What have you done with/to your GC Series 2300, 2400, 1700 Tractor TODAY

[ray66v]

Thanks, this will be only be my fourth pine and I bought a spot sprayer, but this one is close enough to the house to water from a hose.
Was told with this one to make the mound with mulch, and I know pines like to root down, so will use the BH and shovel to make sure the dirt under it it a bit more broken up.
Do you use any soil amendments when planting?

I like to water in a rooting hormone, when I transplant anything. They make a big difference.

Rooting hormone can also be used to revive unhealthy plants, like flowers in late summer.

If you have a bulb auger for your drill, bore holes in the ground about 6' deep, about 18" apart, at the drip line each spring, and fill them with some 10-10-10 or 112-12-12.

Biggest thing with pine trees is, they don't like wet feet. So, if it's wet there, you either need to put in drainage, or mound it up.

I planted a small forest, with about 90 trees in my back acre. White Pine, Alberta Pine, and Blue Spruce trees. As well as a few Maples, and Crab apples. It's 16 years later now, and quite rewarding to see it developing as I envisioned.

 

[ray66v]

I never planted that type you got. But I've planted a metric ship ton of arbs, both emerald green and green giants. Honestly, I've never done anything special with them beyond digging a big hole, dropping them in, and watering the crap outta them ever so often for the first few months.

And a few years later, they look kind of like this:View attachment 863409

If you have the right soil, and the right weather, it can be that easy.

 

[GeneV]

If you have the right soil, and the right weather, it can be that easy.

Clay soil in Chicago area, could be better. They do need sun though, to grow big. The ones I got in the shade stay smallish.

 

[Dmacleo]

first rotation this year of compost pile. its all (now approx 8 yards due to....composting) going on garden this year. its all dark soil now.
then will get with horse farm use their tractor to load my 14ft trailer and drive gc into trailer to unload. if possible will take approx 15 loads, approx 4yds per load. can't stack too hich need to drive on road 22 miles or so LOL

 

[kenmbz]

Had to remove an old pine stump and roots first.
Backhoe makes the dig so easy.
Shovel to fill back in.
Mulched the top and mounded as recommended.
This week will be apple and peach trees which will need to be caged from the deer.
Those will be smaller.
Largest I did was a Japanese Black pine which weighed in over 600lbs with the rootball and is now about 9 feet tall, must have grown 2 feet since I planted it.

 

[Dmacleo]

servicing tiller (woods 48.30) today. all grease (4 on pto shaft plus touch on shaft itself) and one side bearing.
now time to torque the tine bolts. 140 ft lbs x 24 bolts.
I lock pto into 540 on and do what I can, mark what I've done with paint pen, slide the 540 to neutral rotate tines until I can grab more.



edit: DONE!
first time using my new gearwrench 1/2 drive flex head tq wrench. really like it. the non flex would hang up on another tine by about 1/4 inch making you reset more often. not this one.
due to ability to flex and measure tq thru the flex there were only 2 bolts I had to rotate tines once for. all other 22 bolts I was able to get w/o doing anything. saved me about 20 minutes, this gets done every 10 use hours for me due to rocky soil. also the flex one shows the final tq for a few seconds after.

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[hube2]

servicing tiller (woods 48.30) today. all grease (4 on pto shaft plus touch on shaft itself) and one side bearing.
now time to torque the tine bolts. 140 ft lbs x 24 bolts.
I lock pto into 540 on and do what I can, mark what I've done with paint pen, slide the 540 to neutral rotate tines until I can grab more.

Just curios if this is something that needs to be checked every year or every so many hours according to the OM or just something that you check because you've had an issue with them coming loose. Still waiting for mine to be delivered so haven't gotten a chance to read the manual yet.

 

[Dmacleo]

Just curios if this is something that needs to be checked every year or every so many hours according to the OM or just something that you check because you've had an issue with them coming loose. Still waiting for mine to be delivered so haven't gotten a chance to read the manual yet.

woods manual states every 10 machine hours. however I can say with a degree of certainty after 3 years of usage once done PROPERLY at beginning of tilling season you will only have to spend 20 minutes every 10 machine hours. in the field and no good tq wrench around just reef on the bolts (3/4" heads both bolt and nut) and you will be fine.
I have the tools plus I had the one bolt that was an issue so I go overboard. plus I can easily put 10 machine hrs on the tiller in 2 weeks at beginning of plant season due to tilling in compost/etc.
plus if you just doing friends/family and not getting paid from a stranger that also matters.
if just doing your own garden and nobody else, check it at beginning of season and drive on.
you will know if ones is loose. its a horrendous noise

 

[hube2]

Speaking of, the tiller was delivered this afternoon. It has some minor issue that I noticed when I looked at it but forgot. The kick stand is bent, I think I can straighten it, but if not it will work. It looks like the previous owner till with the kick stand down, but not a surprise considering the OM was still sealed in the original plastic. That and a couple of small dings.

@Dmacleo I have a question about the tailgate operation. Attaching a picture. The right hand side of the tailgate can slide into a gap and when it does it is pretty much locked in place. Does the tailgate on yours do this? Is there something on yours that prevents this from happening? One of the dings in on the tailgate where it slides into that gap and I'm assuming it is because it is being push up while it is slid over in this gap. I'm looking for a way to prevent this.

 

[Dmacleo]

i've tilled with the stand down. bent the hell out of it. my bad. took 2 minutes to fix it. but when stand up it will ALWAYS vibrate and wear paint. when up and locked it still has lot of play, and thats actually not a bad thing. that stand is not a precision piece of machinery. its there to help you and at same time realize you WILL screw up.
sigh...I've screwed up on my own 48" tiller as well as neighbors 60" inch tiller. takes at most 120 seconds to repair. do not worry.

edit: I should mention I have broken the stands of a case, case/ingersoll, bolens hyd tiller many times in the past.