Best way to learn = do!

[Kubota Tee]

I purchased my new Kubota L3540 back in January and didn't get much of a chance to use it until the snow melted. Sure, I played with it in the snow a bit, but the real work was planned to begin when the weather turned a bit warmer.

Now that the weather is nice, I have been taking full advantage of this new machine to install a 300' driveway. This involved first scraping all the top soil off and piling it up. I then replaced the top soil with fill (mostly sand mixture) and brought it up to the desired grade level. I probably moved 500 yards of fill material to create the grade that was needed. I then started the process of moving the road gravel off of an existing driveway onto the new driveway. This involved a lot of scraping, piling and FEL work to move 6" of road gravel for the 12' wide x 300' long drive.

I did end up running short with the road gravel since the old driveway was straight and new one is curved, so I had about 30ton of crushed concrete brought out and dumped evenly on the whole length. Didn't take too much grading work after that to get it just right.

I am now in the process of balancing the site on both sides of the new drive which involves a lot of grading and FEL work. In some areas, there is a 2' grade difference between the new driveway and old grade. I have pictures that I will be posting soon so you can see the magnitude of the work that has been done. I have about 40+ hours into this project. I probably could have hired this project out and have it completed in 1 day, but I couldn't image a better way to learn all the operations of my new tractor and the finer points of using the box blade and FEL bucket.

 

[Mousefield]

Looking forward to the pics.

 

[Army grunt]

Good on ya. I do a lot of stuff an learn by doing is, an has always been my way.
I always feel better after.
Army Grunt

 

[TripleR]

Yep, the best way to learn is doing it; been operating them for years and still learning.

 

[crusty 1]

University of hard knooks,best education there is:thumbsupave

 

[Thomas]

Hands on still the best way..give it heck and enjoy.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

Looking forward to seeing some pictures.

I just moved 12yds. of loam with my jd770. Rebuilt a portion of my lawn and filled in where some stumps were chipped out. I enjoy hand raking but, with a tractor and a rake I thought to myself....there's got to be an easier way.

Hooked up the rake and gained experience as I went along. Finished product came out beautiful.

I might add that I have used the rear blade for grading and that is a great tool, as well.


Good luck with your project.

 

[pitt_md]

When it come to tractors and horses do your learning carefully, either will kill you quickly if not paying attention.

 

[Kubota Tee]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement! Here are the pics that I promised. The first ones are the before pictures when I first got started. The previous drive was a straight shot from the cul-de-sac up to the house. The new one is curved. The first step was to remove the top soil.

 

[Kubota Tee]

The next step was to build up the base with fill (mostly sand) to make a nice gentle slope from the house down the cul-de-sac. Then I moved the road gravel from the old driveway to the new one and finally had some crushed concrete spread on top.