Added a Step, to get on the tractor easier

[California]

Maybe this description can help another owner ...

Watering 30 new trees in the orchard (photo), I need to dismount the YM186D at nearly every tree to repair the watering basin before pumping water.

My back hurt after a day of dismount/get back on, because the footboard is so high, and a twisting motion is needed to get on/off the tiny footboard. See the white stripe on the footboard in the second photo? I painted that line because the space from the fender to the clutch is so tight that it's necessary to step outside that line or else its impossible to rotate my foot to sit down.

I finally built a step, the height of the center of the rear axle. (9.50x16 rear tire). Its welded to the loader crossmember. (I have since lashed those PS hoses up out of harm's way.)

Problem solved. No more twisted-back feeling after a day of climbing off/on the tractor.



Here's another photo showing the new step. Some day I may link to this in a discussion of cupholders (a child's backpack carrying a quart of water, here) or the tool carriers I added for a pruner and for the hoe I use at the tree watering basins.




And - the similar step I made for the YM240 long ago.

 

[davrow]

Well done, but will it get slick when wet? Just thinking that that for ME I'd be sure to slip off and crack my shin on it. And don't go getting any ideas, now!

 

[California]

will it get slick when wet?

Not a problem. One of my procedures repairing a tree watering basin is to seal it by stomping into where the water suddenly went down a gopher hole, so my boots are usually muddy. Then I stomp in a dirt clod to seal the hole long enough for water to be absorbed. No slip noticed getting back on the tractor.

It's not obvious in the photo but one of the six points on that center bolt head, is higher than the brass disc (the point nearest the tractor), so there's a good traction point for the boot's tread.

Yesterday I hit what had to be one of the worst gopher holes ever. Water soaked in too quick, I started stabbing with the shovel, and a huge cavity opened up next to the new tree. I shoveled about 2 cubic ft of dirt into that cavity before it brought the floor of the basin up level. That must have been Gopher Central.

Often when I backhoe out a stump I find a cavity like that. The gophers seem to know that directly beneath a tree the discing won't get them. Or maybe they make their HQ there because there are plenty of the fine roots they like.

This new tree next to the huge cavity must have been planted without digging out the previous decayed root. Here's what I usually take out before replanting.

 

[shovelrider]

Wow, might ought to watch out. May end up with a big ol' sink hole. Thanks for the info., on the moths, i believe that's whats happening here. One way for a step,which i am working on. Is to make mine out of some Galv. grating. Just saying

 

[California]

One way for a step,which i am working on. Is to make mine out of some Galv. grating.

I never thought of that but it would be easy to install on the YM240 (photo linked in post #1). There's enough structure there to set it on.

 

[TripleR]

Several people have run into the same situation and added steps: sure helps.

 

[Wagtail]

If anything you can apply some non-skid tape to the metal ring.

Hardware shops sell it and it sticks really well. I've got black tape on the leading edges of my wooden stair steps and yellow/black striped tape (3 rows) in front of my workbench in the shed (concrete floor). It's never 'come up'.

 

[5030]

Low steps are great until you bust a shin on one or you lop it off on some hidden object. Like all the new pickup trucks today have running boards on them. I call them shin busters.

 

[TripleR]

Low steps are great until you bust a shin on one or you lop it off on some hidden object. Like all the new pickup trucks today have running boards on them. I call them shin busters.

Hasn't happened yet, but when it does, we'll do what we did on the OEM steps on our MF375, Case CX80 and M8540HDC and L5030HSTC: remove-repair-remount.

 

[California]

No slipping problem with this prior 'old man step', the one I put on the YM240 in 2006 and posted about it then. I recall only once in all that time coming off the tractor and my big-cleated 'milking boot' muddy and slipping. But since I was still holding on to the steering wheel with my weight on the other foot (expecting that anything could happen with all that mud) this was a minor inconvenience, not a problem. My steps aren't as elegant as other photos here (with new unblemished paint ), but they work as intended. Design goals attained!