Hello TBN, intro

whiteh2okayaker · Nov 12, 2007

Hello every one,

I have been lurking here and a few other tractor boards on the net for the last month or so. I bought my 1st tractor last week, thanks for all the info on here it made my decision easier. I am going to use it to mantain 13 hilly acres in Tennessee and start a landscape, stone mason and tractor service business soon. I decided to go with a L3240 with HST and R4s, LA724 FEL with tooth bar, 6' box, 5' bushog squeller and 6' woods rear discharge finishing mower. Yeasterday my wife and I moved and built a raised stone flowerbed. The stone total must weith 8-10 tons so it was a big job. I sure hated to break in my new bucket with a bunch of heavy stone. I put my wife on the tractor so I could manually put the heavy stone in the bucket and she did great operating it. Also got to put her on 3 wheels for the 1st time, that was fun. Big load with not a good spot to turn around, had to back up hill and I felt it may happen. Had the stone, 1K or so hanging from chain hook and the stone was only 6" from the ground. Low and slow I have read and KNEW this was a bad angle. No biggie just droped the stone and only got the wheel 6" off the ground or so. I have been very impressed with this machine. My only other tractor to compaire is an old 8n my father in law let us borrow for a year or so. Does not feel or handle any thing like that! So far I really like the Hydo plus transmission it is so easy and quick with loader. Got to bushog about 6 acres today, fun stuff. My wife and I both have been supprised how much this tool is like a toy. This thing is fun we now are going to be fighting on who gets to cut the grass and scrape the 1/2 mile drive. It's my turn you got to do it last, I hear it now. I will have plenty of questions in the months-years to come. I will do more reading to try and get a grasp on every thing so I will not be quite as big a newbie. I bet a scatched bucket is like a scrached white water kayak. I remember my 1st new shinny kayak, took it to the river and banged it on rocks all day. It looked like all used kayaks after that and it sure sucked, same with my new scrached bucket but both are lots of FUN! I will post some pics soon of me and my new toy at work/play, I know you guys like pics.
Thanks again for all the helpfull info,
Eric the "whiteH2okayaker"

Rusty · Nov 12, 2007

whiteh2okayaker - Welcome to TBN! Enjoy the new tractor, and enjoy working together with your wife. My wife also enjoys the "two people" jobs, but she is not to interested in mowing the lawn or cutting the pasture. I too had a Ford 8N prior to purchasing a Kubota B7500 HSD. I love the HSD.

Again, welcome!

Egon · Nov 12, 2007

Welcome.

The way to avoid a scratched looking bucket is work some granular material till the bucket is all nice and shinny.

whiteh2okayaker · Nov 12, 2007

what mode and gear is best for cutting hilly land? power has not been an issue with loads or pulling a 6' box up a hill but this 5' bushhog is killing it. I can only go around 3mph up hill (guessing 20 degees) with THIN tall grass, nothing thick. Is this normal?
Thanks,
whiteh2okayaker

TalonDancer · Nov 12, 2007

I have over 140 hrs on my GL3240 (since mid August) and love it

BUT... we manage our property for wildlife, so I don't mow - period. The wild turkeys, quail, other ground nesting birds, etc. require waist high native grass for cover. Anything that needs mowing on our property can be done with a Stihl 250 on less than one tank of gas.

Our driveway is roughly 1,000' long with an 8% avg. grade with some fairly flat, some steeper and one 30% grade section. Our GL3240 with HD bucket and BH90 (but unloaded) hits 6 mph (in M at 2,000ish RPM, D-HS in "rabbit" and Cruise Control full forward) on the flatter sections but slows to 3 mph in the steepest section. I don't think it has the HP to go up the driveway in H (I've never tried) . And L is much slower.

Talon Dancer

p.s. My GL3240 is configured as a TLB 95% of the time. I use the QA to swap between FEL bucket and pallet fork at least once a day. I've used Auto Throttle 100% of the time since the first 50 hrs. or so.

btolle · Nov 13, 2007

whiteh2okayaker said:
what mode and gear is best for cutting hilly land? power has not been an issue with loads or pulling a 6' box up a hill but this 5' bushhog is killing it. I can only go around 3mph up hill (guessing 20 degees) with THIN tall grass, nothing thick. Is this normal?
Thanks,
whiteh2okayaker

Are you familiar with the way HST works? When I got my first HST tractor I tried driving it like I would my old gear shifter and the kind folks on this forum helped me learn. With an HST you have to do the opposite of what your instinct tells you. When the tractor starts slowing on uphill let up on the HST pedal.

I know, it seemed to me that if I pushed the pedal harder it should go better uphill but that's not the way it works. Try backing off the pedal enough to keep the RPM's up in the PTO range and see if that works better.

Bill "Slow Learner" Tolle