The one thing that you wonder why you didn't buy sooner?

[nch77]

Battery powered large impact wrench, I can't imagine not having one now. Same with a shop press, idk why dad would never buy one. I bought one and use it all the time during repairs. For large purchases a tracked bobcat, I picked up a T870 and its so useful I couldn't not have one.

 

[bookemdano]

A FEL on a tractor. For 35 years, a shovel, a wheelbarrow or a small trailer
to pull behind an ATV was what I used. Then I got a Kubota L2800 with
an FEL and I've been kicking myself ever since. I even got one on my
lawn tractor a BX2680. Handy as a pocket on a shirt.
Dano

 

[MT Kioti]

I think someone may have already mentioned one, but since I used it another half-dozen times over the last week, I'm calling out my Bosch StarlockMax oscillating tool. I was mostly doing interior carpentry back when I bought it, so I got the highest-power corded option they had at the time. But lately I seem to be using it outdoors more and more, and wish I had a cordless version. Might have to buy another one.

Somehow I made it through nearly 40 years of life before realizing how damn useful this tool is, for all of those jobs that require a lot of time and elbow grease. It's most useful for undercutting door casings when changing flooring thickness, but this weekend's job was carefully plunging into several buried PVC conduits, believing I had identified which of the bunch were unused versus containing wiring, but never quite sure until you cut. With the Osc, you can carefully scarf out a window and peak inside, before commiting yourself. Since I already had it out in the yard, I also used it for cutting a bunch of drain pipe and even PVC conduit, and found it does a nice clean job of that. Better and easier than the classic hack saw or recip saw.

View attachment 806728

Ditto on the oscillating multi-tool. I had a small job that I knew this would be the easiest way to do it, but I was unlikely to use it ever again (I never needed it so far, right?) so I bought a really cheap model from Harbor Freight for this one-time use.

After that, I used the thing all the time, on dozens of various projects, until I wore it out. So I immediately bought a good one. This time Porter Cable. Still love the thing.

 

[Mart5130]

Selling my finish mower and buying a zero turn. What a difference!!

 

[charlessenf]

"why didn't I buy that years ago?"

PATS Quick Attach for my 4-point hitch ($160 @rural King a couple years ago) and nearly ten years after I bought the tractor and learned the many ways to skin knuckles attaching this, that or the other.

 

[charlessenf]

My pantograph has been around 25 years or so now but I sure wish I had made it decades before I did. Sure it took an entire Saturday to build but has made many metal projects take much less time to build and saved countless grinding wheel lives.

Now, that's an impressive tool! Where did you get the design? Specs? etc?

 

[dbritt]

1992-used AC-180 tractor with a front end loader. It didn't matter when I was younger, but once I had one I honestly didn't realize how hard I had been working the first 32 years of my life. Then in 2003 I bought a Kubota M9000 with their matching FEL. Power AND an FEL! Life doesn't get any better. The older I got, the more useful it became. Literally a day didn't go by that I didn't use it for something. I sold the farm and retired in December 2020. I sold the tractor with the farm after using the heck out of it for 17 years. I have kicked myself every single day since. EVERY single day. I keep telling myself I need to buy another one. Sorta deja vu when I tell myself I really don't need one.

 

[Teachu2]

Big ticket items:
#1 Grapple - we have lots of trees, brush, and rocks.
#2 Hydraulic dump bed trailer
#3 Flail mower

Less expensive items
#1 Pat's quick hitch
#2 Battery powered pole saw
#3 Bolt-On Hooks bucket hooks
#4 3/8 x 5" chain w/hooks
#5 20' sling

 

[charlessenf]

These tractorbynet threads that land in the inbox are....addicting!

Ah, yes. But that's the point of such lists. You trade your time and think its a free thing.
Kids aren't the only ones 'hooked.'

 

[olenjohn]

Kubota RTV900. When I acquired it my wife was bewildered as to why I got that. She wanted me to trade it off for a tractor. I got a JD FEL tractor and still kept the RTV. Now she’s the one that uses the RTV more often than me.