Things I didn't consider when buying

[finn1]

Beam type torque wrenches are accurate and cheap. Probably better than a cheap HF clicker.

 

[jeff9366]

There are a lot of good solutions to this one, if you peruse the site. I haven't done it yet, but plan to build a box to slide into the tube on the bottom of the loader frame. I already carry a chain there.

I strongly advise not carrying things in the bucket, as it's too easy to forget it's there. It's a sickening feeling when you see your "newly modified" chainsaw appear between the front tires... and don't ask me how I know that.

Or, you can ask me. I have dumped my chain saw or spade/bow rake/1 gallon sprayer out of the bucket at least 20 times in eight years.


I wanted a place for 5/16" Logging Chains convenient to the rear of the tractor.

I moved the small, gray, plastic, Kubota tool box from the rear to the left fender. Simple bolt through mount on left fender.

Removed small aluminum angle the Kubota tool box was mounted on and substituted a two inch piece of angle iron running the width of the rear of the tractor, to act as a wider, more secure base. Another simple drill and bolt through mount but secure nuts with lock washers.

Mounted half a steel 40mm ammo can (9" X 14" X 3-1/2") on the two inch angle to store 8' + 12' lengths of 5/16" Logging Chains. Chains are secured by gravity. Some type of garage-sale $2 thick steel or aluminum baking pan of similar dimensions would work too.

To the right, mounted a small, tough plastic basket, in which I carry infrequently used 3/16" chain, used to pull up smaller saplings by the roots with FEL. On saplings, 5/16" chain will slip; 3/16" grips. Also keep a can of spray wax lube in the basket, to lube implement draw pins and PTO splines.

Satisfactory for past seven years.

 

[jeff9366]

I cannot imaging storing my implements on uneven ground, level cement floor is your friend.

I drop my implements on 2" thick, 8" wide lumber planks. Two, sometimes three 3' to 4' planks under each implement without stands. Planks soon settle into soil with implement weight. Planks gives you level/smooth, outside.

When planks get a little dirt on them you can slide some implements weighing 600 pounds a tiny amount, to insert hitch pins. (I am age 72.)

You will soon accumulate too many implements to store inside.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Number 2: You did know that the original grease gun end/tip was adjustable, right?

Yes, it was originally assembled by a factory-trained 800 pound gorilla. Using a couple of vise-grips (in opposite directions), and a lot of force, will loosen it.

Important note: do NOT then fully unscrew the tip assembly to 'see how it works'... the tiny internal spring will shoot out across the workshop! (It will be found three years later in the most unimaginable place. Plus, you'll then wonder what it's for.)

I had hoped that it was, I'd read that others were adjustable. But it looks like it's one piece that has no adjustment capability. It could be that my eyes just are not seeing the line between rotating parts, and that it was assembled by gorillas as you state. I've already degraded the gnurled part trying to rotate it relative to the base.

Maybe I'll have another go at it today, as I have two fittings where the lock-n-lube won't fit due to its larger size. You know this from experience on the Kubota branded grease gun?

 

[Bullwinkle123]

I found the Harbor freight wheeled pallets work great, and are cheap. I just put two under each implement, and wheel them where I want to. They are easy to stack and store when not in use. The only implement I had to build something for was my Sundown GR 20 grapple. I just built it right on the pallets.

Thanks, I already have 6 of the HF dollies (was 7, immediately broke that one). Using those is relatively straightforward for the rotary cutter, and probably the bucket (haven't tried that yet. I need more practice with the rotary cutter hitching/unhitching because when I tried to unhitch directly onto the HF dollies, after releasing the weight of the cutter, I couldn't detach it because the arms are still under load. I had to lower it all the way to the floor to eliminate arm stress (which meant I had to raise it up again to get it on the dollies). Newbie problem I'm guessing.

The scraper blade is easy for the blade part but I'm trying to figure out how I want to support the hitch end, and that makes for a weird little triangle or a much wider pallet/platform. I need to experiment with height too on the attach/detach process.

The grapple folds up nice and small, but I may add some support so it won't roll forward, haven't decided if that's necessary yet.

Mostly it's me wrestling with noobishness and learning what will and won't work. Definitely have the HF dollies at hand though.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Replace Kubota's 5/8" X 16-thread ROPS bolt with an unthreaded clevis pin, either 5/8 X 4" length or 9/16" X 4". I use 9/16" X 4".

Kubota is in a minority of tractor brands that use a threaded bolt as pivot for ROPS fold.

Clevis Pin Universal 9/16 x 4 LCS ZC (9 Pieces) | eBay

Fascinating, captain!

That'd be a time saver. Part of my frustration is that the ROPS installation is such that the bolts don't _quiiiite_ fit cleanly. What works for ROPS position on one side doesn't quite work for the other side, some jiggling is required. I bet it's much less sensitive to position without having to thread the bolts through. (Because rops pinches the threads so one bolt is hard to turn until it gets that extra jiggle(s) after the first bolt is seated).

Did you worry about whether there are safety considerations relative to the threaded bolt? As you said, you have experience with other unthreaded bolt setups, I don't.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

I really don't get the whole cement floor and wheeled dolly bit, or even parking a tractor in a garage. The 'new' shed I put up has a dirt floor. It's big enough now to get the machines in, but the implements stay outside .. in the rain. I'm hoping to build another shelter for the BH so the hoses aren't in the Sun all the time, but it too will be on dirt .. or grass.

Lights? Why put a couple of hundred watts of light up on the ceiling? Use task and flashlights focused on the job area.

Re: floor. Since I'm a first time tractor owner it's new to me (so there's a noobishness factor), and I _really_ want to minimize any need to wrestle with the implements at all because of my back. But even something as easy as the quick attach and loader bucket would be more of a pain if the bucket was tilted relative to the tractor such that I'd have to wrestle it into a horizontal position. (Which come to mind because I was eyeing it sitting on a crumbling old pallet yesterday and noticing a distinct lean to it). If I were younger I might not care, now I do. Wrestling with heavy stuff is probably how I ended up with a bad back in the first place. Perhaps I'll learn more with time, but for now, for attaching stuff, a smooth level garage floor lets me wheel stuff around more easily, and attach without level ground issues. (And the rotary cutter is hard to wheel around even on dollies on the smooth floor, what with the tiny casters on my current HF dollies).

Re: lights

Yeah, I'm making do now (though I did order a new ladder after risking life and limb to replace the old very dim bulbs with something at least mildly brighter).
But even _one_ of those small "workshop" flavored lights (versus my many ordinary and ancient flashlights which require me to hold them to be useful) cost a lot of money.

I'm very interested in installing these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07JVXLQ8...olid=2U7KH3WJG16M0&psc=1&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

That's 8200 lumens a fixture, compared to the ~1000lm (? 23watt cfls) bulbs presently in the fixtures (which take a while to warm up). If you could see my garage you'd know I was struggling with light before the tractor for my other activities in there. The tractor is just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I have bulbs and reflector dishes all over the place right now. Rube Goldberg would be embarrassed.

Still, the (new) lights would be above the tractor, and I know I need light under the tractor, so they won't fix all my problems. Still thinking about this one.

 

[oosik]

I had to get a larger torque wrench. I got a battery powered grease gun. Sometimes I wish I had ordered additional SCV valves out back. I went from Class 1 to Class 2 implements - $$$$.

Otherwise - going from a 26hp tractor to a 65hp tractor has been a great help on all projects out here.

 

[GeeVee]

I'm a new tractor owner. Things are going great, the tractor and attachments are 6 kinds of awesome.

Now that I have it, despite thinking everything to death prior to purchase, I'll just throw things on here that I didn't think of and am realizing after the fact.

1. I have all these forest trails I want to clear, and the brush hog is nice on them. Only ... the last logger left a bunch of big and too-tall stumps for me drive over. Oops! Changes how I must approach the problem. Nitrogen. Drill some holes in each stump, and lay down some nitrogen.
2. I have a Kubota branded grease gun. What I didn't consider, the grease fitting is impossible to get on/off the zerks. The Lock-N-Lube is a life saver. One grease gun may not do everything, Yard sales or new, HF prolly has a selection.
   
3. All my socket sets and 10" adjustable (or other) wrenches which have stood me in good stead for all my small project and home ownership chores are mostly useless on the tractor. They're not big enough! The nuts/bolts tend to _start_ at 1" width on all the big stuff you need to periodically check. My old sockets look like toy sockets by comparison. Even my 10" adjustable wrenches, which which I always thought of as big, are just useless on the new equipment. More $$ to amazon and home depot. HF for larger Open end set and sockets, they work
   
4. Neved had the need for a torque wrench. They're not cheap, and I'm not even looking at wrenches necessary for maintaining rotary cutter blades.
5. My garage lighting is so DIM. I need a flashlight to see anything on the tractor. So ... time for some new lighting. New 4' LED strips similar to Fluoro are about $40 and thr bright blue is really nice. Portable LED on stands or hanger/magnetic are necessary tools.
   
6. The ladder I inherited with the house to reach the 11' ceilings and basically never use, er, there's a reason I got it for free. It's a death trap. Queue new ladder so I can reach those ceilings to fix the lighting situation.
7. Dang, gonna need to spend a lot of time making wheeled pallets if I want to store my attachments in the garage. Every attachment is just a wee bit different in its pallet needs. Hope you've been collecting casters.
8. Don't forget that new diesel gas can. American Eagle, 5 gallon, $39. And a funnel!
9. That's a lot of zerks at very low height, often I have to look up at them from under the tractor. Queue the harbor freight very short wheeled stool, definitely worth it (if it lasts). Mechanics creeper from HF
   
10. That 14' 3/8" HF chain for towing stuff out of the woods is way too short. How long will I last without a proper winch? Endless yarn slings are pretty cheap and make fast chokers, then your chain is just a lead
    
11. Where am I supposed to carry stuff when the bucket isn't on the tractor (since the grapple is my favorite thing). Problem waiting to be solved, no doubt with much money. Utility vehicle.... I have run over or covered more good tools and supplies in a couple yards of dirt than I care to recall. There is no safe place on the ground to put them while working. If you can not tear it up, Receiver mount hitch rack and a Plastic "Tool" box that fits it Like a back of the truck bed box.
12. I cannot imaging storing my implements on uneven ground, level cement floor is your friend. Affects new building decisions, potentially. Outside under an open roofed building is plenty. OUt of the sun and off the ground is all that may be necessary.
    
13. I knew I'd need the ROPS for my hilly land, and I knew my garage wouldn't fit it. And I haven't forgotten, yet, to let the ROPs down when putting in the garage. Doing that every day though is gonna get old. Hey, look, I probably don't need that transom over the garage door, right? Of course that means a new door, and some work reinstalling the garage door opener.

Anyway, hoping this might be useful for some of you considering your purchase. I'm sure others have many stories here.

One thing I didn't have to buy, the mosquito netting for my hat, which I use all the time out here in bug country. Since I don't have a cab, well, the may flies were very thick on my face netting today while I was tractoring around. Thank heavens for the net.

???.


GeeVee

 

[Bullwinkle123]

The $20 Harbor Freight torque wrench is actually not all that bad. Good enough for most tractor work. I'd use my good torque wrench for critical fasteners in the engine but for everything else, +- 3% is fine. HF has decent large sockets and wrenches too.

HF has 20' "trucker's chains" on sale periodically. For logs where that's not long enough, I got one of their 65' 3/8" winch cables and some cable ferrules and cable clamps to make a loop.

Save your oldest saw chains for shortening the stumps.

At this point I've solved my tool problems. I ended up ordering some Tekton stuff, but HF probably would have been fine too. I'm not rebuilding engines, I just need to tighten the occasional bolt, but hadn't considered that my old tools were nowhere near big enough for the tractor equipment. So like my whole post, was just food for thought for people trying to figure out what a tractor is going to cost them. Heck, my dinky (old) socket set wasn't even large enough for the _small_ bolts on the gearbox housing on my new rotary cutter. So this tractor tooling is just a big step up for me, and I didn't foresee that in my planning. (I'm big on the planning... wound tightly as it were, each miss is an affront to my planning credentials. I like to have all the costs where I can see them on a spreadsheet. )

re: Chains, I have the 14' HF chain, but as I was pulling some pipes out of a ditch this week I realized it was nowhere near long enough for some of the other uses I had planned for it. An extra 6' probably won't do it for me. I always knew I'd _want_ a winch, but was hoping I'd manage my limited dragging needs with chains and the draw bar. Will see about some longer chain for now, and resist more expensive solutions. I can see where a longer chain will become an solution whose ugliness is probably proportional to the length of the chain.