Finally pulled the trigger

[fried1765]

Congrats on the new tractor, aquabird! A fellow Ford retiree here 11 years with tractor division filling parts orders and the remaining 21 building F 150's.
I agree that ZTR is the efficient way to mow the lawn, I got a great deal on a used finish mower but maneuvering with it is a real pain compared with ZTR.
I'm right there with you on storing things inside, being continually perplexed by people with nice buildings leaving expensive equipment outside to be destroyed by the weather or stolen by dirtbags.

I am just 3 months short of 80 years old.
My mother taught me to bring my toys inside at night.
I have two buildings.
1 - 36' x 48', the other 40' x 50'.
Everything lives inside, with the doors closed!

 

[Hay Dude]

I am just 3 months short of 80 years old.
My mother taught me to bring my toys inside at night.
I have two buildings.
1 - 36' x 48', the other 40' x 50'.
Everything lives inside, with the doors closed!

Thatll double the trade-in value years down the road....:thumbsup:

 

[SDT]

I almost bought a Massey Ken. It was the same size as the MX5400. It had 125 hours on it, but the interest rate he quoted me was 6.25% and it would have been close to the price of the Kubota after all the payments were made. I would wanted to put a canopy on it and turf tires. The good thing would be that I would have 2 sets of tires.
I liked where you added fuel.

The smaller MF tractors are made by Iseki and are good machines.

That, said, after buying two new MF tractors in 2007 and 2014 I will never darken a MF/AGCO door again considering how I was treated by both AGCO and their dealers.

SDT

 

[Aquabird]

The MF dealer here is about 40 miles south of me. Not sure if there is a closer one? That would have been a factor.

 

[Hay Dude]

The smaller MF tractors are made by Iseki and are good machines.

That, said, after buying two new MF tractors in 2007 and 2014 I will never darken a MF/AGCO door again considering how I was treated by both AGCO and their dealers.

SDT

I had an Iseki rebranded to a Challenger tractor. It was an excellent tractor and I would own one again in a heartbeat. An MT295B. 52HP with a little powershift transmission. Loved it.

 

[Aquabird]

Woodduck, I loved my Ford tractor. The quality and toughness was everything I hoped for and more. It just seemed under powered when I added the FEL. I was also using a 72' mower deck with it. Perhaps the combo was too much for it. It would mow good with it, but labored. I also plowed and scooped my snow with it, worked great for that, even with turf tires.

ShovelMike, I checked the air pressure in the tires. The fronts were at almost 30psi. The rears were around 24psi. The book says the fronts should be at 20psi. The rears are correct.
Maybe they added air to the fronts because the FEL is on??
Would it hurt to lower the fronts? Should I also lower the rear pressure a little?
I do not premature "baldness" ha ha, I mean tire wear.
Also I can see that with the bucket on the front, as big as it is, you can see the headlights on the front of the tractor.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Woodduck, I loved my Ford tractor. The quality and toughness was everything I hoped for and more. It just seemed under powered when I added the FEL. I was also using a 72' mower deck with it. Perhaps the combo was too much for it. It would mow good with it, but labored. I also plowed and scooped my snow with it, worked great for that, even with turf tires.

ShovelMike, I checked the air pressure in the tires. The fronts were at almost 30psi. The rears were around 24psi. The book says the fronts should be at 20psi. The rears are correct.
Maybe they added air to the fronts because the FEL is on??
Would it hurt to lower the fronts? Should I also lower the rear pressure a little?
I do not premature "baldness" ha ha, I mean tire wear.
Also I can see that with the bucket on the front, as big as it is, you can see the headlights on the front of the tractor.

On tire pressure, my tractor from the dealer had front tire pressures at about ~38 psi, though the owners manual suggested front tire psi of 22. (The tires are rated for 40 max) . I asked the dealer about it, he said the extra tire pressure was good on the front to avoid tire/rim problems with heavy loader work. My fronts are not loaded (with beet juice), not that it matters.

Whereas my rear tires were about 22 psi (and loaded), and the manual suggests 20 psi, so they were much closer to the what the manual says.

Food for thought about front tires and loads.

 

[Aquabird]

Thanks bw, Maybe I should put at least some of the air back in the front tires. I do not want to cut my sidewalls. Tires are high $. I looked in the book and it just gave one tire pressure, not a range for them. I have used the loader but not for heavy loads yet. A guy dug a stump out for me and I do need to move that.
I hate this no burn period in Ohio. This year it is especially hard. They put a special no open burn period in from April to June. I guess it rained to much? It has been from Aug to Oct for years now anyway and I think that is for always now. I have a bunch of brush to burn and cannot pile it any higher.
I would think, that if I watched it and had a FEL with a huge pile of dirt there, it should not be a problem. But, I have this phobia about paying fines and tickets to the govt.
I think it started when I went to a Pro baseball game. (I think the Reds should be semi pro now) Anyway there were no parking places left at any of the garages, so I parked about a half mile away at a parking meter. I loaded the meter with all it would take. 2.5 hrs. Game lasted 3 hrs and of course a $19 ticket and that was many years ago. Of course I have not gone back and will not...done with pro sports now anyway. Might be done with college sports too.
Thanks for the advise.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Thanks bw, Maybe I should put at least some of the air back in the front tires. I do not want to cut my sidewalls. Tires are high $. I looked in the book and it just gave one tire pressure, not a range for them. I have used the loader but not for heavy loads yet. A guy dug a stump out for me and I do need to move that.
I hate this no burn period in Ohio. This year it is especially hard. They put a special no open burn period in from April to June. I guess it rained to much? It has been from Aug to Oct for years now anyway and I think that is for always now. I have a bunch of brush to burn and cannot pile it any higher.
I would think, that if I watched it and had a FEL with a huge pile of dirt there, it should not be a problem. But, I have this phobia about paying fines and tickets to the govt.
I think it started when I went to a Pro baseball game. (I think the Reds should be semi pro now) Anyway there were no parking places left at any of the garages, so I parked about a half mile away at a parking meter. I loaded the meter with all it would take. 2.5 hrs. Game lasted 3 hrs and of course a $19 ticket and that was many years ago. Of course I have not gone back and will not...done with pro sports now anyway. Might be done with college sports too.
Thanks for the advise.

Re: no burn, perhaps next year we will compare chipper notes. I would dearly love to turn my brush piles to mulch for my plantings.

 

[Aquabird]

I had a small chipper many years ago, when I took trees down as a side job. But when I quit doing the tree and limb work the chipper just sat there and sat there and I ended up giving it to a relative.
I did get good news today. I had a septic system put in at my property where we are building. We bought 300 ton of topsoil. The guy gave me a price for the soil before they started to deliver it. Today, he told me it cost $900 less than expected. I told him great, get me 200 more ton....a ton does not go far.
I do wish now I had gotten the forks for my tractor.

 

[dhjmd]

Congratulations Aquabird, nice looking tractor!

 

[Aquabird]

Thanks Dhjmd, Kubota made it, I did wax it though. Took me two days for my shoulders to quit aching.
Got lots of work to do with it when I get the time. Seems like things seem to go in cycles. Not much to do for a while and then so much to do and so little time. Everything comes at you at once.

 

[Aquabird]

So, after owning the tractor for a few days, I have some observations to share.
First, I may have bought a tractor larger than I really want/need. Yes, I bought it because I wanted a loader that lifted a good deal of weight more than the tractor I just sold.
This tractor will definitely lift lots more weight.
My old Ford 1520 sipped fuel, this tractor gulps it.
I know this may be my imagination, but the hour meter seems to add another hour for each 1/2 hour I use it.?
This tractor seems to bounce a lot more than my old tractor. I tried to lower the pressure in the front tires, but it did not help, so I will put the air back in the fronts again.
This tractor turns a lot quicker than my old tractor.
The FEL operates a lot more smoothly than my old one.
The Turf Tires I have on this tractor get great traction on turn and on my gravel driveway.

I will keep posting about how I feel about this tractor.

 

[civilian]

............I told him great, get me 200 more ton....a ton does not go far.
I do wish now I had gotten the forks for my tractor.

You be a very long time moving that amount of top soil on your fork tips. I think the bucket would be much faster. LOL Jon

 

[Aquabird]

You be a very long time moving that amount of top soil on your fork tips. I think the bucket would be much faster. LOL Jon

Yeah, funny. I think there is going to be a bull dozer out there at some point and they will move that around.

 

[Aquabird]

Well, I think I have talked myself into getting a set of Forks. Not to eat on.
I have some projects upcoming that I will need them for. My wife told me she thought we should have bought the ones he used to help unload my implements when the dealer brought the new tractor.
Need to see what I can get a good set made in the U.S.A. for.

 

[Aquabird]

I drove my Tractor about 5 miles to the nearest small town to weigh my tractor yesterday.

I wanted to know exactly how much it weighed, so I would know if my trailer would haul it.
My MX5400 with loader, weighed 5280lbs with 3/4 full fuel and Turf Tires.
Has anybody else weighed their tractors?

 

[Bullwinkle123]

I drove my Tractor about 5 miles to the nearest small town to weigh my tractor yesterday.

I wanted to know exactly how much it weighed, so I would know if my trailer would haul it.
My MX5400 with loader, weighed 5280lbs with 3/4 full fuel and Turf Tires.
Has anybody else weighed their tractors?

I'm thinking that weight is such that you do _not_ have loaded tires, right? I'm not entirely sure what that adds, I've been using a guesstimate of 1600 pounds. Anybody know? (Loaded R4's on MX5400)

 

[Aquabird]

I'm thinking that weight is such that you do _not_ have loaded tires, right? I'm not entirely sure what that adds, I've been using a guesstimate of 1600 pounds. Anybody know? (Loaded R4's on MX5400)

Right, no loaded tires.
Really, if you look at the book, you would not think it would weigh that much. The book says 3734lbs. And I would guess the FEL adds the rest, possibly fuel and oil too.

 

[Bullwinkle123]

Right, no loaded tires.
Really, if you look at the book, you would not think it would weigh that much. The book says 3734lbs. And I would guess the FEL adds the rest, possibly fuel and oil too.

The loader and bucket weigh a lot, the loader in particular gets ignored.

LA1065 Loader: 1322 lbs
L2296 Bucket: 397 lbs

Bare tractor weight doesn't include the loader and attachments. I keep a little chart of all the component weights of things I own for the tractor so that I can remember the real weight when assessing things like "can I drive over that?" and "can that trailer haul this?". What I'm missing is an accurate weight for the added tire filler.

The moral of the story is that when you have all your attachments on it and your own body weight (1/8 ton for me ), you're looking at something approaching 4 tons for an MX5400 with loaded tires.