Buying Advice First Tractor purchase advice

[AxleHub]

Tractor was delivered on Friday, about 6 hours before a huge spring snowstorm hit. I would say we got about 20 inches of heavy wet snow. It finally stopped snowing about 5 hours ago. Coincidentally the tractor has 5 hours on it now. The driveway and turnaround are clear, along with a drifted section of the community road past our driveway. Glad I got the cab. It was toasty, no coat, no gloves. I'm smilin'

Cobalt sky, sounds like a trial by fire But while the snow was deep and cold . . your new unit was warm and operatipnal in that 20 inches. Kinda a tough breakin process but there will be plenty of time for polishing the paint later

 

[airbiscuit]

Pictures of your snow removal work and your tractor ....

 

[CobaltSky]

Pictures of your snow removal work and your tractor ....

Trying to figure out how to attach multiple pics from my phone. (Original post #1 pics were on my iPad...)
I didn't take pics of the snow removal yet. I did a good job scraping the concrete near the garage, but the gravel drive took some learning: figuring out FEL float and bucket level, plus usage of a 7' rear blade.

Missed my oldest daughter's swim meet in Denver due to the storm. Roads were closed. Kinda getting sick of these big storms. This one was a wet / icy one compared to the others.

 

[airbiscuit]

Does your loader happen to have a bucket level indicator (rod)?

 

[CobaltSky]

View attachment 465148 Does your loader happen to have a bucket level indicator (rod)?

Yes. The style is rod and sleeve, like this one (post 19 in link below). On the concrete, I just set it flush, float the loader, and scrape away. Not sure if that is proper technique but it worked. The uneven gravel was more challenging, I tried to keep it tilted up a bit, but sometimes the loader rode up over the heavy snow and I didn't fill the bucket or else it dug in a bit and I got some gravel...

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/...el-indicator-rod-post3400324.html#post3400324

 

[CobaltSky]

Cobalt sky, sounds like a trial by fire But while the snow was deep and cold . . your new unit was warm and operatipnal in that 20 inches. Kinda a tough breakin process but there will be plenty of time for polishing the paint later

Certainly less than ideal learning environment, but I got the job done, and I am hoping that will be the last significant snowfall this season

 

[Wakey]

Congrats.. I think its fortunate you had one last storm right after the tractor arrived. Now you will be ready for next year.

 

[TJP89]

Certainly less than ideal learning environment, but I got the job done, and I am hoping that will be the last significant snowfall this season

Now you know why we pushed you into more HP. 20in is marginal for my tractor.

 

[CobaltSky]

Delivery pics:

During:

After:

 

[airbiscuit]

I know that snow made things busy for you, but it sure made things pretty! You have no idea how much fun lies ahead for you.