Tractor modifications

[Taylortractornut]

Don, I agree about the computers and plastics on a tractor. I like a steel hood myself as for the them rusting they usually last longer, Ive never run many machines with a plastic hood, and ive had other operators bend the steel hoods but they didnt give a rip about the machinery. Computers dont react well to ecessive heat ,dust, vibration,accidental gouging and such as on a good hard used tractor. Alot of excavators use computers but they arent jarred as bad as other machines.
One thing You could to to protct the tractor is to have a spill guard like a wheeled/tracked loader has to hold rocks back. One thing that worries me is the mass above and how a rock tends to roll or bounce down loader arms. One thing if you dont mind me asking is can you get the tractor on top of the cliff, if you can then use the hoe to dig down as far as you can with it and just let the material fall as you scrape it off and dump it then drive the tractor back down and use the loader to load the loose stuff then you can use the hoe to rake the remaining bench down. I had a good friend break his back on a hill like yours digging it out with a full sixed hoe, it just takes one 50 pound rock from that height.

 

[grandad]

That's quite a reach for your loader! No wonder some of the loose stuff pops down when you are digging up there. If you are really into doing it with your tractor, bringing in a couple truckloads of clean fill could give you about a 2-3 ft ramp to work from so you aren't right at the limit for the loader. Of course you'd have to move the dirt ramp as you worked your way along the bank. Overall, it would probably be a lot quicker to bring an excavator in for 1-2 days to knock the thing down.

 

[jinman]

After seeing your picture, I'm certain your 4700 is not the tool of choice, but rather the tool of opportunity. I have some areas on my property that are very similar to yours, maybe even higher. I just refuse to use my tractor in that situation because I know I would destroy it. It's a hard decision, and I'm trying to be more sympathetic than judgemental, but I think that rock through your hood is a warning of things to come. You probably need a full reinforced cage around your operator's platform. Ultimately you have to make the decision on the amount of risk.

Now about your tractor... Is that plastic or fiberglas? The hood and fenders on my New Holland are fiberglas. I got a limb between my rear tire and fender and it made a 1/2" (marble sized) break along one edge and I can clearly see the fender's innards are fiberglas. Considering that the Chevrolet Corvette has used fiberglas since 1954, I think fiberglas has shown itself to be long-lived when exposed to the elements. I am very happy for the fiberglas in my tractor and I love computers too. Where would air travel, manufacturing, and communications be without computers? Anything can be abused. It's not the object, but the person in control of it that makes it good or evil. ...okay, I'll quit lecturing. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[markct]

yea the corvette was plastic since the 50s but how often do ya see a corvette in a gravel pit or bouncing around a logging road and getting sticks jammed into the wheelwells. i am sure that if henry ford had a fiberglass hood on his 8Ns that there would be alot fewer of them around now, once the hood fell apart and the tractor sat out for a few years everything on the engine wouldnt be protected and would soon get messed up too. the beauty of those early tractors is that most everything, even the seat, was metal, so the only thing that was plastic and went bad over 50 years or so was the wiring which was relatively easy to replace.

 

[DK35vince]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( yea the corvette was plastic since the 50s but how often do ya see a corvette in a gravel pit or bouncing around a logging road and getting sticks jammed into the wheelwells. )</font>

You may not see Corvettes on logging roads. But you do see log trucks on logging roads .Nearly all have fiberglass hoods.
Many gravel pit trucks use fiberglass hoods and body panels and they hold up very well under rough conditions.
Most over the road trucks that can see millions of miles over their lifetime running fiberglass hoods and body panels.

 

[billfires]

Don, is it possible to work from above with the BH? I have a small gravel pit and have had good luck removing vegetation/subsoil first and then loosening the gravel and using the BH to push material over the edge. Bill C

 

[fivestring]

<font color="blue">"I spent 30 years designing computers. For the first 20 years they were used for good things but in the last 10-15 years they have become too powerful and pervasive. After I saw what the government was doing with the supercomputers we designed I have learned to fear them. As for the good they have done just try to buy something when the store's computer is down. The real threat is total loss of freedom and privacy - something that our citizens seem to be more than willing to give up.
I did not say I was a computer hater. I just think the world would have been a lot better off in the long run if they did not exist." </font>

Don, that's beautiful. It almost makes me cry.

I agree about the excessive dependency on computers.
Just go to any McDonalds, Hardee's, etc. and order something that doesn't have it's own button. Geez....
We have officers that can not function when the computers go down. They don't know what a hand-written report is!

On the flip-side...
Without computers, we wouldn't have TBN. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif

 

[fishman]

Centex,

Glad to hear you got your perimeter secured.

As for the phd I got from you it works great in most areas around my place. The only thing it won't do, as you well know, is go through bedrock. It does shear pins quite often in gravel soil, and anything bigger than the space between the flutes is pretty much a no-go. All in all I'm pretty happy with it.

A funny story about that, though. I used it to fence around my two garden areas. Checked the map for water line easements and something didn't quite match up, because the water meter was in a different place than they showed. Oh, well, started my first hole with my new digger and promptly hit my water main at 2'. It wouldn't have been so bad, but my in-laws were there and the video tape was rolling to capture this momentous event. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

No big deal as the line was pvc. Fixed the line after running to the store and then set the posts.

However, I can't help but notice that your plastic hood was broken by a rock whereas my plastic water line was broken after drilling through rocks with a phd I bought from you. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

(Fade to black with Twilight Zone theme playing softly in background) /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[Hambone]

<font color="red"> With metal I could just drag out the body tools and with a little (realy a lot) of work I could have back to like new. </font>

To me time is money. Downtime is worth something, is it not?
With the time and materials to make your metal hood look new again, I am sure it would have cost more than the $210.
$210 and about an hour, you are up and running with a new hood. No paint to buy, no sanding, priming, sanding, painting, reinstall ect...

 

[5string]

When or if you order your new hood, do not forget to order the applicable decals as well. I ordered a new hood for a JD garden tractor and was surprised when I pulled it out of the box.