ElBubba
Bronze Member
Hi,
I've been thinking about getting a 422/425/2425 for several months and am leaning very strongly towards getting a 425 after talking to Scott at power-trac and monitoring this forum.
I'd like to have a backhoe but this bumps me to the 2425 and with attachments and shipping, etc., we're looking at $20K which is just too much (wife needs a new car badly). The 422 might do but Scott says the motor torques are 50% greater on the 425 so for $2K extra I'm inclined to buy the 425.
The big problem I have is deciding on attachments so let me describe what needs to be done around the house. We have 5 acres of which about 1.5 is lawn. We've got a terrific garden tractor (Deere GT235) that will handle all the mowing chores so mowing attachments are not an issue. The rest of the property is mixed Virginia pine and hardwoods. About two acres are sloping behind the house at 20-40 degrees according to my inclinometer and look like the Dark Forest that Prince Charming had to hack through to get to Sleeping Beauty. It is an ugly tangle of vines, downed logs, hung up pines, 8-foot tall dead tree stubs ... you get the picture. Naturally this is the view outside the kitchen window and I'd like to clean up the mess along the top of the slope so that the view from the house doesn't scare small children. The rest of the land is pretty flat but needs work.
When Hurricane Isabel came through recently we got hit by a freak whirlwind that pancaked every tree in a 150x150 area and blew over all the larger Virginia Pines along a strip 150' wide running along the entire edge of the property. In fact it follewed the property line (staying on our side of course) better than a surveyor could have down leaving a mess that I worked off and on over several months. Finally I threw in the towel and paid a crew $5K to take out the root balls and to cut up the remaining downed trees into 16" chunks which my wife and I then split into about 15 cords of firewood. The crew hauled away 14 garbage truck loads - mostly root balls.
So now I've got an instant small meadow that I'd like to till and level nicely and use partly for a garden and partly as lawn (crocquet any one?). This area has no stumps but lots of roots and the ground is good old Virginia brick, aka clay.
The rest of the flat portion of the property has semi rotted pine stumps ranging up to three foot diameter. Mostly though there are at least 75 small "stumps" of 2"-6" that I want to get rid of so that I can mow around the trees and hopefully get a grassy covering to develop.
Another way to fill my days will be to gradually cut down the remaining pines that are clearly going to come down any ways over the next few years and to use them as firewood. As you might have guessed we bought a wood stove and will be heating the house with it most of the winter. This last year it worked out great but hauling a LOT of firewood around is in my few future for several years.
Some other miscellaneous tasks include:
*** Dig trench to run electric to new garage - about 100'.
*** Dig trench to run beefed up power to heat pumps for pool - about 50' running on a 20-30 degree slope.
*** Scoop out 20 years of sediment that has pretty much filled up drainage ditch along road. There is about 300-400' that is miserable muck. You can't even see the culvert under the driveway although I know it is there.
*** Dig up old mailbox on pole sunk in concrete that is in the middle of this ditch and replace it with a new one. I expect the mail lady would be very grateful not to have to drive through the Black Lagoon every afternoon for six months of the year.
*** Dig up and replace way too small drainage pipe that runs out of the pool shed. This is probably a good 20' long and buried about a foot down. Unfortunately it is in among a lot of trees and might not be accessible.
*** Dig up about 50-70' of chain link (poles in concrete) to replace with picket fence to match rest of yard.
*** Clear off about 1/8 acre of brush that I've HAND CLEARED FOR THREE YEARS and am really really tired of doing.
*** Dig 16 holes in the ground to put in berry vines in plastic half barrels. These would be about 2' deep and maybe 2' across.
*** Dig 15 holes about 1/2 cubic yard each to plant fruit and nut trees. I intend to mix in about 1/4 part sand and a couple cups of lime with the excavated dirt to make instant topsoil and to moderate the acidity (pH 4.5 tested by county).
*** Dig out under about 100' of chain link and then put back the dirt but with that black cloth-like covering that helps prevent weeds growing along the fence. I would also spread mulch/chips on top.
Shovel over 300' of driveway 2-6 times a year, never more than 8"-10" of snow.
I'm getting tired just listing this stuff...
My inclination is to get: brush cutter, stump cutter, snow blade with rubber edge, and mini-hoe.
After that it gets more difficult. Would a grapple bucket and maybe 10 cu ft light material bucket round off my needs? What about forks, tiller, 4-in-1 bucket or box blade. I certainly won't get all of these because of cost and fitting into garage. I'm mostly in a quandry over 4-in-1 bucket vs grapple bucket. Or how about 5 cu ft bucket with teeth?
This Sunday I'm going to see an owner about 30 minutes from here to try out his PT-425 and a few of his attachments; unfortunately he doesn't have several of the items I'd like to check out so I'm very interested in other owners opinions.
With bated breath...
I've been thinking about getting a 422/425/2425 for several months and am leaning very strongly towards getting a 425 after talking to Scott at power-trac and monitoring this forum.
I'd like to have a backhoe but this bumps me to the 2425 and with attachments and shipping, etc., we're looking at $20K which is just too much (wife needs a new car badly). The 422 might do but Scott says the motor torques are 50% greater on the 425 so for $2K extra I'm inclined to buy the 425.
The big problem I have is deciding on attachments so let me describe what needs to be done around the house. We have 5 acres of which about 1.5 is lawn. We've got a terrific garden tractor (Deere GT235) that will handle all the mowing chores so mowing attachments are not an issue. The rest of the property is mixed Virginia pine and hardwoods. About two acres are sloping behind the house at 20-40 degrees according to my inclinometer and look like the Dark Forest that Prince Charming had to hack through to get to Sleeping Beauty. It is an ugly tangle of vines, downed logs, hung up pines, 8-foot tall dead tree stubs ... you get the picture. Naturally this is the view outside the kitchen window and I'd like to clean up the mess along the top of the slope so that the view from the house doesn't scare small children. The rest of the land is pretty flat but needs work.
When Hurricane Isabel came through recently we got hit by a freak whirlwind that pancaked every tree in a 150x150 area and blew over all the larger Virginia Pines along a strip 150' wide running along the entire edge of the property. In fact it follewed the property line (staying on our side of course) better than a surveyor could have down leaving a mess that I worked off and on over several months. Finally I threw in the towel and paid a crew $5K to take out the root balls and to cut up the remaining downed trees into 16" chunks which my wife and I then split into about 15 cords of firewood. The crew hauled away 14 garbage truck loads - mostly root balls.
So now I've got an instant small meadow that I'd like to till and level nicely and use partly for a garden and partly as lawn (crocquet any one?). This area has no stumps but lots of roots and the ground is good old Virginia brick, aka clay.
The rest of the flat portion of the property has semi rotted pine stumps ranging up to three foot diameter. Mostly though there are at least 75 small "stumps" of 2"-6" that I want to get rid of so that I can mow around the trees and hopefully get a grassy covering to develop.
Another way to fill my days will be to gradually cut down the remaining pines that are clearly going to come down any ways over the next few years and to use them as firewood. As you might have guessed we bought a wood stove and will be heating the house with it most of the winter. This last year it worked out great but hauling a LOT of firewood around is in my few future for several years.
Some other miscellaneous tasks include:
*** Dig trench to run electric to new garage - about 100'.
*** Dig trench to run beefed up power to heat pumps for pool - about 50' running on a 20-30 degree slope.
*** Scoop out 20 years of sediment that has pretty much filled up drainage ditch along road. There is about 300-400' that is miserable muck. You can't even see the culvert under the driveway although I know it is there.
*** Dig up old mailbox on pole sunk in concrete that is in the middle of this ditch and replace it with a new one. I expect the mail lady would be very grateful not to have to drive through the Black Lagoon every afternoon for six months of the year.
*** Dig up and replace way too small drainage pipe that runs out of the pool shed. This is probably a good 20' long and buried about a foot down. Unfortunately it is in among a lot of trees and might not be accessible.
*** Dig up about 50-70' of chain link (poles in concrete) to replace with picket fence to match rest of yard.
*** Clear off about 1/8 acre of brush that I've HAND CLEARED FOR THREE YEARS and am really really tired of doing.
*** Dig 16 holes in the ground to put in berry vines in plastic half barrels. These would be about 2' deep and maybe 2' across.
*** Dig 15 holes about 1/2 cubic yard each to plant fruit and nut trees. I intend to mix in about 1/4 part sand and a couple cups of lime with the excavated dirt to make instant topsoil and to moderate the acidity (pH 4.5 tested by county).
*** Dig out under about 100' of chain link and then put back the dirt but with that black cloth-like covering that helps prevent weeds growing along the fence. I would also spread mulch/chips on top.
Shovel over 300' of driveway 2-6 times a year, never more than 8"-10" of snow.
I'm getting tired just listing this stuff...
My inclination is to get: brush cutter, stump cutter, snow blade with rubber edge, and mini-hoe.
After that it gets more difficult. Would a grapple bucket and maybe 10 cu ft light material bucket round off my needs? What about forks, tiller, 4-in-1 bucket or box blade. I certainly won't get all of these because of cost and fitting into garage. I'm mostly in a quandry over 4-in-1 bucket vs grapple bucket. Or how about 5 cu ft bucket with teeth?
This Sunday I'm going to see an owner about 30 minutes from here to try out his PT-425 and a few of his attachments; unfortunately he doesn't have several of the items I'd like to check out so I'm very interested in other owners opinions.
With bated breath...
