What have you done to your Branson today?

[Cougsfan]

Been snowed in for a couple days now. We got about a foot of snow last week and I got everything cleared up just fine. Then the winds came! Big winds! Most of my road was fairly clear but there are spots that had drifts that were well over 4' deep. I tried plowing with my 1 ton pick-up (it has tire chains front and rear), but this snow is really heavy and it is like trying to push a giant pile of rocks. No go. So I started up the Branson to start digging, and wouldn't you know it, the fan belt snapped in two. I could live without an alternator, but the water pump is a must.

New Years and the Sunday after New years the local parts houses are closed, So yesterday (Sunday) a good friend drove to the larger town up the road and bought a fan belt, and carried it by foot up the long, nearly half mile road to my house through deep snow drifts. All he could find was a 40" long belt instead of the 40-1/2" belt that was on it. And as you might guess, it just wouldn't fit.

Today I will call around to try to find the right belt and my friend (God bless him) will pick it up and try again. In the mean time the winds have actually picked up and those drifts are deeper than ever. We have a young tree in our back yard with a 6 foot tall wire cage around it to prevent deer from eating it. You can only see one little corner of the top of the cage.

When it is all said and done, I am going to get a set of the two belts this tractor takes to have on the shelf.

 

[LuckiestManInIdaho]

My first post here. Got a 2515R in May 2021 (three days after I ordered it!) and just plowed our access road for the first time last week. 3/4 mile with three neighbors (who did not plow) and six inches of snow. My other tractor has been, for many years, a Ford 9N that did the job remarkably well, but always with some issues (like having to pull and clean the carb in below zero temps). The Branson started with no issues and did a remarkable job. I am very happy with the way it performed and how I have no issues with moving the snow - including multiple passes pushing new snow along with snow from the previous pass. I am happy with the four wheel drive, the brakes, three point float feature and the comfortable seat!

The dealer called me the luckiest man in Idaho (I live about 45 minutes north west of Boise in Gem county) since I took delivery of the tractor three days after ordering it. Seems it was an order for someone else that got cancelled about the time I ordered mine and then showed up at their dealership the next day. So, luckiest Branson Tractor owner in Idaho!

I attached a picture. You'll see the road is uphill all the way to the house and the part you can't see (off the right of the picture) is the steepest part with a 180 right turn at the end. The hilly property is the reason I went with the 'R' version and I have no regrets!

 

[K5lwq]

Welcome to TBN and the Branson family! Congratulations on your new machine. Nice to know the background on your screen name.

 

[Torvy]

Today I hoped to test drive 4820 (or sibling), but our friends in Caddo Mills must have been recovering from New Years, the gates were closed and it looked like only maybe one truck was there. They had some inventory I could see from the road.
11:30 am.

I guess I can try again MLK day.

 

[Captsteve57]

Today I hoped to test drive 4820 (or sibling), but our friends in Caddo Mills must have been recovering from New Years, the gates were closed and it looked like only maybe one truck was there. They had some inventory I could see from the road.
11:30 am.

I guess I can try again MLK day.

You must be talking about Big Tex. That is who I'm planing to buy from. I'm waiting on the building of my new house to make the purchase.

 

[Branson Bob]

Seems like a lot of people had snow recently. We got about 8" of wet snow which caused a lot of damage to our trees here in the Sierra Foothills. We're at about 2400' and typically get 1-2 snowfalls each winter. I didn't have to plow like a lot of you guys but I was running the chainsaw for much of the weekend. These pics were taken 4 days after the snowfall.

 

[Torvy]

You must be talking about Big Tex. That is who I'm planing to buy from. I'm waiting on the building of my new house to make the purchase.

I'm right there with you. Yesterday the guys finally got out there to start clearing the land for our buildings. The guys in Carthage are technically a little closer to my land, but I drive right by Caddo Mills from current place to future place. Plus, they always seem to have inventory.

 

[Cougsfan]

It took my friend buying 3 fan belts before we had one that would fit. (What would I do without friends!) He could only find a 40" on Sunday, then a 40 1/2" and finally a 41". The 41" was the only one that would go on. The factory one was a 40 1/2" (??).

Got it running and it took 12 hrs of tractor time to clear the road of enough snow drifts to where I could plow the road with my truck. (well into the night and more this morning). Got the tractor stuck once (Miss-guessed where the road was), and broke a tire chain once (the hook opposite the clasp on one of the front chains just straightened it self out). Boy was I glad to have a cab and a heater!! Worked without even a jacket on.

Our poor horse couldn't make it into the barn to eat and drink, do I had to dig a path through that drift too.

 

[ning]

It took my friend buying 3 fan belts before we had one that would fit. (What would I do without friends!) He could only find a 40" on Sunday, then a 40 1/2" and finally a 41". The 41" was the only one that would go on. The factory one was a 40 1/2" (??).

Got it running and it took 12 hrs of tractor time to clear the road of enough snow drifts to where I could plow the road with my truck. (well into the night and more this morning). Got the tractor stuck once (Miss-guessed where the road was), and broke a tire chain once (the hook opposite the clasp on one of the front chains just straightened it self out). Boy was I glad to have a cab and a heater!! Worked without even a jacket on.

Our poor horse couldn't make it into the barn to eat and drink, do I had to dig a path through that drift too.

I found that for my 3520 Napa XL 25 9415 was the winning belt.
It was a real pain to get on - the alternator doesn't move on its track much at all.

This reminds me that I still have "get another belt" on my shopping list as they only had the one I had to use when I replaced mine (an unfortunate hen decided to nest right there when I parked for an hour next to the chicken coop, amazingly enough she came out of it missing some feathers and a couple toes but survived and gets around well enough; it tweaked the belt when I started the tractor and she got caught up somehow). Fan belt is definitely a thing to have an extra.

 

[ptsg]

It took my friend buying 3 fan belts before we had one that would fit. (What would I do without friends!) He could only find a 40" on Sunday, then a 40 1/2" and finally a 41". The 41" was the only one that would go on. The factory one was a 40 1/2" (??).

Got it running and it took 12 hrs of tractor time to clear the road of enough snow drifts to where I could plow the road with my truck. (well into the night and more this morning). Got the tractor stuck once (Miss-guessed where the road was), and broke a tire chain once (the hook opposite the clasp on one of the front chains just straightened it self out). Boy was I glad to have a cab and a heater!! Worked without even a jacket on.

Our poor horse couldn't make it into the barn to eat and drink, do I had to dig a path through that drift too.

I had to laugh when I read your post because believe or not but I had the same exact issues with the same exact belts when I was restoring the 1962 Crawler tractor!!!! What a pain that was!

I bought a bunch of belts, even metric equivalents and for the life of me nothing would work other than the exact 40 1/2" belt. Some were too long for the limited amount of adjustment it had, others too short. I actually ended up buying an extra long one and add another idler but that created some other issues so I went back fighting for the right belt till I found it.