Best Attachments to start with?

   / Best Attachments to start with? #11  
I have a similar tractor, and live on one-third the property, with a driveway three times as long, but we probably have significantly less snow than you do.

My most used attachments in addition to the FEL are rear blade (for driveway maintenance and snow removal), rotary cutter (to cut our 3-acre field twice a year), wood chipper (to clear downed branches), and PTO leaf vac (to clear leaves from the driveway ditches). I have a tiller and plow that I've not used for several years since we moved our garden inside a deer fence, and a carryall that I use occasionally.

I've not found a use for any other attachments.
 
   / Best Attachments to start with? #12  
This is kind of a "it depends" question. What all do you want to do on that 40 acres? I agree with the rear blade it is a cheap and useful implement on a big drive and other things. You planning to clear any woods? Gardening? plannting yard? Bushogging?

Depends on what you want to do as to the best implement.
 
   / Best Attachments to start with? #13  
If you will be moving any dirt or rocks/small boulders (even decorative gravel), I would also recommend a dirt scoop. A dirt scoop and box blade are a good combination for leveling small areas.
 
   / Best Attachments to start with? #14  
If only buying one, 3pt blade, Box Blade, Land Plane, in that order.

Next would be converting your FEL to SSQA. A FEL without SSQA is simply a Loader. With SSQA it becomes whatever you want it to be or whatever you can afford.

Then Grapple.

These additions will get you down the road several years. By then you'll have a better idea of what work you want to accomplish and can form your own list. :)
 
   / Best Attachments to start with? #15  
I just purchased a Kubota L3400 with a FEL (no SSQA) its 4wd and has 30hp at the pto. The tractor is about 60" wide.

I own about 40 acres of forest with some trails and I have 450ft long drive way that's about 15000 sq feet.

I currently use a home made drag and atv in the summer and a 44" snow blower (lawn tractor mounted) in the winter to maintain the driveway.

What attachments do you recommend? and size?

Around here a mower would be #1. For that tractor a 5' diameter.
Second box blade, 5' also to compliment your FEL
Third rotor tiller, 5' also for your garden.
Fourth post hole digger
Fifth disc harrow, 6'....my 2000 Ford is 30 hp and handles a HD 6'.
6th spike toothed harrow, 6' should work
Don't use grapples or snow blowers down here so don't know where they'd fit in the lineup.
 
   / Best Attachments to start with?
  • Thread Starter
#16  
I've had a 4.5" gravity feed wood chipper on loan for the last week. Its a googolex better then the 3" gas powered TSC chipper I tried earlier this summer. I've been working at clearing a 1/4 acre and the chipper has been great for cleaning up all the slash, and the chips are great for the walking trails. I haven't decided if I'd spend the extra money on a self feeding chipper, but a chipper is on my short list of implements.

My understanding of a rear blade vs a box blade is a box blade moves dirt forward (or backward) but a rear blade can move dirt from one side to the other. I'd really like to find a rear blade that is 60" wide but with "swing" function so I could keep it straight behind the tires or swing it out to one side. making it useful for both drive way re-construction and trail maintenance (trails are 4 to 6 feet wide)

It would be great if that rear blade frame could hold a landscape rake as well.. but that feature might not make financial sense.

Plowing snow just doesn't work well for my drive way, you would end up pushing the snow 4 or 6 times before you got to the edge of the driveway, then by February the banks would be over 6ft tall. blowing/throwing is the best approach, its just a mater of time until a 3pt snow blower happens.
 
   / Best Attachments to start with? #17  
There has been a lot of suggestions on here, very good ones which I read but here's my view on attachments. Since you have a lawn tractor with a snow blower, your in my opinion wasting your money buying attachments for the tractor to clear snow. A rear blade is very useful with clearing snow but it also throws gravel off a gravel drive and isn't as good as a blower in my opinion. I assume you don't need a mower also since you have a seperate garden tractor like I do myself. So the question you should ask is what is the next thing you need that would most benefit you with the tractor that you can't do with the garden tractor.

I have found the tool I use the most on my tractor is pallet forks, actual pallet forks, not clamp on, I use those all the time for moving stuff ext. so for general usefulness I would get pallet forks for the FEL. If you have a gravel drive a land leveler or land plane is the fastest and best way to grade an existing drive, if your gonna be digging new trails, a box blade would work better. Rear blades are cheap and can be bought used for next to nothing, like one guy on here said, go out and find the heaviest old blade you can and repainted it, those old blades are much heavier than the new economy blades.

For general use:

1. Standard duty Pallet Forks
2. Land Plane or box blade (6-7ft)
3. Heavy used not bent rear grader blade (7ft min)
4. 3pt Logger duty Boom pole (for dragging logs if wooded)

I would never own a 3 point chipper or FEL grapple root bucket, I think unless money is no option there not that much help and aren't used enough, Keep in mind that many dealers rent attachments also, so unless you plan on using it a whole lot, just rent one and take it back the next day.

In my mind it's all about efficiency for each job I do, I find that some jobs are more efficient with different things like you won't gain by getting a blade on the tractor to push snow when you have a blower, if your doing firewood it's faster to throw the chunks in the bed of a truck or on a trailer than it is to grapple it and load it with a tractor ext.

If you plan on making a garden your best bet is a 3pt 2 bottom 12 or 14in plow and a 6ft-7ft disk, (I don't think you have enough weight for a 3 bottom plow, HP isn't the issue, it's weight and tires, R1 tires maybe) that set up I feel would last longer and do just as nice of a job as a tiller, tillers are just easier and more convenient and also more expensive and more maintenance, if your breaking new ground on a tiller you will most likely be sheering bolts every time you hit a rock or hard spot and if you don't have sheer bolts you can do major damage to one in a hurry. Plows are more primitive in a good way.

Another thing to look into is a brush hog if you have pasture you don't mow on a regular bases, but if your only using it a few times a year, renting one will work well also, that way it's not sitting around rotting any you get one in good working order every time. We all can give you options on what to buy but it's really up to your needs and what you can buy to get the most use out of the tractor.
 
   / Best Attachments to start with? #18  
If only buying one, 3pt blade, Box Blade, Land Plane, in that order.

Next would be converting your FEL to SSQA. A FEL without SSQA is simply a Loader. With SSQA it becomes whatever you want it to be or whatever you can afford.

Then Grapple.

These additions will get you down the road several years. By then you'll have a better idea of what work you want to accomplish and can form your own list. :)

I was thinking the exact same thing. Get the SSQA when money permits and you can swing it, then that opens a world of front quick change implements. I did it to mine when I had a L3400hst and while it was not cheap, it was worth it in my opinion.
 
   / Best Attachments to start with? #19  
SSQA- Then rent what you need and determine if it is correct for you. easy question keep them coming.
 
   / Best Attachments to start with? #20  
Around here a mower would be #1. For that tractor a 5' diameter.
Second box blade, 5' also to compliment your FEL
Third rotor tiller, 5' also for your garden.
Fourth post hole digger
Fifth disc harrow, 6'....my 2000 Ford is 30 hp and handles a HD 6'.
6th spike toothed harrow, 6' should work
Don't use grapples or snow blowers down here so don't know where they'd fit in the lineup.

I like this list - Especially Rotary Cutter as number 1 - great for trails, and makes both your property and you look good. I would put a 6' rear blade as number 3 or 4. Very utilitarian, good for general snow removal and driveway maintenance and CHEAP!

Oh, and bolt on bucket hooks.

I would love to have a skeleton bucket with a grapple, but can't pony up the $$.
 
 

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