tuolumne
Gold Member
I took delivery yesterday of a 3520 power reverser with 300cx loader, 448 hoe and some other attachments. I had set my expectations very high and this machine has exceeded them in every way. I put 8 hours on the tractor yesterday as I began to clear our land for a new home. About 6 hours of seat time clearing brush, pulling stumps and boulders and removing topsoil along the driveway location. Probably about 1-1/2 hours of idling while I dropped a tree or attached implements and about 1/2 hour on the chipper....so first impression, very comfortable seat and operator station. The transmission is great. I found myself going for the clutch alot from habit when loading, but finally got used it. I would run up to the pile with a load, flip to neutral and coast in, flip to reverse while dumping and cruise away. This is way better than the hydro machines I've used! In eight hours it used a little over 1/4 tank according to the gage which would be about 3 gallons of fuel. With the foot throttle I'm not always at high rpms so I may use less fuel than a hydro machine. The tooth bar makes it real easy to get a full bucket in a hurry. With top soil I would have a heaping bucket every time, except when stumps or boulders got involved. The 448 hoe hauled out some pretty big stumps. Even the largest went suprisingly quick once I got the technique down for loosening the surrounding soils.
I got to experiance extreme pucker factor when we were removing the tiller. We had just left the backhoe in the woods and had not put anything back on the rear yet. Even with loaded tires, the machine started to go over when I picked the tiller off the trailer. Of course, the bucket was nearly full height. I did get minor twinges throughout the day when a tire dropped into a stump hole or something, but gradually the sensation diminished as I got a feel for the machine. With loaded tires and a backhoe or chipper on the back it never felt light from loader work.
I removed and replaced the backhoe twice, once with the delivery man and once later. I was worried about this based on some posts here, but it was a breeze. The second time, the hoe had settled a bit to one side on the soft ground, but it picked up readily with the rock shaft. I took ten minutes to put on or remove the 3ph assembly, and 3 minutes to mount/dismount the backhoe. The 3ph would go quicker if it weren't for the bolt/locknut retainer on the main pins. Has anyone modified this with a cinch pin?
I got a Salsco 6" chipper without hydraulic feed. I could only use it for 30 minutes and it beat me up pretty good. The bare logs (and I did some up to 5") went through pretty good, but tree tops would get hung up and need a lot of pushing. The vibrations are what did me in.
The grapple bucket is really slick, but it will take some time to get used to where the edge is. I did not spend much time with it yesterday.
I found that even with the foot throttle I wanted to set the base RPM up a little bit to maintain responsive power steering, dumping etc. The tractor has a ton of power. I could here the turbo kicking in when chipping a large log. The only time it bogged down was when I was digging in hard with the front loader and had forgotten to release the parking brake. Hopefully I learned my lesson! RPMs don't seem to effect the hydraulic capabilities too much for loader or backhoe work. When the bypass valves go they go. The loader would pick up a heaping bucket at idle, albeit slower.
Lastly, I am very glad I did not get a 4000 twenty machine. I was operating in some tight quarters and the 3520 could duck around trees without a problem. It was especially nice to have room to maneuver as the topsoil was pretty slick and I was spinning all four on a regular basis.
Pictures will follow when I figure out how to downsize them.
Edit: My apologies for not thanking everyone the first time around. This forum has been a wonderful tool to learn about the machine before it arrived, and to learn operating tricks and tips etc. One thing that has been annoying is the operator presence switch. I often stand to align an implement or see the bucket better and the silly thing cuts out the machine. This seems less safe to lose power at a critical moment. Has anyone disabled theirs?
I got to experiance extreme pucker factor when we were removing the tiller. We had just left the backhoe in the woods and had not put anything back on the rear yet. Even with loaded tires, the machine started to go over when I picked the tiller off the trailer. Of course, the bucket was nearly full height. I did get minor twinges throughout the day when a tire dropped into a stump hole or something, but gradually the sensation diminished as I got a feel for the machine. With loaded tires and a backhoe or chipper on the back it never felt light from loader work.
I removed and replaced the backhoe twice, once with the delivery man and once later. I was worried about this based on some posts here, but it was a breeze. The second time, the hoe had settled a bit to one side on the soft ground, but it picked up readily with the rock shaft. I took ten minutes to put on or remove the 3ph assembly, and 3 minutes to mount/dismount the backhoe. The 3ph would go quicker if it weren't for the bolt/locknut retainer on the main pins. Has anyone modified this with a cinch pin?
I got a Salsco 6" chipper without hydraulic feed. I could only use it for 30 minutes and it beat me up pretty good. The bare logs (and I did some up to 5") went through pretty good, but tree tops would get hung up and need a lot of pushing. The vibrations are what did me in.
The grapple bucket is really slick, but it will take some time to get used to where the edge is. I did not spend much time with it yesterday.
I found that even with the foot throttle I wanted to set the base RPM up a little bit to maintain responsive power steering, dumping etc. The tractor has a ton of power. I could here the turbo kicking in when chipping a large log. The only time it bogged down was when I was digging in hard with the front loader and had forgotten to release the parking brake. Hopefully I learned my lesson! RPMs don't seem to effect the hydraulic capabilities too much for loader or backhoe work. When the bypass valves go they go. The loader would pick up a heaping bucket at idle, albeit slower.
Lastly, I am very glad I did not get a 4000 twenty machine. I was operating in some tight quarters and the 3520 could duck around trees without a problem. It was especially nice to have room to maneuver as the topsoil was pretty slick and I was spinning all four on a regular basis.
Pictures will follow when I figure out how to downsize them.
Edit: My apologies for not thanking everyone the first time around. This forum has been a wonderful tool to learn about the machine before it arrived, and to learn operating tricks and tips etc. One thing that has been annoying is the operator presence switch. I often stand to align an implement or see the bucket better and the silly thing cuts out the machine. This seems less safe to lose power at a critical moment. Has anyone disabled theirs?
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