New tractor turfs or bars?

[hcarter62]

Hello everyone, First off I would like to thank everyone sharing thier opinions on this site. Your comments and suggestions have been instrumental in swaying me into puchasing a new 425. I would also like to give special thanks to Duane for letting me operate his pt 422. Today I sold my 1984 Kubota b7100 that I restored this past winter, and tommorrow (providing the check clears) I will be ordering the upgraded pt 425 with big and small buckets along with the forks.

The question I have is this, if you folks had a chance to do it over again would you get the turfs or the bar tires? I do not plan to mow with this machine but I will be using the loader on finished lawns so damage to them needs to be avoided.

I also have this implement design bouncing around in my head that I am going to take a 30'' diameter by 4' stainless steel roller, mount it to the quick attach, apply down pressure, and steer with the front wheels off the ground. This will allow me to compact the stone dust the I apply when installing synthetic putting greens. I may even use some kind of vibrotary tool in conjuntion with this implement. Anyway I am a little concerned that the back wheels may leave tread marks with the bars. Thanks everyone

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Howard:
I went to Power Trac intending to buy a 1430 with bar tires. I ended up with an 1845 with turfs. Terry Estep, at PT, recommended the turfs strongly. I now believe he was right.
In February, I plowed the 25" blizzardwith the turfs without chains. Hans Luginbuhl (Bubenberg) plows snow professionally with his 425 on turfs. John Coxon (Sedgewood) and I have compared notes, and his 1845 on bars seems to have little advantage in any use, but the bars are wearing out faster than my turfs. The turfs seemed a little flimsy to me, after experience with calcium filled larger tractor tires, but I have treated mine pretty roughly, with no flats.I did put Slime in early on.
I vote turfs.

 

[hcarter62]

Thanks Charlie, your comments have persuaded me to go with turfs. Also, as an added feature I save $100 bucks
Howard

 

[MossRoad]

I have turfs on my PT425. I do get some wheel slip on wet grass when using the FEL to dig. In snow they work great for plowing. And on the lawn they never leave a mark. Consider what type of soil are you primarily going to use it in and things like that. My land is primarily sand, so mud is rarely a problem, but I've operated in wet clay and didn't go very far. The turfs plugged up instantly and became useless. So, if I were going to use it primarily for excavating, I'd consider the bar tires over the turfs. Now I wish I had a set of each, so I could compare. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[hcarter62]

Thanks for the input M.R. It appears I will have plenty of time to think it over. Scott at Power Trac said it will two months before anymore will be available. FYI he said they are worth waiting for as opposed to buying a PT 422

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

<font color="red"> Scott at Power Trac said it will two months before anymore will be available. </font>

Boy, if the people on this board got commissions, that news would really irritate us. /forums/images/graemlins/mad.gif

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

<font color="red"> I also have this implement design bouncing around in my head that I am going to take a 30'' diameter by 4' stainless steel roller, mount it to the quick attach, apply down pressure, and steer with the front wheels off the ground. This will allow me to compact the stone dust the I apply when installing synthetic putting greens. I may even use some kind of vibrotary tool in conjuntion with this implement. </font>

Howard: When you get that assembly going, we definitely need pictures. I can't think of any reason why it wouldn't work great. The initial attachment sounds straightforward. The vibrating component will be the fun part. Hydraulic? Motor with unbalanced flywheel? small piledriver? Neat challenge.

 

[hcarter62]

Charlie, I already have the roller and I will try to take a picture of it this weekend. Like you said the tricky part will be using a hydrualic motor to get it vibrating. The project should make for some interesting dicussions.
Thanks

 

[davesisk]

Pictures would be a must! I was thinking about (in the fall) getting one of the 48" roller-type spike lawn aerators (since renting an aerator cost about $100 and buying one of these types is $200). They're designed to be filled with water and towed behind a lawn tractor, but hey...looks like I could rig it up to mount on the lift arms pretty easily. I was then thinking that I could pick up the front of the tractor on the roller and drive the roller around that way. I'm thinking this should work really well given the articulated steering!

Dave