Deere 3043 D

   / Deere 3043 D
  • Thread Starter
#11  
There is a monroe county in Wisconsin... or are you elsewhere in a monroe county..??

Hope to see more pics... and that you will be happy with this tractor.. what is the primary use for it?

Southern IL for the county
Thanks for the good wishes!

Primary uses (keep in mind that I have a 3046r/loader/cab & a massey ferguson 2605h [2wd/open station]:
1) plowing, the "r" has r4 tires and they were not meant to plow with.
2) lake work day, the cab gets in the way of communicating with the shovel crew
[when we have hot weather work day, I will be using the a/c in the cab]
3) hydraulic dump wagon [filler with the 'r', dump with the 'd'] <-- bad sign that I am making up rhymes...

One thing that I would prefer to have is draft control - but I suppose then I would have to go find some old deere 3pt mounted plow..
The MF2605H has draft control that works perfect with the 1947 Ferguson 3 bottom plow [which is why I bought the H]
((side trivia - back in the day, one brand of plow did not play well with another brand's draft control -- probably still true if you can find a compact w/draft))
If you are not in clay or rocks, you probably won't know/care anyway.

I have plowed with the 'r', but it is a pain with the 1943 Ferguson2 bottom due to the lack of traction [plowing clay here] and the r4 tire won't fit in the furrow.
Now, I bought the 'r' [and also had a 3032e before that] without any field work involved.
So they were properly configured for their uses, landscaping - mowing - road maint.
Old farmer died, I took over the lease of one of our four fields (3 acres) since the 'new' farmer [nephew of the dead one] could not get his massive deere equipment back here to the field next to me due to trees & the narrow road on top of the long dam.
I am using the field as 'tractor play pen' more than anything else.

I started off with a 4100 gear, and it was a great little machine.
After many years, I needed more mass to deal with rip-rapping the lake shore, so went to the 3032E.
Allergies flared up, eyes would swell shut, so traded that in for a cab. [3046R]
Life is good with a cab [in case anyone was wondering]
<reread farmer thing in case anyone's memory is as short as mine>
Then Deere came out with the D and was touting it's pulling power.
Paid off the car in Aug, so there was "deere money" available....

I plant sweet corn in 6 row blocks [think chess board using rectangles] alternating plots in the field to not plant in the same plot each year.
I plant a block per weekend over the spring to get corn on a regular basis.
Neither I, nor the food bank have any refrigeration, so I pick & bag a bushel at a time. [pick on Sunday eve, drop off Monday on the way to work when I have some come up]
The whole field is over-seeded with cowpea to help the soil.
I also started with sunflower this year since our spring was so messed up, and that turned out well. (just going to mow & till that under).

IF the 'd' pulls hard enough, I may go look for a pull type plow [3 or 4 bottom, maybe a 5] to see how that goes.
(for those who want me to go no-till, buy me a no-till system, I accept donations!)

Lake work day is Sat, so if things all line up, I will be able to report how it goes.
(they don't work in the rain & if it does rain, I will be in the cab)

On non-lake-work-days, I maintain the semi-oil-chip-gravel road by myself in the cab when the pot holes get too bad.
(dump and back drag cold patch)

OH - one last thing.... When everyone is out mowing, and it's hot, we all wave at each other (I mow a lot of common ground) and I have noticed that the other lake people do not use as many fingers to wave at me as they used too....
I do know that my tractor is #1 though [I can count fingers...]
 
   / Deere 3043 D
  • Thread Starter
#12  
Side note: I am not a gardener, and I don't bend well any more [arthritic] - so anything closer to the ground than corn is just going to be mowed, not picked.
 
   / Deere 3043 D #13  
:laughing: :laughing:

Great run-down.. thanks.. and sounds like you are having fun.. :laughing:

Will look forward to seeing that 3043D operate and plow.. always like plowing, especially when could get the plow adjusted just right to plow real well.
 
   / Deere 3043 D
  • Thread Starter
#14  
Thanks! I am just wondering how long it's going to take plowing by doing one pass in the Deere & the other in the Massey...
(yeah, I expect I will plow at least part of the field in Sep - just to test out the configuration)
 
   / Deere 3043 D
  • Thread Starter
#15  
Delivered today, after he got it off the trailer, I mounted the forks [had those for years] and grabbed the pallet-o-R4's.
IMG_5609.jpgIMG_5601.jpgIMG_5602.jpg
 
   / Deere 3043 D
  • Thread Starter
#17  
Thanks!
Very nice. Congratulations.

Today was lake work day:
dug out some riprap in the road so we could put in cold patch
regraveled / leveled some driveways
dug some topsoil, dumped that in various yards [fixing runoff areas, or rather - putting in more dirt so it will run off later]
lots of cold patch [i just bucket that around, dudes with shovels do all the work].
some brush work [shoving piles of it back mostly]

I will say that a 3043 D ballasted with (6) 60lb rear wheel weights, R1 rear tires filled with 48 gallons of washer fluid [24 each], and a frontier BB2060 on the back was very stable.
I was unable to lift a rear wheel when into a pile of cold patch, or rock before the loader would stall out.

Next task: install Pat's easy/quick hitch! {I have had them since the 90's GREAT THINGS THEY ARE!}
I already drilled and mounted the wheel spinner last night.

For those who like their JD quick hitches, and would recommend one to me - doesn't work with my plows, nor my towed PTO implements.
So I use longer top links and the Pat's on the lowers.

OH - this is funny. As I was driving across the dam, one of the UTV's following me waved at me to stop [ok, it was the human in the UTV].
They saw something flapping, looked like a front tire issue.
Stopped, looked - it was the NEW TIRE STICKER coming off!

I am glad my fellow lake members keep an eye out for things, total tractor time today was 6.4 hours.
 
   / Deere 3043 D #18  
All of my 3ph attachments work well with the JD iMatch, either directly or with some very minor changes so the now fit. With the hyd. top arm they can't be beat, IMO. Pre hyd top arm, there were times that some "getting off" to adjust that top arm was necessary.

Grab the forks, the ballast box, the rear blade, the brush hog, the turbo saw, the chipper, the finish mower, the digger, and the carry-all.. works like a charm.

Congrats on your new Deere.
 
   / Deere 3043 D
  • Thread Starter
#19  
13 hour update:

Everything working as expected.
Added rear hoses [17' long] from the rear SCV to the front [so I can play with the grapple].
Added LED work lights [off brand]
Added ammo can to loader arm [like I did on the 3032 E]
Added REI radio [after replacing radio w/ a wal-mart DUAL brand] to the loader joystick mounting [again, like I did on the E ]

Machine fits fine inside my enclosed car hauler trailer! [drop the rops, always drop the rops first...]

Tasks done so far:
Road [2 mile private road] & driveway repair [mine and other lake dwellers]
Field mowing
Grapple work
Field disking [just testing the configuration until I plow]
Made 1st payment....
 

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