With that ridiculous number of hours, I'd like to tell you that I've been doing contract work for others, but the truth is that I am just a "hobby user". And it was an unusual year:
- We had knocked down over 200 trees (mostly red pines) the year before and they had to be dragged away.
- We had a bunch of ditching to do.
- We had a bunch of "landscaping" to do.
- Our 750-foot private road (with 3 houses) needed extensive reshaping.
- Our own driveway needed extensive reshaping, including removing a huge amount of concrete debris from a demo/addition 30 years ago ("seemed like a good idea at the time").
- It was fun (mostly), like playing with my own giant Tonka toy.
In the future, hours per year will drop dramatically. I'm hoping not to burn through my 10-year/2000-hour extended warranty before 2033. No plans to use this for mowing or plowing. In fact, more than 50% of the hours have been using the 60" Land Pride RB1660 back blade. The 3-point hitch and the back blade are fully hydraulically actuated with twin-tilt cylinders, top cylinder, and another cylinder on the back blade to rotate it.
I also have modified the factory optional mechanical backhoe thumb with yet another hydraulic cylinder. One of these days when I get everything working the way I want, I'll post a thread.
