Hi mart, good timing. Just did a stump grinding job today. About thirty in all, ranging in size from 6” to over 30 “. The 1430 ran at or near full throttle for 7.5 Hrs and never skipped a beat. Don’t where your Sunday best thou, that stump grinder buries both the tractor and operator with chips and dirt. As a matter of fact, the only problem I had all day, after I was finished, was unhooking the hydraulic hoses to the grinder. I think dirt got into the quick disconnect collar and it would not release.
Other than the stump grinding, I’ve done about 6 Hrs of field mowing on hilly areas with lots of obstacles and I am satisfied with it’s performance. Not that more HP wouldn’t be nice for mowing, but as long as I keep the throttle at full it’s OK. I did do one modification to the brush cutter deck. I closed in the rear of the deck with a rubber skirt to keep the cut grass under the deck longer thereby chopping it up finer and leaving a better looking job. The front tires of the tractor are also very close to the rear of the cutting deck so the skirt should offer some protection from thrown objects and maybe prevent a flat.
Anyway, pretty happy so far, but hey, I think this machine just begs to be tinkered with. My next project is to mount some kind of screen ( cage ) type stuff to the front of the rops so when I’m mowing into the woods I don’t get a stick in the eye. I’m open to all suggestions about what to use and how to mount it. Thanks.
