Trebor
New member
I arranged with Scott at Powertrac for my PT425 to be delivered by private carrier. I said to Scott it sure would be nice to have it Thursday morning because it will be the first time I could arrange to be home to receive the tractor, as well as, my first opportunity in quite a while to get out and work on the property.
Sure enough, 7:00am Thursday morning, halfway through my first cup of coffee, it arrives. An older gentleman named Charles with a Ford 250 and large landscape trailer pulls up to my house. Charles had driven 14 hours non-stop from Tazewell to N.E. Mass. (and was immediately driving non-stop back there – amazing).
My first impression was that it was built even better and more rugged than I could tell from the pictures. Everyone was right! – It is a tank!
Well we fired it up (barely started –low battery syndrome) and removed the PT. We stopped the engine to unpack the pallet and of course when we tried to restart there wasn’t enough charge. Charles who usually carries a booster pack, had forgotten too bring it and I couldn’t find my jumper cables. So we started to scratch heads (and in my case-waiting for the caffeine to hit to think clearly). We tried it again and fortunately it started. However, we now were faced with next to no gas in the tank and attachments to remove. I jumped in my truck to get some (thinking why didn’t I fill the can last night) and Charles unloaded the attachments. Of course when I returned he had run out of gas (attachments fortunately unloaded). Filled her up with the hood open (no spill) and tried to restart but no juice. Charles had to leave at this point and drive back non-stop because he had another delivery for Powertrac on Friday.
I removed the battery and took it to the local gas station to put a full charge on it. At 11:30, picked up the battery, installed and fired up the tractor. After, 20 minutes of running the engine, lots of smoke from the mufflers' insulation. Called Terry who assured me its normal and will shortly stop. It did and now I’m ready to attach my 4in1 and get to work. Can’t get the two female couplers to join the large male and female coupler. Called Terry! He informed me politely that you need to remove the quick attach lines and use those (not the PTO lines – duh! Had I only had time to go to Tazewell)?
Anyway, starting to get the hang of things. About noon I finally got to work and spent about 2.5hours on the PT425 working, attaching implements, digging and ripping out brush.
This tractor is truly amazing. The power of the hydraulics, the ease of the quick attach, and the maneuverability are impressive. This was definitely the right choice for me.
P.S. My wife was dead set against me buying a tractor. She thought it was an absolute waste of money and that I would never spend enough time to justify its’ cost. Then I started working cleaning, ripping, etc. I could see a change coming over her. It was near dinnertime when I attached the rake and started pulling out years of collected leaves from one side of the house that she actually came over and kissed the PT425. I think she now likes it. She even remarked that it was cute and kind of looked like a bullfrog. Anyway, I think my standing has improved considerably.
Hope to send some pictures next week (have to leave town for a few days).
Thanks to all of you PTers for all of your help on this forum.
Regards,
Trebor
Sure enough, 7:00am Thursday morning, halfway through my first cup of coffee, it arrives. An older gentleman named Charles with a Ford 250 and large landscape trailer pulls up to my house. Charles had driven 14 hours non-stop from Tazewell to N.E. Mass. (and was immediately driving non-stop back there – amazing).
My first impression was that it was built even better and more rugged than I could tell from the pictures. Everyone was right! – It is a tank!
Well we fired it up (barely started –low battery syndrome) and removed the PT. We stopped the engine to unpack the pallet and of course when we tried to restart there wasn’t enough charge. Charles who usually carries a booster pack, had forgotten too bring it and I couldn’t find my jumper cables. So we started to scratch heads (and in my case-waiting for the caffeine to hit to think clearly). We tried it again and fortunately it started. However, we now were faced with next to no gas in the tank and attachments to remove. I jumped in my truck to get some (thinking why didn’t I fill the can last night) and Charles unloaded the attachments. Of course when I returned he had run out of gas (attachments fortunately unloaded). Filled her up with the hood open (no spill) and tried to restart but no juice. Charles had to leave at this point and drive back non-stop because he had another delivery for Powertrac on Friday.
I removed the battery and took it to the local gas station to put a full charge on it. At 11:30, picked up the battery, installed and fired up the tractor. After, 20 minutes of running the engine, lots of smoke from the mufflers' insulation. Called Terry who assured me its normal and will shortly stop. It did and now I’m ready to attach my 4in1 and get to work. Can’t get the two female couplers to join the large male and female coupler. Called Terry! He informed me politely that you need to remove the quick attach lines and use those (not the PTO lines – duh! Had I only had time to go to Tazewell)?
Anyway, starting to get the hang of things. About noon I finally got to work and spent about 2.5hours on the PT425 working, attaching implements, digging and ripping out brush.
This tractor is truly amazing. The power of the hydraulics, the ease of the quick attach, and the maneuverability are impressive. This was definitely the right choice for me.
P.S. My wife was dead set against me buying a tractor. She thought it was an absolute waste of money and that I would never spend enough time to justify its’ cost. Then I started working cleaning, ripping, etc. I could see a change coming over her. It was near dinnertime when I attached the rake and started pulling out years of collected leaves from one side of the house that she actually came over and kissed the PT425. I think she now likes it. She even remarked that it was cute and kind of looked like a bullfrog. Anyway, I think my standing has improved considerably.
Hope to send some pictures next week (have to leave town for a few days).
Thanks to all of you PTers for all of your help on this forum.
Regards,
Trebor
