Help choosing correct 45-50hp Kubota

[mcrey1]

We have a l5030 bought new with backhoe and loader HST it is ten years old and has 3600 hrs with no failures. As you age your body will love HST. I would get the biggest HST tractor I could afford. With hills I recommend 4wd. With tier4b emmissions get a DEF machine, life is much simpler. Leave the log skidding to the people with the equipment. Skidding tree tops for firewood is doable. This will may be your first tractor but it won't be your last. We own 3 kubota's 39hp to 126hp.

 

[mfrankm]

You will need a heavy Rotary Cutter to optimize revenue from 100 acres of woodland. Trust me.

OK, I'm a little confused but trying to catch up. Around here all you hear is "bush hog". Either 5,6 or 8 foot width. When I asked my older friend about what kind to get, he laughed, "they'ain't but one kinda bush hog!"

If I understand correctly, a bush hog is a rotary cutter. They can be single or dual spindle (aka "batwing"). Please correct me if I am not getting this just right.

3" refers to the diameter of material that could be cut comfortably?

What is a LPGS? (I know I'm going to feel stupid when I see the answer to that.) What is the difference between a rotary cutter and a shredder?

And again at risk of sounding thick, why would I be using a rotary cutter in the woods to maximize revenue? Just to grind up branches and debris left behind? My ignorance is really showing itself here. Guess you gotta start somewhere.

 

[mfrankm]

just looked up LPGS, woah that thing is fancy. I was thinking more along the lines of a plain ol single scraper blade.

 

[mfrankm]

Just called again on the used 4701, gear drive. Kind of a deal breaker. Onward. Gonna go to another Kubota dealer who has more inventory, maybe a Massey dealer if I have time.

 

[jeff9366]

OK, I'm a little confused but trying to catch up. Around here all you hear is "bush hog". Either 5,6 or 8 foot width. When I asked my older friend about what kind to get, he laughed, "they'ain't but one kinda bush hog!"

If I understand correctly, a bush hog is a rotary cutter. They can be single or dual spindle (aka "batwing"). Please correct me if I am not getting this just right.

3" refers to the diameter of material that could be cut comfortably?

What is a LPGS? (I know I'm going to feel stupid when I see the answer to that.) What is the difference between a rotary cutter and a shredder?

And again at risk of sounding thick, why would I be using a rotary cutter in the woods to maximize revenue? Just to grind up branches and debris left behind? My ignorance is really showing itself here. Guess you gotta start somewhere.

Rotary Cutter and slasher are synonymous terms. Bush Hog is a copyrighted brand name for a particular manufacture's Rotary Cutter. Bush Hog invented and developed the Bush Hog (brand) Rotary Cutter in Georgia beginning about 1953. Bush Hog has done a poor job defending its copyright. Bush Hog has had numerous ownership changes during the last 15 years.

Light duty R/C can reliably cut up to 1" material, medium duty R/C can reliably cut up to 1-1/2" material and heavy duty R/C can reliably cut up to 2-1/2" to, maybe, 3" material reliably. There are heavier R/Cs made by Bush Hog and Brown Manufacturing, which makes the "Brown Tree Cutter". Tree Cutter needs a 140-hp tractor for power. They are used for right-of-way maintenance.

Open, read and explore the LINKS.

Without a heavy Rotary Cutter to clear brush you will not be able to see your way in or out. When loaded it is pretty easy to topple a tractor by dropping a wheel into a hole or by running over a concealed stump. "Clear" paths are a must. If you are skidding a log and the butt end is not raised enough, and it collides with a stump or boulder, the tractor can go vertical in one second. I personally stood a Deere 750 vertical skidding logs. NEVER want to repeat that experience. Clearing around 'good' trees improves their growth rate and decreases disease. Fires start in brush. You need to keep brush down.

VIDEO: land plane grading scraper - YouTube

heavy duty bush hog - YouTube

 

[jeff9366]

just looked up LPGS, woah that thing is fancy. I was thinking more along the lines of a plain ol single scraper blade.

There are Box Blades, there are Rear/Angle blades, there are Landscape Rakes and there are Land Planes. Pulled by tractors, all are used in dirt/gravel road maintenance.

The cheapest of these implements are Landscape Rakes.

An increment more expensive are Land Planes. Land Planes take the least expertise to operate effectively.

The most expensive are Rear/Angle Blades and Box Blades, which need to be HEAVY per UNIT OF WIDTH in order to cut. Work most effectively with optional hydraulics installed on the tractor. Box Blades and Rear/Angle blades take many hours of experience to operate well.


Box Blades and Rotary Cutters are the two most common implements used as Three Point Hitch mounted BALLAST for Loader work. This because they are heavy and because they protrude considerably behind the hitch, leveraging their nominal weight as ballast.

Photos #1 - #2 ETA Landscape Rake with optional gauge wheels. Fine rake, so-so gauge wheels.
Photos #3 - #5 Bush Hog (brand) 60" Rollover Box Blade, weight 625 pounds.

VIDEO: Bush Hog Rollover Box Blade RO72 HD - YouTube

 

[jeff9366]

Just called again on the used 4701, gear drive. Kind of a deal breaker. Onward. Gonna go to another Kubota dealer who has more inventory, maybe a Massey dealer if I have time.

When people sell clutch/gear tractors they discover how few people can operate same today. The most deeply discounted used tractors are clutch/gear tractors.

In the opinion of many, including myself, HST transmissions are more reliable than clutch/gear transmissions.

 

[newbury]

<snip>
120 acres in the southern Appalachians. Approx 16ac hilly fields (bush hog), 4ac lawn and garden (loader/bucket), 3/4 mile gravel driveways (scraper), and the other 100 acres is heavily forested. I heat with wood (OWB), and in the next decade and beyond I hope to thin considerably for long term forest health, as well as sell some timber that was planted for sale by my great-grandfather. A sawmill is on the drawing board, as are firewood and mulch/leaf compost sales; all loader work. So skidding logs needs to happen. My goal is a small, steady trickle of income from several sources the land provides over a long period of time. (Hydropower, maybe solar, etc. blah blah)<snip>,
Frank

Frank - Tell us the dbh and length of the trees you are looking at thinning and milling. That will determine if you can skid them and lift them with XXhp.

For example I've cut some 20" plus trees and was easily able to skid 1 tree section 12' long with a 30 HP Sato. My 23 HP Kubota B7610 could skid the same if I raised the leading end. With my M4700 I can virtually plow with the same tree and could probably skid several.

To put the same size log on the sawmill my B7610 and the Sato could manage it with the 3 point, but not the FEL. The M4700 can do it with pallet forks on the FEL.

So it depends on how long and how wide you want to cut your trees before you mill them.

Per the calculator I use a piece of white oak 12 foot long and an average of 20" around weighs about
If it's 30 inches and 12 foot long your looking at about 6,500 lbs.
Now if it's a big tree,

say 5 foot DBH, and 12 foot long it's around 15,000 lbs way to big for the FEL OR 3pt on my tractors. I'd have to borrow a cousins big Massey to drag it.

Like you've written I'm trying to clean up some woods for the future, one tree at a time. I've about 200 acre of mixed hardwood I'm playing on, virtually all the trees are < 24 inches DBH. I've another couple of hundred acres of planted pine, mostly between 8 and 15 years of age, which I'll probably have loggers thin and harvest when the time comes.

 

[mfrankm]

Jeff thanks for the info once again. I was thinking along the lines of one heavy duty R/C for everything. You are absolutely correct about the brush. I am used to doing that by hand, and did not even consider going off of our established paths very far with the R/C. The terrain is quite steep and I would think too dangerous. I am thinking about using the Ranger in some areas with a log arch to pull to the main road. And winches. Possibly a Farmi or Wallenstein etc. These get the log off the ground, hopefully to avoid a situation like you describe.

A rear angle blade is what has been used by others on our drives historically. Seems somewhat similar in used to the one on the kubota trachoe I have driven at work, except pulled instead of pushed of course. Gaining the experience is the fun part, right? Understood on ballast, I read somewhere the Farmi's can be good for that. Also can be used to scrape a little I think.

 

[mfrankm]

Dealer today confirmed what everyone says (except my one friend, an old schooler whose advice I really respect), HST is more reliable and lasts longer. Drove an MX gear and HST, liked the HST better. However, the plot thickens.

The walk around the property test shows the bigger tractor will fit 95% of the places I want to go. And I drove the 5660 today, it is pretty sweet. It's like bookmyer said, driving the M is more enjoyable. For some reason it seemed smaller than the 6060 even thought the difference on paper is only a few inches. Guess I just want to like that tractor for some reason. The shuttle reverse is easy to use and I could get used to it. HST is in another league for loader work however I can tell just from a few minutes.

Comes down to having HST on an MX vs. having the bigger tractor. 28.7k for MX5200 vs 32.2k for the M5660, similarly equipped.

How does the MX5800 get the extra hp? Specs say same engine, both turbo. Dealer did not know. He also didn't think you can get factory 3rd valve for loader on the M5660, although build kubota website offers it as an option. He was not interested in selling a MX5800 for some reason.