Buying a Kubota - L3301 - Kind of late, but did I make any mistakes?

[k0ua]

Attaching and removing loader? Piece of cake.
Attaching and removing forks? Piece of cake.

Attaching and removing the grapple is a bit of a different story. Angle is trickier the way that implement wants to lean when resting. Will have to build some stands to drop it into, I think. That and remember to disconnect the hydraulics for that one ;-)

Just concentrate on getting the top edge of the SSQA up under the lip of the grapple portion of the SSQA bracket.. Curl up or Dump down to get that top edge hooked, then lift and curl back, it will swing down by itself to get the pins lined up with the slots on the grapple portion. yeah don't forget the hydraulic lines.

 

[Fallon]

Be careful of proper ballast when lifting anything. I had my pallet forks on & was moving a gate (under 200lbs) on the forks. Come down the gentile slope to lean the gate up against the barn. Let off the go pedal & don't stop. Slam on the brakes & don't stop. I now have a nice pair of holes in the back of my barn & 3 skid marks (2 on the ground & 1 on the tractor).

I didn't bother with grabbing ballast (box blade usually) because it was just a light gate & it was on 2wd to save wear & tear on tires & the field. I have ballasted R4s on my L3200 too, but it wasn't enough. Great tractor, but be aware of its limitations, proper ballast & traction.

 

[Garandman]

Bought this ballast box from DR Power: there's not room to swing anything bigger in the woods. Have around 600 lbs of sand. Keep chains and the chainsaw on top and a shovel in the rings.

Got it after I dropped a good sized log a few inches and bounced both [ballasted] rears off the ground.

Also added an LED worklight.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Welcome to TBN. I think your on the right track building and thinking about what you need and would like on your new Kubota. I had two other Kubota's before I ordered the Grand L 3540, I do agree with dealer about the backhoe as I had two hoes on the previous other Kubota's which were used less and less each time.Get at least one set of rear remotes that can be used for anything as top link or snow blower shoot rotation to box and black blade angles. The third function valve is also great to have if you want a grapple or a front snow plow to angle. Best of luck.
DevilDog

I see lots of thinking like this and while everyone's situation is different, I wouldn't be without my backhoe. There are just too many jobs that require it and if needing to rent to get them done, they likely wont ever get done. It is nice to be able to just crank up the tractor to dig up a rock when needed during the first spring mowing, they grow out of the ground during winter. I doubt anyone would rent a BH for a rock or two and would likely end up improvising a method to remove them. It seems I use mine quite a lot. I just finished digging out a couple of old overflow pipes in the pond dam and replacing it with a larger singe piece. It was a 4 day job, digging out another overflow bypass to lower the pond level so we could remove the old pipe (it took 3 days of draining to get the level down where we wanted it, getting the old one out, waiting for the new culvert to be delivered then backfilling and levelling all on a fairly steep slope. I would have had to rent an excavator for the work if I didn't have my BH.
Yes they are an expensive attachment, but I use mine enough to justify it setting under the shed till I need it. Your mileage may vary.

PS: I don't have a grapple so I use my BH with hydraulic thumb to pick up trees and move them as needed, pick up large rocks and move them around as needed. Some times you just need to adjust a large landscape rock a bit and the BH works for that where no other equipment would.
OH, enjoy your almost new tractor. It should be well broken in by now.

PSS: Have you rented that backhoe for work that you had intended to do with it if you bought one?

 

[RiseForms]

Bought this ballast box from DR Power: there's not room to swing anything bigger in the woods. Have around 600 lbs of sand. Keep chains and the chainsaw on top and a shovel in the rings.

nice. May buy this. Easy to switch with the other three point implements? stupid question, I've not yet tried to take off the 60" land pride rotary cutter (which must give me 200lbs or so ballast) but I imagine it is easy from demo (getting it all back may be another story). But I imagine the hitch receiver on this box is at the right height that I can raise or lower three point and mount/dismount this without getting mad or having to empty it to lift it into position, etc?

That said, that was a heavy and solid ash tree and I had it up at a decent height in the grapple for chainsaw access and didn't notice any instability. Though I heard 0lenty of whining. More careful forum reading has me going to Low (was in Med) next time now, D'oh!

 

[Garandman]

This is the one. It's made in PA.

The Land Pride 60" is a lot more than 200 lbs! The RCR18 is 600 lbs and it's hung out well away from the tractor! The DR box is 4.75 cu ft. With sand that's roughly 500 lbs plus the 125 lb weight of the box itself. If you were able to fill it with 4.5 cu ft of granite, that's likely over 700 lbs plus weight of box. I used sand because all the rocks were frozen together by the time I got it.

No problem at all switching. I currently keep all my implements in the garage, and put them on furniture dollies so I can roll them around. It would be easy to do that with the ballast box but that is one I will probably keep outside once I take it off.

 

[RiseForms]

Nice. Just looked at the specifications. My cutter is 478LBs. It's the RCR1260. That probably explains why I was okay lifting the tree in that picture. I know it puts the weight out behind a bit - which probably does one good thing (increases the force a bit to help counter the bucket) and one bad thing (mess with the center of gravity a bit).. And I imagine as I get closer to the woods with my fence line preparation I'll hate the wider corners with that behind me all the time. But having the 500LBs seems to be a nice thing to have back there while I'm doing some of this work (and still getting used to driving a tractor and learning what angles are really scary and what are just feeling scary out of paranoia) and I can let the bank account reset a bit and hold off on buying a ballast box for a couple months. Any problem with using a cutter as ballast like this? Other than the fact that I have a big butt dragging around behind me? When I do the work with the logs, I've been keeping the 3 Pt elevated just a bit so the cutter's tire isn't displacing the weight.

 

[k0ua]

Nice. Just looked at the specifications. My cutter is 478LBs. It's the RCR1260. That probably explains why I was okay lifting the tree in that picture. I know it puts the weight out behind a bit - which probably does one good thing (increases the force a bit to help counter the bucket) and one bad thing (mess with the center of gravity a bit).. And I imagine as I get closer to the woods with my fence line preparation I'll hate the wider corners with that behind me all the time. But having the 500LBs seems to be a nice thing to have back there while I'm doing some of this work (and still getting used to driving a tractor and learning what angles are really scary and what are just feeling scary out of paranoia) and I can let the bank account reset a bit and hold off on buying a ballast box for a couple months. Any problem with using a cutter as ballast like this? Other than the fact that I have a big butt dragging around behind me? When I do the work with the logs, I've been keeping the 3 Pt elevated just a bit so the cutter's tire isn't displacing the weight.

No. No problem at all using the cutter for ballast if it is enough, and as long as you have open land to use it on. That is all some guys ever use. BUT when working in tight areas, it can be problematic.

 

[Garandman]

I had a big log I had to take down a frozen hill. The idea I might bounce the rear wheels off the ground on a bump and get sideways is what convinced me to buy it. The tool storage is awesome.

 

[RiseForms]

I'll likely but it for sure. Few other necessities first. Had my first safety lesson yesterday. Had grapple on and didn't know if cutter deck was stable enough to hold bar and chain oil and gas mix... So I put them on bump between HST pedal and clutch.. Was leaving fields at spot with good angle and one comfortable (for now) angle that I take slowly. All of the sudden the tractor started reaching and I had a 2 second panic and then looked down. Bar and chain oil hug was on the pedal, and it is a newer jug. Floored it.