Tractors and wood! Show your pics

[fried1765]

Have to agree that the loader is the handiest thing. I went over 10 years before I took mine off. But once I did and realized how much more maneuverable and nimble the tractor is it comes off pretty often now. Mowing and running the trailer in the woods especially.

Last week I needed to put in a new battery, (after 18 years!) and discovered I needed a new ground cable too. To get to the cable frame connection I had to take off the front lower cowl and battery tray - not sure I could have done it w/o removing the loader. The first time taking it off I was a little uncertain but by the 3rd time it was quick and easy. Just put it somewhere flat and be prepared to relieve the pressure in the loader lines if it has been off for a while.

gg

The loader on my sweet little Ford 1920 is quick attach, and is very easy to remove.
The loader on my Kubota L48 TLB is not, so removal would likely be a major task.

 

[Oldpath05]

Anyway, I cut this white oak out today, It's gonna make some nice firewood,

SR

The tree was so big your forks wouldn't pick it up so you had to put a chain on it.......

 

[Oldpath05]

Made use of the beautiful day to get 90% of a blown over oak View attachment 653849

What a long mule train that is not turning that around on a dime. Almost enough weight on that ole Dodge might have to touch the throttle a little bit. Bet that tractor gets light on the front end with that 3-point log loader.

 

[Oldpath05]

That makes 3 of us. When I was looking for my first tractor and went to my father for advice, the first thing that he said was "Make sure that it has a loader." Mine is also removable but has never been off the tractor. I am wondering if taking it off would make servicing easier though.

Servicing the two-stage clutch< yes, changing front tires< no.

 

[Oldpath05]

Maybe a little I suppose, I think I could get the servicing done quicker than R&R the loader.. Speaking of which, oil change day today, then mowing..

100 hr motor oil change, brand?

 

[Oldpath05]

I take my loader off about once a year, it does make servicing easier, and it allows me to clean and put a film of grease where the loader connects.

Once in a while I'll take a tillage job with that tractor, and I will pull the loader for that,

because I HATE doing tillage with a loader on!

SR

I hate getting stuck with no FEL on!!

 

[Jstpssng]

I hate getting stuck with no FEL on!!

I hate getting stuck at all, but the times I've been stuck the hardest it wouldn't have come out without the loader pulling on a chain, with the other end on a solid tree.

 

[Oldpath05]

I bought that 268xp in the above pict. new, many years ago, but I had not put a huge amount of hours on it, although me and my helper did cut some nice loads with it in the last few years,

At some point it got too hard for me to pull over, as it doesn't have a de-compression valve, so I'd have to have my helper pull it, while I hung onto it. lol Anyway, my helper just loved that saw and really wanted to buy it from me, so one day I gave in and sold it to him and he still loves the saw.SR

I bought my Jonsered 2171 in 2003 and that decompression button didn't mount a hill a beans never use it, what I noticed ten years ago it was it became to heavy to lug around.

 

[Oldpath05]

Have to agree that the loader is the handiest thing. I went over 10 years before I took mine off. But once I did and realized how much more maneuverable and nimble the tractor is it comes off pretty often now. Mowing and running the trailer in the woods especially.

Last week I needed to put in a new battery, (after 18 years!) and discovered I needed a new ground cable too. To get to the cable frame connection I had to take off the front lower cowl and battery tray - not sure I could have done it w/o removing the loader. The first time taking it off I was a little uncertain but by the 3rd time it was quick and easy. Just put it somewhere flat and be prepared to relieve the pressure in the loader lines if it has been off for a while.

gg

I'm not getting that at all, I lift my FEL all way up I can get at most everything including battery, battery box, battery cables, batrry microwave battery coffee maker and filters. I'm sure my tractor would be more nimble to but useless I'm constantly using the FEL for something. Level ground, whats that??????????

 

[BrokenTrack]

I have been wondering for years if that would work, but around here those spreaders are like 1 ton trucks, rusted to bits and asking $4-5k, and of course, wood floor long gone.

Oh sure, it will work, and in fact it was probably one of the best things we ever did for firewood production.

For us, we went one step further and put our woodsplitter on the hitch, driving it with a PTO Prince Hydraulic pump. In this manner after cutting rounds off the firewood pile, we would pick up the wood, split it, toss the split wood into the bed of the manure spreader with beaters and axle driven bed-chain unhitched, then back into the woodshed, and using a hand lever on a cam, would crank the wood back to us instead of moving forward to grab the wood.

It really reduced handling of firewood.

What we learned really quick is, to not cut all the firewood into rounds. We would just cut a gas tank full of chainsawing rounds, then split that. In that way, splitting was a rest from using the chainsaw. Driving to the woodshed was a rest from splitting wood. Stacking was a rest from driving the tractor to the woodshed. Then chainsawing was a rest from stacking wood. We were resting all day long!

But seriously, breaking it up like that kept the wood flowing to the woodshed.

Here is a picture of our old manure spreader set up as a firewood processor. As I said, it saved a lot of repeated steps.