Buying Advice LS XR 4100 Series Options

[rgr33]

Sounds like you found a real good deal and for my money, a great dealer.

Couldn't touch that deal here. Good choice, well done.

 

[durf 700]

that sounds like a sweet deal! Congrats on the nice set up. more HP is always better.

 

[Snowman87]

Well, I’ve got about 25 hours on the tractor so far and I love it! Main uses have been moving material with the FEL (stumps, rocks, dirt, etc.), working with my box blade on my gravel driveway, moving some round bales, and joy riding with my 3 year old son.

Here are my impressions so far:

- Loving the cab, really glad I decided to go that route. The A/C keeps me nice and cool on these hot summer days (heat and wind protection will be nice for winter snow removal), it’s nice to listen to the radio without a set of work tunes ear muffs on for a change, and it has kept me out of a lot of dust. My tractor is stored in my shed, but I can see where a cab would also really help keep the weather off the tractor vs. an open cab being left outside. The cab is on the smaller side as others have mentioned but my son can still ride on my lap or stand over in the corner by the brake pedals, definitely not meant for more than one adult.

- The hydrostatic transmission has been a breeze to operate. With all the loader work I’ve done so far it sure has been nice to just pedal and go. Playing around with the low and medium ranges there’s a notable difference in switching to low for pushing into/through piles. I thought it was a little weak in medium where I started out, but switching to low shows me that I can dig in/push much better and only become limited by tractor weight since the wheels spin. I haven’t used high range other than in the dealer parking lot, but this will be handy for road travel should I need to do any.

- I’m impressed with how much this little tractor can lift. I’ve had great luck picking up round bales, stumps and boulders. That said I’m surprised how heavy solid rock can be. A little Google research indicates it’s probably around 150-175 lbs per cubic foot! I’ve got a few large chunks of concrete and a couple boulders I’ll need a dozer to move 

- Overall weight balance of the tractor has been pretty good; I think the fluid filled tires and ~550 lb. box blade help quite a bit. I am still thinking about making a concrete barrel counter weight at some point in time, but as of now I have no issues as long as I’m smart about it. Keep heavy items like bales low to the ground and try to pick things up with weight centered towards the middle.

- There have been a couple times that I wish the loader lifted up to the 10’ mark but double stacking round bales on a trailer or loading material into a dump truck wasn’t something that was high on my priority list. I would have had to go to the next model up LS tractor or check out another brand offering (either a good chunk of money more), and then I was getting a little too big for my more common chores.
- For not operating anything with a loader in my past I’ve gotten much better with the FEL in a short period of time. I’m still dialing things in a bit but I’m confident that will come with a little more seat time. I might be missing something but I’m a little disappointed in the speed of the loader when trying to do 2 operations simultaneously, like raise and curl or raise and dump. I often find myself trying to just do one operation at a time as it seems faster… I thought it would take me longer to get used to it but I could see where a better system would be more efficient. Is there that big of a difference between the LS and the something like the YouTube video I watched that touts the Kubota series type loader valve with a regenerative dump circuit? Are there any LS offered improvements?

- I haven’t gotten to use the remote front hydraulics yet, but my dealer did a nice job running hard pipe along the boom and it looks like it should work out well.

- I was really excited about using the hydraulic tilt function with my box blade but I am disappointed now that I’ve had a chance to try it out. I’ll consider it partially my fault as I didn’t ask for details, but my dealer installed a standard Grizzly category 1 20-28” hydraulic top link. This particular setup is about 3” longer than the stock link fully retracted so I can’t shorten it enough to get my box blade where I want it for running the rippers deep or aggressively pulling material into the box. On top of that, going out to 28” is about 5” past stock link max of 23” and when I was using it in motion caused the ripper teeth to dig into my tires a bit… Doh… It wasn’t enough to puncture or really wreck anything but it did gouge the tread block a bit on my left rear tire. To be on the safe side I pulled off the hydraulic top link for now and am considering my options. I can see where it would be really useful running a box blade, so I think I’m going to try selling my Grizzly cylinder to recoup some cost before ordering a setup from Fit-Rite or something like this one Agristore USA | Replacement Parts | Cat. 1: 16 1/8" - 22 7/16"

- As far as add-ons I haven’t done much yet but do have a small fire extinguisher in the cab, a SpeeCo steering wheel spinner, and a drawbar hook. The first spinner (made in china of course) fell apart in my hands when I went to install it. It looks like they forgot to tighten down a machine screw before shrinking the vinyl over top, so after a call to Speeco explaining the defect I just got my replacement in the mail. I think my next purchase will be a set of Ken’s Bolt on Hooks, would be helpful for moving some of my stumps and other larger items around.

- A set of pallet forks was included in my purchase and I picked up a 6’ King Kutter Professional model box blade. My local Fleet Farm had them on sale along with a 10% in store rebate on purchases so I pulled the trigger. Their “professional” model appears to be pretty well built, has curved blades front and back, adjustable ripper shanks, etc.

- Learned my first box blade lesson on my driveway. I ran the ripper shanks all the way down with the thought of pulling up gravel to level things out and make the driveway look nice. It looked fine, but after a little rain you could see right where the ripper shanks ran as the rest of the gravel was still compacted around the area I loosened up. I pulled the teeth up 1 notch so they were just kissing the surface and let the blade dig in a bit more. This yielded a much better end result!

I’ll try to get a few pictures uploaded in the near future.

Nate

 

[CenCalLS]

Nate,

Thanks for the detailed update. I wouldn't mind a smoother and faster loader valve myself. Let me know if you get some ideas how to improve it. When you get around to pics I'd like to see how your dealer mounted your front hydraulic connections. I have 1/2" flatface connectors and can't seem to find a good mounting solution for them. Enjoy your new tractor!

Randy

 

[cat fever]

- Overall weight balance of the tractor has been pretty good; I think the fluid filled tires and ~550 lb. box blade help quite a bit. I am still thinking about making a concrete barrel counter weight at some point in time, but as of now I have no issues as long as I知 smart about it.


As for counter weight; I built this one after reading on TBN about "counterweights". I was going to do the barrel thing but glad I built this one.

And of course, congrats on your tractor.

 

[Snowman87]

cat fever that looks like quite the slick idea!! With my box blade on the back I've usually carried my tools (chainsaw, rake, shovel, etc.) in my front bucket and dumped them on the ground where I'm working. That works ok if I'm just in one spot, but if I move around I find myself having to drive or walk back to where I started... Can you PM me more details on your setup? Curious to know more about dimensions, estimated weight, etc. Thanks for sharing!

 

[lostcreekranch]

Snowman, I’m going to listen in on your thread. I presently have a 3YO XR4046HC with 515 Hours. Started asking for a 3rd remote to my XR4046HC but, LS has been on again / off again on offering a kit.

I found out yesterday that the 4155 come standard with 3 remotes, lever to adjust 3-point from back of tractor, rear windshield wiper, and CAT 2 hitch.

I started discussion yesterday on upgrading to an XR4155HC like yours.

I’ve been very happy with my XR4046HC just wanted a 3rd remote and a bit more power. I’ve installed the WR Long 3rd function on both XR4046HC and my New Holland TL100A. I have a Blue Diamond HD 84” grapple that stays on the New Holland almost all the time. I also have a 73” Everything Attachments Wicked Grapple for my LS.

I bought a set of TnT cylinders from Brian at Fit-Rite for the LS and they really make a huge improvement for rear blade and rear grader work. If I make a deal, on New XR4155HC, I’ll get Brian busy on my 3rd set of cylinders from him.






Like you, I wish the LS FEL lifted a bit higher but, this has not been a show stopper. My New Holland lifts quite a bit higher than my LS.



Looking forward to hearing more on your experience with your XR.

 

[Snowman87]

Snowman, I’m going to listen in on your thread. I presently have a 3YO XR4046HC with 515 Hours. Started asking for a 3rd remote to my XR4046HC but, LS has been on again / off again on offering a kit.

I found out yesterday that the 4155 come standard with 3 remotes, lever to adjust 3-point from back of tractor, rear windshield wiper, and CAT 2 hitch.

I started discussion yesterday on upgrading to an XR4155HC like yours.

I’ve been very happy with my XR4046HC just wanted a 3rd remote and a bit more power. I’ve installed the WR Long 3rd function on both XR4046HC and my New Holland TL100A. I have a Blue Diamond HD 84” grapple that stays on the New Holland almost all the time. I also have a 73” Everything Attachments Wicked Grapple for my LS.

I bought a set of TnT cylinders from Brian at Fit-Rite for the LS and they really make a huge improvement for rear blade and rear grader work. If I make a deal, on New XR4155HC, I’ll get Brian busy on my 3rd set of cylinders from him.

View attachment 528567

View attachment 528566


Like you, I wish the LS FEL lifted a bit higher but, this has not been a show stopper. My New Holland lifts quite a bit higher than my LS.

View attachment 528568

Looking forward to hearing more on your experience with your XR.

Thanks for the post! Here's an update with just under 150 hours on the clock now.

- Most of my hours have come from cleaning up after some tree clearing and our recent house addition. After cleaning up all the stumps, rocks/boulders, etc. it was time to level things back out. Fortunately my father-in-law is a farmer so he brought up a larger tractor and pulled a chisel plow around to break things up for me. From there I pulled a 10-12' disc around and moved dirt around with my bucket as needed. I got about 2 of the 3 acres done and planted before it got too late in the season to plant grass. I've got just a little bit of touch up work to do in the spring before I can plant the last acre.

- I've got several hours running my neighbors 5' KK finish mower. It's the old side discharge style which I learned I will stay away from as a future purchase. It runs a lot better with the plastic belt guard off and the metal discharge chute also pulled off, but just doesn't clear the grass as well as I'm thinking a rear discharge setup would. I've learned I can knock down some tall grass quickly but I need to take multiple passes to be effective. First pass I keep the mower off the ground and second pass I can drop things down. If you try to take it all down in one pass it doesn't matter how slow you go it still folds a lot of the grass over. Already blew out one spindle bearing but they're pretty easy and reasonable to replace. I plan to buy a 7' finish mower in the spring since I'd like something wider than the wheels.

- Had my first flat tire... Fortunately it was a front, not one of the fluid filled rears! I used the FEL to hold up the front to pull the tire off which was pretty slick!

- Loaded more round bales and found out the rear ballast is a must. Loading with the finish mower attached I always felt planted. Another round of loading bales I only had my 6' KK landscape rake on back and I could tell the tractor rear end was light. I'll be building a ballast box similar to the one posted above this winter.

- Still loving the cab and I can't wait to use it this winter. I had my eyes on a Erskine 6' front mount PTO driven tractor snowblower that sold for a reasonable price, but I also found a great deal on an 80 gallon air compressor at the same time which is what I opted to purchase. I think I'm going to make up a pair of my own "edge tamers" for this year and see how my standard bucket works. From there I can decide if it's worth it to buy a snow blower, pusher, plow, etc.

- I've had a couple more instances where I wished the FEL could lift a little higher. Two that come to mind right now are loading bales onto a flat bed and lifting my air compressor out of the truck. I can only single stack bales like I expected which isn't a big deal, but would be nice to double stack to make the most of each trip. As for the compressor, I was able to get around it but I had to be a little creative with my rigging. All that said, I don't think it would be worth the money for me to have upgraded based on FEL lift height....

- Still feel like the loader is a bit slower than I'd like, but I don't use the tractor for making money so once again I don't think it would be worth paying more for a slightly faster loader. It's a relatively small framed tractor so going slow helps make a guy go easier on things.

- I still haven't used the front hydraulics yet. I was going to borrow my father-in-laws grapple bucket when cleaning up the brush piles but it was pretty light duty and already a little bent up. I opted to spend a little more time with my own equipment than risk wrecking the already damaged implement.

- I purchased a set of bolt on hooks for my bucket. Just started on it last night so I've only got 4 holes through the top of the bucket done so far. I can post pictures of the finished product when I'm done.

- I also purchased a 6' KK landscape rake for all my dirt work. Overall I think this is a great purchase for the money. I really wanted an Everything Attachments setup but just couldn't come to justifying the extra money for the limited use I expect it to see after the yard prep work. For most of my use I found it to work best removing every other tine so it didn't plug up so much with clumps of sod. It has Italian tines and I think with a little extra steel I plan to weld on it will hold up just fine for me.

- The lights are ok but they are another thing on my upgrade list. I'd like to go with some LED's and have been doing a little searching so I can find something with better light output than the standard China setup, but also be a little more cost friendly than the Rigid LED's I'd love to own!

rlgustafson - in response to your post:

- My XR4155 came standard with 2 rear remotes, was before they added the 3-point raise/lower outside the cab, no rear windshield wiper, and CAT 1 hitch. When I looked on the LS website last I believe it still only listed 2 rear remotes for the XR series but I could definitely see them upgrading to 3 sets based on consumer feedback. I know the newest XR series have the 3-point raise/lower outside the cab. My dealer still owes me the update which I'm planning to do when I have some planned down time for the tractor. For me the rear windshield wiper was available as an option, but was not standard. Lastly I've read things about both CAT 1 and CAT 2 3-point setups on this tractor, but for whatever reason mine came with CAT 1.

- Brian's kit looks beautiful! I haven't posted it up for sale yet but I'm still planning to sell my old dealer setup and place an order with Brian. I did a lot of adjusting with my box blade and being able to do it from the cab like I planned would have been great....

- Must be sweet to own 2 tractors, I'm a little jealous!

 

[lostcreekranch]

Thanks for the post! Here's an update with just under 150 hours on the clock now.

- Most of my hours have come from cleaning up after some tree clearing and our recent house addition. After cleaning up all the stumps, rocks/boulders, etc. it was time to level things back out. Fortunately my father-in-law is a farmer so he brought up a larger tractor and pulled a chisel plow around to break things up for me. From there I pulled a 10-12' disc around and moved dirt around with my bucket as needed. I got about 2 of the 3 acres done and planted before it got too late in the season to plant grass. I've got just a little bit of touch up work to do in the spring before I can plant the last acre.

- I've got several hours running my neighbors 5' KK finish mower. It's the old side discharge style which I learned I will stay away from as a future purchase. It runs a lot better with the plastic belt guard off and the metal discharge chute also pulled off, but just doesn't clear the grass as well as I'm thinking a rear discharge setup would. I've learned I can knock down some tall grass quickly but I need to take multiple passes to be effective. First pass I keep the mower off the ground and second pass I can drop things down. If you try to take it all down in one pass it doesn't matter how slow you go it still folds a lot of the grass over. Already blew out one spindle bearing but they're pretty easy and reasonable to replace. I plan to buy a 7' finish mower in the spring since I'd like something wider than the wheels.

- Had my first flat tire... Fortunately it was a front, not one of the fluid filled rears! I used the FEL to hold up the front to pull the tire off which was pretty slick!

- Loaded more round bales and found out the rear ballast is a must. Loading with the finish mower attached I always felt planted. Another round of loading bales I only had my 6' KK landscape rake on back and I could tell the tractor rear end was light. I'll be building a ballast box similar to the one posted above this winter.

- Still loving the cab and I can't wait to use it this winter. I had my eyes on a Erskine 6' front mount PTO driven tractor snowblower that sold for a reasonable price, but I also found a great deal on an 80 gallon air compressor at the same time which is what I opted to purchase. I think I'm going to make up a pair of my own "edge tamers" for this year and see how my standard bucket works. From there I can decide if it's worth it to buy a snow blower, pusher, plow, etc.

- I've had a couple more instances where I wished the FEL could lift a little higher. Two that come to mind right now are loading bales onto a flat bed and lifting my air compressor out of the truck. I can only single stack bales like I expected which isn't a big deal, but would be nice to double stack to make the most of each trip. As for the compressor, I was able to get around it but I had to be a little creative with my rigging. All that said, I don't think it would be worth the money for me to have upgraded based on FEL lift height....

- Still feel like the loader is a bit slower than I'd like, but I don't use the tractor for making money so once again I don't think it would be worth paying more for a slightly faster loader. It's a relatively small framed tractor so going slow helps make a guy go easier on things.

- I still haven't used the front hydraulics yet. I was going to borrow my father-in-laws grapple bucket when cleaning up the brush piles but it was pretty light duty and already a little bent up. I opted to spend a little more time with my own equipment than risk wrecking the already damaged implement.

- I purchased a set of bolt on hooks for my bucket. Just started on it last night so I've only got 4 holes through the top of the bucket done so far. I can post pictures of the finished product when I'm done.

- I also purchased a 6' KK landscape rake for all my dirt work. Overall I think this is a great purchase for the money. I really wanted an Everything Attachments setup but just couldn't come to justifying the extra money for the limited use I expect it to see after the yard prep work. For most of my use I found it to work best removing every other tine so it didn't plug up so much with clumps of sod. It has Italian tines and I think with a little extra steel I plan to weld on it will hold up just fine for me.

- The lights are ok but they are another thing on my upgrade list. I'd like to go with some LED's and have been doing a little searching so I can find something with better light output than the standard China setup, but also be a little more cost friendly than the Rigid LED's I'd love to own!

rlgustafson - in response to your post:

- My XR4155 came standard with 2 rear remotes, was before they added the 3-point raise/lower outside the cab, no rear windshield wiper, and CAT 1 hitch. When I looked on the LS website last I believe it still only listed 2 rear remotes for the XR series but I could definitely see them upgrading to 3 sets based on consumer feedback. I know the newest XR series have the 3-point raise/lower outside the cab. My dealer still owes me the update which I'm planning to do when I have some planned down time for the tractor. For me the rear windshield wiper was available as an option, but was not standard. Lastly I've read things about both CAT 1 and CAT 2 3-point setups on this tractor, but for whatever reason mine came with CAT 1.

- Brian's kit looks beautiful! I haven't posted it up for sale yet but I'm still planning to sell my old dealer setup and place an order with Brian. I did a lot of adjusting with my box blade and being able to do it from the cab like I planned would have been great....

- Must be sweet to own 2 tractors, I'm a little jealous!

Thanks for the update Snow. Sounds like your a happy LS Owner.

Brian gave me a quote for Top n Tilt cylinders for possible future XR4155HC today so he should be able to respond to you pretty quickly.

Two tractors is great! Presently 46 HP and 96 HP.

Another thing I failed to mention is that LS has greatly improved the telescoping stabilizers on the 3-point arms on the new XR’s. You probably do have them.

Rear windshield wipers are a must here, not for rain but, for dust.

 

[Snowman87]

Well, just rolled over 192 hours and figured I’d type up a little update:

- My dealer/salesman came through on his word that he would install the remote 3 pt. raise/lower linkage at no cost. I worked with his schedule, but he picked up the tractor late on a Thursday morning and had it back by Friday afternoon. I’m not sure exactly what the setup looks like from the factory but this appears pretty stock, looks like they just had to weld the bracket onto the cab post.

- Found what I considered a good deal on some 3 point implements very near by. $700 for a 8’ disc, 2 bottom plow, and 6’ digger/chisel plow. I borrowed my buddies 32’ gooseneck trailer which made for quite the experience! The seller was located back in the woods with very limited room to turn around. After a couple failed attempts to get turned around I ended up driving into their backyard down small path through the woods so I could get turned around. Fortunately they had a JD2040 to help with loading, but the disc was heavy enough that I hooked up the digger (since we already loaded the plow) and I stood on top of that which gave us just enough counterweight to get the disc up onto the trailer. Unloading with my tractor went much smoother �� HST and some extra weight for the win!

- I’ve spent a good chunk of my time mowing the lawn. I’m currently debating on buying an 84” finish mower for the tractor or a zero turn. Right now I run the tractor with a 60” finish mower while my wife runs our 42” riding mower. The 60” setup is a bit small for my tractor, but my neighbor lets me use it to cut my lawn and roadside ditch in trade for mowing a few waterways every couple weeks. I figured the deal was worth it for now until I would ever upgrade to something bigger. I think I might upgrade the lawn mower first and keep my eyes on the used market, though for what I see on Craigslist the 84” LS mower at my dealer looks mighty tempting though!

- Helped my father-in-law out a couple weeks back getting all his round bales loaded up at my place. In hindsight I should have taken a picture with the bale at full lift height, but it gives an idea of the bale size the 4000 series chassis can move. I don’t know if these are fully “packed out” but I believe they are 5’x6’ bales for what it’s worth. This winter I’d like to build a nice ballast like some of the other members have built on here. The tractor feels decent when moving around with the mower on back (and loaded rear tires) but I feel it might benefit from a bit more weight. I wouldn’t want to run it back and forth all the way across a field (unless traveling slow with the bale low) but the tractor sure works good picking up bales near the trailer and loading them up – I really like the precision ease of use the HST provides for doing this. I could see wanting a bigger tractor if this was a main use, but I know I wouldn’t want to mow my lawn consistently with something larger/heavier…

- This past Friday I helped a buddy prep about 1 acre of existing pasture ground for a whitetail deer food plot. Overall I think it went pretty quick considering the simple implements used – no tiller or disc because of all the rocks this first round. I ended up using a homemade 3 pt. chisel plow to break up the sod and pull up rocks, picked up rocks in between full passes (made several to break up the ground), ran around with a harrow drag behind an ATV to knock as much dirt off of the sod as we could, and then cleaned everything up with my landscape rake. I tried running in medium range with the chisel plow a couple different times but I felt like the tractor/transmission was working too hard – the chisel plow was a 9 shank setup and the food plot is positioned on a pretty good grade definitely didn’t help. As soon as I put it in low range I felt very confident and the tractor never bogged a bit. While it seemed “slow” it was probably better anyway with all the rocks, bumps, etc. It’s not pictured but I’ve found that removing every other tine on my landscape rake really helps keep it from clogging up doing work like this. For raking and the bucket work I was using medium range like I normally do. My buddy was super thankful for the help, he showed me where he tried using one of those ATV disc setups earlier in the week and it wasn’t even able to start breaking up the sod! I was happy to help as this friend has helped me out with many projects over the years and I know he’ll let me hunt his property any time he’s not out in the stand himself.