My DK45HST and me

[PA hayseed]

I was gonna post this in the projects section, but thought that with people looking at kioti's, maybe they would like to see what a DK45 could do.

I am in the process on moving my 103 year old renovated farmhouse about 150 feet further off the road. My almost 4 yr old daughter likes to run out of the door of the house (towards the road), and we need a new basement (existing one is stone), and we are gong to add an addition (about 900 sq ft with a full 9' basement. So I am hoping to show people who don't know alot about tractors (this includes me) what you can do with your DK45 (and probably alot of other kioti's).

I didn't take photo's before I got started, so you will see day 2 and on.

First thing I did was dig all the soil out from my garden and move it away from the proposed house site. On the right side of the picture, and on the left you will see some of the grass and topsoil I removed.

 

[PA hayseed]

The next day what I did was move some stuff around in my yard - swing, old cast iron claw foot tub I use for watering the garden, the bricks and pavers I used to put the swing on so it would sit level, and I removed more topsoil/sod. I also cut a ditch in my yard, because the grade of the yard is towards the area I will excavate, and I need to move/keep the water from running into it. What I attempted to do was slowly remove the grass/sod, so that I got all the soil and none of the clay. I also attempted to move it a section at a time, and when I took it wo my pile. I laid them on one another as best I could. I don't believe most of it will live, but if I can save some of it I will be a happy camper.

I also took the time to take some pictures, and realized that with my rops folded part way down, the safety police might hassle me, so I corrected my mistake in the next photo.

I hope these pictures load right. I am doing most of this after I get home from work at night, so all of you DYI'ers can do it too.

 

[PA hayseed]

just some more pictures so that people might get what I am doing. One of the few trees I have on my property will be taken down, and you can see that I am removing the soil by the tree. **Attention all newbies like me, feather the FEL lever when tackling roots**

 

[PA hayseed]

The foot print of my house with the addition will be approximately 1900 sqft. For those of you who are new to this, you cannot just dig the soil out for the foundation "hole", you have to go several feet on each side of your layout lines for topsoil, and in PA (in my area) the masons like to have at leat a foot or two - two preferably of room between the wall that they are building and the dirt you are removing. So, you have to excavate at least two feet outside of your layout lines (also helps when installing drainlines for basement).

Just another pic or two. Someone must have redirected flights, cause we never have large aircraft near us, and definetly never this close to the ground.

 

[PA hayseed]

I do realize that a dozer would be more efficient at this, but they cost money, and they would not get the seperation of soil/clay like I will by taking my time. Besides, they would just roll everything into one giant pile.

 

[Dmace]

Cool pictures, that looks like a fun project on some nice flat land. I would love some flat land around here, even my septic is on a slope.

 

[JoelD]

flat land would be awesome, same here, nothing flat, except my head.

I literally have more rocks than soil, trying to figure out a way to e-bay rocks.

the shipping is a killer, I guess I could ship in a million separate pieces.

Great project, like the pictures.

Joel

 

[PA hayseed]

Yeah, it is relatively flat, one of the major pluses for buying this old house and property. Not too much flat land in this area, the only down side is that it is on top of the mountain, so we get alot of wind.

This is what I did today

 

[JoelD]

always pays to take care of your stuff.

Just did the same last week, air, motor, hydraulic, front axle.

Will do fuel filter in another 200 hours or so.

Joel

 

[Oleozz]

Thanks for the great pics Hayseed, good luck with your project. How many hours do you have on your 45?

 

[IslandTractor]

Hayseed,

Are you going to dig that whole foundation with your FEL? If so, wow!

 

[PA hayseed]

IT

I don't know if I will do the whole thing myself, as time will become an issue. There is a guy about a mile down the road from me who has a skid steer and a trac hoe, he already said he'd come help. I am trying to do as much as I can.

Oleozz - I have um er ah 50 hrs on it. I do my service right on time like the book says because its good for the equipment and I love my warranty. I put 32 hrs on my tractor within the first month of owning it, then I banged my knee up, and unless I had to move the snow, I didn't use it. My knee is better (not fixed) so I will probably have about 32 hours on it this month.

The problem with maintenance are those magnets on the filter and plug. They made those magnets strong! Makes it hard to get the filter back on, and the HST plug is a PITA.

Attention Kioti (DAEDONG) - give a warning how hard it is to remove those factory installed filters. I lost at least one oil wrench, and your manual has the wrong pictures in it for my tractor. I love the tractor, but how the **** do you have 3 filters that use three different filter wrneches, and your drain plugs are all different sizes. Also, how do you expect the avg joe to get his HST fluid in the tractor with the fill plug in that configuration. I do like the heft and size of the HST/transmission filters.

 

[Dmace]

flat land would be awesome, same here, nothing flat, except my head.

I literally have more rocks than soil, trying to figure out a way to e-bay rocks.

the shipping is a killer, I guess I could ship in a million separate pieces.

Great project, like the pictures.

Joel

I would be RICH if I could sell some of these rocks. I have yet to find a soil layer, it goes Top Soil-Small Rocks-Gravel-Large Rocks-Clay-Rocks Bigger then most small cars.

 

[PA hayseed]

Yeah, You Got Rocks! Some people call them boulders when they get that size.

It is funny, down in the flat parts of PA, like from around harrisburg to philadelphia, people go to stores and buy rocks by the pallet load. I almost fell over when I saw what they were paying for them. $225-375.00.

I know there has got to be a way to get a triaxle to take a load of rocks down, and bring back a load of topsoil. In a perfect world, it would be a fair exchange.

 

[IslandTractor]

I know there has got to be a way to get a triaxle to take a load of rocks down, and bring back a load of topsoil. In a perfect world, it would be a fair exchange.

Put me down as a member on the northern side of that exchange. We always joke about "growing" rocks but it is in deed no joke. There are new rocks, sometimes big ones, that appear as winter crops every year. If I could figure out a way to sell them or exchange them for decent top soil I'd be in heaven.

I bent a tooth on my grapple this year when I went to lift out a new rock that appeared in an area I mow....After I grabbed it and dug around a bit I lifted it out and ended up with a 3x2x2 hunk of solid granite. My loader was happy to lift it but unfortunately it was held in place by just one of the top tines of the grapple so I now have a snaggle tooth. Just another honorable wound in the war on rocks.

 

[PA hayseed]

Snaggle tooth, Laughed when I read that.

I'll be one of those guys paying about45-75 dollars a sq ft for granite countertops my wife likes. Sometimes I wish we had granite in the backyard, but then again, sometimes I don't.

 

[vtcoyote]

"The problem with maintenance are those magnets on the filter and plug. They made those magnets strong! Makes it hard to get the filter back on, and the HST plug is a PITA.

Attention Kioti (DAEDONG) - give a warning how hard it is to remove those factory installed filters. I lost at least one oil wrench, and your manual has the wrong pictures in it for my tractor. I love the tractor, but how the **** do you have 3 filters that use three different filter wrneches, and your drain plugs are all different sizes. Also, how do you expect the avg joe to get his HST fluid in the tractor with the fill plug in that configuration. I do like the heft and size of the HST/transmission filters.[/QUOTE]"

i hear ya,went went through 2 or 3 filter wrenches trying to get the transmission oil filter off, they must use air wrenches at the factory.

glad to see your having fun, i mean working productively on your 45.
happy trails.

 

[PA hayseed]

i hear ya,went went through 2 or 3 filter wrenches trying to get the transmission oil filter off, they must use air wrenches at the factory.

glad to see your having fun, i mean working productively on your 45.
happy trails.[/QUOTE]

I thought I (we) had it bad until the guy down the road told me tonight that he had three guys trying to help him get his hydraulic filter off his skid steer. He said they pounded screwdrivers through it, everyone grabbed one, and they had a chain wrench (for oil filters) on it too. He said that he now greases his hydraulic filters so that they come back off easier. I asked him about leaks and he just shrugged.

 

[PA hayseed]

Didn't get much more done tonight. tackling the roots sideways in low gear works more effectively that head on. That toothbar is snapping even the bigger ones.

Finally made it with the tractor to a guy's house down the road. He welded on two bucket hooks for me. When done I asked him how much, he responded don't worry about it. I told him he was nice enough to do it, and it used his welding rods and electric, he had to take something. He said 5.00 and I gave him 10 and thanked him.

It's nice to have good neighbors. Turns out he has an old JD tractor he takes to pulling contests. SO we B.S. for awhile...hmmm...probably why I didn't get too much done.

Some picks of dirt removal and roots, and a pick of the one bucket hook (looks like it is hard to see).

 

[JoelD]

keep up the good work