NEW 50HST

[CJONE]

I am awaiting delivery of my new tractor, [a little impatiently I might add] so I figured I would ask a few questions. I have been around heavy equipment most of my life and this is my first compact. I went with Kioti because of the specs and value for the dollar. How does the FEL perform? Can I use a grapple on it without loosing alot of lift? Also any help with a rear box for carrying wood, design info? I am a good fabricator but know nothing about 3 points. I have been told the factory bucket is good but I am going to use it hard and would also like to know if I can put a higher capacity bucket on for carrying firewood or a grapple bucket. Any help or advise would be appreciated. Oh I also got the 3500lb fork set up for it. I went with the 50 because of running a snow blower and the bigger displacement engine. CJ

 

[Mousefield]

:welcome: congradulation on getting a new tractor. Have many happy and safe hours of seat time. I'm sure you will responses to your questions before long.

 

[engine29]

Good choice, Kioti. You'll like that tractor.

 

[acme97]

Yes you can put a grapple on it. I have a 60 inch one myself. Some will argue a smaller one is better (especially) if you are going to try and use it to pop trees out. I don't do much of that, but do use it to lift logs brush etc and it's great. When selecting, of course ballance weight of grapple with over all lift and what you think you will be lifting. I think mine is about 400 lbs but I would have to check again. The factory bucket was fine for me, but I would get a tooth bar if you are going to do any digging with it.

Also, as a lessoned learned. Make sure to double check all the bolts. Especially on the Hydo unit where all the lines come into.

What part of the world you in?

 

[k0ua]

I will try to directly answer some of these even though I own a Kubota.

I am awaiting delivery of my new tractor, [a little impatiently I might add] so I figured I would ask a few questions. I have been around heavy equipment most of my life and this is my first compact. I went with Kioti because of the specs and value for the dollar. How does the FEL perform? at 2700 or so lbs of lift I would think very well Can I use a grapple on it without loosing alot of lift? I would think a suitable grapple would weight 800 900 lbs for that size of rig, so about a ton of left over capacity, I am thinking that would be pretty usefull Also any help with a rear box for carrying wood, design info? Several threads on here about designing 3pt boxes.. Using the search function here should work for you.I am a good fabricator but know nothing about 3 points. I have been told the factory bucket is good but I am going to use it hard and would also like to know if I can put a higher capacity bucket on for carrying firewood or a grapple bucket. yes you could, as you have SSQA, you should be able to find a bucket to suit, you will need the 3rd function hydraulics up front for your grapple bucket. W.R. Long is one manufacture. You can buy the kit at everything attachments.com Lots of of other places too. or you can piece it out yourself from Surplus Center Any help or advise would be appreciated. Oh I also got the 3500lb fork set up for it.Cool, you will like that. I went with the 50 because of running a snow blower and the bigger displacement engine. CJ

Good machine, lots of power, I bet you will be very pleased. Welcome to TBN

James K0UA

 

[CJONE]

I am in Northern Michigan. Yes I will be using it to pull small trees and such so I will be looking into a grapple. Rear tires will be loaded and I will be doing lots of digging. Big stumps and the like I will either use a backhoe attachment or rent a excavator, but I plan on hauling off the stumps with the loader. After about 10 hours I will go over the whole tractor for any problems. thanks. CJ

 

[CJONE]

I will try to directly answer some of these even though I own a Kubota.

Good machine, lots of power, I bet you will be very pleased. Welcome to TBN

James K0UA

It came down to either the Kubota or the Kioti, so I like both alot. I will use my rear remote to power the grapple. Or maybe install the 3rd valve in the front. I do Hydraulics for a living so that will be easy. I'll do a search on the box, Thanks!! CJ

 

[k0ua]

It came down to either the Kubota or the Kioti, so I like both alot. I will use my rear remote to power the grapple. Or maybe install the 3rd valve in the front. I do Hydraulics for a living so that will be easy. I'll do a search on the box, Thanks!! CJ

yeah a lot of guys say they like to drop their hand down and hit the remote about as well as the 3rd function control on the joystick.. I dunno as I don't have one. But I would sure try the rear remote and see how I got along with it first before I invested in the electric over hydraulic 3rd function valve/control. All you would have invested is some long hoses. Mossflowerwoods on here has the DK50 and he uses his grapple a lot apparently. Good luck

James K0UA

 

[SSdoxie]

Even with the loaded tires you will need about 1000# ballast on the 3 pt. to reach max lift/carry capacity of the loader. Weight on the 3 pt. use the rear axles as a pivot so it moves some to the front weight of front axles to the rear, helps relieve some to the load stress on front axles.
Browse through the Attachments & Customization post here in TBN. You will find some great ideas on rear ballast, making wood carrying boxes, and lots of discussion on grapples.

 

[tpulley]

Welcome aboard. I have a dk45se and love mine. I put a wildcat grapple and 3rd function valve on it. I don't claim to know a whole lot about hydraulics but I found it wasn't that hard to put on the 3rd function valve kit on. It came with some pretty good instructions. I tried using the rear remote (I only have one) and found this worked really good too. I decided to go the route of the 3rd function because I wanted/needed the rear remote to power my hyd toplink.

The wildcat grapples are a bargain. I have pushed over and uprooted a few trees as a test and have been extremely pleased with it. I found I do need to put a shield over the quick disconnects though. Mine became diconnected as I was working through the woods playing Godzilla.

 

[CJONE]

Thanks guys, sounds like the loaders are strong on these units and that is what I was planning on. Ballast should not be a problem, I just need to get a box built. CJ

 

[IndyIan]

Thanks guys, sounds like the loaders are strong on these units and that is what I was planning on. Ballast should not be a problem, I just need to get a box built. CJ

Yep, the loader is pretty healthy. I was waving around a 1000lb bale on the tip of the 4' spear quite easily trying to get it off my trailer. I've got the rear tires loaded but only have a 380lb rear blade for ballast which isn't enough to use the loader to its capacity.

 

[MotorSeven]

Yes, you can put a bigger bucket on it. Bush Hog makes a 72" wide x 30" deep bucket that is twice the capacity of the standard Kioti bucket. I also added a tooth bar to it and have not had any problems at all. It will lift a heaping pile of gravel as long as you have some counterweight back there.

Here is my thread on it with some pic's:
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/kioti-owning-operating/124293-who-has-72-bucket-their.html

 

[sodamo]

Welcome to the pack

 

[IslandTractor]

Welcome to the DK pack. I've had mine for four years and have done a lot of the things you talk about except for snowblowing.

Best deal on grapples right now is the 48" Wildkat economy model with a single upper arm. Strong basic design and build. I use a diverter valve on mine but if I was to do it again I'd just use one of the rear remotes. A light narrow grapple on the KL401 loader is about as powerful a brush/tree clearing machine you can get within the less than 60hp size CUT range.

As good as the grapple loader combo is, a stump bigger than about a five or six inch diameter trunk is a tough job. A backhoe with ripper tooth will make short work of trees and stumps. Easiest way to take down trees up to about 15-18" trunk is to avoid the chainsaw and use the ripper to cut roots the the loader to push the tree over and finally the grapple to cart it away. If you are in Michigan you are pretty close to Michigan Iron and Equipment. They fabricated my ripper and are great folks to deal with.

Regarding storage on the 3PT, there are a number of ways to do that and if you have a welder and some angle iron it would be a simple weekend project. Search TBN and you'll see examples of what others have fabricated.

Big buckets are expensive. If I were you I'd use the factory bucket and see if it isn't adequate. Not too many if any complaints about it here. You can strengthen the bucket by adding a thicker cutting edge or improve digging by adding a toothbar.

Good luck.

 

[CJONE]

Thanks for the info everybody. Islandtractor MIE is where I bought the tractor and your right Bob and the crew are good people. I don't have a welder, I actually have 3 being a ex fabricator I am actually looking forward to building a few things for this rig. I can't believe how fast these tractors are selling. When I was looking at them Bob said they had 1 in the distribution center and by the time I spoke for it it was gone. More are on the way and they figure they will all be spoken for befor the get off the boat!! I guess that says something. CJ

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Sounds like you will be using your bucket a lot, you may want to put some extra support on it. Common is to put a piece of 3/8' angle on the top along with some chain hooks. Might want to put some 1/4" or 3/8" plate on the sides too. A tooth bar will add strength and make the bucket dig a lot better than stock.

 

[grsthegreat]

It came down to either the Kubota or the Kioti, so I like both alot. I will use my rear remote to power the grapple. Or maybe install the 3rd valve in the front. I do Hydraulics for a living so that will be easy. I'll do a search on the box, Thanks!! CJ

depends on how much you will use the grapple, but i put a set of hoses to the rear remotes and made a $1.00 extension on my non detente remote for a front plow and it really works slick. doesn't get in the way and removes in 1 second when not needed.

its also in the perfect position to use with a hand on the bucket controls. The control with the 4 buttons is the removable snowblower controls. Remember to add quick disconnects at the point where the loader connects to the tractor for easy loader removal.

 

[IslandTractor]

Grsthegreat, were those pictures taken on delivery or do you never grease your loader??

 

[IslandTractor]

Thanks for the info everybody. Islandtractor MIE is where I bought the tractor and your right Bob and the crew are good people. I don't have a welder, I actually have 3 being a ex fabricator I am actually looking forward to building a few things for this rig. I can't believe how fast these tractors are selling. When I was looking at them Bob said they had 1 in the distribution center and by the time I spoke for it it was gone. More are on the way and they figure they will all be spoken for befor the get off the boat!! I guess that says something. CJ

If you are really going to take down a bunch of trees, you should ask Bob about the ripper. I have the original mounted on a Woods BH90x and it works very effectively. Probably increased my ability to remove trees in the 5-15 inch trunk diameter size range by about ten fold compared to cutting them down and then digging out the stump with either the grapple or BH regular bucket. I have a thread here on TBN that discusses a lot of these things you can find by searching on IslandTractor and ripper.