How do you manage your attachments off the tractor?

[SmallChange]

How do you manage attachments when they're not on the tractor? Especially, how do you move them around and get them in a convenient position to connect them?

I have an auger that is way too heavy to move by myself. I have a cable suspending it from my barn roof trusses, and I only have to back into approximately the right position to start connecting. If it weren't for that, I'd dismantle the whole thing every time to connect.

But I also have a rake, a subsoiler, a boom pole, and similar stuff. These things sit where I can reach them with the tractor, and I shove and pull and generally give myself a sore back for that last inch or two to get the arms on the pins. It's worked OK for 25 years now, but I'm getting too old for this method!

If you have smooth flat concrete, some kind of dolly would be great. My floor is rough -- dirt for now, gravel soon I hope.

Am I missing any good bets?

 

[mapper]

Everything but my tiller is out in the yard on blocks.
I keep the post hole auger with the arms on a couple of concrete blocks and the auger in a hole about a foot deep. It's in position to back up and attach it easily, trying to wrassle it up off the ground is pretty much impossible for one person.
I keep the implements with gear boxes and drive shafts under tarps.
If I had the space under to store them inside I would.

 

[Scook222]

Depending on the attachment, I use anything from fire wood for a disc tongue, cinder blocks, peace’s of old light poles, jack stands and chains. If you can find treated cross tie ends the work great too. The auger in the whole like the post above works great just hook the top link first and lower the arms to fit. I have a hay van fork I learned the hard way to hook the top link first or it will never hook right. Anything that makes it to where you can just back up and pin it works, even though some of the contraptions I use aren’t really pretty but it beats having to muscle cotton trailer and disc tongues and everything else into place.

 

[ericm979]

I put most of my implements in the barn and most of those are on dollies. If something sits outside I put it on pallets or blocks.

 

[Tomtint]

I have 3 QA buckets, a box blade, a rake, a chipper, a carry all,forks and probably something else I'm forgetting.. the chipper is covered and stored under a deck out of the weather. The others are scattered behind the shed/barn.. lately it has been bothering me as it starts to look like Sanford and Son around here. I'm thinking about getting some commercial racking like you see in Home Depot or lowes and using them to stack all the attachments on. ..behind the shed/barn out of sight.

 

[oosik]

My single bottom moldboard plow, LPGS, disk harrow, FEL bucket & ROBB are all out in the orchard, on pallets. The rear blade & grapple are on the tractor, in one of the carport stalls. The chipper is on a pallet in another carport stall.

 

[RalphVa]

My bush hog is on a 2x6 that goes underneath the front part of the skids. It has 3 steel castors at each end.

The MacKissic chipper/shredder sits on a little dolly with 4 castors underneath, about the size of a furniture dolly.

The carryall has a pallet for its bottom, and there are steel castors underneath affixed to the pallet.

The back blade is easy to move without anything under it. I do put 2 4x4s under it when I sit it back against a tilted vertical. This is with the blade reversed to sit nicely on the 4x4s.

Ralph

 

[/pine]

The ideal solution is having a dedicated tractor for each implement so you never have to change them...my alternative is just leave them where they are easy to get to and out of the way...

 

[Stomper]

I put all of mine on pallets of their own. That way if I need to move them I can with my forks and it also helps keep them off the ground and out of the water when it rains. Of course it helps if they actually fit on a pallet. I do the same with my 4 snowmobiles but I built 10 foot long pallets for them.

 

[Gordon Gould]

I keep the chipper in the garage on casters. The rest of the stuff is tucked into out of the way places out doors. Some time I pick them up with chains and bucket hooks and bring them to the flat and level drive for easier mounting on the 3ph or loader SSQA. I always have a 5 foot bar handy to inch the implement around for minute final position adjustment.

gg