Tractor set up/What size grading implements?

[Dakota Joe]

Getting a new tractor as yet unseen and financing a bunch of implements to go with it. Would love to get your advice as a sanity check to make sure I am sizing the implements on the back correctly. (Salesperson is swell, but seems less detail oriented that I like to be.)

Tractor is Kubota L6060 with R3 Titan Multi Trac turf tires, rears sized 44x18-20 . Spec sheet lists rear tread as 52.2 or 56.3 inches. So I think the tread means centerline of wheels, and I add 18 inches to that, to get a range of 70.2 inches to 74.3 inches.

First question: I'm not going to take the tractor on steep hills and would like to use it sometimes on forest trails. So to keep flexibility to use e.g. six foot implements, it sounds like I should ask the dealer to do the setup at the narrower end of the range?

Second question: Is six foot the right width for land plane/grading scraper and box blade?

Third question: is 8 foot the right width for back blade and landscape rake?

Note that the driveways and paths we will maintain with these implements are only about 8 feet wide, certainly no more than 10.

Thanks in advance!

 

[old and tired]

For my L2800, I use a 6 foot box blade, finish mower, rear blades and 7' rake... Seems like you could use larger... but you don't necessarily have to get bigger.

I prefer smaller tractors that are outfitted to the max. (Hydraulic Top-N-Tilt, hydraulic for grapple, etc...) I can drive big cab tractors at work but rather have the smaller, open station ones when I need to use one. (although, A/C and radio time is pretty sweat - especially if you are working all day)

 

[CoyPatton]

And old rule of thumb that I was told many many years ago (I’m 59), was to allow 6 engine HP for every foot of width of the implement. This was to provide the max width you could safely handle. This was long before I had heard of a hydro transmission. So that might need some adjustment down for those in mind.
I do think you could overpower implements with a 60 HP tractor (for example buying a lightly build smaller implement build for a CUT or large SCUT). With that caution with a well build implement and watching how you treat it, your suggested sizes should work fine, but about as small as I would go.
Also a consideration is the wider the implement the quicker you can get work accomplished, but along with that is don’t go wider than you can fit where you need to go. (A story to go with that, I have a friend that years ago moved to wooded acreage. He bought a tractor and allowed a salesman to talk him into a larger tractor. When he got the tractor to his new place, it was too big to fit into the shop he had built.)

 

[Dakota Joe]

Thanks, CoyPatton, makes sense. Will definitely stick with well built implements and use them carefully. And won't build the storage til everything is home!

 

[Dakota Joe]

Thanks, O&T--I definitely want all the bells and whistles, since I don't think I'll get permission to upgrade any time soon...and I'm sure there will be mission creep. Open station is key for me as I want to be outdoors much more in my life...

 

[WranglerX]

One theory I have heard is the implements, cutters , blades should be a bit wider than width of rear track....

Dale

 

[mred2]

I like a land plane that is not as wide as the road so as not to take the crown off the road. I also like a good grader blade. My 6 foot grader blade is all my 50hp tractor can handle. It is heavy. Question, you didn't say anything about mowing. What is reason behind R3 tires? R4s should hold up better for side wall protection.

 

[Dakota Joe]

mred2, thank you--I guess when I say "land plane" I mean what Land Pride is calling a "grading scraper". In particular, I was looking at the GS2584. Based on your comment, I think I might switch to the GS2572, which is sort of what I was hesitating about anyway. Does that make sense?

As for mowing, I did have some questions on that in another thread...current plan (which the guy who has helped us with mowing over the years is pretty insistent on) is a Land Pride RCR2672 rotary cutter, 6 feet wide.

As for R3/turf tires, the same guy is pretty insistent, and I tend to think he may be right--my JD Gator had more aggressive tires--sort of like R14--and it tore up our grassed walking paths and lawns all the time. I finally switched the Gator over to turf. Also R3s will be better for plowing snow in the winter--not that we get as much snow as we used to. But during the rest of the year, each year it gets warmer and wetter here and it gets easier and easier to tear up the ground. That said, we'll probably do the big mowing in autumn or late winter when the ground should be hard and dry. But yeah, once in a while I wonder if we should go with R4s. I'd feel better about them in the forest, I think.

Thanks so much.

 

[CoyPatton]

A few more thoughts on your implements.
Unless there is a well thought through process to not do so (or the design of the implement does not allow it) you want your 3PH implements to be a bit wider than your rear tire spread from outside to outside edge. With your 60 HP this should rarely be an issue of not having the tractor to pull the implement.

Ideally for grading a driveway, assuming it has not gotten how of hand (several days of heavy rain on a slight slope can create this condition quickly), you want to be able to grade a single lane drive in no more than 3 passes (1 each side of the middle and 1 down the middle). Your implement choice width should allow this. Again with a 60 HP tractor that should not be a concern to be able to pull. If your drive is a double lane, well.....

As to tire type choice, R1’s will tend to leave the classic ridges in any type of loose soil (wet, sand) and give a rougher ride on hard soils.
I will not address R14, as I have no experience with them, I have only seen pictures and read releases.
As for R3 and R4, personally from these I see more damage from R3’s related to them losing traction and spinning, although I will also say that the more aggressive the tread the bigger mess it will create once traction is lost and spinning for the sake of spinning is done.
On the spinning note, if the tractor has diff lock use it as soon as you can once spinning begins. Any spinning tire can dig a hole quickly if you spinning for the sake of spinning!
Also a loader can be used to push you backward to get out of soft areas. In my experience a line from the bucket is more easily repaired than a hole dug by a spinning tire.
The advantage of flotation is pretty much a toss up between R3’s and R4’s in my opinion.
My bottom line, personally I would go with R4’s to gain that bit of grab to reduce the potential for lose of traction.

 

[Dakota Joe]

A few more thoughts on your implements.
Unless there is a well thought through process to not do so (or the design of the implement does not allow it) you want your 3PH implements to be a bit wider than your rear tire spread from outside to outside edge. With your 60 HP this should rarely be an issue of not having the tractor to pull the implement.

Ideally for grading a driveway, assuming it has not gotten how of hand (several days of heavy rain on a slight slope can create this condition quickly), you want to be able to grade a single lane drive in no more than 3 passes (1 each side of the middle and 1 down the middle). Your implement choice width should allow this. Again with a 60 HP tractor that should not be a concern to be able to pull. If your drive is a double lane, well.....

As to tire type choice, R1痴 will tend to leave the classic ridges in any type of loose soil (wet, sand) and give a rougher ride on hard soils.
I will not address R14, as I have no experience with them, I have only seen pictures and read releases.
As for R3 and R4, personally from these I see more damage from R3痴 related to them losing traction and spinning, although I will also say that the more aggressive the tread the bigger mess it will create once traction is lost and spinning for the sake of spinning is done.
On the spinning note, if the tractor has diff lock use it as soon as you can once spinning begins. Any spinning tire can dig a hole quickly if you spinning for the sake of spinning!
Also a loader can be used to push you backward to get out of soft areas. In my experience a line from the bucket is more easily repaired than a hole dug by a spinning tire.
The advantage of flotation is pretty much a toss up between R3痴 and R4痴 in my opinion.
My bottom line, personally I would go with R4痴 to gain that bit of grab to reduce the potential for lose of traction.

Thanks, Coy, I think I need to share the advice re not spinning and quickly engaging diff lock with my whole family--a good reminder for us.