Kioti 3510SE HST 150 hour report

[ScooterBob64]

Kioti 3510HST 150 Hour report

Well so far so good I am well pleased with this machine so far. I have put the tractor through all kinds of tasks such as plowing snow, grading roads, cutting weeds and grass to manage defensible space around my home. This is the first hydrostatic drive tractor I have owned and I was a little Leary of it at first but I have come to really like it. Hydrostatic is great for times when you need to do a lot of quick back and forth motion like plowing snow in a small parking area or loading out of a pile. With my old ford 1700 you had to stop, clutch, and switch gears to change direction. With the Hydrostatic drive this is a faster and smoother process and it is easier to avoid tire spin. The Hydrostatic drive is also nice when you are mowing because you can change speed and direction without disengaging the pto or reducing rpm. This is super handy for cutting along ditch banks and other obstacles. The only down side I have noticed with the hydrostatic tranny is that when tramming in high gear the tractor tends to bog down more and pulls steep hills a bit slower than the old standard tranny Ford 1700.

I have purchased a set of grapple forks which work great for handling brush, branches, and logs. I am so glad I opted for the front hyd remote it works great for the grapple forks and the snow plow. The skid steer style front attachment plate makes it easy to switch from bucket to forks to snow plow. I installed a top and tilt set up for my 3 point hitch which is super handy if you’re trying to do some serious grading with your box or angle blade. It is also handy to tilt my rear mower deck and my utility platform. I also have a landscape rake which is great for pulling the gravel back up on the driveway. It also works great for cleaning horse corrals you get less dirt and more manure. I just purchased a pallet fork attachment and tried it out moving a pallet of ready mix bags. About 2,000 lbs is about all you want to try and pick up with this rig and you best have your heaviest implement or a counter weight on the 3 point.

All in all I am satisfied with my purchase.

 

[Midniteoyl]

Very nice Welcome back to the forum!

 

[deezler]

Sweet. Thats the exact setup that I am targeting for acquisition myself. Just kinda hard to summon the motivation for new debt when my current machine is still running great.

 

[ScooterBob64]

Hello Deezler,

Yes it was a chunk of change and my old tractor was still going strong as well. My wife was actually the driving force as she wanted to have something she could operate to plow out the driveway when I am on the road. My old Ford 1700 was too quirky and the cold start sequence was too much like black magic for her. I like machines with character that I can tinker with, while my wife wanted something that just starts and goes like her car. Sitting in the cab with the heater on sure is nice when plowing in the wind and snow so I guess I don't miss the old 1700 that much.

 

[deezler]

Haha that makes sense!

Can your 4030 loader pick up that pallet of concrete bags, as shown in your pic? 2000 lbs is a lot more than my current machine can lift....

 

[ScooterBob64]

Yeah that was a learning experience. The pallet had 50 bags at 80 lbs a piece for about 4,000 lbs plus the pallet. The delivery man unloaded them from a flat bed truck with one of those little three wheel forklifts that piggy backs on the truck. Looked pretty easy when he did it. I put my new shiny pallet forks on the tractor and slipped them under the pallet and lifted it did not budge. I was pretty sure it would not pick it but I was not sure just how much it would pick. So I started moving bags to my utility platform on the back of the tractor. Once I got down to 35 bags it would try to lift but could not tilt. At 25 bags the tractor would pickup and tilt and I moved the whole thing 25 bags in front and 25 on the back ever so slowly into the back yard were my project was. Stability is an issue when you have a lot of weight on. A conventional 5 ton forklift that I am used to picks the weight up over a solid axle so it is stable and if you lift a little too much and the back wheels come off the ground a bit its not a big deal you just set back down and take off some weight. On a tractor you are picking over a pivoting axle and if you are on sloping ground and pick the back axle off the ground the machine will try to pivot to the low side. If you have the load up high this can flop the tractor right over. I kept the pallet just high enough not to drag. I think realistically if I were trying to load on or off a flatbed truck I would probably want to be at 1600 lbs per pallet with this tractor.

 

[DieselBound]

Yup, loading down the front of a tractor can be an entirely different experience! I started to tip with my Kioti and a pallet of feed (2k lbs). Soft ground. Fortunately I reached over and dumped the loader control in time: tipping over a cabbed tractor isn't on my bucket list! Worst thing is to turn and DIP in SOFT ground with a full load! I know that I've lifted max (2,700 lbs) with forks and a load (retaining wall blocks) before, but mostly everything is below 2k lbs (I'd even look to go less, but that's a pallet of feed and I know that unless I attempt to do something like I stated above I'm reasonably OK).

Be careful with the grapple. I hyper-extended my loader's curl cylinders and broke a rod: inadvertently hit the travel pedal too hard and lurched forward while driving some big chunks of wood debris/stumps. I've also snagged a fence post, a post on my woodshed and a pole shed's roof (edge; not like I was needing any more work to do!). Really hoping that my quota is now filled!

 

[ScooterBob64]

Hello Dieselbound,

Thanks for the warning that's one I have not done yet. These little tractors are amazingly powerful and they will pickup more than they can handle.

 

[DieselBound]

I've also pierced the side of my house with my pallet forks! (full story not required) The implements can wage battles on everything, including one's tractor!

 

[Stan B]

A conventional 5 ton forklift that I am used to picks the weight up over a solid axle so it is stable and if you lift a little too much and the back wheels come off the ground a bit its not a big deal you just set back down and take off some weight. On a tractor you are picking over a pivoting axle

I've never thought the solid vs pivoting axle dynamics, but you're absolutely right. The pivoting (and steering) front axle interacting with the load on a FEL really introduces some variables. No wonder some tractor-to-forklift conversions back in the day turned the operator station around and put the mast on the rear.