Caseyh
Member
I purchased my 1538 Shuttle in February 2017 after three years of hem hawing around and researching. I got tons of good information on this site and wanted to give an update on how my first 6 months have gone.
I live on 30 acres in North Central Kentucky and my property is about 50% hilly/rocky field and 50% hilly/rocky woods. I don't have livestock or a big farming operation but I need to keep my property from getting out of control and perform general maintenance of gravel driveways and cleaning up downed trees and limbs etc...
The tractor is a Mahindra 1538 shuttle shift with FEL and industrial tires with the rears loaded with beat juice.
As of last night I have 69.3 hours on the tractor and have used it to do the following:
-plowed a neighbors food plot (roughly 1 acre) with a ford two bottom plow
-used a 6 ft disc on the same food plot to break it up
-used a 6 ft rototiller to till up my small garden (30'X50')
-used my betstco 6 ft flail mower to mow my fields and yard as well as cut trails through the woods and mow some of my neighbors property as well
-dug firepits with the FEL, smoothed out driveways, pulled dead trees out of the woods etc...
So far I have not had a single issue with the tractor, the ECU was flashed prior to taking delivery and I was told it had the most up to date code at the time and I have experienced no cooling issues or odd behaviors that some on here have seen.
I performed the first oil change at 50 hours and I replaced the filter at that time as well. I was glad to see magnetic drain plugs on the tractor and found a little bit of break in "dust" on them but it was very light. I'm interested to see how it looks at the next oil change.
I have been pretty meticulous about greasing the tractor and mower frequently and keeping the air cleaner and radiator cleaned out because the majority of my time on it has been spent mowing and it gets a lot of dust and grass remnants pulled into the engine bay.
The tractor has surprised me with its stability on hills, I was very nervous and cautious at first, and still am to a degree, but have gained a level of comfort. This thing is also very capable off road, I've taken it everywhere that I've taken my four wheeler and it has done fine. Crossing creeks and climbing a muddy 18" tall bank on the exit is not an issue at all. I've even done it in two wheel drive with no problem, it will crawl up and down rutted out rocky farm roads like an absolute champ and is still small enough to get into tight spots in the woods. A four wheeler trail is basically wide enough for this tractor to follow, maybe not quite but it doesn't require much more than that.
I've mowed grass down that's taller than the hood of the tractor in 3rd gear low range climbing fairly steep grades with the throttle at about 1800 rpm and it doesn't miss a bit, no bogging down and no need to bump the throttle and I'm using a 6 ft flail mower. I was concerned about the PTO power (30hp) for 6 ft implements but so far it has not been an issue. Since it's right on the edge of the recommended 5hp per ft I wasn't really sure what to expect but have been pleased.
The little plastic toolbox that comes with it is weak and I replaced it with an ammo can that I mounted to the bracket that holds the slow moving vehicle sign since I never really take it on the road. I also wish the fuel tank was in a different spot because it makes filling it a pain with a full gas can on your shoulder to reach the filler neck up on the hood. Other than that I would recommend this tractor to anyone looking for one.
Let me know if you want to know anything more specific and I'll answer anything I can.
I live on 30 acres in North Central Kentucky and my property is about 50% hilly/rocky field and 50% hilly/rocky woods. I don't have livestock or a big farming operation but I need to keep my property from getting out of control and perform general maintenance of gravel driveways and cleaning up downed trees and limbs etc...
The tractor is a Mahindra 1538 shuttle shift with FEL and industrial tires with the rears loaded with beat juice.
As of last night I have 69.3 hours on the tractor and have used it to do the following:
-plowed a neighbors food plot (roughly 1 acre) with a ford two bottom plow
-used a 6 ft disc on the same food plot to break it up
-used a 6 ft rototiller to till up my small garden (30'X50')
-used my betstco 6 ft flail mower to mow my fields and yard as well as cut trails through the woods and mow some of my neighbors property as well
-dug firepits with the FEL, smoothed out driveways, pulled dead trees out of the woods etc...
So far I have not had a single issue with the tractor, the ECU was flashed prior to taking delivery and I was told it had the most up to date code at the time and I have experienced no cooling issues or odd behaviors that some on here have seen.
I performed the first oil change at 50 hours and I replaced the filter at that time as well. I was glad to see magnetic drain plugs on the tractor and found a little bit of break in "dust" on them but it was very light. I'm interested to see how it looks at the next oil change.
I have been pretty meticulous about greasing the tractor and mower frequently and keeping the air cleaner and radiator cleaned out because the majority of my time on it has been spent mowing and it gets a lot of dust and grass remnants pulled into the engine bay.
The tractor has surprised me with its stability on hills, I was very nervous and cautious at first, and still am to a degree, but have gained a level of comfort. This thing is also very capable off road, I've taken it everywhere that I've taken my four wheeler and it has done fine. Crossing creeks and climbing a muddy 18" tall bank on the exit is not an issue at all. I've even done it in two wheel drive with no problem, it will crawl up and down rutted out rocky farm roads like an absolute champ and is still small enough to get into tight spots in the woods. A four wheeler trail is basically wide enough for this tractor to follow, maybe not quite but it doesn't require much more than that.
I've mowed grass down that's taller than the hood of the tractor in 3rd gear low range climbing fairly steep grades with the throttle at about 1800 rpm and it doesn't miss a bit, no bogging down and no need to bump the throttle and I'm using a 6 ft flail mower. I was concerned about the PTO power (30hp) for 6 ft implements but so far it has not been an issue. Since it's right on the edge of the recommended 5hp per ft I wasn't really sure what to expect but have been pleased.
The little plastic toolbox that comes with it is weak and I replaced it with an ammo can that I mounted to the bracket that holds the slow moving vehicle sign since I never really take it on the road. I also wish the fuel tank was in a different spot because it makes filling it a pain with a full gas can on your shoulder to reach the filler neck up on the hood. Other than that I would recommend this tractor to anyone looking for one.
Let me know if you want to know anything more specific and I'll answer anything I can.
