Time to Sell Tractor?

   / Time to Sell Tractor? #1  

5thGenTexan

Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2012
Messages
48
Location
Van Alstyne, Texas
Tractor
Kubota Grand L3130
I have a Kubota Grand L3130 that I purchased just about a year ago. I am about fed up with it and I am sure its my fault.

In that time I have yet to find a situation where the FEL is of any use to me. I either stall when using it or get about two shovel loads in it. Never anything in between.

I have a slope that according to the "offroad info"on my Ford f-150 is about a 3 degree slope. It gives me the willies anytime I am driving across it.

I have rough ground that I mentioned in another thread that shakes me to death when I try to mow.


I am thinking when the house is finished and we can move it, I just bite the bullet and pay someone to get everything smoothed out and get grass growing. I sell the dang tractor and get a riding lawnmower to keep the grass short. If anything else comes on I will just need to find someone with a tractor to come in and fix it.

Seem reasonable? Is it possible that someone is just too stupid to operate a tractor and make any progress with it?:mad:
 
   / Time to Sell Tractor? #2  
I would venture to guess most are issues that could be sorted out with some changes in how your machine is setup, some patience, and some assistance from some experienced operators.

I'd say patience would be the primary key to your problems. A person 'too stupid to operate a tractor and make any progress with it' would have broken the tractor in two within about a year and would not have been able to phrase a post of discontent with such clarity...

If it is time to sell, really only you can answer. I can say with some certainty though, if you do sell it isn't due to an inability of the machine as much as it is a limitation of the current setup of the machine.

Try giving us some other details about specific issues and we'll try and help you tackle some of them. For instance; the FEL stalling or not getting good fills. First the FEL is made to move loose material, not dig in settled soil. If dealing with settled soil use a backhoe or boxblade with scarifiers set deep to break up the ground to scoop with the FEL. All these operations should be done in low range. When putting the FEL into a pile for a scoop, start with the bottom of the bucket flat and at ground level. As the machine starts to "grunt" when pushing into the pile, ease off the HST pedal (the less you push the HST, the more torque you have going to the wheels) and slowly start curling the bucket. Once curled, continue pulling forward slowly as you lift, lifting the bucket up and over your pile so any extra coming out of the bucket stays on the pile. The timing of all these tasks takes practice, but it's not much more difficult than learning to ride a bike as a kid; the more you do it the better you get at it.

Another key to getting a good load, is to work from a good sized pile. Getting a bucket sized load from a bucket sized pile is impossible...
 
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   / Time to Sell Tractor? #3  
I have a new construction house and needed to clear land of trees, bushes, blackberry patches then plant a lawn. My choice was hire someone with big equipment to do it for me or buy a B2920 tractor and do it myself. Its debatable which would have been less expensive and there have been days I second thought buying the tractor. But overall I think the tractor was the way to go. I progress at my pace with total freedom to re-think landscaping ideas on the fly. I can't imagine paying a landscaping company $15k to $20k when I really didn't know what I wanted to do with the property beyond clearing it.

I use my B2920 FEL a LOT but I have a mean nasty tooth bar on my FEL with teeth like a backhoe. Plunge into the blackberry patch, down comes the FEL teeth first, lift the front end off the ground, shift into low range and drag anything unlucky enough to be in its path backwards into a pile of hurt! The tooth bar drug backwards is also great for clearing roots, breaking up the first 5 inches of soil, and general shaping, filling, landscaping its like having a giant 29HP diesel rake. Moving forward with the bucket curled upward slightly its pretty good at pushing piles of brush, the trick is to not dig in but keep it low enough to scrap it clean, the teeth on the tooth bar act like mini skids for this as the bottoms are probably 2 inches below the FEL bucket lip.

Bulldozing brush forward into burn piles, I wish I could grab hold of stuff with the FEL sometimes with a thumb but I manage to bull doze the stuff into piles without too much effort. Now digging in the ground with the FEL, that's pretty much not happening without the tooth bar, the bucket with out the tooth bar is great for moving piles of dirt, sand, gravel, bark dust from point A to point B but it just won't dig my clay soil without the tooth bar. Even then I limit this type of forward digging because its not that great at it. I have a backhoe for digging though so that's not a problem.

I had multiple trucks of top soil dropped off and the FEL was great for spreading that around. Same for bark dust, red lava rock and sand. I built several raised bed planters and moved them out of the garage to the back yard with the FEL, it has become my mobile crane for all sorts of heavy lifting tasks. Used it to lift a 500lb 3pt tiller onto a mobile stand today in fact.

I have to say the one implement I could not live without would be the FEL.
 
   / Time to Sell Tractor? #4  
First, tractors are not for everybody. :( Sad but true. Moving on. I've learned a lot over 10 years and 16 Kubota purchases while trying to landscape and mow my 2 different locations. One location is flat rental residential property and the other is my hillside, gullied, treed, limestone growths home property. I've had the smallest BX (BX1500) most of the in between BXs and Bs and up to a L3240. Currently have 4 Kubotas and think I've found the right combo for my current needs. The L3240 come and went pretty quick since I was afraid to use it on my hillside property with the seat so far from the ground. I have laid one tractor (BX25) on its side which has put a extra drop of fear in to me. The BX1500 MMM (no FEL) was the safest feeling mower of the tractors before finding the Kubota F models which are the tops of all for mowing stability and speed and comfort.
I have done a lot of my own landscaping myself over the 10 years and I've also paid other people a few times to do the jobs that they can do with the proper construction equipment in an hour what would take me days to do with a tractor. Also some of the work on the steep hillsides that was totally unsafe for a tractor but not for a track/tired loader I've paid to have done.
I have a good bunch of rough yard that I bounce over every time I mow that I wish I'd leveled out years ago. Should have boxbladed it then tilled it and seeded it but I didn't and sold boxblade and tiller so probably won't ever, well maybe one day I'll get tired enough of it and fix it.
I've also done the back dragging of the FEL bucket as previously mentioned in a previous post and never destroyed my FEL arms as is supposed to happen when you do that so that's a "Let the operator that does that beware". I have even rarely stood the front end up off the ground as mentioned but probably wouldn't do that anymore knowing what stresses it puts on parts not made to withstand those amounts of pressure.
These are tractors that many people want to use as bulldozers (I have) but be prepared to pay for the repair bills if you do. I used to leave my MMM on my first tractor (BX2200, MMM FEL) and use the edge of the deck to level out dirt piles that I missed with the front bucket and usually backing up with edge of lower edge of the front bucket scraping the ground which I'd be more careful doing the same thing now, not saying I wouldn't still do it but I might look at the ground area a bit closer now than I used to.
It takes time, effort, education (hands on/reading TBN) and some money to learn how to use a tractor to it's full extent but once having done so most, not all, people keep them and maybe even buy more or buy a different one. Yes, some jobs should be contracted out and the jobs suitably for a tractor can be done by you with your tractor and with a sense of accomplishment. Some people may turn the key and be master tractor operators but I don't think so no more than most people can't fly (and land) a plane if someone will start it for them.
 
   / Time to Sell Tractor? #5  
As JOHNTHOMAS said, tractors simply aren't for everyone. It has nothing to do with intelligence, my uncle was one of the smartest men I have ever known, but after he bought a farm and tractor the tractor just sat and he rented the farm out. Some of us are oriented to this stuff and enjoy the challenge of operating a machine and some aren't. Nothing wrong with just deciding it's not for you and hiring someone else to do the work and it can even be cheaper.
 
   / Time to Sell Tractor? #6  
As JOHNTHOMAS said, tractors simply aren't for everyone. It has nothing to do with intelligence, my uncle was one of the smartest men I have ever known, but after he bought a farm and tractor the tractor just sat and he rented the farm out. Some of us are oriented to this stuff and enjoy the challenge of operating a machine and some aren't. Nothing wrong with just deciding it's not for you and hiring someone else to do the work and it can even be cheaper.

I have to agree with this wholeheartedly. Some folks just cant operate machinery. It has nothing to do with intelligence as I have seen some pretty dumb people that could operate machines like backhoes, cranes etc with perfection.
For instance, getting a full load of dirt with your FEL requires full articulation of the bucket starting with it just slightly down from flat so that it digs in just a bit (too much down angle and it will dig in too much and stall your tractor while not enough and you wont pick up any dirt) and this takes a lot of practice. Some times a ground person to direct the angle will help you to visualize what it should look like. I would think that your Grand L should have a bucket angle gauge on it. These can be a rod that has a little bent V in it so that when the V sets in center of the guide it is level or sometime is a solid rod that runs through a pipe so that when the bucket is level the rod is flush with the end of the pipe. You need to watch this guide when loading to determine where it is located when you get the angle just right for digging.
As said, FEL's aren't the best for digging in hard dirt and without a tooth bar on them, most CUT's wont dig much at all in hard dirt. A box blade with scarifiers is best for loosening the soil first so you can scoop it up with your FEL. Use them in tandem to pick up and move with the FEL and drag a load with the box blade if you are cutting down a hill for instance.

Smaller tractors seem be easier to judge the angles needed for working better than larger one for newbies to tractor operations and they feel safer on hills than larger tractors. A 3 degree slope shouldn't feel unsafe on any size tractor, but some folks get a larger pucker factor than others when ground is not completely level. My wife is one of those folks and she thinks a 3-5 degree slope on a lawnmower is scary whereas I can mow a 20-30 degree slope without fear.

I think a little coaching from someone proficient with tractor operation and FEL work would help you a lot. If you know of someone, just ask them to help you by ground coaching a bit to show you the angles needed. Unfortunately this isn't going to help much for the fear of slopes. This is only conquered by successful operation of hours on slopes to gain some confidence as to what the tractor is capable of.

If you haven't gained this confidence after a year of ownership, assuming you have put some hours on the tractor say 100 or more, then perhaps tractor ownership is not for you and hiring someone to do your needed tractor work might be in your best interest and maybe trading in your tractor for a good zero turn lawnmower might be best.
 
   / Time to Sell Tractor? #7  
Love my L3130 - it's been a real workhorse. I realize that's not what you asked about, but our L3130 does fine with the FEL. It can be a bit rough/bumpy going across the pasture, but you'd find this to be the case no matter what the tractor. Ruts and holes and rough patches are going to be there until you use the tractor to smooth things out or hire someone to come in and do the job for you. I had great success using a box blade in certain parts of the pasture - made a nice road/trail that was as smooth as could be - but I'd hate to have to do the whole pasture in that fashion. As for tipping over - I've got some steep hills and trellisis on our property and it can be a bit un-nerving, but after you travel across them a few times you begin to get a feel of what's too much and what's ok. Just takes time...
 
   / Time to Sell Tractor?
  • Thread Starter
#8  
I'll try to answer a few questions...

I have no HST. I have the shuttle shift transmission.

I have no angle indicator.

I think I may just have some frustration. I have had this tractor over a year, but I do not yet live where the tractor is. We are building a house on 10 acres and the tractor stays in my metal building there. I don't even get there every weekend. Maybe a Sat or Sun once or twice a month. I bought it from a guy that buys used equipment and spruces it up a bit and resells. They dropped it off and left. I pretty much got on and started trying to do stuff.

I recently had to have a new clutch. I am not sure it was in good shape when I got it, but I probably sent it over the edge. Its ALOT different now than we I got it last year.
 
   / Time to Sell Tractor? #9  
I pretty much got on and started trying to do stuff.

When I got my first tractor, I also knew little about how to properly use it, and I knew
noone who could show me. I made a bunch of mistakes.

Now we have forums like TBN where lots of folks volunteer to help.

Just a couple of things off the bat: you always have to have ballast on the 3-pt
hitch when operating the loader. Your owner's manual usually says you should not even
INSTALL the FEL without ballast. I did not get an OM with my first tractor. :-(

You almost always want to be in the lowest gear range when using the FEL. Higher
range than that and you can stall the engine, or burn the clutch. A properly-
driven tractor's clutch should last 1000s of hours.

For stability, you want to widen your rear wheel track to the widest setting, if you
have AG tires. Stay in 4WD all the time, unless you have pavement. You have
no front brakes.

Don't give up. The L3130 is a great tractor.
 
   / Time to Sell Tractor? #10  
For stability, you want to widen your rear wheel track to the widest setting, if you
have AG tires.

I'm not disagreeing with this, just want clarification. If you had R4's you *shouldn't* widen it? Or even if you widen it with R4's it wouldn't help? This advice doesn't just apply to R1's. In my opinion, I would have just left off the ", if...."
 
 
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