kiotiken
Veteran Member
Since I upgraded from my CK30 to DK45, I've been very impressed at what this thing can do. For many it may still be a small tractor, but for everything I need to do, it's a beast! I've now only come across one thing it simply wouldn't do...
The snow plows often only does half the side road that my subdivision runs off, they go past our street, stop, back into our road and then go back the way they came doing the other side of the side road. There's really not much past our road, so it's a lower priority for them.
I was coming home from swimming on Friday night with the kids and it was freezing rain. The plow was out salting the side road, had gone past our road, stopped and backed up, missing our road by 30 ft and ending up in the ditch. With the giant plow in front, he had completely closed the side road. I stopped to talk to him and it really didn't look that bad and he was trying to dig the back wheels out. He told me he was fine, he'd be able to get out after a little digging. I had to get home with the kids, so I left him.
45 minutes later, I had to drive back to check on his progress. He was still there only now he'd almost rolled the truck. He said he had almost got it out by rocking it so I asked if he wanted me to try and pull him out with the tractor. Now, this is a tri-axle, fully loaded salt truck with a huge front plow and laser guided wing. I can only guess how much it weighed, but it was a lot more than my DK45 and blower. I thought maybe if he was close, I'd be the little nudge he needed to get out.
He was a young guy, said it was his first year plowing and he jumped at the chance to get the truck out of the ditch without having to call his boss. So after a quick trip home to get the tractor and chains, I hooked my two bucket hooks with a xhain on each to his front plow and was ready to try. Now I realize that's not the ideal way to do it, but my blower was in the way of the draw bar so I thought I'd give that a quick try before putting the effort into shortening the top link and raising the hydraulic blade on my blower (I only have 2 remotes and that's the one that I leave disconnected). Also, this time I walked around to the low side of the truck and realized he was grounded between the front and rear wheels and my chances were almost down to 0, if not worse.
Anyway, I put it in Low, clicked the 4X4 on, jumped on the diff. lock and set it somewhere north of 2800 RPM. Pulling backwards with all my might, I was able to raise his plow a few feet into the air and drop my RPMs down under 2000 before letting up a bit, giving a little slack on the chains and taking a bit of a run for it. I was NOT able to spin my wheels, and that surprised me, even on dry pavement (believe me, he had that road WELL salted for me by the time I got back), anybody know if you get as much power pulling backwards as you do forward? It didn't take me long to give up on it as it really was a lost cause. If I had tried before he sank the one side of the truck, I just may have been able to do it.
I'm fairly sure we looked more than a little silly, but that's OK, when you have 3 young kids, that's an exciting Friday night out.
Soooooo, what's the biggest thing you've been able to or not been able to pull out with your tractor?
Here's a pic of my set up to help show what I'm talking about with the blade in the way.
The snow plows often only does half the side road that my subdivision runs off, they go past our street, stop, back into our road and then go back the way they came doing the other side of the side road. There's really not much past our road, so it's a lower priority for them.
I was coming home from swimming on Friday night with the kids and it was freezing rain. The plow was out salting the side road, had gone past our road, stopped and backed up, missing our road by 30 ft and ending up in the ditch. With the giant plow in front, he had completely closed the side road. I stopped to talk to him and it really didn't look that bad and he was trying to dig the back wheels out. He told me he was fine, he'd be able to get out after a little digging. I had to get home with the kids, so I left him.
45 minutes later, I had to drive back to check on his progress. He was still there only now he'd almost rolled the truck. He said he had almost got it out by rocking it so I asked if he wanted me to try and pull him out with the tractor. Now, this is a tri-axle, fully loaded salt truck with a huge front plow and laser guided wing. I can only guess how much it weighed, but it was a lot more than my DK45 and blower. I thought maybe if he was close, I'd be the little nudge he needed to get out.
He was a young guy, said it was his first year plowing and he jumped at the chance to get the truck out of the ditch without having to call his boss. So after a quick trip home to get the tractor and chains, I hooked my two bucket hooks with a xhain on each to his front plow and was ready to try. Now I realize that's not the ideal way to do it, but my blower was in the way of the draw bar so I thought I'd give that a quick try before putting the effort into shortening the top link and raising the hydraulic blade on my blower (I only have 2 remotes and that's the one that I leave disconnected). Also, this time I walked around to the low side of the truck and realized he was grounded between the front and rear wheels and my chances were almost down to 0, if not worse.
Anyway, I put it in Low, clicked the 4X4 on, jumped on the diff. lock and set it somewhere north of 2800 RPM. Pulling backwards with all my might, I was able to raise his plow a few feet into the air and drop my RPMs down under 2000 before letting up a bit, giving a little slack on the chains and taking a bit of a run for it. I was NOT able to spin my wheels, and that surprised me, even on dry pavement (believe me, he had that road WELL salted for me by the time I got back), anybody know if you get as much power pulling backwards as you do forward? It didn't take me long to give up on it as it really was a lost cause. If I had tried before he sank the one side of the truck, I just may have been able to do it.
I'm fairly sure we looked more than a little silly, but that's OK, when you have 3 young kids, that's an exciting Friday night out.
Soooooo, what's the biggest thing you've been able to or not been able to pull out with your tractor?
Here's a pic of my set up to help show what I'm talking about with the blade in the way.