Just Joined the Club

   / Just Joined the Club #61  
the grass is kind of blurry in the back of the pic. The grass right past the disk does not look overly thick or tall i beleive i could still easily cut that in my YM2000 with my 5fter in H3 gear and not be maxing the tractor out. The few thick areas i see in the back i may throttle up the cutter as they could pose a thick spot. But the height of that grass does not look too tall nor does the density but on the ground conditions could vary. Like i said i cant see the far grass well its blurry. I am also not sure if right past the disk in the pic have you driven over that grass with the disk once to tear it up and appear less tall/dense?
 
   / Just Joined the Club
  • Thread Starter
#62  
Clemson, that is a blurry pic. I had cut a lane with the Super C and the Sidewinder a few days earlier and that's what the tractor is running in. There were a lot of places the grass was waist high, and that patch is right beside a creek and very fertile. It almost choked the Super C down several times, and the cutter wasn't running anywhere close to 540 at times.

I can remember times when my JD5210 that I used to have and used with the 5' Bush Hog would have trouble turning it in some of my high grass unless I geared it down slow. I guess I'm just doubting this tractor can really do a good job with a 5' cutter. And the thing is, I only have 2 acres to cut at my house and maybe 4 acres total at the main hunting club where I'd use it. A lot of that is roads that will require 2 passes whether I have a 4' or 5'. Its not gonna take me long to do the job with either one. And I live in the woods and might even mow my lawn with it at times. I think the 4' would be better for that, though my wife won't be happy with the look of the lawn either way. :)

If I ever wanta sell it, I'm sure the 5' will have a lot more demand. I'm still trying to reach a decision here, and will have to live with it. Here's an interesting statement from Winston:

>>>Heavy mowing the 4 footer is much better suited to the tractor.<<<

I think the 4' just looks like to me that it fits the tractor. Also, when cutting woods roads its much safer if the cutter doesn't stick out wider than the tractor. If you catch a tree with the cutter bad things can happen. I think I'm leaning toward the 4' and will likely regret it. :)

Thanks for all the help!
 
   / Just Joined the Club #63  
I'm staying with my statement back on #5. and stick with the 4. I had the 5FM. out yesterday. With the recent rain we had I put the Yanmar to the Hardest use Ever since I bought it.
I Blew some !!It out. Not that much but a few small Oily carbon Bombs.. But boy does my front look Nice! :D
 
   / Just Joined the Club #64  
Remember you can always but 4 foot with a 5 foot cutter!

But your right about the tree catching the deck. My 5 footer crabs to the side behind the tractor. I bought it all bolded up skids ripped off and side skirts folded under for $75. It has a non leaky gear box that is in good shape and i broke the pto shaft free and greased it up and that now works fine. It took me 3-5 hours of welding and beating to get it back in shape and a few patches and cutting stuff off. But i think all i have into it is a roll and a half for the wire welder. The frame was so heavy that i didnt have anything to straigten it out with. so thats why it crabs along.

It cuts fine as it is though. I think they cought it on a tree or on a ditch bank?
 
   / Just Joined the Club
  • Thread Starter
#65  
Remember you can always but 4 foot with a 5 foot cutter!

But your right about the tree catching the deck. My 5 footer crabs to the side behind the tractor. I bought it all bolded up skids ripped off and side skirts folded under for $75. It has a non leaky gear box that is in good shape and i broke the pto shaft free and greased it up and that now works fine. It took me 3-5 hours of welding and beating to get it back in shape and a few patches and cutting stuff off. But i think all i have into it is a roll and a half for the wire welder. The frame was so heavy that i didnt have anything to straigten it out with. so thats why it crabs along.

It cuts fine as it is though. I think they cought it on a tree or on a ditch bank?

Clemson, my JD5075 is primarily a forestry tractor. I use it for maintaining fire lanes and plowing them when doing my prescribed burns. It has the power to pull a much wider cutter, but I bought a Bush Hog 26 for it, which is a really heavy 6' cutter. I have seen what can happen when the cutter is wider than the tractor and I don't want that to happen to me.

I went to the implement dealer this morning and spent 10 minutes staring at the 500 and the 400. I think I changed my mind 3 different times and was walking back to the shop at one point to tell him to put a 500 together for me. But I turned around and looked at it some more and finally decided to get the 400. The #1 factor was the fact that I will use it a lot on woods roads and I just don't think its as safe with me operating it when the cutter is that much wider than the tractor. I'm supposed to pick it up tomorrow and hope to try it out good on Friday.

Thanks again for all the help!

BTW, Clemson, I'm an Auburn grad and your football team has been pretty tough on us the last 2 meetings. Looks like we are gonna be playing a lot over the next few years.
 
   / Just Joined the Club #66  
you a forester too? or just do your own burns and woods maintenence on your place?

I am a forester...thats what the "for" is on the end...ws to lazy to type out clemsonforester or either it was taken somewhere and i always use the same screen name
 
   / Just Joined the Club
  • Thread Starter
#67  
Clemson, I'm not a forester, but I'm an old Agribusiness teacher and took several forestry classes. I have 400 acres in central AL that is mainly timber and I manage it pretty intensively. I just had 75 acres of loblolly cut and am converting it to Longleaf. I've done a lot of understory burns but this will be my first site prep burn. I'm a bit leery of it, but gotta do it. Its gonna get hot.

I tried out the 4' cutter and don't regret buying it yet. It struggled to cut some of my tall grass, and I just like the safety factor of it not being much wider than the tires.

I raised the hood to check something this afternoon and found that I have an oil leak. Oil was on most of the right side of the engine. I cleaned it up and then let it run to see if I could see the leak. I thought I could see it seeping out, but it may have just been accumulating. I made this pic after it ran just a few minutes:



Anyone have any ideas of what's going on? I sent pics to Fredricks, but it was after working hours.
 
Last edited:
   / Just Joined the Club #68  
I can't see the oil leak. But the only oil up there arrives by that tube that originates on the other side of the engine. circles around the back of the block, and comes to those two banjo fittings (for the rockers).

So the leak has to be the copper 'gaskets' where the banjo fittings attach, maybe the gaskets on the valve cover holddown bolts, or the valve cover gasket. I think that model has a re-usable rubber valve cover gasket so be gentle if you take it off. Later Yanmars use a permanent valve cover gasket, a rope embedded in a groove, that also deserves caution getting it off.

These things are pretty simple. I would just tighten the valve cover holddown bolts a little and see if that's all it needed.
 
   / Just Joined the Club #69  
I think thats probably leaking out of the valve cover gasket. As Cali says it probably is the reuseable rubber one.

That sure is some clean oil for a deisel!!! I am surious how many hours it will look that good?
 
   / Just Joined the Club
  • Thread Starter
#70  
Thanks for the replies. I sent that pic and a couple others to Fredricks and they seemed sure its a faulty valve cover gasket installation. They think the mechanic likely let it slip when installing it. He told me to try to tighten it and that might fix it, but is also sending me a new gasket. He is also throwing in all the filters needed for the first service. I thought that was pretty good customer service!

I've put just 10 hours on the tractor since I've had it. I read that the machine determines hours based on how hard its working; not just time. I never knew that anything did that. I'm sure I've had it running more than 10 hours, but much of it was at low rpm and very little load on it.

On another subject, I hooked up the cutter and then was gonna hook up the pto last. I found it was too short to be attached that way with the over run clutch. I wanted to see how it worked without the clutch, so I pulled it off and hooked up the shaft direct. I just used it around the yard on flat ground, so I was never in any danger with it. It seems to me that with the powershift you could get buy without the clutch. Put the powershift in N and the pto has no effect on the tractor. I can see where it could be dangerous on a model without powershift.

So I later unhooked it and put the clutch on to see how it worked. The driveline made a lot more noise and it made so much noise when I turned off the pto that I thought I had sheared a pin on the cutter. Has anyone else noticed excessive noise when using the clutch, especially when shutting off the pto? Does anyone run your cutter without the over run clutch?

We had discussed the possibility of running the tractor at lower rpm and using the 2nd pto gear. I don't think that's an option for me with this setup. At 2200 rpm and the pto in first gear, it didn't have enough cutting power to easily make it thru thick stuff. And 2200 just doesn't seem like the engine is working very hard; I wouldn't wanta run it any slower with a cutter attached. I'm also questioning the math used in determining the rpm needed to get 540 pto. That cutter may have been turning 540, but it sure seemed slower to me. I don't know any way to check it.

Thanks for the help!
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2016 Nissan Pathfinder SUV (A50324)
2016 Nissan...
CFG Industrial QK20R (A50121)
CFG Industrial...
2016 INTERNATIONAL 4300 26FT BOX TRUCK (A52141)
2016 INTERNATIONAL...
2020 Utility Trailer Manufacturing, 53' Trailer (A52384)
2020 Utility...
1984 AM GENERAL HMMWV HUMVEE (A52141)
1984 AM GENERAL...
2006 Ford Crown Victoria Sedan (A50324)
2006 Ford Crown...
 
Top