What have you done to your Branson today?

[Slowpoke Slim]

Lou,

I think I have rake envy, and I didn't even know that was a thing. Are you raking cut grass, leaves, or ? Would be interesting seeing that rake at work. Sounds like you can adjust the amount of rake pressure with the outriggers?

Bob,

It's ok. I was mostly just curious. I'm probably one of those guys that would need a backhoe once every year or five.

 

[Branson Bob]

Lou,

I think I have rake envy, and I didn't even know that was a thing. Are you raking cut grass, leaves, or ? Would be interesting seeing that rake at work. Sounds like you can adjust the amount of rake pressure with the outriggers?

Yes Lou. I'd love to see it in action. I know you have cattle so I'm guessing you're using this for hay fodder? I'd be interested in getting a small hay rake if I thought it could be used for grass clippings or leaves for composting. Any thoughts on that?

 

[LouNY]

I got this rake for lawn work, it is pto powered so it can be spun at a good rakeing speed while going slowly forward.
My yard is fairly large and not really improved it is rough with lots of depressions and high spots the high spots are usually rocks that haven't surfaced and the holes are rocks that have been removed or wheel tracks. Also I have a lot of trees in the yard that are always shedding braches and then tons of leaves in the fall, then I had to remove a half a dozen this fall/winter which left a mess of little limbs inthe lawn. Hand raking was aggravating my shoulders and back I couldn't get more then an hour or two in a day.

I'll try and get a video of it working one of these days, have to get my phones camera lens replaced broke it somehow the other day.

The rakes we use on the farm are trailing rakes with 8 foot baskets in a double hitch, and they are ground driven to have a more uniform tine speed to ground speed.

Yes Bob I'm hoping and expecting that it will work good on leaves and it does good on long grass clippings and actually does some minor de-thatching were it is real heavy.

 

[ptsg]

Last Friday, I used a less common/known implement to loosen up the soil on a field that I had previously mowed. The plan is to grow olive trees sometime in far the future, so this was a try to weaken the brush a little bit.

The implement is called a Spading machine. Spading machines are agricultural machines designed for loosening and breaking up the soil.

The principle is the same as that of digging by hand with a spade: blades are driven alternately into the soil, clods are lifted and thrown backwards, and the surface is leveled off by the action of a bar or rake.

If you're interested in learning more about this machine, you read it here: SPADING MACHINES

This field I worked on, haven't been touched in 30 plus years. It's an already very hard red clay, that got even more compacted through the years. I also started mowing every year since 2010 or so, which compacted more.

First time I dropped the implement on the ground, I almost jumped of the tractor. The spades had a very hard time trying to dig into the ground. The machine goes about 10 inches deep, I had to go 5" at a time and do a second pass on full depth. The spading machine kept jumping and banging in the back of the tractor.

It was the hardest task I ever done to a tractor. 6 hours with a 660lbs implement bouncing in the back and throwing a 4400 lbs tractor around like nothing but the Branson is a strong and robust tractor and handled it like a boss! No damage at all other than a bent PTO shield that can easily get fixed. I almost lost the big metal guard on the spading machine as it lost all the bolts that hold it on the left side but I had some spares on hand.

A tiller wouldn't do anything on this soil and the huge 16" bottom plow I have it's too big for this tractor, so I don't think that would work either.

Here are the pictures of the final result. On the left picture, you can notice the difference between first pass (left side) and with two passes (right side). The right pictures, it all done.



And a little clip of it running. It was the second pass, which was less violent and I could finally grab my phone without the risk of dropping it.

 

[K5lwq]

Last Friday, I used a less common/known implement to loosen up the soil on a field that I had previously mowed. The plan is to grow olive trees sometime in far the future, so this was a try to weaken the brush a little bit.

The implement is called a Spading machine. Spading machines are agricultural machines designed for loosening and breaking up the soil.

The principle is the same as that of digging by hand with a spade: blades are driven alternately into the soil, clods are lifted and thrown backwards, and the surface is leveled off by the action of a bar or rake.

If you're interested in learning more about this machine, you read it here: SPADING MACHINES

This field I worked on, haven't been touched in 30 plus years. It's an already very hard red clay, that got even more compacted through the years. I also started mowing every year since 2010 or so, which compacted more.

First time I dropped the implement on the ground, I almost jumped of the tractor. The spades had a very hard time trying to dig into the ground. The machine goes about 10 inches deep, I had to go 5" at a time and do a second pass on full depth. The spading machine kept jumping and banging in the back of the tractor.

It was the hardest task I ever done to a tractor. 6 hours with a 660lbs implement bouncing in the back and throwing a 4400 lbs tractor around like nothing but the Branson is a strong and robust tractor and handled it like a boss! No damage at all other than a bent PTO shield that can easily get fixed. I almost lost the big metal guard on the spading machine as it lost all the bolts that hold it on the left side but I had some spares on hand.

A tiller wouldn't do anything on this soil and the huge 16" bottom plow I have it's too big for this tractor, so I don't think that would work either.

Here are the pictures of the final result. On the left picture, you can notice the difference between first pass (left side) and with two passes (right side). The right pictures, it all done.

View attachment 658862 View attachment 658861

And a little clip of it running. It was the second pass, which was less violent and I could finally grab my phone without the risk of dropping it.

Looks like it did a great job! Interesting implement, thanks for sharing!

 

[K5lwq]

I have a ditch bank flail mower coming this week and decided I wanted to add float to my rear remotes so the head can follow the contour of the ground.

When I ordered my 4815C, they said float option was not available for rear remotes on the 15 series. So I added two, 2 way solenoid valves to tie the ports together on each spool.

Turned out nice and works well! Now all I will have to do is flip a switch and the cylinder will float.

 

[Branson Bob]

Last Friday, I used a less common/known implement to loosen up the soil on a field that I had previously mowed. The plan is to grow olive trees sometime in far the future, so this was a try to weaken the brush a little bit.

The implement is called a Spading machine. Spading machines are agricultural machines designed for loosening and breaking up the soil.

The principle is the same as that of digging by hand with a spade: blades are driven alternately into the soil, clods are lifted and thrown backwards, and the surface is leveled off by the action of a bar or rake.

If you're interested in learning more about this machine, you read it here: SPADING MACHINES

In the link you provided it reads: "A plough lifts the soil by the cutting action of the share. However, this leaves a smooth, compacted bed (hidden under the loosened layer of soil), the negative effects of which are worsened with further ploughing. Even greater soil compaction is caused when ploughing in furrows. By contrast, the spading machine detaches rather than slices (note the bed in the picture alongside), leaving a porous, permeable bed that allows the soil to breathe and absorb water."

Interesting machine and they all have their ups and downs.

I like the general idea for sure. With the continuing movement towards no-till and low-till where feasible, it's nice to see machine's which operate on different principles.

 

[Branson Bob]

I have a ditch bank flail mower coming this week and decided I wanted to add float to my rear remotes so the head can follow the contour of the ground.

When I ordered my 4815C, they said float option was not available for rear remotes on the 15 series. So I added two, 2 way solenoid valves to tie the ports together on each spool.

Turned out nice and works well! Now all I will have to do is flip a switch and the cylinder will float.

That's a nice clean install K5. How much does the flail weigh?

 

[K5lwq]

That's a nice clean install K5. How much does the flail weigh?

Thanks Bob. It weighs 685 pounds. I choose this one because it was the lightest and works with a standard cat1 quick hitch. I could not get any feed back from the flail guys on quality so most likely it will not be that great. But for my needs it should be fine.
Flail Mowers for Compact Tractors | EMSD-64 Standard Duty Bank Mower

 

[TomIre]

After owning my 3725h for two plus years, I finally got some decent use out of the diff lock! The one terrible design/feature on this tractor is the location of the diff lock pedal. It is under your right heel when it should be under your left (brake) heel.
Today I was working on a blow down tree. If course, it went down in a pile of rocks and was difficult to work on it where it lay. But I cut it into chunks and used a chain to pull them down to a flat clear area for bucking, limbing, etc.
So, the diff lock. The first part of the pull was getting the log away from the rest of the tree and through the rocks. I started in low t barely an idke, engaged the cruise control, used the throttle to control the speed and, with cruise on, ha a free foot to engage the diff lock!
"Normally" , I would need the diff lock in muddy situations and would contort my left leg to cross over and press the diff lock.
Only took two years to figure out the cruise control approach!