Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance.

   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance. #11  
I would disagree with the land plane suggestion.
While it is an easy implement to use for leveling, as you know, your drive-in is not level.
You need to level some areas, but you also need to maintain a pitch on each of your parking rows.
Over time, the land plane will be slowly tearing down that pitch.
A rear blade will take a lot more finesse to use, but it will keep your rows in much better condition.
Way back in the late 50's I worked as an assistant to the owner of a drive-in (707 cars), but we had an all asphalt surface.
That drive-in, I worked at 60 years ago, is still alive and well!
Wellfleet Drive-In Theatre !!!

The drive ins I have been to were always flat gravel drives and lots/rows. It was divided by color, small cars park in the center and closer to the screen, SUVs and trucks in the back and further off to the sides, the screen was big enough it was never an issue parking this way.

The movies played on an AM station or threw the little speaker boxes by the parking spots.

And below the screen was 40-50ft of grass you could put chairs and blankets on. I always put a mattress in the bed of my pickup with a bunch of blankets and invited a bunch of my friends, those days we could fit 5-6 of us on a full size mattress in the bed of my F150 lol

The good old days.

They also charged by person up to 4 then it was a car load price so hiding in the trunk wasn't needed lol.
 
   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance.
  • Thread Starter
#12  
I would disagree with the land plane suggestion.
While it is an easy implement to use for leveling, as you know, your drive-in is not level.
You need to level some areas, but you also need to maintain a pitch on each of your parking rows.
Over time, the land plane will be slowly tearing down that pitch.
A rear blade will take a lot more finesse to use, but it will keep your rows in much better condition.
Way back in the late 50's I worked as an assistant to the owner of a drive-in (707 cars), but we had an all asphalt surface.
That drive-in, I worked at 60 years ago, is still alive and well!
Wellfleet Drive-In Theatre !!!

Very Cool!!

One of the owners of Wellfleet is the president of our United Drive In Theater Owners Association. That is a very nice theatre!!
 
   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance.
  • Thread Starter
#13  
The drive ins I have been to were always flat gravel drives and lots/rows. It was divided by color, small cars park in the center and closer to the screen, SUVs and trucks in the back and further off to the sides, the screen was big enough it was never an issue parking this way.

The movies played on an AM station or threw the little speaker boxes by the parking spots.

And below the screen was 40-50ft of grass you could put chairs and blankets on. I always put a mattress in the bed of my pickup with a bunch of blankets and invited a bunch of my friends, those days we could fit 5-6 of us on a full size mattress in the bed of my F150 lol

The good old days.

They also charged by person up to 4 then it was a car load price so hiding in the trunk wasn't needed lol.

I'm sure those were great times. We were car load at my older Drive in until 2002 then the studios got very greedy and wouldn't let me show first run. I would of had to wait till almost dvd release to show the films so we became per-person to receive new releases.
 
   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance. #14  
The drive ins I have been to were always flat gravel drives and lots/rows. It was divided by color, small cars park in the center and closer to the screen, SUVs and trucks in the back and further off to the sides, the screen was big enough it was never an issue parking this way.

The movies played on an AM station or threw the little speaker boxes by the parking spots.

And below the screen was 40-50ft of grass you could put chairs and blankets on. I always put a mattress in the bed of my pickup with a bunch of blankets and invited a bunch of my friends, those days we could fit 5-6 of us on a full size mattress in the bed of my F150 lol

The good old days.

They also charged by person up to 4 then it was a car load price so hiding in the trunk wasn't needed lol.

Never have seen a "flat" drive-in theatre!
 
   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance.
  • Thread Starter
#15  
Ozoner Bill, I have fond memories at the drive ins! Great to see you still keeping some Americana alive. Bob

Thank you Bob, I love it:)
 
   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance. #16  
Thank you Bob, I love it:)

The original owner/manager of the theater John M. Jentz, was a personal friend of mine.
I can walk to the theater from my 287 year old family home (which I still use in Summer).
Original business name was: Spring Brook Center Inc. Don't know if they are still using that.
I started working there in about 1955?..... when they first opened.
Of course, they now have an indoor 4 theater facility as well.
 
   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance. #17  
Never have seen a "flat" drive-in theatre!

Sky view drive in theater in Lancaster Ohio, you can google and see the lot, if it's sloped, it's not by enough that I remembered.
 
   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance. #18  
I'd get a CUT (35-40 hp engine, hydrostatic tranny, 4WD, power steering, dual rear hydraulic remotes, front end loader with 5-ft wide bucket and skid steer quick attach option, and, possibly, a cab).

Implements: for the driveways between the speaker rows I'd use a 5-ft wide land plane. For the parking areas by the speakers I'd use some type of heavy roller/scraper implement and drive over the humps in a direction perpendicular to the driveways.

Good luck
 
   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance. #19  
Forgot to ask if your drive-in is paved with coarse gravel or with crusher run gravel (mix of coarse, medium and fine size gravel) like that used on driveways and as the gravel base for paved county roads. Also, remembering back to the early 1950s, before the gates at the drive-in opened each night, the gravel was dampened to keep the dust down. Tanker truck. I assume this practice is still used. Before dressing up the gravel with your tractor and implements, it might be a good idea to wet down the gravel.

Personal note: my son, DIL and grandkids enjoy the new drive-in that was opened 2 or 3 years ago in the town they live in, Guymon OK.

Good luck
 
   / Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance. #20  
was to young to remember drive in thetere that i went too, once or twice.

might suggest posting a picture of your lots. and give approx acreage of the lots. this would give other folks ability to see what you are up against. and help you narrow down your choices.

3 sites for used and new equipment
TractorHouse.com | Used Tractors For Sale: John Deere, Case IH, New Holland, Kubota.
MachineryTrader.com | Backhoes for sale, skid steers, excavators, dozers.
craigslist: chicago jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events

craiglist = be careful if looks to go to be true most likely a scam. if ad is there one day and gone next, most likely folks flagged it for scam and it was removed. ((have personal been flagging some crud lately as on search for a vehicle))

box blade most likely wanted, mainly due to the scraficer teeth / rippers you can raise / lower. to help break up compacted rock areas. then come back and re-smooth things out.
a rear blade might be a good choice as well.
land plane / scraper grader might be a good choice as well

all 3 above have there specific uses, but needing some sort of ripper/scrapper is going to be wanted most likely. to deal with hard compacted rock. a rear blade may seem extra, but there short thickness as in being able to back right up to an area and drop blade down to scrap rock away from fences to concrete wheel stops for cars and like. land plane / scrapper might be wanted as well. they act like a "sifter" per say, bring larger rock that has sunk down into the ground some and bring the rock back up on top of the surface. allowing the smaller stuff to fall down below.

TNT (top and tilt) it is expensive, but i am guessing you have enough curves, ditches, and like, were you wall want to constantly adjust the angle of the above 3 items. using the turnbuckles to adjust the 3pt hitch is slow and painful. the TNT replaces the turn buckles on the 3pt hitch with a hydraulic cylinder one for top link and one of the side link turnbuckles. it can really help ya get final touches on stuff and feather things out as you finishing things out.

make sure you get the extra check chains / sway bars/chains for 3pt hitch. 3pt hitches are better designed for pulling stuff, when you go into a turn and not pickup an implement you can twist and damage the 3pt hitch, the chains/bars help keep things under control better. also 3pt hitch not really best when backing up with implement on ground. while 3pt hitch can do it. you are at higher risk of buckling and bending the 3pt hitch up some.

FEL (front end loader) most likely going to be wanted, standard bucket with straight edge on it for a lip. so you can back grade and move material around as needed.
not sure if a "tooth bar" make it bolt on or strap on for FEL bucket. would be needed for you.

not sure if you would need a chain harrow or harrow or like, to help smooth stuff out. if you have pea gravel. and some grass / weeds here and there. then it might be suggested then. so you can rip stuff up with say a box blade rippers and smooth stuff out, then run harrow across stuff to drag all the clumps of dirt / weeds out to one side of the lot / spot to come back and shovel out / scrap away with FEL.

if you get option of a backhoe bucket, you do not need something largely wide, but say 6 to 8" wide, and longer between back of bucket to the teeth / cutting edge. hopefully some sort of hole/s on back side of bucket so if you get into wet mud, suction power does not hold the mud in the bucket (holes break suction and let mud fall out) teeth on backhoe bucket can be nice, to help break into really compacted nearly seems like concrete dirt. but it is just really compacted and dry dirt.

=============

be careful if drive in is old lot, and rock lot is worn down, you may be at higher risk, of snagging a wire or like going to individual speaker locations to each car spot. get your lots marked out for were all the wires run. and then take some video and lots of pictures. so you can review them a year from now, and remember were the wires are.

=============

to note it, if i see a lot of physical individual park spots, with clearly defined spots. i might suggest going with a skid steer. simple to the fact you can turn them on a dime in any direction. and ability to maneuver right were you want nice and fast. vs a tractor that has a big turning radius.

i am not a fan of smaller tractors in sub compact range, due to they tend to lack one crucial thing i require. "split" left and right rear brakes. so i can brake the right tire to turn quicker, or left brake to turn left quicker. along with simply getting my rear unstuck (been there done that way to many times).

=============
if you see a water tank couple hundered gallons or so. or a little trailer you could load up with some 55 gallon drums and plumb them together. to create a DIY spray rig might be suggested, if you are having problems with "dust storms" from wind blowing. so you can load up trailer with water and run across area to wet stuff down. every now and then you can pickup say a 400 to 500 gallon water tank that fits in back of pickup trucks fairly cheap. having stuff slightly wet after you get done grading, can help get stuff to "compact better" so folks are not tearing stuff up later on.

i would avoid the thought of hooking a regular trail to back of tractor. the 3pt hitch. raises up be default, and can cause the rear tires of tractor to come off ground. granted many folks including myself hook up trailers to 3pt hitch, but you need "STAY STRAPS/BARS" for the 3pt hitch so as to keep the 3pt hitch at certain position. between times of unhooking another implement, putting on stay straps, and hooking up to trailer. you could of hooked up to a regular truck and already spraying.

with above said, another sub compact tractor issue, you may not have a spot / hole that comes out under tractor just below the PTO shaft to put a ball on. to hook up to a trailer. so can avoid 3pt hitch all together when hooking up to a trailer.

a bigger lawn roller, or being able to load the FEL up with something, and put weight on rear end of tractor. and simply driving over entire lot, 1 tire width at a time, might help with compaction as well.
 
Last edited:

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

Cat 66" Skidloader Bucket (A50774)
Cat 66" Skidloader...
2010 Ford Edge SE SUV (A51694)
2010 Ford Edge SE...
2018 Ford Fusion Hybrid Sedan (A50324)
2018 Ford Fusion...
2019 Case-IH 370 Steiger (A50120)
2019 Case-IH 370...
2013 Chevrolet Caprice Sedan (A50324)
2013 Chevrolet...
2010 Ford Edge SE SUV (A51694)
2010 Ford Edge SE...
 
Top