Traction New L47 owner questions: widening tires, thumb, brush hog

[HighlandFarm]

Hello everyone!

I've been reading the forums for about a year, learning from you all and trying to decide on the right machine for our 200 acre farm: very hilly, 50-50% pasture and forest. Need the tractor for repairing & maintaing roads, timber work, digging foundations, and hauling all the heavy stuff we use for livestock.

Finally found a great deal on a used L47 with only 190 hours, and brought it home a couple weeks ago. Been learning the ropes but being very cautions as I get used to the machine and especially the steep terrain.

Now a few questions for your collective minds:

1) Tire spacing: First thing I need to do is widen the tread. It says on page 1 of the owner's manual ("safe operation") to adjust the wheels to the widest practical tread width. Today I took the tractor to our local equipment tire guy who filled the rear tires but says he can't space them out because they are welded rims. Anybody have experience with this? Do I need a spacer kit?

2) Mechanical thumb for backhoe: I would love the hydraulic thumb but simply can't afford the cost at this point to add the third function and thumb from Kubota. Are there mechanical thumbs available that would work with the existing mount, or would it require welding? Specific brands and model recommendations?

3) Brush hog: Our pastures desperately need cutting (only 24 cattle out there right now) and I've postponed until I got this tractor. What are your recommendations for ideal size of brush hog for the L47 with 6' width and 33 hp at the PTO? I saw that Everything Attachments has a 6-8 week wait time, so I'll need to look elsewhere. Any recommendations?

I'm sure I'll have many more questions and am looking forward to joining the conversation here on TBN.

Thanks in advance!

Christoph

 

[JWR]

I have experience in 2 out of the three questions:

-- FOR SURE get those rear wheels out wider if you have any slopes or steep ground to work on. These things are not real cheap ($495 a set in my case) but work really well.
This picture below is a set of steel tubing-style separators mounted on an L-3400. I put a set of 6" separators on the rear of my B2150 too and it made a HUGE difference in terms of feeling steady on slopes instead of feeling like it was in danger of tipping over. I used a set of Bora brand that are machined from solid aluminum but there are several kinds. I would go for the 6" per side giving you a foot more separation between rear wheels. It still amazes me that the Japanese have yet to comprehend that we are not all working flat land here in the USA. Check first to be sure you have clearance around the backhoe for widening the rear wheels.


These are the Bora brand that I use on my B2150:



Off the tractor they look like this:




-- Now about the Bush Hog -- I have experience with the 5ft hog on my B2150 Kubota and with a 6ft JD MX6 on a JD4700 I had for 10 years. For your L47 (I assume that is about like a L4701 I see on Tractor data with 39hp at the PTO and 40 some at the engine with around 3300 lb overall weight) I recommend the 6ft hog. You will have no trouble handling it either weight or driveline-wise. I do suggest a slip-clutch that is just cheap insurance and a good idea I think. As you probably know there are many good serviceable brands of rotary cutters. I have owned 2 Deere brand and 2 Bush hog brand, all of which are good reliable hardware. So is Landpride which builds very heavy cutters they still call medium duty. Depends a lot on what you have for dealers close by who are competent, stock parts and willing to talk friendly in the service Dept. Bush Hog as a company cannot be beaten in terms of backing their products in my opinion. [That is NOT always the case with their dealers however.] All of them carry light, medium and heavy duty cutters. There are so many good rotary cutters it is hard not to find a good one. Go for the medium duty and make sure they have a cotter key keeping the blade holder nut on the machine.


I have no experience with backhoes or thumbs on them.

 

[HighlandFarm]

Thanks JWR for this valuable info. I'll look into those wheel spacers for sure. My local tire guy says I'd gain more stability by widening the front tires. What are your thoughts on pros/cons of widening front or back?

Sounds like 6ft is the way to go for brush hogs with this size machine.

Anybody have experience with mechanical thumbs for their backhoes?

Cheers!

 

[JWR]

The tire man is wrong. Your front axle is on a pivot in the center (so it does not contribute to resisting tip-over) and thus widening the front does NOT help. Widening the back is the only way to improve things. There are several threads that include discussion about this topic but I can't remember the titles.

 

[woody]

I have the L45 and when I purchased it there was a 6ft brush hog that came with it just this past week I had a chance to use it and the L45 handled it with no problem, now my B26 has a hydraulic thumb and I miss having the thumb on the L45 but until I have the funds I'll have to do without it but eventually I am going to put a hydraulic thumb on the L45.

 

[Fallon]

The tire man is wrong. Your front axle is on a pivot in the center (so it does not contribute to resisting tip-over) and thus widening the front does NOT help. Widening the back is the only way to improve things. There are several threads that include discussion about this topic but I can't remember the titles.

I'll 2nd that. It would help in maybe 1% of the circumstances. If you were starting to roll & somehow ran out of inertia as the pivot on the front axle bottomed out it could in theory help. But as a practical matter you are already completely screwed & going over in that situation. The solid back axle is where a tractor gets their stability. Go wide back there for more stability.

My 32hp HST L3200 ran a 5' rotary & 7' flail fine. HST eats 15% of your HP. But it means you just let off the go pedal if your engine starts bogging. Easy to mitigate HP shortfalls running a to big mower by just going slower. You aren't likely to run out of Lift capacity or front ballast (non quick attach loader) on a real TBL.

 

[FatTire]

Great to find a "pre-owned" L47 with under 200 hours, it is probably like a new machine but just about broken if for you.

I bought some Bora 2" spacers for the rear wheels on my L5740 in order to get more clearance for tire chains. I was surprised that even with just 4 inches (total) of additional tire spacing the machine feels noticeably better on a side hill or when a tire drops into a hole or ditch. Going wider is definitely a good thing if you need to work in steep terrain. And Bora is good to work with if you have any special issues or problems.

I don't know who makes a mech. thumb for the L47. Maybe call a few places like Brotek, Extreme Metal Products (EMP) and Michigan Iron (MIE) and ask them if they'd make one for you, if you haven't already.

Mowers - not my thing, can't help.

 

[JWR]

Great to find a "pre-owned" L47 with under 200 hours, it is probably like a new machine but just about broken if for you.

I bought some Bora 2" spacers for the rear wheels on my L5740 in order to get more clearance for tire chains. I was surprised that even with just 4 inches (total) of additional tire spacing the machine feels noticeably better on a side hill or when a tire drops into a hole or ditch. Going wider is definitely a good thing if you need to work in steep terrain. And Bora is good to work with if you have any special issues or problems. ...

I agree. Bora has been the ideal source for spacers in my view. They are also known under the name Motorsport Technology out of Reno, NV and they take email at motorsportjr@gmail.com . They had every tiny detail figured out for compatibility with my specific Kubota including provision for the 2 of the wheel studs facing the opposite direction from the rest, little recesses to insure that the spacers stay concentric with the hub, providing all the right threaded bolts and etc. I was really very satisfied with them. Again I got the 6" spacers and I advocate going out as wide as you can provided there is no conflict with your backhoe or other things. Spacers of significant length do usually preclude using the belly mowers.

 

[HighlandFarm]

Thanks everyone for the good advice.

I contacted BORA and it seems they can make me a set of 6" spacers for the L47.

Several of you suggested I check compatibility with the backhoe. Looking at it, it appears that +6" on the wheel spacing would not interfere. The stabilizer legs run at an slight angle back, so they wouldn't contact tires no matter how wide. The backhoe itself swings to 90 degrees perpendicular, so it can't reach as far forward as the tires. Photos attached. Is there something I may be overlooking?

The folks at BORA suggest that front spacing will add stabilty when there's a load up front and if hitting a hole. However I'm looking at $500 front and $500 rear. Can't put a price on safety, but at the same time we are trying to start a farm and every penny matters. Thoughts?

Thanks so much.

 

[Fallon]

The wider the footprint, the more leverage they have to prevent rolling. As the front suspension is just a pin, the front suspension does absolutely nothing to prevent rolling until the axle hits the stops. If you hit the stops, you are already screwed & almost assuredly going over.

Wider front may make things a bit smoother for the same reason a road trader is so long. The longer the lever the less the far end moves, depending on where the fulcrum is at. But that will be vertical motion for the front of the machine. Not the rotational stability that's important.