Review time!
I think it's time for an update
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I'll start with my thoughts:
Great tractor, really glad I upgraded to it. Really glad I waited out and got exactly what I wanted with all the hydro options - totally worth it.
It's a model series older tractor than my 3120 was, so it lacked some features, but it's not a huge deal. Things like no 4x4 engagement light, fuel gage on tank, not on dash and no cruise control. Nothing that really means a lot, just some things I was used to.
The tractor is a slug with all that weight on it though. I've taken it down the road multiple times and it takes forever to get going and tops out at only around 12MPH. Disappointing for what should be an industrial machine and used for road work. I understand this would have to be a redesign of the transmission though.
For a 43HP tractor, I have been very impressed by its power. It seems I'm running out of traction before power a lot. There are times I would definitely like the power of a 4520, though.
I wouldn't trade the hydraulic thumb for anything. For taking out stumps it couldn't be better. Easily put out of the way, and then will clamp and pick up a stump. Awesome!
There are times I wish I had a 4 in 1 vs grapple and HD bucket. The bucket and grapple work very well, but I've been switching them out a lot as I'll take out a couple stumps need to move them, then have to level what I with a bucket so I'll have to switch back and forth. It would be nice just to leave the 4 in 1 on, but I'm not complaining. If I find a used one go up for sale, I might jump on it for cheap, but not worth full retail now.
Still haven't gotten it up to the cabin. Been busy around home, the farm and a friends house. I bought the cabin from some hoarders who don't know squat about doing much, so the electric in the barn went out. I get an electrical guy to look at it and he says its one of the worst electrical installs he's ever seen. The guy ran a 220 line, never hooked it up to an outlet and put electrical tape over the live wires. Wires are drooping from the rafters and not a single 'U' nail in the barn. He's going to have to redo all of the barn's electric so I need to keep it out of his way anyway. Can't wait to get it up there and get some real work done though:thumbsup:
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Some disappointments:
No self leveling loader. I saw different places that contradicted each other and I was really hoping it would be a self leveling loader - it's not. What it is, though, is anti-rollback. Which means that at a certain height it will work like self leveling and not allow a simple lift and your load to end up on your hood. It is a nice feature, but I wish it had self leveling.
When working with the grapple (or any other loader attachment with hydraulics) you can only use two of the three functions at once. Say I want to lift my loader arms going into a pile while dumping and opening the grapple to allow debris to fall - can't do that. Have to lift curl and then open or in any other order. Such as curl and open, lift and open etc.
The buttons on my grapple are opposite what I think they should be. I haven't tried, but can I switch the ends around so what seems should be open actually opens and not closes the grapple? I have had numerous times I mean to open and I close, or I mean to close and open.
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Some problems:
Well the three rear remotes was the only real issue.
Link Here. It got fixed though, and is now working well.
One *VERY MINOR* issue I had was some hydraulic fluid squirting out of the thumb's cylinder. It was self induced, trying to lift a large stump then curling the bucket back in put to much strain and started squirting hydraulic fluid. The thumb is made to curl back in with the pressure of the buckets curl, what I found is that the hoses were extremely loose on the thumb. Not sure why, but I tightened them a couple turns and rock solid since.
The I'm an idiot: (Here come excuses) It was starting to rain, was like the dust bowl (tractor had like an inch of sand on it), and had been working all day. Well I was using the box blade just finish grading some holes I'd filled in so I could mow that area again and instead of going in straight lines started turning with the blade down and ended up breaking the two bolts that hold the stabilizers to the three point hitch arms. My fault and I know better. Shouldn't have been trying it, let alone doing it. Haven't much use for it anytime soon so I haven't picked up the bolts yet, but they look to be a special size with a thicker solid layer (about 1/4") and then the thread. So I think I'll be making a trip up to see the fellows at the JD store unless someone knows different.
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For your enjoyment, I'll post some pictures
Got some brick pavers in place of an old concrete walk way. So I recycled the slabs and placed them under the utility trailer and horse trailer's wheels at the farm. Got the gator to lug it out of the way:
Then the 110 dug out the area to sit them in and I dropped them in with the forks (sorry no pictures of that!) You can see the first one that I set in in the picture behind where I'm digging. Turned out quite nice if you ask me and the trailers sit on them perfectly.
Go to take everything over to a friend's. Going to put everything on the trailer and haul it with the F250. Back it out of the barn. Shut it off to extend the mirrors out, (really tight getting into the barn) get back in turn the key and nothing. Absolutely dead. Starter was long gone. Instead of waiting I decided to make the couple mile journey by foot (aka tractor). Put the bucket in the grapple and clamped it down and headed down the road:
Got to his house and man a lot of stumps, and a lot of work. Put about 6 hours doing it all. Which really isn't that bad, but it was 95 and sunny - 'feels like' of about 105. Man I was sweating. I need a cab!! Hopefully someday I'll have a Laurin cab like Steve's got. I'm going to cheat here because I don't have a picture of the start of the project, but this is closer to the end. Toward the left where it's all dug up was where most of the stumps were and then some more to the left of it. 15-20 stumps in all. This is my only picture off the tractor because it is poison ivy galore in there and I have extremely bad reactions, so me sitting in the seat will have to do.
Sorry for the blurriness, but the stump is on the right of the bucket. Couple swipes at each side and she pulls right up. Longest one might have taken me 15 minutes, which is odd because it was one of the smaller ones. Largest was around 24" but surprisingly popped out quite easily. Most were out in 5-10 minutes - which I don't think is too bad for a first time.
Popped the stump out, toe down and the thumb goes out curl the bucket brings thumb in and lifts the stump. Very, very cool! I brought a 25' chain with me for a just in case. Never needed it. The grapple and thumb did it all.
I would like to say thanks to Steve (jenkinsph) and Larry (AKfish) both for convincing me to get this tractor again. I love that thumb. Easily would have taken 3 to 4 times the amount of time without it.
Why get off your tractor to pick up to dinky little sticks when you can have fun doing it with the thumb?
Believe it or not, there is actually a very small stump in the bucket (courtesy of the thumb
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Got most of the backhoe work done, so it was time to get out the grapple (when I was actually working I was switching between thumb and bucket to allow me to not drive through mounding holes or get the stumps out of the way).
She aint pretty, but it works! I did experience a couple times a log would get close to jamming the hydraulic cylinder, since there's no protection for it. Looks like a different cylinder than what's stock anyway, so looks like the previous owner has already done that one (though looking at the grapple, not sure what he HASN'T done to it!)
Take and dump into a pile. Works great - a lot more fun than a chain and dragging. A lot less work too!
Don't have any other finished product pictures, I have to go back tomorrow and if I remember my camera I'll take a picture of the finished product and the burn pile! Wow, a lot of stumps. Hopefully I didn't bore you with all this text, though all you guys are probably going to do is look at the pictures anyway
