It's too bad ACs don't work well with FELs. Hydrostatics are also few and far between I'm finding.
Thanks mossroad. Remembering another reason I dismissed Power Trac early on, I couldn't picture it being as effective at road maintenance pushing the impliments. As gathered from another thread, at least the 425 sounds inferior to a traditional tractor in using a box blade. Any owners of larger PTs use them for road maintenance?
That I do not know for sure. You could pop into the PT forum and ask a question over there. The PT owners of different size are honest and will tell you what the machines will and will not do well.
Here's what I did when we bought our 20 acres.
I bought a very used late 70's IH2500b tractor loader with cab for $5000. It was a 50PTO hp machine with a built in loader(not detachable) and a 3pt hitch. It was 2wd and had an HST tranny. And a bazillion hours. I used that large machine to cut in a road from the highway with the 3/4yard bucket and a large, heavy box blade. My road is about 500' long and all sand. I obtained a soil map and found a pocket of gravel on my place. So I dug out a trench about a foot deep by 500' long in the sand. I laid down 6" of the gravel and spread it with the box blade. Then I bought many truck loads of slag from the steel mill and used the FEL to distribute it and the box blade to level it. That took many weekends, but I have a road that will last a lifetime.
I also used that machine to remove several large trees. It was nice to drive up to a 10" tree and just push it over, lift up the stump, and push it away.
We also had several thousand trees planted and I used that machine with a 5' brush cutter to keep the weeds down between the rows for 5 years. After that, it wouldn't fit down the rows anymore, as it was too large.
That all sounds peachy so far.
However, once all the large tasks were done, the machine was just too big. It couldn't go through my existing 10 acres of thick woods without damaging everything and it got stuck in the sand very often and I had to constantly use the FEL to push it back out of the soft sand. The R4 loaded tires were darn near worthless in the sand, especially on our very hilly slopes. This is an 8000 pound machine.
So, I started searching for a different sized machine and after several months of looking, test driving, and talking to folks here on TBN and a few farmer friends, I settled on the PT425.
For MY needs (speaking just for me, not anyone else), this machine mows my lawn, clears snow from my driveway, mowed 4 ball diamonds at a little league park weekly for several years, rebuilt two infields, spread countless yards of various materials over large distances like, limestone, granulated limestone, dirt, mulch, sand, black dirt, etc... built and maintained about 2 miles of trails on our property 6' wide. That involved hauling out fallen trees, cut trees, and brush cutting briars and brambles so thick the deer won't go through it.
I can take it into places that conventional tractors of the same size can and will not go. It's much faster at moving material from point A to point B than a conventional tractor. I could go on and on but won't for now.
After the IH2500b sat idle for many years because the little PT425 was doing all the work, I sold the IH for $1500. So I had $3500 in it for about 10-12 years.
What I'm getting at is that you have to decide your tasks and your budget and find a machine that will do them within your guidelines. I needed a large machine to do the initial tasks, and downsize to a property maintenance sized machine for that. I rented a small excavator for a weekend to dig a 24' x 32' garage foundation. That was less than $300. I thought it would take me all weekend. It took me 4 hours. So I dug out a few stumps and I returned the excavator for a 1 day rental and got about $100 back! A backhoe purchase for me would have been foolish.
Looking back on it all, I'd do it similarly. I'd buy a larger, heavier machine to get the initial tasks done, then downsize to a property maintenance sized machine.
Also, knowing what I know now, with my soil types, I could have easily done it all with a larger Power Trac much faster than that IH. The articulated loader design is, well, a superior loader. I can pop a large bucket off in about 3 seconds without getting off the machine. I could pick up the mini-hoe and attach the hydraulics in about 30 seconds to remove any rocks, stumps, etc...., then pop that off, pick up the bucket again, haul it off and come back with fill for the hole. I could swap out for a grapple in 30 seconds and haul off branches, or I could just purchase a grapple bucket. Start running into thick brush? Pop on the brush cutter in 30 seconds and clear the brush.....
Boxblade work? Hmmm.... :laughing: That was your original question, yes? :laughing:
I haven't found a need for a box blade since that initial driveway install. The road has held up that well. And I just used my buckets to grade the infields on the ball diamond rehabs. So, again, I'd suggest you ask the larger PT owners in the Power Trac forum for advice on that subject. Most of them have or had conventional tractors and can give you a good comparison and what they've run into over the years.
Good luck with your decision making. TAKE YOUR TIME! :thumbsup:
