I made an Island

   / I made an Island #1  

samwood

New member
Joined
Apr 1, 2013
Messages
13
Location
Riner, VA
Tractor
LS 3033
Hello Everyone,

I have not posted before, but have been reading the forum since I bought my LS 3033 back in the spring. I bought the package deal with the backhoe. I finally had something I wanted to share. I hope as we keep getting new shoppers asking questions about the LS that they can see just what these puppies can do.

My neighbor is going to let me borrow his car trailer next weekend and while we were discussing the details he mentioned that he had put in a new culvert where the creek passes under the little road for him to cross over to the majority of is property. He asked if I could use the backhoe to clean up the edges around the little pond like area that he created by raising the culvert and leveling off the area. I said sure and as we were looking at it, I suggested that I could dig a trench so that the tree on the end would now have it's own island. He loves is acre pond that he created years ago and I figured he would like the idea. His wife has all ready told him that he is going to have to build her a hump bridge, now. :D

I want to also share my cautionary tale as well. I have taken my backhoe off several times to use my tiller and blade on other projects. In order to make this easier, I have removed the ties that it came with to hold the hydraulic hoses out of the way and use a bungee cord to hold them up. Well, in one of the pictures you can see where I did just the clean up around the edge and as I pulled out some brush/a small tree must of caught the hose and pulled some of the slack out of the bungee cord. This gave just enough room for the hose to be caught by my right rear tire, luckily I saw this happening and stopped. I fixed the hose and continued to on to dig out the island. After starting to dig and moving forward once, I lifted the backhoe feet to reposition again. I turned around and the front of the tractor was covered in hydraulic fluid. I shut it down and examined to find the problem. Well, at the very top of the control for the front loader is where the hose starts from and runs down and under your feet to go back to the backhoe. The back of the front loader control reminds me of like the break booster in older cars it has the cylinder sticking out the back. When I caught the hose, it wedged between the cylinder and the front loader brace. It took almost 30 minutes, but the metal where the hose connects wore a hole and was just spraying a mist of hydraulic fluid.

Here is where I would like to say how awesome the dealer were I bought my tractor was on Saturday. First they are open until 12 on Saturday and I called around 11:20. I asked if a busted hose is covered under the warranty and he said yeah, it's under a year old. (I did tell him how it happened) I like about 25 minutes away and he said if I could get it over to him, he would stay late to get me a new hose. It was easy to take off because it's just the one with the bolt at the very top and the quickly release at the bottom. I jumped in my car and ran over. I got there at 12 and stayed until 12:30 until the hose was fixed. While he worked on the hose for me, the sales guy I bought the tractor from was sitting there waiting. I need a pto generator because we have lost power 7 times this past year. I asked the sales guy if he could get me a price. With out missing a beat, he remembered my name and asked me what number to call me. I asked if he really remember my name from 5 months ago and he said sure, we sold three of those that weekend and remember the names of all three of us. Needless to say I felt reassured that I bought the right tractor from the right dealership. So anyone in the Southwestern portion of Virginia, I highly recommend Affordable Tractor in Dublin, VA. They are not a brand new John Deere dealership where everything is clean and perfect, but there old garage and shop are great. They even told me when I bought the tractor that if I came back to buy more equipment from them that they would give me a discount since I bought the tractor there. They want to keep repeat business.

Sorry for the long post, I like reading the forum and find that everyone asks for more detail, so I wanted to share. Here are the pictures.
 

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   / I made an Island #2  
Welcome, I am getting ready to buy my tractor, next month, and am getting the back-hoe also. how do you like it?
Thanks for the post. Bruce
 
   / I made an Island
  • Thread Starter
#3  
I like it a lot. I have used it to dig out stumps, the pond, and my wife even used it to move around some muck that we had cleaned out of our pond. I will be using it to level off a hill to a grade that we can cut it with the zero turn soon. I have discovered that running the RPM's around 1900 to 2k is best. If you set it higher then that, it is jerky because it wants to move faster. You get a more fluent movement by backing down the RPM's just a little and I haven't noticed any loss in power. It still has plenty of power for the size of the bucket. I have chopped/ pulled good sized roots. It may take a little more work then with a full size backhoe, but if you move a foot further down the root then it is pretty good.

FYI: I dealer told me that they are actually meant to run and do most things in the 1500 to 2000 RPM range and not at the lower idol or the upper max RPM range. He said it is actually harder on the engine to do most things at the lower range.
 
   / I made an Island #4  
I like it a lot. I have used it to dig out stumps, the pond, and my wife even used it to move around some muck that we had cleaned out of our pond. I will be using it to level off a hill to a grade that we can cut it with the zero turn soon. I have discovered that running the RPM's around 1900 to 2k is best. If you set it higher then that, it is jerky because it wants to move faster. You get a more fluent movement by backing down the RPM's just a little and I haven't noticed any loss in power. It still has plenty of power for the size of the bucket. I have chopped/ pulled good sized roots. It may take a little more work then with a full size backhoe, but if you move a foot further down the root then it is pretty good.

FYI: I dealer told me that they are actually meant to run and do most things in the 1500 to 2000 RPM range and not at the lower idol or the upper max RPM range. He said it is actually harder on the engine to do most things at the lower range.
I think you are doing right with the 2000 RPM. I wouldn't go much lower, maybe 1800 at minimum but like you said, at WOT the hoe gets jerky AND the engine noise gets much louder. I have a B26 Kubota and 2600 is WOT and the engine really screams and hoe isn't that much faster anyway but at 2000 it is smooth and engine noise it much better.
 
   / I made an Island #6  
What a great dealer. Service after the sale, must be a new concept most dealers(auto,tractor, etc) seem to have forgotten.
 
   / I made an Island #7  
:welcome: and that's excellent service you got.
 
   / I made an Island
  • Thread Starter
#8  
Thanks for the welcomes! I'll try to post a little more as I'm ready to start customizing my tractor. I bought a set of bigger wrenches, now I need a place to store them. I have seen what a lot of guys have done to put tool boxes on here, so I will use that and post my results.
 
 
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