SnagDump
Member
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2019
- Messages
- 40
- Location
- Meadows Valley, ID
- Tractor
- Ventrac 4500Z, Bobcat S185 Skid Steer
I had a Kolpin three point hitch (cat 0) on my ATV and had a cultivator and a landscape rake for it. I don't do a lot of cultivation or rake work so I decided to try to adapt those attachments to my new (to me) Ventrac 4500Z. Cat 1 cultivators and rakes are a bit big for what I'm doing which is trying to replace patches of invasive annual grasses (cheatgrass, japanese brome, ventenata) in between trees with native or at least more desirable perennial grasses, or establish grass in bare spots.
The cultivator teeth mounted to a 2" square tube toolbar in the Kolpin setup but I couldn't really re-use the toolbar since it's a cat 0 and the Ventrac is a cat 1 and I didn't want to modify it because I'm hoping to sell the Kolpin 3 point ATV hitch. So, I had a toolbar built. The horizontal toolbar is 2 x 2 x 3/16" steel tube and the vertical is 2.5 x 2.5 x 3/16 so it could be cut to fit the top link and for one face to go over the horizontal tube to make welding a bit easier. The cultivator teeth just clamp onto the toolbar and tighten down with bolts just like they did on the Kolpin toolbar.
I've only done a short test run with it but looks like it will work really well. The Kolpin setup was electric/hydraulic and ran off the ATV 12V supply. It had an adjustable top link but that isn't powered. The vertical travel was run by a single cylinder and it was painfully slow. Our timberland ground here in central Idaho is uneven (wow understatement
) so keeping the cultivator teeth in the ground with the slow cylinder was torture. The much quicker Ventrac hitch and hydraulic top link are going to be a huge improvement.
Adapting the Kolpin landscape rake was easier as its mount was just a 2.5" square tube. I put a piece of 2" square tube into the 3n1 adapter on the Ventrac and slipped the rake mount tube over it and I was in business. That is until I backed into a tree while mowing and bent the rake pretty badly. So it's off to the welding shop to see if can be straightened and reinforced.
The cultivator teeth mounted to a 2" square tube toolbar in the Kolpin setup but I couldn't really re-use the toolbar since it's a cat 0 and the Ventrac is a cat 1 and I didn't want to modify it because I'm hoping to sell the Kolpin 3 point ATV hitch. So, I had a toolbar built. The horizontal toolbar is 2 x 2 x 3/16" steel tube and the vertical is 2.5 x 2.5 x 3/16 so it could be cut to fit the top link and for one face to go over the horizontal tube to make welding a bit easier. The cultivator teeth just clamp onto the toolbar and tighten down with bolts just like they did on the Kolpin toolbar.
I've only done a short test run with it but looks like it will work really well. The Kolpin setup was electric/hydraulic and ran off the ATV 12V supply. It had an adjustable top link but that isn't powered. The vertical travel was run by a single cylinder and it was painfully slow. Our timberland ground here in central Idaho is uneven (wow understatement
) so keeping the cultivator teeth in the ground with the slow cylinder was torture. The much quicker Ventrac hitch and hydraulic top link are going to be a huge improvement.Adapting the Kolpin landscape rake was easier as its mount was just a 2.5" square tube. I put a piece of 2" square tube into the 3n1 adapter on the Ventrac and slipped the rake mount tube over it and I was in business. That is until I backed into a tree while mowing and bent the rake pretty badly. So it's off to the welding shop to see if can be straightened and reinforced.