My 2025R Thread

[jeepcoma]

I’ve bent my front draft link three times. It’s a pain but I just make sure I take the loader off.

Yep I remember your post and wondering how it could still be attached with the arm all bent. Now I know.

This time, I only bent the TR107795: Front Draft Bracket, without breaking the draft arm. Looking at the parts catalog, I went to the hardware store to get a M10x55 carriage bolt and another spacer to see if I could get by. The problem is the front draft bracket wasn't adjusted properly (TWICE from the dealer). It needs to be positioned so to stop the draft arm so that it's high enough to get picked up by the front hanger, but not so high as to hit the loader stand. Comparing the Removal and Installation of a John Deere Drive Over AutoConnect Mower Deck is a video by a dealer that clearly shows this is possible.

When this deck works nice, it sure is nice. What a pain when it's not though.

Anyway, I was able to temporarily repair the bent bolt securing the bracket. The bracket itself needs some bending back in shape, but I was able to get it "good enough" to attach the deck and get some mowing done today (without the MCS ). As long as I remove the loader, or try the 2x4 trick, or have a helper hold it down during removal, it should be fine for now. I was able to mow the few paths through the lawn. Got a nice beard on it from the dandelion seeds.

Then later mowed for about an hour after dark. The lights are nice - I've already done more night work than I expected I ever would. Some rear lights would be nice at this point.

One thing that surprised me at the end of mowing, I reached behind me to hang my ear muffs up on the back and I touched the Summit Hydraulics manifold, and it was hot! Granted I was running full throttle for an hour and mowing hard, but I didn't expect the hydraulics to heat up that much from it, especially since it was a cool night, no sun, and with the Hydros Plus cooler installed (plus the plumbing and manifold is acting as a heat sink and radiator too). Can't imagine how things would have been with the stock cooler on a hot sunny day (even though I mowed exactly that way last season!). I'll try to grab a temperature reading next time I do a longer mowing session. I could really feel the heat pouring out from under the hood too. I worked the turbo hard going through lots of overgrown weeds in the horse paddock. Will be interesting to see how things go with the MCS running at full tilt. Mowing is probably the most consistent high-HP usage for these little tractors.

 

[jeepcoma]

June 8, 2024 - Mowing Day

I still haven't heard back from the dealer about the MCS. I'm very frustrated at this point because I'm in my second mow of the season now and the whole point was to have it for the first, to prevent that long first mow material from turning into big giant clumps. At this point I'm starting to consider getting my deposit back, and then either order from TerraKing or keep an eye out for when a used one comes up for sale. Very frustrating nonetheless, especially since I was sooooo close to mowing nirvana.

At least one thing went my way... new tools day! After a lifetime of mowing and sharpening with those crappy angled stones and balancing with the plastic pyramid thing, I decided to invest in some good equipment. These will easily last my lifetime and be handed down to my kids

I did a "temporary" mount in my garage using a vice and one of the support pillars. Ultimately I'd like it somewhere else, but it worked fine.

Perfectly balanced!

I ended up sharpening six blades - before mowing and after (since I hit some rocks, scalped some sandy sections, etc). The first sharpening took a bit of time since they were pretty beat up, and figuring out "the feel" for how much material to take off for balancing. The second time after mowing went much quicker though, as they were better balanced to begin with (minus the gouges), and I counted strokes and did the same on both edges.

I always hated sharpening mower blades, but this was pretty fun. Very easy to do as will with the Load-and-Go system on the deck. Very nice setup. Fast and easy to sharpen blades, clean underside of deck, grease the spindles. For the price of this mower deck (and the tractor to mow with it!), I believe it's a worthwhile investment in tools and time to keep it in tip-top shape.

Also now that I've worked out the bugs and done all the deck adjustments, I'm very pleased with the autoconnect deck. Having the right amount of gap for the front draft arm is key for easy removal, as well as making sure the draft arm doesn't get hung up on the loader stand (either by the wedge of wood trick, or not having the loader on - also super easy to do with the 1-point hookup). With those out of the way and a little practice, it feels like it takes 5 minutes to go from tractor with loader and backhoe to tractor with MMM, and back again after.

 

[jeepcoma]

I canceled my order for the MCS. Pretty bummed about that but even more bummed about my dealer. They basically wanted to pretend that nothing ever happened and it's still brand new, despite falling off the forklift. And they offered me NOTHING to make it right. "Yeah we patched it up and I talked to the service lead and the dealer lead, and if anything goes wrong during the warranty, we'll take care of it" - yeah, no kidding, its the WARRANTY. What a joke. They screwed me on the mower deck and they tried to screw me here, but I went with the motto "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." Done with this dealer.

Here's the serial number: 1XFMC21XAR0000471

Buyer beware, it's a scratch and dent, but my guess is it will be resold as new.

 

[beenthere]

Not seeing any damage. ??

 

[jeepcoma]

Not seeing any damage. ??

No, I didn't take any pictures of the damage. It fell forward off the pallet onto the PTO, from trailer unloading height, maybe 5'.

 

[jeepcoma]

July 2, 2024 - Trail Maintenence.

Have had the tractor for just over a year now and 83.6 hours on the clock. Lot of mowing time the past couple weeks (should have taken some pictures). The trail I've been building is getting a bit out of control, we had a lot of trees come down this winter that need clearing, so I hooked up the forklift and boxblade and made some laps.

The size and turning radius of the 2025R makes for a very nimble woods machine - even with the forks out front and the box blade behind.

The fork frame and brush guard have been very handy for pushing trees and shrub out of the way, and the forks themselves are great not just for lifting, but demolition too. If there's a branch overhanging the trail, it's easy to put the fork on it and smash it down, then break the branch right at the trunk to really get it out of the way. The box blade works as a dozer when going in reverse which is nice too, it can easily smash down shrubs and small trees.

Looks pretty good after a few passes. The hydraulic tilt has been more useful than I imagined, really helps keep the blade engaged when going over uneven terrain as happens in the woods.

 

[jeepcoma]

Not much tractoring this summer other than mowing, sharpening blades, balancing blades, more mowing, repeat ... it's been a HOT summer here in NH and I have not had much motivation to bake in the sun. Maybe a canopy is in my future...

Mowed the large paddock yesterday. It's about 3 acres in size. I've mowed it twice this year already, which is two time more than I have been doing with the 2-wheel tractor and 34" flail! Believe it or not, when we first bought the property, the owners had let it go for years and I was mowing 6' tall weeds with my 21" push mower. That took a looooooonnnnng time to mow...

Hard to tell from the picture, but the bigger clumps are about the height of the 2025R's hood. I had already mowed the worst sections where there's constant standing water. I should take more pictures but when I'm working I just want to get the job done, so I miss a lot. One section was so dense with thistles that I redlined the coolant temp just creeping along as slowly as possible with the mower deck at max height - I put that turbo to work!

Traffic jam! Need to install a horn, and/or a cow/horse catcher. They are very chill about the mowing, this isn't the best picture but I almost have to get off the tractor and physically push them out of the way sometimes.

Coming up on 100 hour maintenance. Have a good method for greasing all the driveline zerks, will try to take pictures. I am very glad I have the Hydros+ cooler installed - even with that AND the Summit Hydraulics 4-port rear remote installed (which works as a giant heat sink and radiator), that fluid still gets HOT just driving around for a few hours in 85* temps. I was able to redline the coolant temp, makes me want to add a hydraulic temp gauge.

 

[texas42]

Let us know how greasing the driveline zerks goes.
That driveline greasing is the reason i didn't buy a 2025

 

[jeepcoma]

11/2/24 Pre-Snow Work

This is one of the best times of year to get yard work done. I really didn't do much this summer except mow, it was a very hot summer for us here in NH and I didn't get much done. Now the trees have lost their leaves, we've had a few frosts which kills off the undergrowth, it's been dry, and there's no snow yet so it's a good time to get stuff done.

Last weekend I tackled the clean-up of some old buried structure, I pulled out several buckets of bricks, cinder blocks, slabs, and junk. Then about a dozen full buckets of dirt that got moved to the compost pile.

This was just about the last bucket and I found... pipe! Shoulda called dig safe. I have no idea what this pipe is doing out here or what it was used for. It was only buried about an inch deep, I wasn't even trying to dig but rather just scape the pile of dirt to even things out. It looks like it's heading towards the house, maybe was hooked up to a propane line? I'll come out with the metal detector later and see if I can trace where it goes and make sure I get it all out.

Before I finshed cleaning up the garden area, I had to swap the 3-point hitch for the backhoe. This is not as easy as it used to be, as the weight and complexity of the hydraulic top and tilt cylinders, the quick hitch, and all the weight attached to the hitch makes it more difficult. And then the real struggle was re-attaching the backhoe off the BXpanded frame... doing it on dirt SUCKS. I couldn't roll it into position like you would do on concrete, and the tractor moving the backhoe would drive the wheels into the dirt and make everything worse. The BH would slide on the frame too which was a problem. So, can't wait for a concrete pad to replace the dirt parking spot I have now.

Anyway, with the backhoe on, I was able to pull the big rocks out of the dirt pile, put them to the side, and then move the dirt to the compost pile. A limitation of the BH is that you can't climb the pile as much before grounding. I haven't had the BH on all summer, and after having the box blade on the rear, it was a remarkable change in the balance of the machine. It sticks way out back and the center of gravity moves up and back. Going from A to B at high speed on the road was more like piloting a boat through waves than driving a car.

Today's project was pulling out a stump. I dug this out about a year ago, but couldn't pull the stump out of the hole before the snow started. Here I've got the BH maxed out and it's barely budging this stump. The problem is there's a ton of dirt stuck within the root ball. Kinda makes me think about Hydros+ cylinders... but I'm afraid of breaking things.

Brute force wasn't an option (I tried that first). What I was able to do was slowly spin the stump out of the hole, using the leverage of the outer edge to move it bit by bit. Doing this many many times I was able to move it out of the hole and onto the flat.

Once on the flat, I got the forks under it. Couldn't lift it, but with the tractor in 4x4 and the rear diff locked, and the hydraulics maxed trying to lift and curl, I was able to push the stump out of the way. I have no idea what this weights, but it's probably more than the tractor. The front tires are compressed and sinking into the soft wet soil that's near the river.

Then I put the bucket on and filled the hole. Victory! Here I'm parked over where the stump used to be.

I was able to flip the stump up so the dirt can dry and I can scrape it out of the root ball before moving to the burn pile.

Seems like I've got a bit of a leak from the quick connects. I noticed a lot of dirt in this area last week, so I cleaned it up before using again. Now it's quite wet again. Will try to trace where it's coming from but it's definitely the factor 4-port quick connect.

99.8 hours on the clock and I'm still impressed with what this tractor can accomplish. Still hope to get more done before winter and then do the 200 hour service early before I park it until spring.

 

[rScotty]

Having fun just following along as you max out the 2025r. You might win the prize for most options on a small tractor. We also had a little compact tractor as our main machine for many years. It did everything. After the horses were gone, we finally went larger with a tractor. But I do miss the little one.

Can't wait to see what weird option you have in mind next. How about bypass oil filtration?

I agree if the trans/hydraulic fluid has been getting real hot, a hydraulic temp gauge makes sense. And nothing wrong doing the 200 hr service early. Hydraulics can run surprisingly hot & hydraulic fluid does age more rapidly at high temps. Somewhere I remember having a chart from Mobil on temperature & oil breakdown.

Getting to be wintertime.

rScotty & trick or treat from our halloween dog

 

[jeepcoma]

Well thanks for the kind words! I would have liked a bigger tractor but most of our property is on a flood plain, the ground is very soft even during drought, so I went with the "biggest" of the small weight options I had. The performance hasn't let me down yet!

Next upgrade might be the mechanical auto-throttle, it'll speed up FEL and transport work around the yard. Part of me wants to go with some HydrosPlus cylinder upgrades, for the FEL or backhoe (or both!), but I'm nervous about breaking things that way... The extra flow is nice because it makes things go faster, but doesn't change the physical performance characteristics. If I upgrade capabilities, it's much more of a gamble IMO. The extra flow is AWESOME when using the backhoe, I think it really turns it into a powerful tool when you can apply force in more than one direction simultaneously. I can be applying pressure to the boom, dipper, curl, and thumb all at the same time and generate ripping forces that you otherwise can't do if you're limited to one direction at a time. And at a comfortable 2k RPM too instead of screaming at WOT.

But I use my backhoe and FEL hard and don't want the increased risk of breaking things (just yet). I max them out on a routine basis trying to pull stumps, logs, rocks, etc and the idea of having more lift/curl power is tempting, but for now I'll stick with thinking my way through problems instead of brute force.

I let that stump dry out for a few days and attacked the underside dirt with the backhoe a few times to try and remove as much as possible. I pushed it to our bonfire pit with the bucket as far as I could before starting to tear up the lawn, and then swapped to what I should have had on in the first place, which was the pallet forks. I could juuuuust barely lift it, but an inch is as good as a mile, and it's the centerpiece for next year's big bonfire.

I had another pile of brush that I pulled out of some areas I'm trying to clear of woody undergrowth and weeds. It's amazing how quickly you can move a lot of material when you get it all lined up in the same direction. All these sticks I pushed out of tall weeds with nothing more than the bucket and box blade and it was ready-made for the forks to pick up and move. You can't tell from the picture because of all the brushy material, but there is some significant weight in there as well, it lifted enough so I could dump it on the stump but it was working pretty hard to get it done.

Then, with all the downed wood removed and the greenery died down after a few frosts, I had planned to mow all the overgrowth, only to have a now significant leak from the single-point quick connect. Exact same problem as I found here.

Two steps forward, one step back. I reached out to my dealer but am not optimistic. Time to read that whole thread and figure out how to order and replace the seals...

 

[pmsmechanic]

I just read through all the comments. Interesting read.

Several times you have mentioned hot hydraulic oil. Here's my thoughts: You've doubled the hydraulic flow and added increased cooling but all the fittings and lines were designed for the factory flow. You've also added extra hydraulic outlets at the rear. Since most small tractors are open center all the flow is constantly circulating through all the hydraulics and lines. I'm wondering if that is where the heat is being generated.

I can see where with all your additions that the backhoe isn't as easy to exchange as it once was. I would contemplate the idea of buying a cheap mini hoe to eventually replace it. Buy the mini hoe now before tariffs go up and sell the factory hoe once you have all the heavy work done.

I contemplated buying a factory hoe for my tractor many times. I'm quite thankful now that I didn't. It has always been an expensive option and so far I've been able to do without it. Now several neighbors have mini hoes that I can rent for the odd time that I need one.

At this time in life you are still young and have the energy to do all the exchanges. I was like that at one point in my life too. One of the first things I did to make life easier after buying a tractor was to buy a front mount mower. That way I could leave the tractor hooked up to an implement and just get on the mower and mow lawn. Also many times my wife or son would run one mower and I would mow with the other and the mowing was done in half the time.

All the best with your family and your little tractor.

 

[jeepcoma]

Some encouraging news, I'd emailed my dealer about the leaking single point and I got a call from the service department yesterday. He said it was a known problem and would be covered. He then asked if I knew where it was leaking from, because if it was two or more ports, the entire connector would be replaced with a new unit. He said that it was a known issue with the first generation, which seems to match what was posted in that other thread. I couldn't check then but he asked me to send pictures if I could find the leak.

So I got out the degreaser and got everything cleaned up and dry.

I thought to put a paper towel over the ports, figured it would be easy to see where it got wet (and in the unlikely event that it was spraying out under pressure).

Two spots.

It didn't leak much while disconnected, but I re-connected and it comes out at a pretty good rate, fast enough that I don't want to use it. Still, I can get some stuff done today with this disconnected. Dealer is closed today but I'll send them the pictures and see what they say on Monday.

 

[jeepcoma]

Feb 16, 2025 - Snow Day!

Update on the quick connector. After the dealer agreed to fix the connector under warranty, they sent a tech over a couple weeks later. The tech hadn't been briefed by the service department prior to being sent out, so I explained the issue. Unfortunately, since he didn't know what the problem was before coming, he only had half of the hardware needed to do the repair. So he did what he could, and said he'd be back later with the rest of the parts, and he didn't know if they'd have to be ordered or were in stock.

Couple weeks later, another tech shows up. Said the guy that had done the first part quit, so I explained everything all over again. He did have the rest of the parts thankfully, and completed the repair. I was working so he simply left when he was done. Found I was left a nice present. Not sure which tech it was. Guess my loader arm was mistaken for a workbench.

So anyway, I had not planned to use my tractor at all this winter, but my snowblower went out of service and we had (are having still actually) a big snowstorm. The tractor's come in handy a few times this winter already. Fortunately I had a couple days' warning that I would need to use the FEL so I took the time before the storm to remove the MMM - I'd wanted to keep it on all winter to keep it more protected and the PTO coupled, but it really makes snow clearing more challenging. And, I learned my lesson about leaving this expensive dangly bit hooked up when doing ground work, so I made the effort to clear enough snow to have room for removal, removed the FEL, removed the mower, FEL back on, swap to the forks, and then stored the MMM deck. Forks on to load the snowblower into the truck. Bucket back on and ready for the storm. These quick attach/detach systems work really well, I'm quite happy with how easy it is to swap everything around.

Using the bucket to move snow is... well it's not great. But it sure beats shoveling. And a few hours of unplanned seat time on the tractor in the winter was fun. We have a lot of snow and I really had to drive into the piles to stack it high enough. Lots of snow packed in the front bumper area. A shield of some sort that hooks into the front receiver might be a good idea if I end up having to do this regularly...

Snow packs in all the places when you have to turn left and right through the un-cleared areas. A wider bucket would have been nice, I never lacked for lift capacity and clearing wider than the width of the tractor would have made maneuvering much easier.

That's about as high as she'll go!

Whoops... time to clean that off.

Also really pleased with the Hydros+ upgrades, operating the FEL at a comfortable engine speed is less fuel consumption and less noise. I was able to bog the engine a bit while pushing big piles of snow, and the extra grunt from the turbo was handy.

The backhoe came in handy too, we get giant piles of ice underneath the barn where the snow comes off the roof, which blocks one of the doors if it's not shoveled quickly. The backhoe worked great to bust it up and scoop the heavy snow/ice pile away to get the door opening.

 

[beenthere]

Agree about having to use a bucket to clear snow, a bummer and no fun at all (for me).

It's why I mount a 7' Western plow and move snow quickly. Even piles up snow as the front tires will ride up on the plowed snow. No problem plugging the front grill up with packed snow.

Our recent two snow storms and now some drifting, almost has me ready to mount the wing plow to move snow back.

 

[jeepcoma]

Agree about having to use a bucket to clear snow, a bummer and no fun at all (for me).

Couple hours seat time isn't ever really that bad . It was like an unlimited dirt pile that I got to play with moving around. Good practice! I'll get some more tomorrow cleaning up again, we've had a few inches of ice pellets since I cleared.

Other implements would be far superior for clearing snow, but my snowblower is the main tool for it, so I had to use what I got. Nice to see how capable this machine is at all sorts of tasks. I only really struggled for traction trying to get up the steepest part of my hill to the house. I don't have anything else to compare to but the radial tires seemed to have pretty good traction. I generally try to leave it in 2wd (actually 1 without the diff lock engaged) under the principal of "2wd is for getting stuck, 4wd is for getting unstuck." Since when I get myself stuck in 4wd, it's a bad day... Most of the time this worked pretty well, and I'd do 4wd for diving into the piles to push them back. Could not climb that hill even with 4wd and diff lock engaged.

 

[jeepcoma]

RIP "Katty Girl"

 

[jeepcoma]

Spring 2025 Updates

More rocks delivered. Need to touch up some areas around the run-in shelter and inside. I generally run the tractor at 2k RPM and with the turbo, it just keeps on chugging when driving into the pile and doesn't stall.

Front hydraulics seem perfectly engineered to go with the size, and therefor the weight, the bucket can lift. When I could get a heaping bucket, it would just barely lift... but lift it would. The Hydros+ cylinders are still tempting, but... haven't pulled the trigger yet. Would probably do backhoe first.

I have about an inch of clearance between the ROPS and can drive all the way in. Larger tractor would not fit here! I was also able to get inside to use the backhoe and really scrape down some of the compressed muck along the edges that I couldn't get with the bucket, and then push them to the middle for pickup.

I've been using the backhoe a ton to clear up my river frontage. I can get down along the bank, pull out stuff that's fallen in, and tear out these pesky underbrush clumps, while staying a safe distance from the bank. Hard to tell from the photo, but the stabilizers are about a foot from the bank, which is then an abrupt 3 foot or so drop down to the river. The hydraulic thumb is instrumental in the utility of the backhoe.

One of the horses snapped a T-post we were using to tie up feed bags. We didn't know exactly where it was, since it snapped off at the base. Used the metal detector to hunt around for it, and then scraped through the frozen ground to find it, and snatched it right out with the thumb.

Added a couple more horsepower.

No one seems to mind the noises when I work or mow. I practically have to push them out of the way sometimes.

This is what's behind me that I'm working on. Ponies will have a nice view when done!

Bought some new tools this year for spring cleanup and paddock maintenance.

I ended up going with the Heavy Hitch offset bracket, 60" landscape rake with wheel kit, and dethatcher. The landscape rake for cleaning up all the wood and material that either comes down naturally every year, or that I've been puling out with the backhoe. Plus I'm hoping it'll do a nice job of spreading out the clumps of manuer in the horse paddock. I liked the option of being able to run the HH implements out front. I'm not sure how it will work out in practice, but when I next mow the lawn I'm going to try the dethatcher out front to loosen things up for the MMM, and then the rake behind. Might be too heavy for the "lawn", but should save some time in the paddocks.

With the rake out front I can get right up to the water's edge.

I'd pull clumps away from the edge into a row, and then pull the whole row as a pile by back dragging over it. Really appreciate the extra ground clearance of the 2025R when out in the woods dealing with this brushy stuff. I can't imaging enjoying being any lower.

I can understand now why wheel kits are so expensive. They have to be super strong. No problems lifting the front of the tractor. I worked it pretty hard my first time out. Having it on the FEL worked out pretty well, between using the angle to control the wheels and ground clearance, and float mode. It's going to be great on the 3-point with the TnT cylinders. Very impressed with what it can do - I probably got an entire weekend's worth of hand raking done in an hour!

Started to put the dethatcher together - missing 2 tines! I was also missing the 8 2" long bolts for the wheel kit too for the rake. Those are easy enough to grab from the hardware store, but not so much for those tines.

 

[jeepcoma]

May 25 2025, Memorial Maintenance and Mowing

We've had an incredibly wet spring this year, the grass is growing like crazy, so I decided to mow early this year (we do "no mow May" for the bees and hummingbirds... and because I hate mowing, so it's a good excuse). First up though was some early maintenance to kick off the summer. I drove the front wheels up on ramps to get access for the driveline zerks and for whatever reason, the Grease Gods smiled upon me today - all four u-joint zerks were aligned perfectly!! It was like winning the lottery.

1, 2, 3...

Even #4 was 99% spot on. A degree or two turn of the flywheel and it was perfect. Not sure what the fuss is about greasing this, it's a piece of cake. Hard to take a picture of, flash wouldn't go off, but I was mostly using the flashlight to make sure I got it.

My coolant was below the "cold" line in the reservoir so I mixed up 1 cup distilled water and 1 cup of the Deere coolant and topped it off (1 cup total would have done it).

Couple other wearing items to keep an eye on. I'll add pics when I get a chance, my hands were all dirty at the time and I didn't feel like stopping to clean.

* The Hydros+ air tube for the turbo is slightly rubbing in two spots. I'll take pictures later, one is the oil delivery tube banjo fitting and the other is a clamp. It must have moved slightly since install since I would not have positioned it as-is with interference.
* The right side hood panel is cracked at the bottom. Not sure how I did that. Don't really care, the whole hood looks like crap from whatever caused the discoloration to the plastic. Left side panel has the "cut-out" from the Hydros+ exhaust so the right should have something to match I suppose.
* Here's one I did get a picture of. I've worn right down to the metal on the pedals!

Sharpened and balanced the mower blades, remove FEL and BH, and ready to mow! I'm impressed each time I use it how easy it is to convert from "tractor" to "mower" mode with all these quick disconnects, it's literally a 5 minute job to drop the bucket, pick up the mower deck with the load-and-go, place the mower in a good spot, remove the FEL, remove the BH, drive over the deck, and lock the mower connections and wheels. It takes me longer and more effort to put the 3-point stuff on than to do that whole conversion!

Snack break.

While I don't care so much for the mowing process itself, I sure do like the end result. It was cloudy all day and I got rained on twice, but the skies cleared after and we got some sun. Mowed about 3 acers today.

 

[jeepcoma]

June 14 2025

Wind blew a tree down in the paddock, right on top of the fence of course. Had the pallet forks on so was relatively easy to get it off the fence and out of the way. Since I also had the backhoe on (had stored TLB + MMM for space savings), might as well get the stump out. I dug from two sides with the BH and then was able to leverage it out with the forks. Nice!

The more I work with the FEL and BH, the more strongly I consider the Hydros+ upgraded cylinders. But, it gets the job done.

It's hard to tell the size in the photos, but the stump was about as big as the tractor. I couldn't just "brute force" manhandle it either, I had to roll it around with the tines. Will let it dry out a while and then scrape the dirt off that I can.

I mowed the small paddock with the FEL and BH attached to save time, blech it's awful mowing with them on.

Next chore was the big paddock, for which I removed both. Let's play "spot the tractor". Small tractor, big field!

There it is!

What's it doing all the way over there as far away as possible in "death corner" you ask? Well...

I broke the reverse pedal off.

I finished mowing that field, forward only, and that was a lot of fun. I'm doing some searching now and it looks like it won't be overly difficult or expensive to replace. I have to finish mowing the lawn tomorrow and I'll try the "lift forward pedal to activate reverse" and see how it turns out as a temporary workaround.

I think since I'm going to be replacing one of the pedals, I'm going to go ahead and order the Autothrottle kit and do an upgrade at the same time...