No insult intented, just my understanding of some types of problems: I have a SA 425 with only about 70 hours on the clock. I've been moving full bucket loads of 3/4 minus gravel up what I consider a fairly steep driveway section without a problem (he load is nearing the lift capacity of the FEL). That's with a 470 lb box blade on the 3 pt, beet juice rears, 4wd, low gear at maximum of 2500 rpm. No problem! Steep is undefined in your senerio just has "fairly" steep is in mine. Could be a big difference in the two. Hard to know just how steep is realistic to expect any SCUT to climb with or without a load. When using my box blade I can stop the tractor cold if I put too sharp a down tilt angle on the box (not using the rippers) but its only a SCUT. I know someone with the same tractor who advised me to not buy a rear blade because this size tractor won't pull it. He says his tractor is useless for plowing snow with a 60" rear blade. I learned that he was trying to pull 23" of wet snow in high gear on a slightly uphill grade and no additional weights or chains. I think the tractor alone would have trouble driving thru that much snow without a rear blade. It seems to me that its all about the operators expectations - how he tries to use his equipment - and using the right sized tractor for the job IMHO. That said these problems often are related to mechanical troubles so....???
