texasjohn
Super Member
Spent all day yesterday and today cleaning out a dirt tank using FEL and a Soil Conservation rented 5 cu yard dirt buggy. I was on the edge of tractor capability and had to use every feature and trick to get the job done... let me count the ways:
1) Got "stuck" numerous times. When front wheels sank in tank muck, I used FEL to lift front wheels out of their pit and then curled it forward, assisting the rear wheels to back out of the problem. Happened about 20 times.
2) used 4 wheel drive all the time, clearly needed as all wheels frequently were spinning seeking traction, either because of wet slippery footing, or dirt buggy drag was too great.
3) with dirt buggy, I had to feather the depth of the blade up and down with the hydraulics to maintain forward motion.
4) with dirt buggy I ran 2600 RPM and it would still lug down in low range, requiring raising the buggy blade to shed some drag load. Tractor is 50ish HP, was able to do the job but clearly only with 4WD.
5) I filled FEL with dirt to give more weight on front axle for better traction with dirt buggy.
6) I had to use the lever that locks both rear wheels to turn together probably 50 times to get out of a spinning wheels situation.
7) The angle of the tank sides, uneven terrain, combined with heavy FEL load of wet clay turned the tractor into a 3 wheeler too frequently despite my careful and slow driving, even with about 1000 lbs on the rear of combined weights and box blade. Luckily, I have a habit of keeping the load low and hand on the FEL lever prepared to drop it. Had to drop it 5-10 times to regain stability.
8) Once I was super glad I had HST transmission... dirt buggy high centered on prior dirt load... tried to back up but all that happened was buggy tongue jack knifed and tractor rear shot off the ground... immediately getting off the HST pedal stopped the motion... not sure I could have hit a clutch quickly enough.
9) Lastly, I was in and out of the cab... so glad I had a cab, temp was 103. Cab kept it livable, out of dust, out of sun, held my soft side case for frozen water bottles, even captured my billfold that fell out of rear pant pocket
Without cab, I doubt I would have had any seat time at all
All in all, I pushed the limits, used all features and they kept me moving and I got the job done. I'm very happy with my tractor, it's regular and optional features that it has.
1) Got "stuck" numerous times. When front wheels sank in tank muck, I used FEL to lift front wheels out of their pit and then curled it forward, assisting the rear wheels to back out of the problem. Happened about 20 times.
2) used 4 wheel drive all the time, clearly needed as all wheels frequently were spinning seeking traction, either because of wet slippery footing, or dirt buggy drag was too great.
3) with dirt buggy, I had to feather the depth of the blade up and down with the hydraulics to maintain forward motion.
4) with dirt buggy I ran 2600 RPM and it would still lug down in low range, requiring raising the buggy blade to shed some drag load. Tractor is 50ish HP, was able to do the job but clearly only with 4WD.
5) I filled FEL with dirt to give more weight on front axle for better traction with dirt buggy.
6) I had to use the lever that locks both rear wheels to turn together probably 50 times to get out of a spinning wheels situation.
7) The angle of the tank sides, uneven terrain, combined with heavy FEL load of wet clay turned the tractor into a 3 wheeler too frequently despite my careful and slow driving, even with about 1000 lbs on the rear of combined weights and box blade. Luckily, I have a habit of keeping the load low and hand on the FEL lever prepared to drop it. Had to drop it 5-10 times to regain stability.
8) Once I was super glad I had HST transmission... dirt buggy high centered on prior dirt load... tried to back up but all that happened was buggy tongue jack knifed and tractor rear shot off the ground... immediately getting off the HST pedal stopped the motion... not sure I could have hit a clutch quickly enough.
9) Lastly, I was in and out of the cab... so glad I had a cab, temp was 103. Cab kept it livable, out of dust, out of sun, held my soft side case for frozen water bottles, even captured my billfold that fell out of rear pant pocket
Without cab, I doubt I would have had any seat time at allAll in all, I pushed the limits, used all features and they kept me moving and I got the job done. I'm very happy with my tractor, it's regular and optional features that it has.
