Drive In Theatre owner looking for best tractor for regular maintenance.

[Ozoner]

was to young to remember drive in thetere that i went too, once or twice.

might suggest posting a picture of your lots. and give approx acreage of the lots. this would give other folks ability to see what you are up against. and help you narrow down your choices.

3 sites for used and new equipment
TractorHouse.com | Used Tractors For Sale: John Deere, Case IH, New Holland, Kubota.
MachineryTrader.com | Backhoes for sale, skid steers, excavators, dozers.
craigslist: chicago jobs, apartments, personals, for sale, services, community, and events

craiglist = be careful if looks to go to be true most likely a scam. if ad is there one day and gone next, most likely folks flagged it for scam and it was removed. ((have personal been flagging some crud lately as on search for a vehicle))

box blade most likely wanted, mainly due to the scraficer teeth / rippers you can raise / lower. to help break up compacted rock areas. then come back and re-smooth things out.
a rear blade might be a good choice as well.
land plane / scraper grader might be a good choice as well

all 3 above have there specific uses, but needing some sort of ripper/scrapper is going to be wanted most likely. to deal with hard compacted rock. a rear blade may seem extra, but there short thickness as in being able to back right up to an area and drop blade down to scrap rock away from fences to concrete wheel stops for cars and like. land plane / scrapper might be wanted as well. they act like a "sifter" per say, bring larger rock that has sunk down into the ground some and bring the rock back up on top of the surface. allowing the smaller stuff to fall down below.

TNT (top and tilt) it is expensive, but i am guessing you have enough curves, ditches, and like, were you wall want to constantly adjust the angle of the above 3 items. using the turnbuckles to adjust the 3pt hitch is slow and painful. the TNT replaces the turn buckles on the 3pt hitch with a hydraulic cylinder one for top link and one of the side link turnbuckles. it can really help ya get final touches on stuff and feather things out as you finishing things out.

make sure you get the extra check chains / sway bars/chains for 3pt hitch. 3pt hitches are better designed for pulling stuff, when you go into a turn and not pickup an implement you can twist and damage the 3pt hitch, the chains/bars help keep things under control better. also 3pt hitch not really best when backing up with implement on ground. while 3pt hitch can do it. you are at higher risk of buckling and bending the 3pt hitch up some.

FEL (front end loader) most likely going to be wanted, standard bucket with straight edge on it for a lip. so you can back grade and move material around as needed.
not sure if a "tooth bar" make it bolt on or strap on for FEL bucket. would be needed for you.

not sure if you would need a chain harrow or harrow or like, to help smooth stuff out. if you have pea gravel. and some grass / weeds here and there. then it might be suggested then. so you can rip stuff up with say a box blade rippers and smooth stuff out, then run harrow across stuff to drag all the clumps of dirt / weeds out to one side of the lot / spot to come back and shovel out / scrap away with FEL.

if you get option of a backhoe bucket, you do not need something largely wide, but say 6 to 8" wide, and longer between back of bucket to the teeth / cutting edge. hopefully some sort of hole/s on back side of bucket so if you get into wet mud, suction power does not hold the mud in the bucket (holes break suction and let mud fall out) teeth on backhoe bucket can be nice, to help break into really compacted nearly seems like concrete dirt. but it is just really compacted and dry dirt.

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be careful if drive in is old lot, and rock lot is worn down, you may be at higher risk, of snagging a wire or like going to individual speaker locations to each car spot. get your lots marked out for were all the wires run. and then take some video and lots of pictures. so you can review them a year from now, and remember were the wires are.

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to note it, if i see a lot of physical individual park spots, with clearly defined spots. i might suggest going with a skid steer. simple to the fact you can turn them on a dime in any direction. and ability to maneuver right were you want nice and fast. vs a tractor that has a big turning radius.

i am not a fan of smaller tractors in sub compact range, due to they tend to lack one crucial thing i require. "split" left and right rear brakes. so i can brake the right tire to turn quicker, or left brake to turn left quicker. along with simply getting my rear unstuck (been there done that way to many times).

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if you see a water tank couple hundered gallons or so. or a little trailer you could load up with some 55 gallon drums and plumb them together. to create a DIY spray rig might be suggested, if you are having problems with "dust storms" from wind blowing. so you can load up trailer with water and run across area to wet stuff down. every now and then you can pickup say a 400 to 500 gallon water tank that fits in back of pickup trucks fairly cheap. having stuff slightly wet after you get done grading, can help get stuff to "compact better" so folks are not tearing stuff up later on.

a bigger lawn roller, or being able to load the FEL up with something, and put weight on rear end of tractor. and simply driving over entire lot, 1 tire width at a time, might help with compaction as well.

Thank you very much for this helpful info. I will attach some photo's. Both locations have about 9 acres cleared. The single screen "El-Rancho Drive In" has slight downgrade towards screen and highway. The twin screen "Ozoner 29" has much more grade between front and back screen 900' apart and 40- 50' difference in elevation. Great for stadium type viewing but bad for wash out. The lower screen and marquee area need drainage it has become a pond area the last few years. I can't mow it and have to wear hip waiters to change letters on marquee. The twin is a new build in 2002-2003 and we put a whole lot of tile line in to dry up most of the field, but not the lower flatter portion. Both drive-ins are grass with gravel roads no speaker posts, for radio sound is what is now used. I will get some better pictures later to show washout and water areas. Here a few I had on file. The newer build with the most washout is the twin screen with peak roof snackbar in center of feild.

 

[boggen]

what depth do you need to burry the drainage tile / french drain to deal with vehicles driving over the areas? might advise a "sump pump" area were you can toss in a "trash pump" and run it off a generator in back of truck or like. and pump out the water. ((assuming you have a place to pump water to and/or dealing with collapsed drainage line/s))

how much trailer can your current truck pull? as in weight? is it generic 4 wheels or a dually?

only way you going to get a package deal with tractor and trailer is through a dealer. and even then you may not like overall package. buy tractor and trailer separate. and you may need more truck to pull.

you might look at a "bat wing mower" as in a generic rotatory mower (bush hog) with a couple wings, and pulled behind tractor. more likely see state running them along the highways / express way ditches. a rotatory mower normally has 1 or a couple blades, but they do sell and make better "finishing mower" blades for them. pay attention to underside of the deck though. some rotatory mowers do not have a U shape or circle shape that wraps around the blade, to create better "suction" to pull the grass up into the blades to cut the grass. fail mower may work as well with correct blades / hammers attached to the drum of the fail mower. fail mower may actually be better, and not create "clumps" aka "wind row" of cut grass. normally would not suggest above. but you have for most part virtually nice constant slope singe large areas. and the larger width of a rotatory mower, should not have issues with finding a high spot scalping it.

is your only purpose of getting a TLB (tractor loader backhoe) the backhoe portion is for the drainage tile? if so. i might push you away from that. and say rent a mini excavator or slightly bigger excavator. just to get the trenches dug quickly, drain tile in, and then buried within a couple days. and never let the rain get into the trenches. rain + open trenches = extra time and issues. also rent allows you get a bigger unit that has more reach and deeper digging depth. and excavators tend to simply dig quicker. vs hoping back and forth between tractor seat and backhoe seat.

 

[aczlan]

you might look at a "bat wing mower" as in a generic rotatory mower (bush hog) with a couple wings, and pulled behind tractor. more likely see state running them along the highways / express way ditches. a rotatory mower normally has 1 or a couple blades, but they do sell and make better "finishing mower" blades for them. pay attention to underside of the deck though. some rotatory mowers do not have a U shape or circle shape that wraps around the blade, to create better "suction" to pull the grass up into the blades to cut the grass. fail mower may work as well with correct blades / hammers attached to the drum of the fail mower. fail mower may actually be better, and not create "clumps" aka "wind row" of cut grass. normally would not suggest above. but you have for most part virtually nice constant slope singe large areas. and the larger width of a rotatory mower, should not have issues with finding a high spot scalping it.

I would not get a batwing for finish mowing. If he needs a large area mower, I would look for a Turf Batwing such as BAT WING MOWER

is your only purpose of getting a TLB (tractor loader backhoe) the backhoe portion is for the drainage tile? if so. i might push you away from that. and say rent a mini excavator or slightly bigger excavator. just to get the trenches dug quickly, drain tile in, and then buried within a couple days. and never let the rain get into the trenches. rain + open trenches = extra time and issues. also rent allows you get a bigger unit that has more reach and deeper digging depth. and excavators tend to simply dig quicker. vs hoping back and forth between tractor seat and backhoe seat.

I would agree with that, BUT if you need to dig something in a hurry (to get things ready for a movie perhaps), its a lot easier to load your TLB it on a trailer than to try to get an excavator rented on short notice.

Aaron Z

 

[Ozoner]

All good points. This is what I deal with a lot of the summer.....yuck!!

 

[mapper]

Depending on how permeable the soil is, i.e. does the water stand for days or does it soak in a a day or two? You may want to consider building a retention/infiltration pond, it will increase the short term capacity and reduce the surface pounding. Your perimeter drive would benefit from a drainage ditch or swale along the outside edge, then pitch the drive so that it drains into it. The less distance that water has to travel to get off of the road will result in less damage.
I notice that all of the TBN contributors here are doing all they can to spend your money, we all enjoy doing that

 

[Ozoner]

what depth do you need to burry the drainage tile / french drain to deal with vehicles driving over the areas? might advise a "sump pump" area were you can toss in a "trash pump" and run it off a generator in back of truck or like. and pump out the water. ((assuming you have a place to pump water to and/or dealing with collapsed drainage line/s))

how much trailer can your current truck pull? as in weight? is it generic 4 wheels or a dually?

only way you going to get a package deal with tractor and trailer is through a dealer. and even then you may not like overall package. buy tractor and trailer separate. and you may need more truck to pull.

you might look at a "bat wing mower" as in a generic rotatory mower (bush hog) with a couple wings, and pulled behind tractor. more likely see state running them along the highways / express way ditches. a rotatory mower normally has 1 or a couple blades, but they do sell and make better "finishing mower" blades for them. pay attention to underside of the deck though. some rotatory mowers do not have a U shape or circle shape that wraps around the blade, to create better "suction" to pull the grass up into the blades to cut the grass. fail mower may work as well with correct blades / hammers attached to the drum of the fail mower. fail mower may actually be better, and not create "clumps" aka "wind row" of cut grass. normally would not suggest above. but you have for most part virtually nice constant slope singe large areas. and the larger width of a rotatory mower, should not have issues with finding a high spot scalping it.

is your only purpose of getting a TLB (tractor loader backhoe) the backhoe portion is for the drainage tile? if so. i might push you away from that. and say rent a mini excavator or slightly bigger excavator. just to get the trenches dug quickly, drain tile in, and then buried within a couple days. and never let the rain get into the trenches. rain + open trenches = extra time and issues. also rent allows you get a bigger unit that has more reach and deeper digging depth. and excavators tend to simply dig quicker. vs hoping back and forth between tractor seat and backhoe seat.

Ryan,

I'm going to see how well a couple sump pumps will do to help dry things a bit. I only need tile line on lower portion near screen where cars don't travel. The upper portion has been tiled and drains nicely. That lower screen is the bottom of miles of slope way up beyond the drive in. I'm just confused to why I never had this problem a few years back .

Ozoner Bill

 

[Ozoner]

Depending on how permeable the soil is, i.e. does the water stand for days or does it soak in a a day or two? You may want to consider building a retention/infiltration pond, it will increase the short term capacity and reduce the surface pounding. Your perimeter drive would benefit from a drainage ditch or swale along the outside edge, then pitch the drive so that it drains into it. The less distance that water has to travel to get off of the road will result in less damage.
I notice that all of the TBN contributors here are doing all they can to spend your money, we all enjoy doing that

It's always fun spending other peoples money Last year it took a few weeks to mostly dry, then it would rain and pond up again. It seems the soil has changed the last few years, very slow perk.

 

[aczlan]

It's always fun spending other peoples money Last year it took a few weeks to mostly dry, then it would rain and pond up again. It seems the soil has changed the last few years, very slow perk.

I wonder if the issue you're seeing is from somebody downhill of you who has changed their drainage and now the water does not flow off of your property and onto theirs like it used to ( either from surface runoff, or from it percolating through the soil).

Aaron Z

 

[boggen]

looking at...with google earth....
832 NY-29 Broadalbin, New York
6070 rt 5 palatine bridge ny

it does look like you have rock down through out your lots between the (enter/exit) roads on the sides. land plane / grader scrapper. might do well for you. in pulling the rock back up on top. and removing the grass/weeds growing up through the rock.

hard to tell from pictures and google earth. but on...
832 NY-29, it looks like you need a culvert placed in between the road sign and across both roads (enter/exit) it looks like the road side ditch on right hand side(standing in front looking back into property) needs to be dug a little to allow for better drainage so you can drain water from were the road sign is. and get proper drainage through culvert.

would agree with mapper, and in that putting a ditch on the outside perimeter would help. it does not have to be deep. just something to let the water run off go into. and drain the water away off the surface. as it looks now. (hard to tell) looks like portion of the (enter/exit) lanes are slightly below the surrounding grass areas. resulting in water staying on top of the driveway vs running off someplace else. it might be enough to due more of a "french drain" setup. were you dig down i don't know (purely guessing) 6" or 10" or so. drop down a holed pipe / drainage tile pipe (corrugated pipe with holes in it, or pvc solid pipe with holes in it) and then run a fabric sock on pipe to keep rock and mud from getting into the pipe. and then back fill with say pea gravel or like around pipe. get entire length of pipe so it all slops down hill some place so it can drain. (if that is an option), if not drop a sump, with trash pump on a float switch. to pump the water out. i would think it would really help dry up everything. to point of running more movies.

trying to get away with a pipe, and simply dig a ditch and get the ditch looking all nice and smooth and perfectly graded so it hardly noticable. not sure if you could do without removal of a lot of extra dirt. and really working the dirt to get just the right amount of slope. most likely cheaper (no rock / pipe) but may not drain water as good.

other option is get say a middle buster for 3pt hitch / potatoe plow. and drop it down as deep as she will go (run over spot a couple times if needed to get it down) and run it on the outside perimeter. to open up the ground. so water can drain down and out. more of a band-aid approach, but might get you started to see if it is worth it or not for extra expense. other folks will do this in there pastures and like were water is standing. to help dry the areas out.

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trash pump = able to handle solids up to a certain size. example grass clumps, leafs, acorns small size rocks. the specifications will state size solids it can handle without clogging up.
sump pump = most likely not able to handle any sort of solids if so 1/4" if that maybe.

the sump (hole in ground to place the pump) while a plastic sump you can pickup at local hardware stores may work. it will most likely crack/break. and or become a hazard if someone drives over it. and most likely you will need some sort of "metal grate" over it. so no one can fall into it. so you are looking at some sort of concrete walls. from 8x8x16" block walls, to poured concrete, to possibly calling up a local concrete place and seeing if they have some "round" concrete short pipes or like you could buy. and have them deliver and install it (drop into hole for you) but you back fill around it and connect pipes up to it. there are some internet websites that sell "septic tanks" and do just that search for "septic tanks" and then once on there website look for other storage containers to find something to use as a sump. i say septic tanks due to trying to search over years for anything else generally bad search results. and septic tanks generally brings back places that sell other tanks.

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maintaining the driveways and rock. double check the tractor width and recommended width for various attachments (rear blade width, box blade width, land plane/grader scrapper width) if you need to make 3 to 4 passes per width of your driveways. it is going to take some extra time to get stuff done. vs going with a tractor and implement widths that allow you to take 2 passes.

your bat wing mowers are going to drive up the PTO HP. if you are looking for a backup mower or just another mower for other place so you are not trailer'ing a single mower back and forth. the bat wing mower itself may predict how much tractor you actually need. as in needing larger tractor.

loading dirt /rock into a truck may be an issue for you. as in physically making sure FEL bucket can raise up and get over bed of truck and dump the dirt/rock into it.

you noted a truck for hauling in rock, if you contact local rock quarry, they most likely have some folks (either employees or third party contractors) that have a "rock spreader" on the back. and they can just drive in, open up rear gate, and spread the rock within a couple minutes and off they go. it does not spread the rock perfectly. but it does make things go a lot faster and easier. and then touch up with a tractor were there is a slightly to much rock (driver slow down a little bit and/or tilted the dump more) and fill in the low spots. have them make a pile on last load or 2, so you can grab with tractor if you need to make personal touch ups here and there.

all the cost of a truck to haul rock, (insurance, plates, fuel, time, inspections, repair costs) adds up. let them bring in there tri-axle to double axle dump trucks in and spread the rock and/or make some piles for you. here limit is 13 tons max they can load on there vehicles legally.

 

[Ozoner]

Once again, thank you Ryan.

Very helpful points and I shall check into trying these remedies, I've been concerned with the covert or lack of along route 29. I'm thinking of checking with DOT on who is responsible for ditches and culverts and many areas without!. And I am also going to check as Aaron Z mentioned about plugged ditch and culvert problems down stream on 29.

Thanks Fellows,

Ozoner Bill