Went down to Tazwel yesterday

[MossRoad]

I am going easy on the arm rest, trying not to push down on them when I get off the tractor.

Boy that Wheel horse is strange looking where are the foot pedals? I have seen L series Kubota tractors (overseas models) it was a reversed one where you sat where my dash is and the foot pedals were up where the traditional seat was and you faced the 3pt hitch.
All my experience on articulated machines where operated from the rear half, like a 2430 which I thought was nicer to operate but too high to get on and off easily. I do a lot of short moves with forks, lift chains/slings and really like how low the traditional PT is.
The seat belt is always a good idea. I need to cut about 2' off of mine that hangs down and I worry about it getting caught on something.
Never had any tractor up on two side wheels. Two front are fine, it will only go to the bucket or load touches the ground, the rears aren't bad if you have something to limit how high it will go up. Crazy if you don't, going over backward without a rollbar might be the worse thing you can do.

The wheelhorse airhorse (they made them from Deere's too), is hydrostatic driven by a lever with your right hand in traditional seating, which is your left hand when sitting on the seat. There's a brake pedal for your left foot in traditional seating, which is your right heal when sitting on the seat. So you hop on the seat, put your right heel on the brake pedal, which automatically forces the directional/speed lever to the neutral position. Start it up. Crank the throttle all the way up. Then off you go with the directional/speed lever with your left hand as you let off the foot brake with your right heel. Steer with your right hand. It's really nice because you're facing the aircraft. You pull up to the nose wheel, then use a lever with your right hand to lower and open the jaws. They drop to the ground, then spread open. You advance until the front of the plane's nose wheel touches the back of the forks. Then you pull the jaw lever, and it closes around the bottom of the plane's tire, and lifts it off the ground. Like cupping your hands around something. Then off you go in reverse. It has a tow rating of 25,000 pounds. Yes, that's correct. 25,000 pounds. Aircraft roll very easily.

It has adapters to allow you to scoop up dual wheel nose gears, like Mitsubishi MU2's, or pull split tow bars for things like Beech 18's from the main gear, not the tailwheel.

Anyhow, it's about the most useful little tug ever made. Super easy to operate, and gentle on the planes.


For my PT425 seatbelt, if it's fastened, it won't go under the rear tires. I throw the slack on the left over my left thigh between my legs. If you forget to put the seatbelt on, and it hangs, the left tires are gonna grab it and bend your seat down and to the left.

 

[MossRoad]

Want to move lots of material in a hurry, like rock, sand, etc....? Fill the bucket with as much as the machine can lift, only lift the bucket about 2" off the ground, and take off in reverse at full throttle and foot pedal. 8mph in reverse. You can haul asterisk in reverse. The full bucket in reverse just skims along like a wheelie bar if your rears come off the ground. Get to where you're going, stop, turn around and dump, then take off at full speed in reverse again. If you try that in forward, you'll tear up the ground each time the bucket hits, plus come to skidding jolts if you bunch up a mound of soil in front of the bucket. Can't happen in reverse.

This is where the arm rests come in very handy. Just put your preferred elbow on the rest and look a bit over your shoulder. I've done multiple 4 hour stints (that's how much gas I have at one shot) at this breakneck speed when I had to move 60 yards of moon dust (granulated limestone), from a central pile and spread it across 4 ball diamonds in a weekend. People were shocked at how fast I moved those 3 truckloads of material those long distances with no damage to the turf.

We had a guy with a large backhoe laugh at me and my little machine, so he went home and got it. He came back and buried his tires in the outfield a couple times before he realized he was causing more damage than moving material. He left in embarrassment. :laughing: I could move 3 loads to his one, which is the same amount, as I had a 1/3 yard bucket and he had a 1 yard bucket. But my machine is way faster and lighter, and wouldn't sink in the well watered grassy fields. I tried telling him that's why we didn't have the material dumped right on the diamonds, because the truck would sink. He wouldn't listen. A lot of folks won't listen.

 

[m5040]

I like going to antique engine and tractor shows. One of those tugs would be a cool thing to bring as I think most people have never seen one. I actually brought the PT180 to drive around today. Didn't get too far with it because it drew a crowd of people asking questions. I wonder how many calls Tazewell will get this week and if they will sell any?

 

[MossRoad]

Yep, I get the looks and questions anytime I take my 425 someplace.

Hey, I found a video of a guy moving some planes with an airhorse. Takes him a couple minutes to get it started. Looks like a very cold hangar! hahaha

Enjoy!

 

[m5040]

Kind of a testament to how tough the PTs are just by reading what you do with yours....

 

[MossRoad]

At that same little league park I was tasked with removing dozens of telephone poles and railroad ties along a few parking lots. I used the pallet forks and was pleasantly surprised how easy it was to get under them and move them to a central location. Then how responsive and strong the hydraulics were when I used them to fling the RR ties into a pile. I could fling them a good 5' away from the machine with a flip of the joystick. Quite handy.

Of course, it's also a curse. Several times I've raised the bucket overheaping with loose dirt too fast too high and flung a pile of dirt onto my lap! Imagine if that was a good sized chunk of wood or rocks heaped over the top of the bucket. Serious injury could result. So it's a lesson to not overload the bucket and always pay attention to what you're doing. Going slow is much safer in some instances. Production VS safety, all that stuff. Be careful out there.

 

[m5040]

The loaded bucket problem is worse with the PT180 as it has no self leveling feature that all the other PTs have with that center bell crank and how it moves the bucket forward as you raise the loader. When you raise the 180 all the way up you can almost dump the bucket either way (forward or back) (and no ROPS, so whatever is in the bucket can roll down the arms into your lap). I think the 180 has more degrees of bucket travel then the 1430, I will have to check some day.

 

[MossRoad]

The 425 doesn't have a self leveling bucket. I don't think any of their models have a self leveling bucket.

 

[m5040]

The bucket on the PT180 (the bottom line basic tractor) will stay exactly where you set it with the bucket control and as you raise the arms with the hoist control, it can go from moderately rolled back when low to spilling over on the backside when at full height (the angle of the arms to bucket stays consistent). If you watch close on the other PT models with the Z center linkage, the bucket uncurls as you hoist up, somewhat keeping the same angle from low height to raised (angle from loader arms to bucket changes). Loaders like Trojan or Deere, the bucket will stay at the same angle as you hoist up, it is very beneficial.

 

[airbiscuit]

Kind of a testament to how tough the PTs are just by reading what you do with yours....

It's been reported that PTs are better than any CUT ever made.