that I have my Kubota M6040. The implement weight makes all the difference in the world.

All I can say about Cat 0 - good luck. I don't have the time nor patience to "play" with my tractor. I expected it to work well when I use the tractor and associated implements.

 

[Vigo327]

I will not argue the point about weight.. however! There's no reason you can't add weight to an implement. In fact, if you look at most of the pull-type ground engaging implements sold for riding mowers, most of them have a 'weight box' made into the top for adding cinder blocks. Yes, that is a small amount of weight by tractor terms but it is in proportion to the size of those implements.

I added a 113lb 54" loading dock bumper to the back of my 60" box blade, which added about 30% to the weight. And gave me a rubber push bumper! Lots of implements can have weight added to increase their effectiveness. One thing that comes to mind is the guy who runs Good Works Tractors (check Youtube if you haven't heard of them) has created suitcase weight brackets to add as much as 1000 lbs worth to a 3pt quick hitch. He sells it as a way to add counterweight to a SCUT for loader work without having to run a large 3pt implement, but it would weigh down any 3pt implement in use as well.

Although that does bring to mind how much 'down pressure' the rotating lock linkages for a quick hitch could actually hold up to in use before bending and binding or shearing their pivot pins... but that's for another discussion. Regardless, lots of garden tractor people already go to lengths to incorporate removable weights to their tractors for traction. Building a bracket to move some of them to a 3pt implement when it's in use is not much of a stretch, and MIGHT even be a product idea for someone..

In the case of.. my CASE I run this ATV rake off a 2" hitch. I started with one welded to a cat0 sleeve hitch a-frame, but then built some Cat0-to-cat1 lower arms so i could use it with the cat1 hitch frame i use with my kubotas, which is an inverted T shape. I've also used it with a 'hitch basket' to haul some heavy items through gates into the yard etc. The easy button for me is to put a 2nd 2" receiver tube higher up on that hitch frame and use the hitch basket WITH the rake (i intend to adapt other implements to a 2" square tube, such as an angle blade) so i can just dump weight on the basket to weigh down the implement.

 

[oosik]

I have only one Cat 1 implement - all the rest have been upgraded to heavy duty Cat 2. It's a Land Pride 1048 disk harrow. It's ridiculously under weight. I have a 400# cube of concrete that I place on it. It helps but - one of these days - I will sell it and get an appropriately heavy unit.

I'm always concerned that with the added cube of concrete - I might tweak/bend the frame.

 

[toolslinger]

I think you guys running Cat 2 gear are kinda missing the point here... If you're running 2, obviously you need that size, and weight. You can get a GT, with Cat 0 in to places that you can't with something larger. That isn't likely to be an issue for people with lots of land, but small lots can be challenging, yet you still need something better than a shovel, hoe, or wheelbarrow. In my little postage stamp size yard in NJ, I was able to run two Case 646 machines digging the yard down a few feet, and took 12 yards of rocks out of the ground through a screener I built. Then had to replace the rock with dirt, and regrade. Obviously that took a little while, but I wouldn't have been able to even get my MF 202 Workbull, or the 8N with the rake back there, and then be able to do anything with it. Same deal with my Case 444, and the post hole digger I made for it. I simply couldn't get my 8N to the spots I was dropping posts without clearing trees, or heavy brush back further. It's not like the 8N is a big machine, but compared to a 444 it's sizable... The N also couldn't get through the rows in the big vegetable garden my father used to plant. I put a 48" Kolpin cultivator on the 444, and didn't have to screw around with the weeds anymore (until the vegetables grew too far in to the space between late in the season).
It's almost like they're called Garden Tractors, and not Field Tractors for a reason...

 

[oosik]

I completely agree - toolslinger. I DO have the room, on 80 acres, for larger, heavier implements. If I kept my Ford 1700 and the Cat 1 implements - I would have to hire out summer driveway maintenance. After spring rains - my driveway dries and becomes as hard as concrete. The logs and rocks I move - 1500 to 2500 pounds and bigger. I grub out and clear land that has NEVER been broken.

And, you are correct, I don't see my 10,100# Kubota M6040 and implements doing much good on a one acre plot of land.

Time and experience has shown me that a Ford 1700 sized tractor and Cat 1 implements will not work for my driveway or larger projects.

There is a point with a small tractor where the job simply CAN NOT be done - no matter what.

I completed all the smaller projects with the Ford 1700. I needed a bigger tractor - heavier implements to tackle the bigger projects. Nothing more than that..........

 

[ROUSTABOUT]

A brush hog would be a big one. Guys typically have a MMM on whatever CAT 0 they're running, like a Simplicity, but having a shredder would be really nice for some of those guys. Not sure if you could make that budget friendly. A tiller, maybe a single bottom moldboard plow if you think a CAT 0 tractor would have the oomph to pull one...

An adapter to go to CAT 1?

You'll be fighting an uphill battle for any "patented attachment technology" to catch on, unless it's universal like Pats or a quick hitch. We're still using basically the same system Ferguson invented nearly a century ago.

I had a David Bradley ride on suburban tractor with a 10 horse and a single bottom break plow. Worked fine.