OP
Toomanymaples
Member
I'm willing to give the sweeper a shot, sounds a lot simpler to just drive over them. How well does it work on uneven terrain?
Buying Advice PT1445 talk me off this fence
- Thread starter Toomanymaples
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I'm willing to give the sweeper a shot, sounds a lot simpler to just drive over them. How well does it work on uneven terrain?
MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
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- 57,931
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
Uneven terrain the basket will bottom out and cause wear as it slides along the ground. Gentle slopes aren't a problem. My yard is table-top flat.
OP
Toomanymaples
Member
Table top flat, that must be nice.
We are on a hill, lots of small rises/drops, retaining walls, divots and other fun obstacles. I can only drive my 25hp JD riding mower into the green areas. Leaves drop everywhere, I treat all the white areas like beds. Blow them out until they get too thick and then rake what can't be blown into piles.
Oh yea to make it more interesting, we get severe windstorms here. The property gets littered with sticks and branches. I process the larger branches... the sticks not so much. So it is wet leaves and sticks
MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 57,931
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
Yep. We live on just a tad over 1 acre. F.L.A.T. flat. We own about 20 acres of rolling land about 9 miles away. There's about a 65' drop in elevation from high to low, with several rises and falls, steep sandy soil and a couple places I cannot walk up or down. I harvest firewood off of it, and maintain about 2 miles of walking trails. We'd like to build there some day, but maybe not. I've got mixed forest of hardwoods. And a small 4 acre field with alternating rows of pines and mixed hardwoods. About 2000 trees on the 4 acres, 20,000 trees on 10 acres, and 3-4000 junk cherries on 6 acres that we let grow wild and I regret it deeply. Never let nature do it's thing. It'll poop on you. :laughing:
OP
Toomanymaples
Member
Wow Moss, that sounds like a substantial amount of land to manage. From your posts/videos it seems like you have a lot of fun with it too!!
MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 57,931
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
It's only a lot of land to manage if you decide to manage it all. We don't. :laughing:
We originally bought a very used late 70's IH2500b for $5K
It's tractor loader. That is, it's got a permanent loader on the front, and a tractor rear end with 3pt hitch and 540rpm 50hp pto on the back. It is 2wd with a gas engine and hydrostatic drive. 2sp range selector. Draft control on the 3pt hitch. Locking differential, split brake pedals on the right, forward and reverse pedals on the left. Hand throttle under the steering wheel. Foot throttle on right foot. Some other stuff I'm forgetting. Had 4000 hours on it when we bought it. Heater in the cab (nice in winter). No air (awful in summer, even with doors removed). It's a low-boy, meaning you straddle the transmission when you sit down. A very low center of gravity. Filled rear tires. Weighed 8000#. Had a 3/4 yard bucket.
We had a 5' brush hog and a 6' box blade with scarifier teeth. I used that to cut in the road from the highway. I had to go through about an 8' hill, about 60' back. The state mandates where you can put a driveway, so I had no choice. The land is all sand, with about 4 acres of adrian muck in the low lands. Fortunately for me, I obtained a soil map of our county, found our plot, found a pocket of gravel, which just happened to be exactly where they wanted me to put the road in.
So I cut in a road about 350-400' back, 10' wide and about 12" deep in the sand and set it to the side. Removed the top soil from the gravel bank. Removed the gravel and spread it 6" deep in the roadway trench, and bought many truck loads of steel mill slag for the top coat. Spread that 6" deep. Great road.
We also used that tractor to mow between the rows of our pines and hardwoods for 5 years, and remove some large trees where we plan to put a barn and house. I could drive up to a 10" tree, put the bucket up against it about 10' in the air, and pretty much push/drive over the tree. It was quite fun.
Then...... all the heavy work was done. The machine was too big to get into the woods, or fit down the rows of trees. It was too far to drive on the road without going on highways to get it home if it needed work. We bought the PT425, and quite honestly, with the exception of pushing trees over and pulling that big box blade, the PT425 outworks that huge machine. It's faster, smaller, does less damage to the property, costs less to operate, costs less to repair, and can fit in the back of a standard 8' bed pickup truck WITH an attachment or two. It is a great tool for maintaining the property, which, in our case, means mowing trails, brush cutting, small meadow mowing, and pulling firewood from the woods, as we heat our home with wood, and go through about 4-6 cords per winter, depending on the temps.
We sold the big tractor after it sat for several years unused. Just no reason to keep it.
So that's some things for you to think about as well. Do you have large projects that you need to accomplish? Will that impact the size of the machine(s) you want to get? Once those large projects are complete, will you need to keep a larger machine? Stuff like that.
We originally bought a very used late 70's IH2500b for $5K
It's tractor loader. That is, it's got a permanent loader on the front, and a tractor rear end with 3pt hitch and 540rpm 50hp pto on the back. It is 2wd with a gas engine and hydrostatic drive. 2sp range selector. Draft control on the 3pt hitch. Locking differential, split brake pedals on the right, forward and reverse pedals on the left. Hand throttle under the steering wheel. Foot throttle on right foot. Some other stuff I'm forgetting. Had 4000 hours on it when we bought it. Heater in the cab (nice in winter). No air (awful in summer, even with doors removed). It's a low-boy, meaning you straddle the transmission when you sit down. A very low center of gravity. Filled rear tires. Weighed 8000#. Had a 3/4 yard bucket.
We had a 5' brush hog and a 6' box blade with scarifier teeth. I used that to cut in the road from the highway. I had to go through about an 8' hill, about 60' back. The state mandates where you can put a driveway, so I had no choice. The land is all sand, with about 4 acres of adrian muck in the low lands. Fortunately for me, I obtained a soil map of our county, found our plot, found a pocket of gravel, which just happened to be exactly where they wanted me to put the road in.
So I cut in a road about 350-400' back, 10' wide and about 12" deep in the sand and set it to the side. Removed the top soil from the gravel bank. Removed the gravel and spread it 6" deep in the roadway trench, and bought many truck loads of steel mill slag for the top coat. Spread that 6" deep. Great road.
We also used that tractor to mow between the rows of our pines and hardwoods for 5 years, and remove some large trees where we plan to put a barn and house. I could drive up to a 10" tree, put the bucket up against it about 10' in the air, and pretty much push/drive over the tree. It was quite fun.
Then...... all the heavy work was done. The machine was too big to get into the woods, or fit down the rows of trees. It was too far to drive on the road without going on highways to get it home if it needed work. We bought the PT425, and quite honestly, with the exception of pushing trees over and pulling that big box blade, the PT425 outworks that huge machine. It's faster, smaller, does less damage to the property, costs less to operate, costs less to repair, and can fit in the back of a standard 8' bed pickup truck WITH an attachment or two. It is a great tool for maintaining the property, which, in our case, means mowing trails, brush cutting, small meadow mowing, and pulling firewood from the woods, as we heat our home with wood, and go through about 4-6 cords per winter, depending on the temps.
We sold the big tractor after it sat for several years unused. Just no reason to keep it.
So that's some things for you to think about as well. Do you have large projects that you need to accomplish? Will that impact the size of the machine(s) you want to get? Once those large projects are complete, will you need to keep a larger machine? Stuff like that.
OP
Toomanymaples
Member
Pushing over trees sounds like fun Moss. You put in a road, don't have anything remotely close to that on the honey do list.
I might get a few hours here and there to mow or turn over the manure pile. Don't get me wrong there are things I would like to do, but just don't have time for. Maybe getting a PT would change that :thumbsup:
This thread has been a real help to me, I can't thank you fellas enough. I'm officially off the fence. Time to talk it over with the Mrs.
I might get a few hours here and there to mow or turn over the manure pile. Don't get me wrong there are things I would like to do, but just don't have time for. Maybe getting a PT would change that :thumbsup:
This thread has been a real help to me, I can't thank you fellas enough. I'm officially off the fence. Time to talk it over with the Mrs.
ponytug
Super Member
Nice post Moss! I wish that I had a gravel pit on the property or a steel mill nearby!
Whatever tractor you buy, use the ROPS, and wear your seatbelt!
Tractor Rollovers - YouTube
Stay safe out there!
All the best,
Peter
Whatever tractor you buy, use the ROPS, and wear your seatbelt!
Tractor Rollovers - YouTube
Stay safe out there!
All the best,
Peter
MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 57,931
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
I'd have never of expected finding gravel on that property. My forester gave me a soil book for our county. They were quite expensive back then. Now, everything is free on-line.