Downhill ride - Backwards!

[Bob_Skurka]

Well I'm building a new garage (actually my contractor is doing the building) but I'm doing all the grading around the garage. It is built on a the edge of a ridge, the land is basically flat on two sides of the garage area, but slopes down on the other two sides. One corner is pretty extreme, I didn't bother to measure it, but there is about a 10' drop that is pretty steep . . . and then it gets a bit more gentle as it drops from there but it is all woods. As I've been grading another area with the box blade I've got a pile of dirt that I decided to use at the corner of the garage to alter the slope.

After moving the dirt, I put the landscape rake on the tractor and driving in reverse started using the rake backwards to contour the slope. All was going pretty well until I tried to climb back up the slope. In Low Range, 4wd, engine running at 2600 rpms, the tractor would not even begin to climb the slope. . . I guess it was steeper than I thought!

So I had one way to go. Down the hill to the valley and then up a different slope back to the work area. Problem . . . behind me was all woods.

Now I never felt as though the tractor would tip. I never felt out of control. But I had a heck of a ride. The landscape rake proved usefull as it pulled several small trees right out of the ground and I think help keep things in check as I reversed down the slope. The only damage I had was a broken light on my ROPS otherwise all was fine. I did take a break after getting the tractor back up the hill, and enjoyed an adult brew to settle the nerves.

Any idea how steep of a slope a tractor can climb? I ask, because I obviously just found out what a tractor CAN'T climb.

 

[Henro]

Bob,

You should have been using your B2910 instead of the TC24...

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Don't have a clue if I got that right or not...but had to try to get dig in...I would like to think the the B2910 would spin the wheels in low range before not making it up a steep slope...in low range...but I don't know that for sure... might wager on it though...

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Henro, I'm working in some really tight areas so I had the TC, but as the ride down was controlled, I may just try it with the B2910 tomorrow if the weather holds. Isolated T-Storms are supposed to roll through the Chicago area after midnight tonight. It they miss me then I think it is worth trying the Kubota. The problem is the tight spaces, only the foundation walls and floor are in place, but I had to lift the loader over the foundation wall to rotate the tractor so fit into the area I was grading with the rake.

 

[Henro]

Bob,

I really don't know if the B2910 would be any different or not.

I do know that I have had mine on some steep angles...mainly when digging fill and so on, and it was fear of tipping over backwards rather than lack of power that stopped me from going up more...

Never claimed not to be a wimp though... /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[JerryG]

Did that several time in a large diesel truck. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif In the 80s, I drove a feed truck for Tyson Foods. Well, in the winter, snow and ice or not the chickens and hogs had to be feed. It is real scary to have to navigate a large truck while sliding with a load down a mountain that is snow and ice covered, especially when you are going down it backward faster than you went up and can't stop it.

 

[OkeeDon]

Bob, any way to get to the bottom of the slope from another angle with the Kubota and try to climb it before you start at the top?

 

[Bob_Skurka]

I took the Kubota over to the top and simply couldn't fit it in the same spot, I had other work to do on a path that the Kubota won't fit on so I went back to the TC. Last fall I started to clear a trail from the bottom up, it will be finished as soon as I find time, as I rode down backwards, I was able to get to the path and then had a clear shot the rest of the way down. When the path is done, I will try the climb again.

One observation I made today, the incline I was on yesterday when I could not go up was very soft, I think that may have contributed to not being able to climb it?

 

[PineRidge]

It's really amazing just how steep a slope looks when you're sitting in the tractor seat. There's still some places that I just won't go with the 40D though. I will not mow the dam lengthwise. I will however mow it while climbing straight up the slope. And if the grass is wet I stay off of it altogether as it's a sure, uncontrolled, slide to the bottom otherwise. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Glad you and the tractor are OK Bob, don't get hurt helping your contractor. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Mike I never felt like I was in real trouble or out of control as I was going down, my biggest fear was getting stuck in the trees and doing some serious damage to either the landscape rake or the tractor. There were a couple small trees that got ripped right out of the ground (which was a good thing because if they had been large enough to hold firm then something other than a ROPS light would have been broken!).

It would have been a big job to get the tractor UP had I gotten stuck. Pulling it up with the other tractor would have been hard because the incline starts right at the new garage foundation so there is no good place to pull from, other than possibly the newly poured garage floor? I don't have a winch, but I suppose that would work. I think the best choice, had the worst happened, would have been to come at it from the low side and chainsawed a path clear. Fortunately it wasn't needed.

But it was not a fun ride either.

 

[Junkman]

Possibly you should invest in a bulldozer. This sound more like a job for a track machine than a rubber tire machine. You may have the feeling that you are in control, but that control can go away quickly as I found out today. While moving a load of loam, and traveling over the same path with a bucket of loam, which I have done many times, the tractor started to go over on its side. If it were not for the fact that the MMM was on the tractor and acting like a stabilizer, it would have gone over. I dropped the bucket as fast as I could, but even then, one rear wheel was still in the air. I cranked the steering wheel downhill and it straightened out. It was a lucky save. In the future, I will be taking another route since this one seems to have changed from last fall. My guess is that the spring rains washed away enough soil that it has changed the contour of the land just enough to make it dangerous. /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif