What did you do with your Power Trac today?

[marrt]

Lumber moving. I needed some boards for fencing projects, and they were too long for my truck, so I had them delivered. 18' 2x10" boards to redo a guardrail, plus new "true" ground contact pressure treated (0.31lbs/cu.ft.) 6"x6"x12' posts. Each bundle is just at the pucker point for the 1445.

One of the many challenges is that none of my gates are 16' wide, much less 18'...

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I strap my lumber together to reduce warping/splitting until I can put the board up. The 0.31lb/cuft 12' beams are right at my comfort limit for lifting as they are still drying out from being pressure treated. (120lbs?)

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Moving these boards through a couple of gates and down a steep slope was rather interesting, and I managed not to hit too many items, though I did break a railing trying to swivel the sixteen footers through a 12' ranch style gate with a top cross bar.

I also augered a couple of fence post holes for gate stops to hold gates open when not in use. One had rotted out because the drainage put water on the base, and I wanted a post with packed gravel to at least try to get the water away from the wood.

I'm still not wild about using an auger for fence posts. No shade on the auger; the one I have is a planetary drive and is super powerful. It chews the remains of old fence posts without slowing down. I find I only need to use it slightly above idle. My issue is that I have not developed the knack of lifting the auger up to clear the hole of loose dirt. I'm finding that it takes four or five auger/lift/dump repeats to clear a 3-4' deep hole. Any advice is most welcome.

I will admit that I am not using the auger on anything approaching flat ground.

All the best,

Peter

On a standard tractor or the PT, I've always had to do as you say. You might try going to high RPMs with the auger slightly raised, once you reached final depth, to see if it will "throw" the dirt out. I think the problem is related to hole being bigger than the auger. As the dirt starts up the auger, it moves to the side of the auger then falls back down the hole.

 

[marrt]

Here's what I paid in 2001....

Price: The last driving factor in my decision to purchase the PT425 was the price. $8000.00 for the tactor with the lift arms and quick attach installed. All of the implements also were very resonably priced. The small bucket was $300.00. The teeth were $100.00, the 60" mower was $1200.00, the 60" power angle snow blade was $450.00 and the large light material bucket was under $400.00. All told, the entire package was under $13,000.00 delivered. I couldn't touch that price for any of the other units that I looked at.


TODAY: Just the machine is $15,900. Pretty much double the price. The implements are all about double as well.

That being said, compared to similar machines today that I compared it to back then, it's still the better buy for me.

That’s just a bit over 3% increase per year, compounded. Frankly, it's not an unreasonable increase. Still, $16K for just the machine with a small HP gas motor does seem a little expensive for some reason. You can get a nice Kioti HST tractor with loader for that price.

I won't go over the PT's advantages vs. a standard tractor (MossRoad wrote the book on that), but this example demonstrates the difference between economies of scale manufacturing and low volume, hand-made products. I have a conventional tractor (Kubota L3901) two 425s and one 1845. I bought one 425 new, sold it to a neighbor, missed it and bought two 425s I ran across for a good deal. The 1845 is also used, made in the late 90s. The ONLY time I use the Kubota is to till my dad's garden in the Spring and plow the potatoes in the Fall. Other than that, it sits in the barn. That tells you something, I guess.

 

[ponytug]

On a standard tractor or the PT, I've always had to do as you say. You might try going to high RPMs with the auger slightly raised, once you reached final depth, to see if it will "throw" the dirt out. I think the problem is related to hole being bigger than the auger. As the dirt starts up the auger, it moves to the side of the auger then falls back down the hole.

I did try the high speed maneuver, but with my dry clay soil, that tossed a couple of quarts out the top, I.e. not much. The dry clay turns to a nice dust/powder, even 4' down. Dry.

Of course, I can guarantee you that my hole was oversize, as I have trouble eyeballing the shifts in the plumb of the auger and making timely corrections to the tractor position and alignment. I find augering holes on my uneven slopes makes for lots of "rubbing your tummy, while patting your head", which I am not good at. I feel as if I need four more eyes and two more brains and another pair of arms.

All the best,

Peter

 

[2manyrocks]

I forgot that part, but it was a challenge for me to get the auger lined up where I needed the post to be and to bore the hole plumb even on flat ground. One hole in particular seemed to have more than its fair share of potato sized rocks which resulted in a much larger hole than I wanted at that particular spot.

T posts seem like a dream to set by comparison.

 

[ponytug]

I forgot that part, but it was a challenge for me to get the auger lined up where I needed the post to be and to bore the hole plumb even on flat ground. One hole in particular seemed to have more than its fair share of potato sized rocks which resulted in a much larger hole than I wanted at that particular spot.

T posts seem like a dream to set by comparison.

For me, yes, and no. My soil is clay. When it is wet, it is not exactly safe to traverse many of my slopes. When the soil dries out, it's practically rock. For me setting T-posts by hand or tractor has this narrow window of time in the late spring when the top soil is dry enough to move on, but the subsoil is still damp. My preferred method is the post driver, but even it benefits from some subsoil moisture. Post driving between now and December for me is like trying to hammer a T-post on a trampoline- you can see the soil bounce up and down for several feet all around the pile driver and post.

I am about to replace a fence corner that has to be done by hand, so I plan on attempting it with T-posts and locking Wedge-loc braces. I can't get my tractor to the location as it is in the side of a steep ravine. My rock hard clay means that I need to take a demolition hammer down there to crack the soil to be able to start the T-post. I would much prefer to do it with my tractor, but that would require filling the ravine to make a stable platform, and then emptying the ravine to put it back in its natural state...

Still, it could be worse. There are folks that don't have enough soil over their bedrock to set T-posts, leaving drilling a hole or piling rocks in a gabion to hold the T-post.

All the best,

Peter

 

[2manyrocks]

I have a friend who had to use a compressor/drilling rig to drill holes in bedrock for his T posts less than 20 miles from me. He's a consulting engineer and about the most overqualifed farm hand I've ever known.

 

[MossRoad]

What's this bed rock you speak of?

We're all sand. So I don't know the meaning of hard work.

 

[ponytug]

What's this bed rock you speak of?

We're all sand. So I don't know the meaning of hard work.

I saw a video the other day of some farmers installing a horizontal irrigation wells around your neck of the woods. It never occurred to me that you could do such a thing, but with lots of sand and a high water table, it makes a lot of sense.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

Haven't heard of that, but could see it very possible given the high water table and soil conditions.

I have no idea how far down it is to bedrock in this area. I know there are limestone quarries in the county to our west. But there are gravel and sand pits that use dredges in the same area.

 

[m5040]

How does that county song go? "Get a chain I'm stuck". Kubota is still good for something. (the PT was high centered on a massive rock and couldn't push off with the boom mower)