L3800 suggestions desired: cab, blade, and grapple

[RaydaKub]

My b-i-l bought an L3800 last winter. I got to drive it a little bit this past week. Nice unit, with 23 hours on it now.

He lives in Houston, but this went to his retirement cabin up in the Black Hills. Hopefully, the southern boys put in enough additive to keep the tires from freezing. They had never installed a block heater before, either.

He doesn't anticipate needing it for a couple years yet, but he asked me about what might be available to fit it for a cab. There are probably several brands available, but I'd like to hear from any of you that have cabs. What brand do you have and would you buy it again? Soft side or hard? Heater? Lights? Wiper? Price range?

Second request, he has the quick tach FEL bucket. What things fit this frame? Any blades or a grapple? Those are the primary devices he might be interested in. He had a WR Long electric solenoid 3rd function added as well as 2 remotes for the rear (all at my advice, of course)

Thanks, Gents.

 

[jeff9366]

Tractors are fundamentally PULLING machines. The Three-Point-Hitch transfers implement weight to the large rear wheels through the Lower Links and to the front wheels through the Top Link, increasing tractor traction by multiples.

Brute force attachments mount on the Three-Point-Hitch. A ground contact blade, such as a rear grading blade, would mount on the Three-Point-Hitch.

I do not know of any attachment which mounts on the FEL lift arms, in lieu of the bucket.

Relatively light duty attachments, besides grapple, for the FEL bucket are:

Toothbar - for digging

Ratchet Rake - for grubbing, tearing out brush and roots, and piling debris. (Great tool for $300.)

Bucket Spade - for digging deeper, precision holes and excavating stumps to 3". (In Florida, ten-second Palmetto uprooting.)

Debris Forks - for transporting piles of debris. (Worth paying higher price for aluminum.)

Bucket Forks - emulate a Fork Lift; for lifting new implements off the Yellow Freight delivery truck.

Bale Spears - for moving round hay bales.

Before lifting max or near-max loads with the FEL bucket on uneven ground it is important to mount a counter-balance on the three-point-hitch. It is too easy for a wheel to drop into a depression/rut, which will topple the tractor without a three-point-hitch counter-balance, most often an implement. A counter-balance also reduces strain on the front axle, which is important itself.

Probably the most common implement mounted as a counter-balance is the Box Blade. Three-Point-Hitch Ballast Boxes are sold as single purpose counter-balances. Appropriate counter-balance weight for L3800 is 650-700 pounds.

The L3800 is one size more powerful and heavier in the Kubota lineup from my B3300SU. Both are basic, capable, utility tractors.

I can't speak to a cab on an L3800 except to note that the operating station is pretty confined. Haven't you heard, the Black Hills are in the Banana Belt of the Dakotas?

In contrast to tractors, skid steers are fundamentally PUSHING machines.

 

[rbarker]

He doesn't anticipate needing it for a couple years yet, but he asked me about what might be available to fit it for a cab. There are probably several brands available, but I'd like to hear from any of you that have cabs. What brand do you have and would you buy it again? Soft side or hard? Heater? Lights? Wiper? Price range?

Thanks, Gents.

I don't have an L3800 but I do have an aftermarket cab on my Bx25. It's a Curtis cab with soft sided doors, heat, and front wiper. Costs about $3400 for the BX series and it works pretty good. It's not air tight but the is adequate for New England winters. As to whether I'd buy it again, I did. I had one on my previous BX2200 that I traded in last fall. The new cab has some refinements and really maximizes the space.



Sent from my iPad using TractorByNet

 

[jeff9366]

Nice.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

One of our Wicked Grapples will be perfect for the L3800. With the QA hitch WR Long 3rd Function kit, hooking it up and using it will be a breeze.

 

[k0ua]

I have one of the single lid 50 inch Wicked Grapples, and it would be perfect for your L3800. Since you have the SSQA on the front, I would recommend also getting a set of lightweight Pallet forks, I have the Construction Attachments Lightweight forks from EA.

James K0UA

 

[RaydaKub]

I have shown him my rachet rake, but he doesn't really have much need for that. He has a 5 foot box blade used as ballast and will maintain his driveway. Most of his property is native grassland. There is national forest on 3 sides and all the firewood he could ever use up.

My request really is for those 3 items: cab, blade, and grapple.
But thanks for answering.

 

[RaydaKub]

For clarification, he might be looking for a snow blade for the front end because there may be quite a long stretch of road to clear. The grapple will be to grab logs and such to bring in to cut for firewood. So the Wicked Grapple sounds good.

 

[EverythingAttachments]

We offer the WR Long Front Blades with hydraulic angle or manual angle. The Front Blade is for Subcompact and Compact Tractors up to 50 hp and is used for pushing snow, sand, dirt, manure, gravel, etc.
Like our grapples, they ship free to a business or supporting freight terminal within 1,000 miles of Newton, NC.

 

[jim_wilson]

My b-i-l bought an L3800 last winter. I got to drive it a little bit this past week. Nice unit, with 23 hours on it now.

He lives in Houston, but this went to his retirement cabin up in the Black Hills. Hopefully, the southern boys put in enough additive to keep the tires from freezing. They had never installed a block heater before, either.

He doesn't anticipate needing it for a couple years yet, but he asked me about what might be available to fit it for a cab. There are probably several brands available, but I'd like to hear from any of you that have cabs. What brand do you have and would you buy it again? Soft side or hard? Heater? Lights? Wiper? Price range?

Second request, he has the quick tach FEL bucket. What things fit this frame? Any blades or a grapple? Those are the primary devices he might be interested in. He had a WR Long electric solenoid 3rd function added as well as 2 remotes for the rear (all at my advice, of course)

Thanks, Gents.

If he's got an L3800 - and the factory Kubota Quick attach on the FEL - then it should be a standard "SSQA" (Skid steer quick attach) setup. You can put all sorts of attachments on the FEL with an SSQA , different buckets, grapple buckets, forklift frames, rippers, etc.

I recently picked up an SSQA forklift frame from Artillian for my B3200 - and Artillian makes an adapter that goes onto this frame - that allows you to hang a 3pt quick attach on the fork frame - which then allows you to use 3pt implements on the FEL. This comes in very useful for certain 3pt implements - like a rake - because you can now manipulate the rake with the FEL - and do things like clean up hillsides and so forth.

Check out the 3pt quick hitch adapter:

Add-On Attachments

this will only work on a fork frame that lets you slide things on from the side - many of them won't. Artillian may be unique in this regard. I'm also not sure what the load rating on the FEL is on an L3800 - the Artillian fork frame is rated at about 2200 pounds if I remember correctly - this may or may not be in line with the rating on the FEL on an L3800, I'm not sure.