New member with Enfly DQ404

[DCJ]

Hi
Just discovered this forum - looks like a great place to exchange tractor related ideas, experiences etc. I have 5 acres on the north western edge of Sydney. Bought my Enfly 40hp tractor a couple of months ago - using it regularly for landscaping, driveway maintenance, stump pulling etc. I've done about 40 hours on the tractor, and so far I'm very happy with it.

A couple of things I'd like to share for the benefit of those that are new to tractors (like myself): (1) be very careful when driving across a slope, particularly when you have a load in the bucket, and the bucket is up high. I almost rolled my machine while carrying a large stump (probably 350kg) that I'd grabbed in the jaws of the bucket. Luckily, the stump slipped out of the jaws just in time to prevent the tractor rolling over sideways. (2) not sure if this applies to other tractors, but the Enfly has left hand threads on the rear left hand wheel studs! I stripped one of the wheel studs before I worked this out! Why was I removing my wheels? With the Enfly, you can gain around 300mm of extra distance between the back wheels if you reverse the wheel plates - this gives the tractor a bit more stability and makes it a bit safer to drive across slopes!

[creekbend]

Welcome aboard. I try my best not to drive across slopes, especially the steep ones. I back up the slope and when descending, I put the tractor in the lowest gear.

[MIKE R]

Welcome to the forum. Any slope with a tractor ussually causes some degree of the pucker factor. I am sure most of us on here have expirianced it one time or another.

[murphy1244]

[kensnelling]

Welcome from Oklahoma.

Ken

[Briana03]

Welcome to TBN

I moved your thread to the All Other Brands forum.

[mfleetwood]

Hi,

I am considering a DQ404 - or a Kubota L4400 which is a lot more expensive and hard to justify the cost for mainly weekend use. I have 40 acres near Canberra and plan to use it for similar jobs to you. Are you still happy with the Enfly and did you buy any other implements with it?

How did you go reversing the wheel plates - how did you jack it up?

Have you put water in the tyres to help with stability?

mike.

[DCJ]

Hi Mike
I'm very happy with my DQ404 - I've put about 45 hours on it, and so far it hasn't let me down. I tend to use it every weekend - for pulling stumps, moving dirt and rocks, and I've done a small bit of driveway maintenance with it. When i bought it last year, it came with a 'free' 5 ft slasher. I also purchased a shovel fork - I thought this would be good for digging out stumps - it works well for small stumps (say up to 6 inch dia) but for large ones, I find it better to dig around the roots by hand and cut the larger ones with a chain saw, and then pull the stump out with a high tensile chain attached to the tractor hitch. Apparently the shovel fork is also good for digging trenches, but I haven't tried it for this as yet...

I also bought a hydraulic log splitter that mounts on the 3 point hitch and hooks up to the auxilliary hydraulic lines at the rear of the tractor. This is an awsome machine - if you have a lot of timber to split into firewood, this sure beats splitting by hand!

Reversing the wheel plates was easier than I thought it would be - I used a heavy duty bottle jack under the axle (there's a square plate section that the jack marries up with nicely). Once the wheel was off, I just layed it on the ground and removed all the inner bolts that hold the wheel plate, and then reversed it and put the bolts back in, and then put the wheel back on. The wheel is quite heavy, so it's easier as a 2 person job.

I also reversed the front wheels - this gave me another 170mm between wheels. This also causes the front wheel valves to be on the inside instead of the outside, but this is not a big problem - the main thing is that the tractor is now a bit more stable...

I haven't put water in the tyres - I read somewhere that doing this could lead to corrosion problems with the wheels. I've also read that some people use window washer fluid to avoid the corrosion...so maybe it's worthwhile.

The only downside with my tractor is that it came with standard ag. tyres, and these tyres have a tendancy to dig up the ground - so I've ordered some turf tyres (with new wheels) from the supplier in Sydney. Hopefully this will reduce the damage to the ground surface.

Hope this helps,

David

[DB Pilot]

[mfleetwood]

Many thanks David, that is most helpful, they are still doing the free slasher so it does seem good value, a little more powerful than some of the alternatives at that price.

Our place is mostly fairly rough so I don't think the Ag tyres will be a problem. OK on the water for the tyres, I'm sure your are right about the corrosion issue, not sure if window washer is non corrosive, but maybe cheap engine coolant would be an option, I have been told 20 litres is required for each wheel. I'm keen to do everything I can to make it as safe as possible as our block is far from flat.

I do like to tinker a bit with things which seems more appropriate with an Enfly rather than a brand new Kubota.