Sassafraspete, The tooth bar, with attached photos, is the FFC extra heavy duty 72” tooth bar. The dealer recommended it and I am glad he did. FFC had to custom make it because of the bucket's protruding bolts on the bolt on edge. I have not tried the bucket without the tooth bar yet. The only time I do not need it is when I am back dragging. When I back drag now there are little rows, this is not a problem in the fields, but it could be if I was preparing the ground for a slab or drive. However, just two bolts will take it off.
The Kubota Grand L 5030 has an engine gross hp of 52.2. and net of 50 hp. The ease of creeping forward and back with the HST transmission pedal while one hand is on the steering wheel and the other on the joy stick makes the job easy and I felt like a pro after 10 minutes.
The advantages of the tooth bar are numerous. I found that the brush (Youpon) that I am pushing out is old growth and about 20 to 30 feet tall and very flexible. I first push the brush at 3 to 4 feet above ground the in the direction I want it to fall. The tooth bar is great at holding the brush in place and will not let it slide off the end of the bucket, even when turning, and prevents the brush from coming around and putting a serious “scratch” through the hood or me. With the tooth bar I can turn the tractor and push at the same time and the brush is caught in the teeth and I can control the fall or bending while turning. After my initial push the Youpon is now leaning in the right direction, away from me so the branches don’t “scratch” me or poke a hole in the grill. I then back up and lower the buckets at a slight downward tilt so that the teeth only are in the ground. I then push the root ball and tilt the bucket up at the same time and the root ball pops up. Because just the forks are in contact with the soil a lot of power is not wasted in moving the soil. It works great with brush and I have not even had a chance to try it in hard soil.
Harv, you’re from Texas I’m sure you know when I say “Scratch” you know I mean impale. You know kind of like buying blue jeans and being afraid that that power saw with out the guard will rip you pants when it jerks back or that barbed wire when it breaks while stretching it and shred your jeans. The only time I can remember being afraid spilling something on my jeans was in high school science class when that girl spilled acid on my lap – ran like crazy to the restroom only to find the water to the sinks had been cut off – guess you can figure out what I did next. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
TxDon.
