New and Looking Hard at LS

[suzy]

Thanks for the info on prices elsewhere, I still am curious about the range in pricing for these tractors. The quote I was given was for one currently in Lacombe, Ab. and to be shipped out west. I guess I should be looking at the one in New Brunswick and investigating the cost of shipping. What's the name of this dealer in New Brunswick?

 

[gregsm33]

ljpattersonsales.com

 

[Gary Fowler]

Suzy: I would wager that the shipping from other dealer in your price adds at least $1K to the price, so you could likely get a better deal on a local tractor so you only have to pay shipping one time. You may have to wait a while to get one. OH, my dealer said that installing the remotes at the factory is cheap, most of the cost for dealer installed is in labor to strip down the tractor, fenders, wheels etc to get to everything. If you ordered one with 2 remotes the price will be lots less than having a dealer install them. You may even be able to get a larger tractor that comes with remotes cheaper than having a pair installed on one that you have to pay extra for.

 

[4DFARM]

Avatar...did you say you have 200 Acres??? If so, it would seem you need a utility? I'm curious as to why you would want a compact as opposed to a utility...your reasoning may be useful to me.

I saw rocknrod just bought a 4010...I'm jealous! ha! Rocknrod, if your out there, what kind of ground clearence do you have with the 4010...that's one reason I was leaning to the utility, they are wider and taller...the L3240 Kubota I'm using sits pretty high off the ground for a compact, which I think is useful when doing any kind of clearing work...one thing that concerns me is the LS compacts appear (I haven't actually measured it and haven't found a spec on it) to sit lower to the ground than some of their competitors.

One thing I have learned in using the Kubota, the shuttle reverse is a MUST (of course that's almost standard on all models now) and a FEL with 4WD is a MUST..I've come close to getting stuck 4 times in the last two days doing some clearing after we had a ton of rain, I was able to use the bucket to give additional assistance to the tires to get out....I had even debated taking the loader off while I was box blading but glad now I didn't....I still haven't mastered the loader, and curious how Gary was able to dig an eight foot pond??

 

[4DFARM]

Gary...its seems based on what you and some others have said regarding pricing, that there may be a couple of thousand dollars to neogtiate with on the tractor?

 

[avatar]

4dfarm...that is right 200 acres !! 40 acres where we live and 2-80 acres tracks all hunting property...Its all mostly wooded with somewhere around 8 to 10 small food plots..Most of the heavy stuff (clearing plots, hauling logs, ect) we do with a backhoe with a fel.. What i need a tractor for is maintaining our food plots and mowing trails that are to tight to get into with a larger tractor... the other reasoning is the need to trailer it back and forth , the trailer that we have is just big enough for the width and weight of the compacts... we have to rent a trailer whenever we move the backhoe... Hey rocknrod nice tractor!!!! I too have been drooling over the pic he sent. Hope this is helpful, here in northern michigan with our thick swampy woods bigger is not always better

 

[4DFARM]

Gotcha Avatar..that makes sense...don't tell me nothin bout no swamp woods, I live in Louisiana! ha! I don't have anywhere near your acreage, but mine is soon to be cleared and will have to be maintained for horses/cows...that's one reason I was looking at utilities, so I could pull a 10 ft. bush hog to cut down mow time...don't think I can pull that with the 4020, maybe if the grass isn't too tall? Good point about trailering though, that is something I know but hadn't really considered...

 

[Gary Fowler]

4D, I too was a little anxious when I got my 7010 without a tooth bar when it came to digging because with my compact Yanmar 4220, I couldnt even scoop up loose dirt till I put on a toothbar. The 7010 however has no trouble tearing into hard soil and loading up with it. I did use a boxblade to loosen up the shale in the bottom when I got down to that. I also used it when I started to loosen the grass from the whole area. I discarded that due to the amount of organic matter as I was using all my dugout dirt for the dam. I also used the boxblade to kind of keep everything level as I dug. I would run forward scooping up with the FEL and drop the boxblade to scarify and drag more soil up. The next pass, I just picked up the pile with the FEL to join the rest of the pickings. It took me a bit to get used to having the cab which restricts the vision a bit (no standing up to look at the front of the bucket blade like on my Yanmar) so you have to depend on the rod indicator as to angle of the blade. The tires will let you know when you have to much angle as it stalls if you try to take too big a bite. I just tilted enough so that I was picking up about 3" of overlay at a pass. That pretty much filled my bucket from one side to the other.

 

[4DFARM]

Ok..that's very interesting Gary...sounds like you got excavating with it down to an art!

 

[Gary Fowler]

I wouldnt go that far, but I do have a pretty good eye for level etc and when I put a line level on the dam, it was only 4" low from high point. I did build a pond with my Dad back in 1970 or thereabouts in Lousiana using a 9000 Ford and a 5 yard hydraulic scraper bucket. Dad used a 190XT AC with a back blade and just circled the drop area to keep the dirt levelled and packed. We took 2 days to build a 2.5 acre pond that held over 6 feet of water. We raised catfish in it till the flyboys kept dropping cotton poison in it and killing our fish. After Dad and Mom died, the rest of us kids sold our interest in it to one of our sisters and they filled in the pond so that ended that saga. But is was good experience to call on for when I built mine. The big difference was that the first pond was built on flat ground and my last project was laid out on a slope so it was a little tricky. I likely will do a little clean up on the top later on to make it a bit more level. This trip home I just need to put in my overflow pipe just in case we do get some rain this winter and fill it up.

 

[4DFARM]

You know building a pond is on my list of things to do also....but never dreamed you could really do it with a tractor and loader....I may need to get some more info/direction from you on that in the future....I'm not looking to build one over an acre and no more than 8 feet at the deepest point...I was prepared to pay someone with a trackhoe to do it...maybe i should rethink that...do you think the 47hp R4020 has enough gumpf to do it? Maybe I could justify part of the price of the tractor by offsetting the cost of pond work...i have quotes of 8K to dig a 3/4 acre pond....pretty pricey..

 

[Gary Fowler]

If you have a boxblade to go with your tractor, you can surely build a pond yourself. You just need time and weather on your side. My BIL had a nice 160 foot x 100 x 6-12 deep pond built to conform to the Ark. Ag extension requirements for some reimbursement costs and it was $5500 for the dozer, backhoe operator costs and took about a week to build. I couldnt have built that with my tractor although digging in dirt would have been ok, but the contractor found some large rocks below grade that he had to roll out with the dozer and one even larger that he just had to dig around as it was too large even for his backhoe and dozer to move. The pond had to be minimum 6 feet below natural grade and 12 feet deep including the berm height. That would have been a lot of digging even in straight dirt without the rocks. In my pond which is less than 300 yards from his, I dug it till I hit shale which was about 4-5 feet below grade. I dont know how thick the shale is here, but I didnt want to go into it as it would have leached out the water. When I started hitting the shale, I stopped and left a few inches of clay on top. It holds water well so far. Also whenever I dumped the bucket, I would raise it up very high and let it plop down to kind of compact the dirt as it was places in the berm. I also walked up and down on the sides with the tractor as I was building it up. After I got it about the heighth I wanted, I struck off the top using the FEL bucket from each side and walked in the berm with the front wheels (that took a lot of F/R action) Then the tricky part came when I had to drive around the top with the boxblade to make it flat and wide. That was kind of scary driving around on a 8 foot high berm that at first was not even as wide as the tractor as it was still kind of peaked in the middle. After I knocked down a couple of feet off the top and spreaded the dirt to make is about 7-8 feet wide at the top, it was not so scary and I could drive around it much easier and continue to pack it down.

 

[4DFARM]

I do plan on getting a box blade with the tractor...no shale where I live...an occassional rock would be nice, but non-existent, ha!.. sandy soils with clays with a 1-2 feet below surface, water infiltration can be a problem as water table is not far bgs....

 

[Gary Fowler]

If water filtration is an issue, then you may have to put in some well points if you are going to dig very deep. Water seepage would be an issue with the tractor if it is bad as it would likely get sloppy very guickly. I got lucky with the drought here this year when building my pond as the area I put it in is usually a flowing spring year round which is why I wanted a pond there, so hopefully the spring will flow into it. So far it is still not flowing in my new pond but I did see some signs that the large pond has a little bit of spring water flowing into it. Hopefully we will get some more rain soon.