Going from ATV to compact tractor, food plots and safety on hills, ?

[postban]

I own 35 acres of hilly property in NW Michigan near Manton MI. Four acres cleared by me, the rest is a Scotch Pine Jungle with a 125' hill splitting the place into two valleys. Not one inch of the place is flat or level.
Eleven different plots sowed in Clover, Purple Top Turnips, Dwarf Essex Rape. Another few in the poor soil areas in Buckwheat. It is mostly sandy but I have been getting good results with appropriate additions of lime/fert and food species. Mix of perennials and annuals to feed all year for Whitetail, Turkey and Ruffed Grouse.

Plenty of pics and info at link including map and layout. Transforming a Scotch Pine jungle. - AR15.COM

Biggest plot is 0.4 acres, smallest is 0.1, tight turning and handling is critical.
Even my quad just clears the 10yd turning circle.
I really know nothing about tractor hillside safety and turning radius while working. You guys are the experts so please advise.
Also some of the trails are cut to ATV sized 50" wide so the compact needs to be near that.
This one of the small hillside plots that concerns me about using a higher centered tractor. My eye says about 15 degrees and maybe more in some areas.

This one too. Starts out mild but really kicks up at the end where it is narrow.


My current "tractor" Arctic Cat 400 4x4 with disc, spring harrow, spreader and cultipacker. It has an electric 2-pt lift that does ok.
It does not mind the steep side hills but really does not have the power to work even this sandy soil. I manage but just, requires a lot of repeat passes.
I also have an old John Deere L118 Mower that handles all mowing including the plots when needed. It is very low centered though.
Whatever compact I look at needs a mower on it too. No real need for an FEL but everyone says get one

I would like to move up to a 3pt disc, spring harrow, cultipacker, spreader and have a belly mower and still be safe on the side hills and in tight handling.

 

[ericm979]

Belly mowers are all finish mowers. 3pt mowers also come in versions that can handle rougher terrain and larger plants: Rotary cutters ("brush hog") and flail mowers.

Realizing that pictures make slopes seem flatter I'd be ok operating my tractor up and down those. They're getting close to where I'd avoid side hilling or do it carefully looking for dips on the low side and rocks on the high side. The only spec for slope operation I found (for a Massey) said 20% all directions. Of course you can operate up and down steeper slopes than you can side hill. You may not want to disc or harrow up and down because erosion but for mowing it doesn't make much difference.

I mow a number of small areas (until I clear more brush). I can get my 70 inch wide and much longer Branson + 5' rotary cutter in the same restricted spaces I operated the 40" wide Kubota B7100 with 42" rotary. It just takes more backing and turning.

Smaller tractors in my limited experience tend to be tippier on slopes than larger ones.

 

[jeff9366]

The lightest Disc Harrow which will cut food plots in one or two passes over UNBROKEN ground has 22" diameter pans. This size disc requires a tractor with a bare weight of 4,000 pounds and four-wheel drive. Tractors of 4,000 pounds weight are typically 66" (+/-) wide.

If you settle on a lighter tractor, purchase a PTO-powered roto-tiller, rather than a Disc Harrow. PTO powered roto-tillers do a good job on tractors with a bare weight of 1,700 pounds to 4,000 pounds. You will still need four-wheel drive. Many prepare food plots with just a Roto-tiller and a Cultipacker behind the tractor, nothing else.

Having tractor dealer fill the rear tires with liquid lowers the center of gravity on traditional tractors.

Some traditional tractors have adjustable rear wheel widths. Wider tire spreads increase stability. Wheel spacers are frequently installed to increase hill stability on light tractors.
VENDER LINK: Bro-Tek

Turf tires are much wider than other tractor tires. However, Turf tires are less puncture resistant than more popular ag tires and industrial tires.

I recommend a tractor with at least 12" of ground clearance AND a Front End Loader. (FEL)



Ventrac, Steiner and Power Trac tractors all have four equal sized wheels. All three are better hill tractors than traditional tractors with large rear wheels and small front wheels.

VENDER LINKS: Power Trac
Ventrac Compact Tractors & Attachments



LINK TO KUBOTA WEB SITE: http://www.kubota.com/product/GroupTractors.aspx

 

[crazyal]

You'll find a tractor will be more maneuverable than an ATV because you'll have split brakes. This will allow you to lock up one wheel and spin around on that wheel. With a 3pt hitch you will be able to lift the attachment off the ground as you do it. Of course that requires the room to do so. If your tractor is 10' long and your attachment on the back is 5' then you will need more than 15'. So a tractor may not make tighter turns than your ATV.

Hills and slops are always an issue. A tractor will have no problem going up and down most hills but turning is always tricky. A tractor has a higher center of gravity and with the front axle mounted on a pivot it'll be more tippy than an ATV. Plus and ATV, being lighter, is much easier to shift your body weight to keep it from rolling.

That being said a tractor will be much easier going in reverse. ATV attachments going in reverse is just like backing up a trailer. A 3pt attachment is simply lifted off the ground. You will want to get a loader for your tractor as it will add weight to the front to offset the weight of the attachment on hills. My experience is that driving up and backing down works best as your rear wheels will have more weight on them, they have the brakes. This leads to one of the reasons why you need a loader as you need front weight when using this method. Instead of making circles you most likely will want to go back and forth.

You will want to adjust your thought process on how you attack your plots but it shouldn't be a problem. The government use to have a simple picture you could print on a 8 1/2"x11" piece of paper. With it you could make a very simple but accurate way of measuring slope grade. If I can find it I'll post a link. It'll help you when trying to determine just how steep your land really is.

 

[cqaigy2]

Regardless of what piece of equipment you purchase, be sure to use the seat belt and Roll Over Protection System, ROPS. When you start to go over, do not put your hands and/or legs out. They probably won't survive the roll over and you may lose them.


I bought a Power Trac because of the slope of my property. Being able to move among the trees is very easy, as it is articulate. I also decided to only mow those arias that i think really need to be mowed. The rest of the property is left as is.

Good luck on your purchase.

 

[AxleHub]

Greetings Postban,

The pictures were helpful. Your slopes in the pictures appear to be considerably more gentle than mine. I sidehill cut some of mine and up and down or angle others. my sidehill cut slopes are either as steep or steeper than your pictures I saw. I tested several sub compacts out of different brands specifically for how they handled slopes as well as other issues.

The machine I liked best for slope activity and tight turning and features and fit and pricing was the Massey GC1715 because I did not need a backhoe or the price of one LOL.

I also purchased a dedicated mulching mower which is unique to Massey. It is a 54 inch deck that measures a total of 55.5 inches wide because there is no chute. Most mulching mowers are fussy on grass height but a dedicated unit like mine has 6 blades on 3 spindles so its capable of taller grass. The important things for me in the deck choice is I wanted narrow width and no exhaust so the cuttings could do fertilizing of the grounds rather than lots of chemicals.

A subcompact will not give you lots of ground clearance like a compact tractor will and that is important to be low to the ground for slopes (very low center of gravity. Mine is 25HP motor so the pto's have a little more power for ground engaging equipment. I have 20 to 30 degree slopes and for 2 years I've cut all the slopes no problem even though as yet I haven't added wheel spacers which will make it even better.

My front end loader has considerable weight lifting capacity which I have tested on very specific load measurements - and I frequently use forks for hauling rock, block, and other items rather than using trailers. My 3PR hitch works great with a 40 gallon sprayer and I can't mention often enough how surprised I am that the sprayer is as beneficial with the wand as it is with the boom (because you can drive along the edges and wand spray as you drive and also spray down into long banks or into tree areas up to 30 feet or more.

I do have turf tires which gives me traction I was told I wouldn't get on snow and ice and in sandy grassed soils. In two years I have not had a single puncture in construction areas or rougher ground. And I have yet to find ice that I would slip on despite living in Wisconsin on heavily sloped street and driveways. I even go out on lawns with 5 or 6 inches of snow without difficulty.

And this summer I will be adding a mini grapple. What is that you ask? Instead of a 4 foot wide grapple - I want something that is much narrower that I can reach into tighter places to pick up logs or rocks (rocks up to 28 inches diameter. A mini grapple is just a couple inches over 1 foot wide yet I can grab and move a log or rock equal to the maximum capacity of the front end loader. And because of its weight only being 77 pounds - it allows more payload carried than larger grapples.

The GC1715 I chose for ground engaging future needs also like tillers or rear blades or post hole diggers or for flipping my forks on to the 3pt for even heavier lifting loads.

Lastly - for rougher terrain or washboard lawns - my tractor choice comes with a seat that is both coil supported and spring supported - offering a better ride from jostling. The Massey tractor AND engine are engineered and built by the same award winning company exclusively for Massey for many years. And like the Kubota BX and some Yanmar tractors - the MAssey engine compartment is forward cooled - not front end cooled - keeping tractor engine area and operator cleaner and better heat regulated.

Picture here shows some of numerous of our slopes. However - the fel and bucket are not part of my lawn cutting process LOL

 

[postban]

Thanks for the replies and information, much appreciated!

 

[TheMan419]

You will find a million uses for the FEL once you have it. Heck I use it to move hay bales (small squares) from the barn they are stored in to the barn the horses are in. You will find you want to move soil, rocks etc etc ect once you have a FEL.