Buying Advice Newbie Questons

[MossRoad]

I had a video on TBN at one time of me going through an old field on our place with our front mounted brush hog. I stopped in the middle of the cut, got out of the seat, climbed up on top of the canopy, and had to reach UP to grab the top of the weeds I was cutting. The canopy is about 5'5" high. I'm 6' and I had to reach UP, so the weeds were at least 12' high. I cut them to the ground in one pass with this "little" machine. :laughing: The video is no longer available. I'll see if I can find it elsewhere.

Anyhow, click on my little tractor icon in my signature, and that will take you to a page with some videos that are old a grainy. But you'll get to see it in action.

 

[Barryh]

>>>>> I have been told that the front axle on a SCUT pivots <<<<<<

Speaking of the SCUT front axle something else to think about.. Here's my little Kubota BX after doing a few years of heavy lifting and working around my house.

I had to take the front axle out and do a rebuild. It chewed up the large pivot bushings / seals and stared leaking oil. Would make screeching noises when going over uneven terrain. I always had a bad feeling I might over stress or crack the front axle. So when maneuvering around with heavy loads I felt I had to baby it. When I say heavy loads it would only lift a little over 400 pounds.

Don't get me wrong. The Kubota was a great little light duty worker for around my property it saved my back many times loved the diesel engine. Great for hauling firewood and rocks. But pound for pound no where near as heavy duty, or versatile as the Power Trac.

The difference to me ? I like to picture a large shinny black worker ant. It will pick up objects twice it's size and walk off with them. That's a PT in my mind.

I started out with the smaller PT-180 and compared to the Kubota it was a little tank. Missed it so much I ended up selling my Kubota and came back home to a Power Trac.

I just recently bought a cool red vintage low hour 1995 - 1425 .. It will get a few upgrades over the coming years. And being an older tractor it does need a few replacement components. But I have to say it feels great to have another one parked in my garage.

Just speaking for myself it can't be beat for an all around general purpose tractor.

 

[PTBill]

>>>>> I have been told that the front axle on a SCUT pivots <<<<<<

Speaking of the SCUT front axle something else to think about.. Here's my little Kubota BX after doing a few years of heavy lifting and working around my house.

I had to take the front axle out and do a rebuild. It chewed up the large pivot bushings / seals and stared leaking oil. Would make screeching noises when going over uneven terrain. I always had a bad feeling I might over stress or crack the front axle. So when maneuvering around with heavy loads I felt I had to baby it. When I say heavy loads it would only lift a little over 400 pounds.

Don't get me wrong. The Kubota was a great little light duty worker for around my property it saved my back many times loved the diesel engine. Great for hauling firewood and rocks. But pound for pound no where near as heavy duty, or versatile as the Power Trac.

The difference to me ? I like to picture a large shinny black worker ant. It will pick up objects twice it's size and walk off with them. That's a PT in my mind.

I started out with the smaller PT-180 and compared to the Kubota it was a little tank. Missed it so much I ended up selling my Kubota and came back home to a Power Trac.

I just recently bought a cool red vintage low hour 1995 - 1425 .. It will get a few upgrades over the coming years. And being an older tractor it does need a few replacement components. But I have to say it feels great to have another one parked in my garage.

Just speaking for myself it can't be beat for an all around general purpose tractor.

Barryh, are the wheels on the PT mounted on wheel motor shafts? If so, do you feel they are stronger than the Kubota front axle?

 

[PTBill]

I had a video on TBN at one time of me going through an old field on our place with our front mounted brush hog. I stopped in the middle of the cut, got out of the seat, climbed up on top of the canopy, and had to reach UP to grab the top of the weeds I was cutting. The canopy is about 5'5" high. I'm 6' and I had to reach UP, so the weeds were at least 12' high. I cut them to the ground in one pass with this "little" machine. :laughing: The video is no longer available. I'll see if I can find it elsewhere.

Anyhow, click on my little tractor icon in my signature, and that will take you to a page with some videos that are old a grainy. But you'll get to see it in action.

Thanks for posting the pictures and videos - I have looked at them on several occasions. Also, your thoughts on the PT drivetrain has been helpful. It would be great to see a PT425 and a SCUT on the same obstacle course to highlight their strengths and weaknesses.

 

[Barryh]

>>Barryh, are the wheels on the PT mounted on wheel motor shafts? If so, do you feel they are stronger than the Kubota front axle?

Yes they are and yes I do... The Kubota front axle was made of cast.

That's one of the many reason's I went back to a PT.. At least on the smaller BX series.. That's all I have real time experience with. I think the PT is tougher in general..

Another reason I like the PT over a small tractor is like MR said. The bottom is like a contentious steel skid plate.

On the Kubota underneath I had hose's and a cheap plastic cooling fan that were really exposed to sticks and rocks while trekking through the woods. The little fan itself cost over $600 bucks at the time.. And to replace it would have been a real pain in the *** .

I ended up making a custom skid plate out of plywood for mine to protect everything under the tractor. Once again all just my opinion..

 

[woodlandfarms]

So a little story.. A friend called, asked me to help him with his Kubota work. Not sure what he has but it isn't huge, it is small, gentleman farmer type machine. Anyway, I go bounding arcros a very messed up meadow, lots of limbs, logs blah blah blah. The guy with the Kubota was giving me heck about "low ground clearance" He comes bounding behind me and then nothing.. I turn to see him dead stopped. Big ole limb caught a front tire and jammed right through his hydraulic lines.

As noted, PT has a smooth, hard steel bottom that is going to take more than I know to get through. I pulled is Kubota out of the meadow for him to work on. Went down and grappled out all the stuff.

A big note on the PT no one has mentioned yet I think. Downforce. On a regular tractor you really don't have downforce, so thing like a trencher, post hole digger, those things us gravity and a prayer to get them to work. PT, first, is Hydraulic so in my opinion the implements are a lot more powerful than a similar sized tractor. Second, you can push your implement into the ground. Around here I can punch an average of 5 post holes to my budies tractor driven 1. Oh, and I built my own post hole digger and stump grinder, saved sooooo much money.

 

[PTBill]

I have spent time on the Deere SCUT forums as well as the PT forum with a focus on reliability. I was surprised by the number on complaints on the Deere SCUT forums - several engine problems, drive over deck quick attach issues (many), bolts falling off, and dealer service issues. On the PT forum it seemed that at least 70 percent of the complaints were with the Subaru Engine in the PT-425. Are newer PT-425s (last couple of years) more reliable than previous generation PTs if we take the engine out of the picture?

Also, I read some posts about "leak down". I had visions of raising up a fork, getting off the PT and putting several pieces of scaffolding on the fork to carry around to the side of the house. Are the "leak down" issues still current?

 

[Marks481]

Also, I read some posts about "leak down". I had visions of raising up a fork, getting off the PT and putting several pieces of scaffolding on the fork to carry around to the side of the house. Are the "leak down" issues still current?

My 2005 PT-422 leak-down occurs over 10s of minutes. I can raise the implement to full extension, mess with whatever it is, etc, with the engine off, without any problem.

 

[SpringHollow]

You can always add needle valves to the FEL circuits when you need to lock it in place. I close mine when in that situation and it works well.

Ken

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks for posting the pictures and videos - I have looked at them on several occasions. Also, your thoughts on the PT drivetrain has been helpful. It would be great to see a PT425 and a SCUT on the same obstacle course to highlight their strengths and weaknesses.

Yeah, that would be fun indeed!

Several folks on here have/had conventional tractors and PTs. They'll tell you honestly the similarities and differences as well as the pros and cons of both types of machines.