My Homestead in the making.....

12Bravo · Feb 28, 2016

airbiscuit said:
You have the benefit of having lots of projects that require seat time on the tractor. I finally got my road dialed in so well, it takes very little maintenance. I am kind of disappointed in my reduced seat time.

Seat time is something I am loving! So far today is right at two weeks and I have 26 hours on the tractor. Going to get the first service filters and fluids this week just so I have them when 50 hours hits.

I did learn something very valuable today. I took the BH off to when I hooked up the stump and pulled it out of the hole with the draw bar. Instead of hooking BH back up I went straight back into FEL work and after two lifts I was ready for the BH to be back installed. I have filled rear tires and it was still a but tippy for my liking. So another future project will be a ballast box with at least 1000#'s in it just for FEL work when I don't want the BH on. The BH causes some clearance issues with turning radius, so it is a pain at times.

k0ua · Feb 29, 2016

12Bravo said:
Seat time is something I am loving! So far today is right at two weeks and I have 26 hours on the tractor. Going to get the first service filters and fluids this week just so I have them when 50 hours hits.

I did learn something very valuable today. I took the BH off to when I hooked up the stump and pulled it out of the hole with the draw bar. Instead of hooking BH back up I went straight back into FEL work and after two lifts I was ready for the BH to be back installed. I have filled rear tires and it was still a but tippy for my liking. So another future project will be a ballast box with at least 1000#'s in it just for FEL work when I don't want the BH on. The BH causes some clearance issues with turning radius, so it is a pain at times.

You can make one cheap like mine out of a 55 gal drum 3/4 filled with concrete. Put in some 2 inch PVC for tool holders. Real handy. I store my log chains in the top. I put a 2 inch reciever out the back. pretty handy too. Here is also a stump I went to war with. I won eventually.

12Bravo · Feb 29, 2016

Some more progress on the property. I have several leaning dead trees (Widow Makers) that needed to be pulled down. The first one was a little scary dealing with, I under cut it several times and it just wouldn't slide out of the tree. So I got it close to there is only needed another foot or 18" to come out of the tree it was leaning in. Did an undercut and left about 2" that still needed to be broken for the tree to fall. Took a huge rock, as large as I could lift and threw it at the cut and NOTHING! Had to do it again with a different rock and NOTHING! One more time with a huge log and BAM, down she came! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

Next was a leaner that was standing to straight up and down with a really sketchy top, not standing under it while cutting. Hooked a choker around the base and ran a line about 50' from the base and tugged on the bottom. I am rather impressed with the torque this machine has, In low range 1st gear it just pulls and pulls and pulls. Pulled the tree, 40-50 tall, over a root ball and through some large rocks and bam, down it came.....Very happy!

12Bravo · Feb 29, 2016

k0ua said:
You can make one cheap like mine out of a 55 gal drum 3/4 filled with concrete. Put in some 2 inch PVC for tool holders. Real handy. I store my log chains in the top. I put a 2 inch reciever out the back. pretty handy too. Here is also a stump I went to war with. I won eventually.

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I really like that idea, will be looking for barrels for sale now!

k0ua · Feb 29, 2016

12Bravo said:
Some more progress on the property. I have several leaning dead trees (Widow Makers) that needed to be pulled down. The first one was a little scary dealing with, I under cut it several times and it just wouldn't slide out of the tree. So I got it close to there is only needed another foot or 18" to come out of the tree it was leaning in. Did an undercut and left about 2" that still needed to be broken for the tree to fall. Took a huge rock, as large as I could lift and threw it at the cut and NOTHING! Had to do it again with a different rock and NOTHING! One more time with a huge log and BAM, down she came! HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY!

Next was a leaner that was standing to straight up and down with a really sketchy top, not standing under it while cutting. Hooked a choker around the base and ran a line about 50' from the base and tugged on the bottom. I am rather impressed with the torque this machine has, In low range 1st gear it just pulls and pulls and pulls. Pulled the tree, 40-50 tall, over a root ball and through some large rocks and bam, down it came.....Very happy!

In low range and good dirt under the tires you could probably pull the house down, or at least a corner out of it. From what I understand with a straight line pull with good traction you can pull pretty close to the tractors weight.

12Bravo · Feb 29, 2016

k0ua said:
In low range and good dirt under the tires you could probably pull the house down, or at least a corner out of it. From what I understand with a straight line pull with good traction you can pull pretty close to the tractors weight.

This is my first tractor and so far I am learning and impressed with the useful power at my disposal. Hydraulics RULE!

I have no excuse for not being productive now...:shocked:

k0ua · Feb 29, 2016

12Bravo said:
I really like that idea, will be looking for barrels for sale now!

I gave 9 bucks for mine about 6 years ago. It had apple juice from China in it originally. The basis for the 3pt hookup was a drawbar from tractor supply, and the rest of the metal inside was just scrap angle Iron I had laying around. I mixed the concrete in the barrel itself.

CountyLine Cross Drawbar, Category 1, 3/4 in. dia. - For Life Out Here

12Bravo · Feb 29, 2016

How safe is the draw bars that are attached to the 3pt hitch to use? Meaning, pulling logs and such? I know it can lift 1500-1600 lbs, but pulling force I'm not sure about.

k0ua · Feb 29, 2016

12Bravo said:
How safe is the draw bars that are attached to the 3pt hitch to use? Meaning, pulling logs and such? I know it can lift 1500-1600 lbs, but pulling force I'm not sure about.

They are rather sturdy. One thing to be careful of is that if you raise a drawbar on the 3pt up too high, you run some risk of a backward flip if your pulled log hangs up. Something has to give, wheel slip on the ground, fine, but if the tractor front end comes up and you rotate around the back axle, It all happens in a heartbeat. A lot of guys do it and get away with it, but keep it in your mind, especially going uphill which makes your front end light to begin with. It is safer to pull with the fixed drawbar that is under your back axle. Less chance of testing out the ROPS that way. Notice in the photo of my final pull on the tree trunk, I pulled from the fixed drawbar with a clevis under the rear axle.

12Bravo · Feb 29, 2016

I will keep that in mind. I will be looking to get one of those draw bars for the 3pt hitch for pulling small logs and items I need to lift a little bit to drag better and stop tearing my yard and trails up so bad.

What grade chain do you use? I have a really large logging chain now and it is not long enough, but not sure how small I can go and still be able to do some of the pulling and lifting with it.

EDIT: I have a Grade 43 now at 14' long.