Yes, I'm running the large wheel motors from Surplus Center with 1430 wheel motor boxes. I just haven't followed up with the promised update.
It's a Billy Goat, and will go anywhere it will get traction. I'm running 26x12x12 ag lug tires, loaded with windshield washer fluid, and it's working well. It is SLOW however, going only about 1/2 the speed it did originally. But, that's plenty fast enough for these steep hillsides. I've been too busy using it, to provide reports about it...
To put it into perspective, some before and after pics, of what I mowed with the brush hog and then raked the debris off with the landscape rake. View of the overgrown field below the house, from the yard - before.
Alternate view, from the dining room deck:
What it looks like now (actually last fall), from the yard. Most of that brush pile actually came from the yard, where I cleared out sprouts/saplings and low branches off the shade trees.
I've "bush-hogged" about 4 acres or so with the Power Trac cutting hardwood brush up to about 1.5" and pines over 2"... then raked up the debris with the landscape rake.
I also pulled out a section of fence a few hundred yards long, that separated the yard from the field. It was overgrown with honeysuckle vines, and a cedar tree had blown down across it. Removing it made it much easier (and safer) to go up and down those slopes.
View from the back yard, looking down into the hollow, before...
Similar view now. There's two piles of old tree trunks and stumps that run vertically up the hillside, where the field was initially cleared with a bulldozer, I'm guessing. I can't mow in there, and am contemplating just leaving them alone.
The driveway/parking area, before, as you approach the house, initially:
And now. I've spread 5 dump truck loads of fill dirt, levelling a spot (with retaining walls) to put a carport, and a better area to turn around.
I've transplanted ornamental grass and yucca plants as visual borders and "guard rails" around the parking areas on both sides. Now I just need to get another load of gravel delivered and spread.
Note the overgrown flower bed below the deck a couple pictures above. Here's what it looks like now, with the grasses and yucca moved out, and reseeded in grass.
A couple of "superflous" decks on the lower level, where the previous owners had a small above-ground pool. There were simply too many decks/porches to try to keep maintained, and I won't be having a pool...
Those two lower levels have now been removed, leaving the large 20x30 deck above. Here it is prior to final seed prep last fall:
As you can see, I've been giving it a workout. My only caution with those large wheel motors -- it actually generates more wheel motor torque than the design spec for the PT-425. I bent the QA plate on the lift arms - TWICE -- until I finally learned that I need to use common sense, and not test the the limits of what it will pull or push...
