New Kubota L45 has arrived

[mike69440]

At our farm, I have plenty of wall building material such that I am advertising in Craig's list to rid myself of some of the surplus.
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/246050-fun-rocks-dirt-photos.html
Did the thumb on the L45 have a tough time with the larger rocks or did you use the 4N-1 bucket? (I have bucket envy)

I'll post picks of my cutting edge with teeth as soon as it is fabricated.

 

[lhansman]

Hi Mike

I wish I could help you off load some of your rocks but the distance and the border would be a problem.

The rock wall in the photo is six feet high so there is no way that either the 4-in-1 or the very handy thumb on the L45 could have muscled most of the boulders into place. Fortunately for me a buddy with a full size Cat 420E rubber tire machine was doing some work in my village and he leaves the machine at my place when in town. I was able to hire one of his guys last weekend and with the two machines we built the wall in two and a half days. The 420E would lift them into place and than the L45 would either spin them or hold them in place from above and behind the wall while the 420E withdrew. It worked very well but we lost almost a half day when we ran into the sixth rock from the left in the bottom row. We had placed all of the rocks to the left of it when we bumped into this one which was in the middle (front to back) of where the wall was supposed to go. I spent about 15 minutes trying to dig it out with the L45 and realized that was a fruitless exercise and hopped on the hoe of the 420E. I spent at least 25 minutes on the 420E digging about three feet all the way around that rock and down about three feet in front of it but even at that point the 420E could not even make that rock wiggle so I new there was no hope of getting it out. We than removed the boulders to the left and realigned our wall to incorporate that big grey boulder into the wall. You know how it is with rocky property - you never know when you are going to run into a ledge or boulder that is just not going to move!

Wrt to the 4-in-1 to be honest I am a little ambivalent about it. I am glad I got it instead of the standard bucket because I don't need both (I kept the light duty bucket I had purchased for my B26 which is only 6" narrower and so holds almost as much material) but I have had mixed results with the 4-in1. It is very good at picking up the odd root or log that I need to get out of the way but I have not had great results with rocks. I am nervous about breaking it so I have not tried to pick up any large rocks and I prefer to use my hydraulic forks anyway because I find they scratch the rocks the least. Most of the other 4-in-1's I see advertised have almost a dozer type blade at the back of the 4-in-1 when you open it but the Kubota one is split about halfway along the bottom so when open you have a mini bucket with about a 6"-8" bottom. The other thing Kubota does (for strength I guess) is they have welded a V-shaped piece on the bottom of the hinged piece which sticks up about 1-1/2" so it makes it a little harder to push into a pile of dirt or pick up a rock as this ledge actually tips the rock out of the bucket at first. I am still learning how to use the 4-in-1 and it is certainly nice for cleaning up the last of a pile of material but it is not as useful as the thumb on the hoe in my opinion. If I could only afford one I would get the thumb.

I have the optional cutting edge on both of my buckets and like the added strength that gives them but the bolts sticking up can be a pain if you throw bags of concrete or sand in the bucket as you have to unload the bags by hand to prevent the bolts from ripping the bags. I have thought about a toothed bar for the front buckets but with the hoe right there I find it a lot easier on me and the machine to back into the pile and loosen a bunch up with the hoe and then turn around and use the loader to move it so I will not be getting a toothed bar for the front but I'm curious to see what you come up with.

Regards,

Lauren

 

[mike69440]

I really pushed my excavator building rock walls. My L39 has a tough time building walls, even small ones. That must have been some boulder not to be able to budge with a 420.
My excavator proved itself building the retaining walls on our property.

Good luck with your wall project.

Right now, except for the B7200 & RTV, I have no equipment. The L39 is still waiting on parts from the fire. My excavator bucket needs gum surgery as a result of all that beating against ledge and rock.

I got a new bucket when I bought my excavator. After over 1000 hrs on the "new' bucket, while installing new teeth, I noticed a CAT style shank nose tooth adapter had a nice crack forming. Upon further inspection all the adapters have cracks, just not halfway through the adapter in the large noticeable crack. I excavated the cracks and a welder is coming to the farm to see if he can repair the adapters on the Komatsu.

If not, it will cost a small fortune to replace the adapters.
I'll get away from the CAT style and go with the ESCO super V system adapters if it comes to that.
Texas Contractors Equipment - Ground Engaging Tool Specialists for the Construction and Crushing Markets

These are the teeth I plan on using on my toothbar. Smallest size will work with the L39-L45
I also found this great resource on bucket teeth info.
http://www.plasterer.com/media/walkarounds_etc/John Deere Bucket Tooth Catalog.pdf

 

[lhansman]

Hi Mike

The ESCO Super V system looks quite good and that second link on the various types of bucket teeth is very interesting too. I hope you get all you fleet back in good working order soon!

Regards,

Lauren

 

[lhansman]

Here are a few action shots of us building the boulder wall that my wife took. My son got a little warm at one point to the L45 created a little shade for him.

 

[Martian]

Thanks for the updates Lauren! The Cat sure makes your L45 look like a toy, but then again yours is a whole lot prettier! The wall is coming along really nice. I'd like to do something similar to where our property meets the lake, but I'd have to hire that out for sure. Can't wait to see the final product

 

[lhansman]

I have kept the L45 busy on the weekends for the last month or so moving more dirt. I now have just over 200 hours on her and in a couple of weeks whe will go in for her 200 hour service and I will finally have them install the Laurin cab so I'll be ready for winter. The current long range predictions are that we are going to have a worse winter than normal with cold temperatures and lots of snow and I for one am hoping they are right!

The advantage of having ones own tractor versus renting is of course that as you work on a project the design can evolve since you are not under any pressure to just get it done and return the machine. You may not notice a lot of difference in these two shots taken a month apart, but in fact a significant amount of additional dirt has been removed. This project has evolved from two narrow rock lined terraces to a larger bottom seating area with a taller rock wall and now we have decided to expand the size of the second level and provide a gentler slope up to the highest point of our land which is what I am working on now. I think one or at most two more weekends of removing material and we will be able to do some finish grading, put topsoil down and start planting.

I hope all your summer projects are going well too.

Regards,

Lauren

 

[lhansman]

I have kept the L45 busy on the weekends for the last month or so moving more dirt. I now have just over 200 hours on her and in a couple of weeks whe will go in for her 200 hour service and I will finally have them install the Laurin cab so I'll be ready for winter. The current long range predictions are that we are going to have a worse winter than normal with cold temperatures and lots of snow and I for one am hoping they are right!

The advantage of having ones own tractor versus renting is of course that as you work on a project the design can evolve since you are not under any pressure to just get it done and return the machine. You may not notice a lot of difference in these two shots taken a month apart, but in fact a significant amount of additional dirt has been removed. This project has evolved from two narrow rock lined terraces to a larger bottom seating area with a taller rock wall and now we have decided to expand the size of the second level and provide a gentler slope up to the highest point of our land which is what I am working on now. I think one or at most two more weekends of removing material and we will be able to do some finish grading, put topsoil down and start planting.

I hope all your summer projects are going well too.

Regards,

Lauren

 

[lhansman]

For those of you that have been following this thread, I have a couple of updates. First I started a separate thread on adding an exhaust stack to my L45 since a number of folks (including me) can't understand why Kubota does not include one at least as an option. Here I am duplicating the photos for the exhaust stack in this thread just to have all the stuff related to my L45 in one place.

The trickiest part of the exhaust stack install was to install the bracket to the tractor frame without damaging the front left tire. I thought I had covered that off at one point and then forgot about the front axle pivoting and as a result now have a line cut down the middle of that tire. Fortunately I only cut 3/16" into the treads but bwe warned if you attempt a similar installation. The other option would be to do an install similar to what member 4Shorts did which moves the stack closer to the operator but I did my knowing I had to install the Laurin cab and wanted to ensure that the stack would not interfere with the cab installation. I'm not sure but I think the line carved in the left tire has improved my high speed directional stability!

Here are a few photos:

 

[lhansman]

For my second post today, I have some photos of the start of the Laurin cab installation. It is a much bigger job than I thought so I am glad now that the dealer is doing it. They will finish the installation this week so I am hoping it will be cool this coming weekend so I can enjoy my enclosed and heated cab!