My new L3800 has arrived.

[k0ua]

Thanks for the compliments, fellas!
That's my lovely daughter, the science teacher.

The day I met her fiance-to-be, a friend and I were cleaning shotguns at the kitchen table. Right outside the window was the ol' L2800, complete with backhoe.

The kid was speechless at the door for a whole 10 seconds. My, was he a polite young man!

Oh that is a good one:laughing:..All you needed to complete the episode was a lie detector machine to hook him up to.

James K0UA

 

[Chilly807]

Oh that is a good one:laughing:..All you needed to complete the episode was a lie detector machine to hook him up to.

James K0UA

In all truth, you don't even need the lie detector, just tell him "If'n I's even think yer lyin' to me, boy, we'uns'll bury ya deep, if'n yer lucky we'll shoot ya first"

 

[familyman]

In all truth, you don't even need the lie detector, just tell him "If'n I's even think yer lyin' to me, boy, we'uns'll bury ya deep, if'n yer lucky we'll shoot ya first"

As it is, the guy hardly makes eye contact with me. I'm not even a little bit liberal and all these colleges brainwash the kids with impractical nonsense, so he and I have almost nothing in common.

Except my daughter, which means I have to play nice.

Besides, he is a good person and one who works hard. She wouldn't have chosen him otherwise.

Well, I'm headed out to check the oil and do a bit of tractoring. Feels good to have this machine working for me.

 

[crazyangel]

congrats on the new machine!

 

[CompactTractorFan]

Nice tractor! Congrats! Glad the hitch is not one of the really bad ones...

I was wondering, why the switch to turf's from R4's?

 

[k0ua]

Familyman, well you have some hours on it now, what do you think?

James K0UA

 

[familyman]

Thanks again!

The filled R4's on my L2800 were not too bad, but not too good, for my uses. No matter the moisture content of the soil, they always made some impression on my lawn. I was hoping that the turfs would spread the load out a little better and they do. The grass is a little flat in a few places that I criss-cross a lot, but no impressions in the dirt. They also ride much better, though the suspended seat helps too. I'm curious how good or bad they will be in mud and snow; I'm guessing mud will be bad, snow will be good.

I'm super pleased by the traction in my current conditions also; I didn't know what to expect, but in dry/damp earth these tires hook up surprisingly well. Good enough the pull my 6' boxblade in loose conditions. Must be the denser footprint.

As for the rest of the machine, where do I begin? I realize that the chassis isn't different than my L2800, yet everything FEELS different, in a good way.

The HST is freakin' great. Directional changes just happen; no more having to shift, play with gear selection, teasing the clutch, etc. The shuttle on my L2800 would often stick just enough that I had to either tease the clutch or let off the brake to roll a smidge to free it up. This, on top of feathering the clutch for everything from digging to hooking up 3 pt stuff, was for the birds. I won't miss it.

Low range is excellent. Just enough "go" at full pedal, plenty of "grunt" at partial pedal. Medium range gets me around the property, but is too quick for digging work. It may be suited to finish mowing. High range... I'm not sure when I'll need it.

I was told here and have learned first-hand that when doing any kind of work this engine needs to be spinning. 2,100 rpm is the magic number where power becomes plentiful and each 100rpm increase make life easier and easier. I haven't run it past PTO speed yet and I'm not sure there's any need to. Plenty of juice up there.

I've been following the recommended 5 minute warmup and cool-down, as well as been varying the rpm's during use between 2,000 and 2,500 for a good break in. I let it idle at 1k for about 30 seconds to get oil up, then raise it to 1,400 and walk away for a few minutes. By the time I drive it to where I'll be working the temp gauge is in the right spot. When done, I let it cool down in the shade at 1,200.

The engine really has good power. Perhaps the L3200 has good power too, but this engine was a good choice for me. THANK YOU BLUEGILL.

This machine also has the LA463 loader. Maybe it's the horsepower, but it feels quite a bit stronger than the one I had before. The L2800 had no problem lifting a heaped bucket of anything, but sometimes was a little slow and the motor would labor a bit. That just doesn't happen with this machine.

I'm doing some grading at home and after 1-1/2 hours of easy play time on the clock, I hooked up the rake and started raking stone. Then I gave it the real test; pulling my boxblade through undisturbed ground. Not much of a test really, because it filled and dragged the box easily.

I'm very happy with this machine. Once the dry spell passes I'll be hooking up my RM59 to mow grass. I'm sure the independent PTO will make mowing a pleasure.

 

[k0ua]

You will really enjoy mowing with the hydro equipped rig, especially if you have to back under trees and see saw around obstruction's. I was always able to do light surface grading with the bucket at around 1800 rpm or so. You know when you don't need much power, and you want the response of the FEL to not be as fast when you are grading surface gravel or light soil. I never thought the L3400HST I had was short on power.. Well maybe trying to take a big hill in HI range or something like that.. As for HI range in my opinion all it is good for is driving the tractor on flat roads at high speed. I hope you like the single pedal design, of the hydro stat control. I sure liked mine. The majority of people do not like it, and prefer a 2 pedal setup like my Kioti has, and although I am fully acclimated and getting along fine with my 2 pedal setup, I always felt the single pedal was just a hair faster to change directions when grading and you have missed your level mark with the bucket and want to back up and try again.. What I found I did was I was doing low speed precise work I would just put my foot flat on top of the pedal and rock my ankle back and forth. But when I wanted some real continuous forward speed I would scoot my foot over a bit and let my heel drop to the floor and use my toe on the extension to the right of the pedal. I am glad you are getting along fine with your new machine.

James K0UA