Buying Advice PT1445 talk me off this fence

[Toomanymaples]

Wow... Welcome to the precipice. You really kicked a hornets nest with great questions and if we keep throwing in two cents at a time you'll be able to buy a cut and a pt.

I run tractors and pt in my land care work. Establish and maintain fields, food plots and way more.

In my experience... Disclaimer, disclaimer 2, ymmv:

On the round bale lift, 425=nope. At 1200# lift, the 1850 can lift a dry one..., Too mulch bulk, to far from CoG. I can nudge them around and load them on a bale mover (low to ground trailer/unroller).

So this is where my search started for something that wasn't a 40hp tractor, my primary reason was to park it in the barn. I kicked around the idea of an Avant 500 series until I got some quotes from dealers on them and then quietly flushed that idea down the toilet. :shocked:

So from my limited understanding most lift capacities are measured at the pins and any weight carried out in front of that carries a penalty against the lift capacity. I quickly found out that the 25hp tractors my wife wanted to get couldn't lift those 800lb rounds safely. I'm hoping that the 1445 with the 1800lb lift capacity would handle a 800lb bale. We don't need to lift to full height and moving the hay to the animals is level and safe.

Most of us have a pt bc a tractor wouldn't get the job done safely, repeatedly.

This is why we are looking at the PT, it just makes sense for our situation.

If you are considering the bigger pt to solve the bale lifting problem, that $ could be applied to a venerable farm tractor and other attachments for the smaller pt. A lot of roll feeding guys here use a pick up w bale bed (like Harper makes).

Man, that just might work. I hadn't considered a smaller PT and a tractor for the heavy lifting. Great idea!

 

[SpringHollow]

With the auto leveling seat you do loose a concept of how steep you are. I did a nice tumble once at 40 degrees.

Do you mean when you stepped off the tractor?

 

[Toomanymaples]

So I am happy to invite you down to our farm in Woodland WA. That would be close to Portland (21 miles north of the OR Border). I have an 1850 that is well abused. The downside of this invite is that I am gone this weekend, and will be heading out to my next project in two weeks.

Woodland, thank you. I seem to find myself heading down to Portland every so often, was down there last year for my good buddies 40th. The area you are in is one of my favorite parts of that drive, where the river meets up with I5. We are not rushing the decision making process, and by we, I mean I am not. :laughing:

Everything else has been manufactured by myself or adapted from the tractor world. It is not hard.

Wow! That's pretty impressive man. You made implements!! I once made a giant split rolling work bench and I was patting myself on the back for weeks on that one.

In all honestly I think the PT is a less reliable machine than a Kubota or any of the more conventional tractors. There are a number of reasons for this, from manufacturing issues (each machine is hand made) to less expensive parts (trying to keep price points low and reliablity high is tough game) to abuse, and in this group I am probably the person who puts his machine through the most abouse. That said, the lack of reliablity is only moderately different, and for the most part, parts are easy to come by and you can do all the work yourself if you want. If not, any decent mechanic can figure out the machine quickly. We PT owners are a small but fierce community, until you have been on one you really have no clue how great they are.

This sums very well up what I was already suspecting. This particular point is going to be a hard sell to the wife in regards to feeding the animals. Despite the PTs apparent short comings, I cannot help but want one.

Are they less or more expensive to maintain than a tractor?

Maintain? Same price. Repair? It is different, one of my wheel motors is leaking, it will be $1000. A normal tractor does not have a wheel motor but if the transmission is leaking well, that is 3 to 4K to split a tractor and repair. More than likely the engine you will get will be a Deutz engine, which is incredibly reliable but german made and thus incredibly expensive to buy parts for. Just like a BMW.

It sounds to me that maintenance and repairs might be comparable so that is a real plus.

 

[Toomanymaples]

The 1445 will pucker; you just have to load it up enough, like filling the 1 cu yd. bucket with wet clay soil or rocks.

I have carried 6-700 labs of hay just in the front bucket, with the forks it is north of 1200#. I buy hay by weight so the weight per bale varies, so those aren't 100% numbers, but close.

I think that the PTs are more reliable than most of the imports for the major items, minor ones, a little less. (I have had the solenoid for the starter die twice in the first 200 hours, and now it has gone another 800.)
In 1000 hours, I have

1. Replaced a bad motor from the factory at 5 hours
2. Replaced a second motor, getting back my first at about 100 hours a year later. (Terry said that they never fail.)
3. Had the solenoids on the starter die twice.
4. Had the starter die at about 200 hours, put an after market in for $200
5. Replaced a few brush hog blades until I learned to grease and sharpen them.
6. Routine oil and air filter changes
7. I changed all of the oil after ~8 years from 15W40 to 15W50 in the hopes that it might help powering up steep slopes in the summer heat. (It didn't, and the old oil was pristine looking.)

This is super helpful Peter. 1000hrs is a good chunk of time to put in on any machine. This gives me some hope and puts to rest the idea that I would be waiting in anticipation for the next thing to break on it, which is honestly was the biggest thing holding me back. Although, that must have been a tough pill to swallow initially with the motors.

I added front and rear LED lights. Built my own chipper. I have put in ~1800 feet of wood fence, using the post driver, not auger. Built an arena, installed underground drainage for it, trenched in who knows how many feet of pipe. Used the front bucket push in T-posts, and used the both the large and the 4N1 bucket to pull both wooden fence posts and T-posts. I mow once or twice every year for thistle and brush. I haul hay daily, manure once a week, rototill the garden and the manure pile. Used the trencher to dig holes for trees in the orchard. I clean the road gutters with the front bucket. I use the front bucket as a mobile work platform all the time; I don't worry about running the generator in there, as there is nothing to catch fire. Fire is a big deal in California, and I try not to be part of a statistic. Nothing like being able to carry 800lbs of fencing gear to exactly where you want it on the fence; the PT is the envy of the neighbors, who have to use ATVs, with greatly reduced load and slope. We also added electric fence with the PT, just drove it along adding insulators and unspooling the wire as we drove. It was a piece of cake.

Sounds like 1000hrs well spent. I could not imagine building my own chipper, that is pretty cool man. I hadn't thought about using a 4in1 bucket that way, we have about 900 feet of rotted fence that needs to be pulled and reposted. Do you use the PT fence post driver?

Many thanks!!!

 

[Toomanymaples]

I have not regretted the decision even for a second. I can run circles around my buddy and his Kubota.

I am really glad to hear another vote of confidence.

I can say, the 425 will lift and move more than 800lbs, but you need to throw a 275lb buddy on the engine cover.

I've seen counterweights on Avants and other similar loaders. I can't picture what a buddy looks like, would you mind explaining how that works?

The only real issue I've had with my machine was straight from the factory and was a bad o-ring in the carburetor, but that was on Subaru, not PT.

Terry at PT was interested to hear about it but ultimately pointed the finger over at Subaru and helped me with info on how to deal with them. I ended up pulling the carb myself, replacing with a fuel-resistant ring from Autozone and haven't had a problem since.

I do experience a bit of difficulty of cold-weather starting, and you will find plenty of posts about that here, but I keep it in the barn or the garage and no issues.

How cold does it get where you are? Lowest it gets here is in the teens.

I have used this machine in everything from cutting the grass to hauling a massive amount of dropped timber to clearing a few acres at different properties. As far as working on slopes, I find that my internal gyroscope makes me chicken out before the machine does. It's like riding around on a mountain goat, which also leads to why I've got probably 2 dozen plugs in the tires. Why go around when you can just go over.

:laughing:

I would say these machines do look like a reject from the golf car assembly line, but good lord can you get some work done with them. Our last snowfall, I did 17 driveways just for the enjoyment and helping the neighbors out.

I've got a lot of attachments for it, the only issue I've had with these is that I've bowed a part of the utility grapple a bit (I use it a ton and it was totally my fault for how I was using it) and then I've also knocked 3 of the 4 teeth off the mini-hoe. That I think was a shoddy welding job by PT but overall not to worried about it as those can be welded back on without too much effort. I do not have any attachments I am disappointed in. I even love the spring rake that others tried to steer me away from.

I saw a couple threads on the spring rake. One in particular looked interesting. Per my namesake, there are a LOT of maple leaves here in the fall. Would an attachment like the spring rake help?

Now mind you, it gets wet here sometime in October and can stay that way until late spring. You might get a few dry spells where the leaves dry up enough to move them a bit more easily. When they are wet, they can be, uncooperative...

I spent the better part of 5 weeks raking/blowing/tarping them up this year. I think it was somewhere between 10-15 yards of leaves when it was all accounted for and that was just the front of the property. So if the spring rake does what I think it does... :scratchchin:

 

[Toomanymaples]

My PT422 is a year 2000. I have 1300 hours on it and put in a new engine last summer. I did have to put one rebuilt wheel motor in about 8 years ago. Also a new carburetor and ignition coil. Buying this machine was one of the best things I have ever done. It is so easy to change attachments that during one project you may make several swap outs.

Thanks Bob. That sounds like a reasonable amount of maintenance and repair work for the hours you have on it.

 

[Toomanymaples]

I just started to read this thread so I may duplicate somethings. I have a 1430 and at the time [2004] I would have liked to have been able to buy a 1445 but could not afford. I have about 2000 hours and it is going strong with only normal maintenance. That is except when someone working for me managed to destroy both front wheel motors by driving into a tree. I took the opportunity to upgrade all motors. Since then I have had 2 hydraulic lines to wheel motors develop leaks and replaced one fuel line.I do lube and change hydraulic the filter regularly The parking break is hard to keep adjusted and I do not use. I bought the 1430 because the 425 had a limitation on how much slope the engine can operate and the 1430 did not. I have been happy with the 1430 but would like the 1445 if I could afford. I still need a conventional tractor for plowing but the PT does many things well and I would recommend it.

Thanks Farm. Wow! That sounds like what I would expect repair wise from a JD or other big name. I didn't know about the parking brake adjustment... I'll keep that in mind should we get one.

 

[SpringHollow]

I've seen counterweights on Avants and other similar loaders. I can't picture what a buddy looks like, would you mind explaining how that works? :

He means have a big friend sit on the back of the tractor.

 

[MossRoad]

He means have a big friend sit on the back of the tractor.

Hey, I resemble that remark.... :laughing:

 

[MossRoad]

I am really glad to hear another vote of confidence.



I've seen counterweights on Avants and other similar loaders. I can't picture what a buddy looks like, would you mind explaining how that works?



How cold does it get where you are? Lowest it gets here is in the teens.

:laughing:



I saw a couple threads on the spring rake. One in particular looked interesting. Per my namesake, there are a LOT of maple leaves here in the fall. Would an attachment like the spring rake help?

Now mind you, it gets wet here sometime in October and can stay that way until late spring. You might get a few dry spells where the leaves dry up enough to move them a bit more easily. When they are wet, they can be, uncooperative...

I spent the better part of 5 weeks raking/blowing/tarping them up this year. I think it was somewhere between 10-15 yards of leaves when it was all accounted for and that was just the front of the property. So if the spring rake does what I think it does... :scratchchin:

I have a tow-behind lawn sweeper (Brinly brand), that is ground driven. It is cheap. I bought it for under $300 about 10-12 years ago. I finally wore it out this year. Deciding if I should rebuild it or just replace it this summer for next fall. So, about $30 per season if you want to look at it that way.

If the leaves are nice and dry, I'll mow over them with the 60" finish mower, and since it's rear discharge, they go right under the machine and the rear towed sweeper picks them up nicely. Once the hopper is full, I drive back to my composting area, back in the sweeper, and pull a rope that I have tied to the top of the sweeper, and the other end is tied to the ending cover lift handle. Give it a good pull and start driving forward and it'll dump out very easily. Give the rope a snap up, and the hopper flips back down into position and off I go again.

If the leave are wet, I don't mow them first, because they'll stick to everything. I just sweep. That takes about 10 times more trips to the pile, though.

I've often thought about getting a 30" round single-blade deck off of a Snapper riding mower and mounting it underneath my Rubbermaid cart. Put a conduit or wood frame on the cart, a cheap tarp cut and sewn to fit, and power the deck with a hydraulic motor. It would make a good leaf pickup device. Just haven't had time to mess with it, and the sweeper works well enough to have never promoted me to pursue it.