just letting tractor idle - probably a dumb question

[john reeder]

I vote for a trailer to load the wood on rather than carry any distance on/in the bucket repeatedly.

For seventeen years I've been hauling dirt, wood, brush, rocks, and gravel around on this property with either a wheel barrow or a zero turn with a trailer behind it. I bought the Kubota to get away from that nonsense as much as possible. I'm getting long in the tooth.

 

[Diggin It]

^^ Now you can haul a bigger trailer behind it. Carrying a load on the bucket can create issues, not the least of which is balance. I found that out in just a couple of weeks. Use the bucket to load the trailer. Haul the load on the trailer. Work smarter, not harder.

 

[rgr33]

The point about low alternator output is spot on.
My 30 year old John Deere will leave you stranded at the bottom of the hill if you turn off and restart the motor too many times.

 

[Jstpssng]

^^ Now you can haul a bigger trailer behind it. Carrying a load on the bucket can create issues, not the least of which is balance. I found that out in just a couple of weeks. Use the bucket to load the trailer. Haul the load on the trailer. Work smarter, not harder.

Last fall I built a 16x20 foot gravel pad 1 foot thick, reclaiming from an old road on my property and moving it 1/4 mile from my field to where I wanted it. At 3 trips per yard I put WAY too many hours on the tractor. It would have been cheaper and quicker to buy a small dump trailer to pull behind my pickup, plus I would have gotten my tractor shed built before snowfall rather than having everything covered with tarps and buried under the snow.

 

[rooster1980]

most tractors one engine hour is one hour when the tractor is running at pto operating speed, so if the pto mark on the tachometer is at 2200 rpm when the engine runs 2200 rpm an hour is an hour, any rpm lower than that it might take 3 hours for the hour meter to register one hour.

 

[Fallon]

most tractors one engine hour is one hour when the tractor is running at pto operating speed, so if the pto mark on the tachometer is at 2200 rpm when the engine runs 2200 rpm an hour is an hour, any rpm lower than that it might take 3 hours for the hour meter to register one hour.

That's how older mechanical meters were. They actually counted rotations not hours & were calibrated for rated PTO speed RPMs. Most but not all reasonably modern tractors have electric hour meters which just count time while running. On some you can clock engine hours if you leave the key in the run position without the engine running. That's generally for machines with a mechanical injector pump & not computerized machines though.

 

[john reeder]

^^ Now you can haul a bigger trailer behind it. Carrying a load on the bucket can create issues, not the least of which is balance. I found that out in just a couple of weeks. Use the bucket to load the trailer. Haul the load on the trailer. Work smarter, not harder.

Loading a trailer manually on one end then unloading it manually on the other, versus loading the bucket manually on one end and dumping it on the other is not working smarter. We're talking the pieces of tree trunk here. Be it dirt or gravel and the tractor/bucket does the work on both ends. Don't raise your load so high while using the bucket and you won't have the balance issues. Use your trailer if you like I'm going to use the fel on the tractor I just bought.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

Loading a trailer manually on one end then unloading it manually on the other, versus loading the bucket manually on one end and dumping it on the other is not working smarter. We're talking the pieces of tree trunk here. Be it dirt or gravel and the tractor/bucket does the work on both ends. Don't raise your load so high while using the bucket and you won't have the balance issues. Use your trailer if you like I'm going to use the fel on the tractor I just bought.

I'm going with you except when I use my RTV1140 extended bed with back seats down and hydraulic dump. I can load 3 to 4 tractor buckets into RTV and drive from one site to the other twice as fast in the RTV. I do the RTV if it's going to require 3 or more trips but other wise I just use that easy load/easy dump front bucket, or forks, or grapple.
I have 3 diesel Kubotas that don't have DPF. One has set idle rpms and two have adjustable idle rpms. I lower the idle speed on the two with adjustable idle control. I try to let then run a few minutes before moving on since they all have hydro trans which need warmed up and even the same on gasoline RTV500 per Kubota because of hyd trans, not the gas engine. Totally different rules on the L3901 with DPF which I let sit but start increasing idle speed during my 3 to 5 minute idle warm up period then set it on the around 3000 rpm mark on the tach and keep it there till I finish my work and even leave it running at that rpm if I get off for several minutes. The DPF "stuff" is a different world and high engine rpm is important and low rpms is as important but in a bad way. When I get back to parking I bring the rpms down and check for any lights and turn it off.

 

[TheMadOne]

Loading a trailer manually on one end then unloading it manually on the other, versus loading the bucket manually on one end and dumping it on the other is not working smarter. We're talking the pieces of tree trunk here. Be it dirt or gravel and the tractor/bucket does the work on both ends. Don't raise your load so high while using the bucket and you won't have the balance issues. Use your trailer if you like I'm going to use the fel on the tractor I just bought.

Dump trailer and second tractor?

And a grapple while you're at it.

Only manual effort would be moving between tractors.

You might "need" a third tractor at the dump site for finish handling.

Live the dream!

 

[john reeder]

You guys have too much stuff