northtractorsearch
Member
Good morning everyone,
I've been asked by a few users here to describe our situation, so I'll tell a few stories and get some photos up. I'll see how this goes, we'll see how often we might have an interesting story. If there is enough interest, I will try to keep this updated with unique tasks we execute. We only get to use our tractor on weekends, so there is often a lot of discussion and theorizing before we actually start doing anything. Anyway, on to the show:
After a bunch of chat here: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/buying-pricing-comparisons/349558-search-sub-compact-tractor.html, this was our second weekend of owning a brand new B2650, BH77 Backhoe, SSQA 543 Loader and HLA4200LB Forks. Overall, we are very extraordinarily impressed with the tractor. We have used it for a total of 5 days, and put about 3h per day on it, picking a few random tasks that I will describe below.
The first 3 hours required a lot of learning. We spent this time making a path around our property that leads from the driveway, behind the house, to the garage and to garage to bush. That involved moving some small trees, some rocks, flattening some ground and trying not to make a mess. Throughout the next few days of use, we improved this trail when needed. Also, when soft or frozen ground gave way to rocks that made the path unstable, we would move them, etc. I put a scratch on the hood the entire length of it within about 1h of using it when a tree branch whipped across it - not new anymore... An interesting part, we moved a rock that I would never have thought that the tractor would be able to move. Despite having a tractor, we struggled at it (novice users), the tractor did fine. We found that 4WD is used quite a bit on our property due to some of the slopes and loads we have. I had to lock the diff once too because of how uneven the ground was. We'll continue to work on it.
The next 3 hours involved moving a bunch of old fell trees out of the general area where it should not have been. Some trees we fell, some trees fell on their own, and the hydro guys came through and cleared the hydro line, and the trunks of those trees remained as well. Historically (in the thread above you'll see a "sob story" about it), we have been limited to leaving a lot of the trees where they fell, because we just don't have enough time or manpower to move it. Now, we have used the tool at our disposal to move them reasonably easily. As part of this, clearing, we had access to our wood area with the tractor, so we moved about a cord of wood with the bucket (not in one load obviously...), much easier than a wheelbarrow.
Through the next task, we prepared an area to fell another tree. This 24 yard spruce tree that has been looming over our garage and started to lean. This 40 year old tree was actually in very good health, and it's a big shame to have to cut it, but unfortunately we can't have it threatening the garage and cottage. This required clearing up another fell tree truck, clearing some brush and loading then moving 3 skids of removable trex deck boards. We also had to clean up some washed out gravel - using the backhoe for a precision task was 'interesting.' We took out 2 stumps that had always "sortof been in the way" and had been rotting for about a decade, the backhoe did pretty well there, even for novices using it.
By the time we felled the tree, we had good experience with the tractor. Felling the tree and cleaning it up took the last 2 days... or evening and morning. We have cut a bunch of trees and this was by far the easiest one to clean up. It also helped that my brother was around and that's a 50% increase in manpower. He has driven forklifts and things for work, so he was a natural. I have a few pictures from this ordeal that really shows the strength of the compact frame tractor. Forks, backhoe and bucket were all used successfully.
Short version:
-BH moved a moderately large rock. 100x easier than moving a rock with shovels, a pully, pry bars, wedges, etc.
-Moving wood with the bucket is infinitely easier than the wheelbarrow.
-The forks are great for skids, branches and trunks of trees
-I would rate our frequency in use of the tractor and its implements as follows: Forks, Backhoe, Bucket, draw bar, 3point lift, empty tractor.
-It has used 3-4 ticks of gas (8 ticks total), so maybe 1/2 of the 27L tank
-We use 4WD and a mix of L-M range; very rarely high range
Throughout our first 15 hours, the only the tractor could not do what we asked was when we hooked the forks under roots on the ground. I imagine if you tried to pull a tree down with it, that it would fail, but I would not ask that of this platform. I wanted to thank everyone again for their advice, as I may have ended up with a different unit had I not asked around here. We're still in the honeymoon phase, but all signs point to a long and lasting love.
I've been asked by a few users here to describe our situation, so I'll tell a few stories and get some photos up. I'll see how this goes, we'll see how often we might have an interesting story. If there is enough interest, I will try to keep this updated with unique tasks we execute. We only get to use our tractor on weekends, so there is often a lot of discussion and theorizing before we actually start doing anything. Anyway, on to the show:
After a bunch of chat here: http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/buying-pricing-comparisons/349558-search-sub-compact-tractor.html, this was our second weekend of owning a brand new B2650, BH77 Backhoe, SSQA 543 Loader and HLA4200LB Forks. Overall, we are very extraordinarily impressed with the tractor. We have used it for a total of 5 days, and put about 3h per day on it, picking a few random tasks that I will describe below.
The first 3 hours required a lot of learning. We spent this time making a path around our property that leads from the driveway, behind the house, to the garage and to garage to bush. That involved moving some small trees, some rocks, flattening some ground and trying not to make a mess. Throughout the next few days of use, we improved this trail when needed. Also, when soft or frozen ground gave way to rocks that made the path unstable, we would move them, etc. I put a scratch on the hood the entire length of it within about 1h of using it when a tree branch whipped across it - not new anymore... An interesting part, we moved a rock that I would never have thought that the tractor would be able to move. Despite having a tractor, we struggled at it (novice users), the tractor did fine. We found that 4WD is used quite a bit on our property due to some of the slopes and loads we have. I had to lock the diff once too because of how uneven the ground was. We'll continue to work on it.
The next 3 hours involved moving a bunch of old fell trees out of the general area where it should not have been. Some trees we fell, some trees fell on their own, and the hydro guys came through and cleared the hydro line, and the trunks of those trees remained as well. Historically (in the thread above you'll see a "sob story" about it), we have been limited to leaving a lot of the trees where they fell, because we just don't have enough time or manpower to move it. Now, we have used the tool at our disposal to move them reasonably easily. As part of this, clearing, we had access to our wood area with the tractor, so we moved about a cord of wood with the bucket (not in one load obviously...), much easier than a wheelbarrow.
Through the next task, we prepared an area to fell another tree. This 24 yard spruce tree that has been looming over our garage and started to lean. This 40 year old tree was actually in very good health, and it's a big shame to have to cut it, but unfortunately we can't have it threatening the garage and cottage. This required clearing up another fell tree truck, clearing some brush and loading then moving 3 skids of removable trex deck boards. We also had to clean up some washed out gravel - using the backhoe for a precision task was 'interesting.' We took out 2 stumps that had always "sortof been in the way" and had been rotting for about a decade, the backhoe did pretty well there, even for novices using it.
By the time we felled the tree, we had good experience with the tractor. Felling the tree and cleaning it up took the last 2 days... or evening and morning. We have cut a bunch of trees and this was by far the easiest one to clean up. It also helped that my brother was around and that's a 50% increase in manpower. He has driven forklifts and things for work, so he was a natural. I have a few pictures from this ordeal that really shows the strength of the compact frame tractor. Forks, backhoe and bucket were all used successfully.
Short version:
-BH moved a moderately large rock. 100x easier than moving a rock with shovels, a pully, pry bars, wedges, etc.
-Moving wood with the bucket is infinitely easier than the wheelbarrow.
-The forks are great for skids, branches and trunks of trees
-I would rate our frequency in use of the tractor and its implements as follows: Forks, Backhoe, Bucket, draw bar, 3point lift, empty tractor.
-It has used 3-4 ticks of gas (8 ticks total), so maybe 1/2 of the 27L tank
-We use 4WD and a mix of L-M range; very rarely high range
Throughout our first 15 hours, the only the tractor could not do what we asked was when we hooked the forks under roots on the ground. I imagine if you tried to pull a tree down with it, that it would fail, but I would not ask that of this platform. I wanted to thank everyone again for their advice, as I may have ended up with a different unit had I not asked around here. We're still in the honeymoon phase, but all signs point to a long and lasting love.
Last edited:
