ctgoldwing
Platinum Member
I recently gave in & picked up a lightweight (1500 lbs) set of Bradco forks. There have been several times this year when they would have been handy to have but the tipping point was reached when I had to attend to the 'tree'.
The 'tree' is the trunk remains of a monster oak I took down when we built our house in '86. At the time I had a small Kubota tlb (17hp? B8200?) and all I could do with the tree after trimming the branches off was to push/roll it to the edge of the woods. When I took it down the base had to be a good 30" in diameter.
Time rolls on. Now I have the L3400 and have cleared all the brush / small trees from about 1/2 acre of the woods. Great area for the dogs & with the lights I installed it really looks great at night. But. . . now we have (had) this slowly decaying trunk just laying there. Before it was a nice boundry, now it looked stupid.
Although I admit I tried to pick up the entire trunk at first :laughing: it was real obvious this mother weighed more than my lil machine was capable of.
I moved to the skinny end (about 15") and lifted it enough to get it off the ground high enough to use the chainsaw to cut off an 8' length. Then loaded the 'log' onto the forks & deposited it well into the woods. Repeat 7 times. Although the last piece was only about 6' long and had decayed to about 24" it unloaded the rear wheels quite a bit and if it wasn't for 4wd I could never have moved it.
Oh yeah, I'll never have a loader without quick attach
The 'tree' is the trunk remains of a monster oak I took down when we built our house in '86. At the time I had a small Kubota tlb (17hp? B8200?) and all I could do with the tree after trimming the branches off was to push/roll it to the edge of the woods. When I took it down the base had to be a good 30" in diameter.
Time rolls on. Now I have the L3400 and have cleared all the brush / small trees from about 1/2 acre of the woods. Great area for the dogs & with the lights I installed it really looks great at night. But. . . now we have (had) this slowly decaying trunk just laying there. Before it was a nice boundry, now it looked stupid.
Although I admit I tried to pick up the entire trunk at first :laughing: it was real obvious this mother weighed more than my lil machine was capable of.
I moved to the skinny end (about 15") and lifted it enough to get it off the ground high enough to use the chainsaw to cut off an 8' length. Then loaded the 'log' onto the forks & deposited it well into the woods. Repeat 7 times. Although the last piece was only about 6' long and had decayed to about 24" it unloaded the rear wheels quite a bit and if it wasn't for 4wd I could never have moved it.
Oh yeah, I'll never have a loader without quick attach
