Help in choosing implements correctly

[swmich42]

I would like to review all my options, and get suggestions from those that have done this before. I will be doing the following: log skidding, soil ripping, (general clearing for planting); I will also be hauling and moving various materials. (chips, earth, rocks, brush) Lastly, I will be digging, trees, near a wet pond area.

Here are the implements I would like to aquire, to accomplish as many different projects:

Box Blade, 3pt (removable) pallet forks with sheild, sub-soiler, loader with materials bucket & grapple, and back hoe. (possibly a york rake)

Since I was also planning on making trails, I wanted to know about a skid steer attachment called a "shredder", to mow down trees, brush, etc. while making the trail.

Any help would be appreciated.

Love this site by the way!

 

[flusher]

I would like to review all my options, and get suggestions from those that have done this before. I will be doing the following: log skidding, soil ripping, (general clearing for planting); I will also be hauling and moving various materials. (chips, earth, rocks, brush) Lastly, I will be digging, trees, near a wet pond area.

Here are the implements I would like to aquire, to accomplish as many different projects:

Box Blade, 3pt (removable) pallet forks with sheild, sub-soiler, loader with materials bucket & grapple, and back hoe. (possibly a york rake)

Since I was also planning on making trails, I wanted to know about a skid steer attachment called a "shredder", to mow down trees, brush, etc. while making the trail.

Any help would be appreciated.

Love this site by the way!

Definitely get a skid steer adaptor for your front end loader. It's worth the money.

That skid steer shredder I assume attaches to the FEL and runs from hydraulic remotes. That JD 4700 you have can deliver 10.3 gpm to hydraulic attachments. You need to check those shredders you're looking at to be sure your tractor hydraulics have enough gpm.

 

[MarkV]

Welcome to the forum. Box Blade is very useful for any grading type of situation. Forget the 3pt pallet forks, you are going to want a quick hitch on the loader so you can switch from the bucket to the grapple so get forks for the loader that attach the same way. Backhoes are wonderful if you have enough work to justify their expense. A "shredder" is the same as a rotary mower, bushhog. To run one on the front you need one that is powered hydraulically. They are expensive and our smaller tractor do not have enough hydraulic capacity to run them. You can run a regular rotary mower.

MarkV

 

[IslandTractor]

Since I was also planning on making trails, I wanted to know about a skid steer attachment called a "shredder", to mow down trees, brush, etc. while making the trail.

Don't even think about a shredder for a compact utility tractor. They cost well over 10 large and are simply not designed for use on a CUT's FEL. If you have miles of trails then perhaps the investment would be worth it (shredder and skid steer) but for smaller trails a properly equipped CUT is a very effective tool for trail clearing.

A bush hog or medium duty flail mower would be more in line with how you would equip a CUT for trail clearing. With one of those on the back and a grapple on the front end you'd be pretty well set up. You would need to remove trees to a burn pile or cut and chip them in two steps.

 

[charlz]

What are you going to be planting? You might need to add at least a disk to the list.

I would agree about the pallet forks, get them for the loader. Unless you have Top-n-Tilt the rear pallet forks aren't all that useful as you have to manually adjust the tilt of the forks. What are you planning on doing with the forks?

 

[RWolf]

whoooooo...neillie. Let's start from the beginning please. What size tractor do you have or are getting as I didn't see that in the original post. I would think heavy and possibly moving to a UT instead of a CUT. Reason being is as you said you are going to be doing a considerable amount of ground engagement (rocks,roots etc.) so when you engage those small rocks that turn out to be monsters you have the weight and HP to do the job effectively. If you can break down the jobs into a percentage over time. What I mean by that is if you only need a backhoe for a couple of jobs then you'd be better off renting whereas you will be mowing with whatever type of mower most of the time. As far as a skid steer adapter/attachment only if the tractor doesn't have a QA. As far as JD goes why would I need a skidsteer attachment when the QA on JD's are very easy and quick to change (this is just an opinion). I've made my own QA bale spear and plan on other custom tools and the total cost for the hooks and pins was very cheap. The other thing is I'd look at my first job and get the implement for it and then see what the next job will be. You might find that what you envision now is not what you really need and spending bucks needlessly bites.

 

[newbury]

I would like to review all my options, and get suggestions from those that have done this before. I will be doing the following: log skidding, soil ripping, (general clearing for planting); I will also be hauling and moving various materials. (chips, earth, rocks, brush) Lastly, I will be digging, trees, near a wet pond area.

Here are the implements I would like to aquire, to accomplish as many different projects:

Box Blade, 3pt (removable) pallet forks with sheild, sub-soiler, loader with materials bucket & grapple, and back hoe. (possibly a york rake)

Since I was also planning on making trails, I wanted to know about a skid steer attachment called a "shredder", to mow down trees, brush, etc. while making the trail.

Any help would be appreciated.

Love this site by the way!

Rwolf's right:
The OP really needs to list:
His/her skill set
size of land
location
terrain
size of government loan, depth of hole you can dig into to pay for the toys.

For instance I've got in N. Virginia:
1. 0.25 acres on which I need to dig about 150' of shallow ditch, dig up three stumps of trees about 2' DBH, tear up about 30' of convrete sidewalk and replace.
2. 0.5 acres on which I need to bush hog half, ditch about 100', cut down dig up about three trees/stumps 3' DBH.

I bought in sig. BH just came in.
whoops forgot a little more land
3. 75 acres in Vermont, need to maintain trails, haul trees.
4. 300+ acres in Mississippi - trails, ponds, timber, roads

 

[bostonbear]

Markham has a deal for digging tree hole. check out thier web site. i was reading another thread about a tooth bar. serch markham tooth bar and you'll see. the other thread all the guys raved about the company.

 

[dangerdoc]

I would like to review all my options, and get suggestions from those that have done this before. I will be doing the following: log skidding, soil ripping, (general clearing for planting); I will also be hauling and moving various materials. (chips, earth, rocks, brush) Lastly, I will be digging, trees, near a wet pond area.

Here are the implements I would like to aquire, to accomplish as many different projects:

Box Blade, 3pt (removable) pallet forks with sheild, sub-soiler, loader with materials bucket & grapple, and back hoe. (possibly a york rake)

Since I was also planning on making trails, I wanted to know about a skid steer attachment called a "shredder", to mow down trees, brush, etc. while making the trail.

Any help would be appreciated.

Love this site by the way!

Per the discussion above.

Skid steer adapter is an excellent investment.

You do not have enough hydraulic flow to run hydraulic powered skid steer adapters. That is not the end of the matter though. If you have need to run a shredder, look at a PTO powered hyraulic pump.

Instead of buying a shredder, look into a skid steer to 3pt adapter with hydraulic powered PTO. You can then run a regular brush hog off the loader, the combined cost of adapter and brush hog is less than a shredder and you have the option of using it as a brush hog off the back too.

Also, make sure you either have teeth on your bucket or invest in a tooth bar, in increases the effectiveness of your buck tremendiously, especially if you want to grub up brush and rocks.

 

[IslandTractor]

Per the discussion above.

Skid steer adapter is an excellent investment.

You do not have enough hydraulic flow to run hydraulic powered skid steer adapters. That is not the end of the matter though. If you have need to run a shredder, look at a PTO powered hyraulic pump.

Instead of buying a shredder, look into a skid steer to 3pt adapter with hydraulic powered PTO. You can then run a regular brush hog off the loader, the combined cost of adapter and brush hog is less than a shredder and you have the option of using it as a brush hog off the back too.

I think it is a bad idea to rig a CUT to perform like a skidsteer. Putting a hydraulic powered bush hog on the front of a CUT is like putting wings on a tank....it can be done but why do it? If you need a skidsteer get a skidsteer. The OP's tasks do not require a skidsteer however. Many many CUT owners do those same tasks with a standard CUT and a bush hog mounted on the tail where it should be. Me thinks the OP has naively opened a can of worms (unintentionally of course) and that the most appropriate advice is to have him educate himself. If driving forwards through the forest is absolutely necessary and a skidsteer plus shredder is not in the budget, then PowerTrac, not a Rube Goldberg device on a CUT, would be the way to go.

Skidsteer adapters on a CUT FEL can be very useful for changing buckets, 4n1, forks, tree booms and grapples and there are even a few 3PT implements that can reasonably be used on a FEL (e.g. rake), but it makes little sense to put implements that are heavy (box blade, bush hog) or require high volume hydraulics (bush hog, shredder) on an FEL that is engineered primarily as a light duty loader. No CUT can match a skidsteer when discussing loader power or loader mounted hydraulics. Not even close.