Question on DK45SE HST 50-hour Service

[butchpavloff]

I have just bought. Kioti dk45 , picking up my tractor in San Marcus,Tx end of this week, equipment
70" loader,backhoe,grappler,post hole auger,box blade , I was wondering if the 70" will be a problem, not planning on moving that much material around, was thinking 60" , also bucket on backhoe is a 14", should I consider. 16" on the backhoe, I will be adding a mechanical thumb myself, I will be clearing 7 acres very heavily overgrown with trees, oaks and pines, lots of scrub brush also, after clearing what I need to build a cabin also have plans of milling my lumber off the property myself ,looking at the harbor freight saw mill,
I am an experienced welder and will made modifications to saw to handle longer tress, and add reinforced tracking on wheels, any comments on my job would be appreciated, when I was a little younger I ran a dirt yard with 3 tractors, 2 yard and 1 yard loaders, with a smaller ford with loader and box blade. so I am used to working with material, no experience with clearing tress from land, thanks for you time Butch

 

[sdef]

I recently finished clearing a smaller, similar tract on very rocky, dense clay soil. I have a HST DK45 and would not have wanted anything smaller. I hope yours is HST for this type of work, as all of the back and forth with a geared unit will be troublesome. I did not have a hoe and sure needed one a few times.

In the end I removed the stumps in the driveway by digging them out with a 48" grapple rock bucket and a stump bucket. Anything larger would have been less efficient. You will not have much maneuvering room for awhile and I never wanted for a wider bucket that would have decreased my maneuvering.

After getting the driveway cleared and covered with slag, I had more room to move around and access attachments stored in various areas of the property. I then just started cutting down the trees, then into manageable lengths and then moving to large storage piles. I would think a 48" grapple bucket would be more efficient, time wise, than a hoe with a thumb for moving things. I left my stumps ~ 3' tall to make removing easier. I ended up having a bulldozer come in and remove all of the stumps from the property. This was a very quick, time and money efficient way to finish up and it left my property with no holes and everything relatively smooth. This was a great decision for me. In hind site the bulldozer and no hoe worked out best for me and I would do it the same way again.

My box blade is 6' wide and 725 pounds. I needed a heavier ones many times and a lighter one would not have done the job and would have been a jumble of metal in short order.

Some before, during and after pics that did not attach in the same order I selected:

 

[butchpavloff]

thanks for reply , I purchased a grappler bucket with the addition hydraulic function, I also plan to cut down and remove,but my land is so heavily treed that just room for the tractor to work will be a problem.
I have been looking at the Linville thumbs on eBay they are very reasonable around 200 1/2 steel hardened material. with the third function already their me adding hydrolic to it would be easy. using a husky 20" 55.5 cc rancher series saw some of my oaks are in the 20" to possibly 30" range, the pines are
15 to 20" range, around 30 to 50 foot trees, my soil is not Ricky, I am very close to the lake, digging should not be a Hugh problem hopefully ,butch

 

[rmorey]

I welded a hook to the top of the bucket and use a set of log tongs on a chain to lift the logs, especially onto the mill. Use that all the time. Just something for you to consider. :thumbsup:

 

[butchpavloff]

thanks Rick,
just got the 25 percent for July forth weekend at Harbor freight, looks like the mill would be 500 of the 1999, so with shipping and tax shoulder around 1800, will mill the wood at my shop in Austin,let it season there, and then bring it back to the property about 100 miles from north Austin,I bought my trailer 5 years ago,it is 18 foot rated for 12,000 has 12 k winch truck is a 3500 ram Cummings, set up with a 90 aluminum tank on the fact bed wishing I had bought a longer trailer, when I am cutting logs to be milled for beams of 16 to 18 foot, this trail will work just fine, but no room for tractor and logs, may be looking for a goose neck trailer to be able to haul tractor and wood in one load, a lot to consider, thanks for all the help and suggestions, Butch

 

[sdef]

I welded a hook to the top of the bucket and use a set of log tongs on a chain to lift the logs, especially onto the mill. Use that all the time. Just something for you to consider. :thumbsup:

I am considering tongs hanging from the bucket for moving from the very large storage area onto the cutting stands for cutting to length. Any suggestions for a particular type/model to purchase or to stay away from? And gotchas on use?

 

[rmorey]

Bought mine from a logging supply place for $80 or so a few years ago. Added a piece of 5/16", grade 70 chain about 5' long and voila! Just remeber to weld the hook on the right way, witht the point facing the cab (don't ask how I remember that!) :ashamed:

About 6 months ago, a logger was working up the road from our place. The winch on his skidder jammed and needed to be romoved for repair. When I bumped into him, he was heading home (50 miles) to get the logging truck to use the clam to pick it off the skidder. I offered to bring the tractor up and pick it up for him. He said it was over 2,000 lbs and needed the clam to lift it. (sounds like a challenge to me) I told him of the massive lifting capability of the DK loader and suggested we would be out 45 minutes and 1/2 gal of fuel to try.

We bolted a chain to each side of the winch and hooked it on my little hook. BOOM! up it came and I backed up, turned around and set it in the back of his pickup. 30 minutes total time. 24 Labatts Blue please! (Canadian beer) :thumbsup:

The point is the hook will be used for a million things, you may not even need the grapple right away!

 

[butchpavloff]

I am going to build my own Auger stand for a 9" unit, have a Kioti dk45 planning on building steel pallets
for all implements to allow quick connect, for Auger,box blade , grappler,fork quick attach. I will be working over 100 miles from my home, so have a 3500 Dodge Ram with a flatbed, and a 20 foot flatbed rated for 12k so will be removing tress pines and oaks up north east Texas way, planning on milling the tress back home, have a very large workshop with room to cure wood, the plan is to clear the land for building my retirement cabin on the lake, have an out 4.0 acres to heavily treed you can barley walk onto the property
have a nice 1 acre pond I own 1 /2 of on my property, looking forward to getting this started, looking at buying the harbor freight saw mill and making some changes to their unit, picking up the tractor Monday July 6 Monday, will not start the clearing until I fab up a thumb or buy one on eBay ,comments suggestions are welcome

 

[sdef]

View attachment 431744View attachment 431745View attachment 431742View attachment 431743I am going to build my own Auger stand for a 9" unit, have a Kioti dk45 planning on building steel pallets
for all implements to allow quick connect, for Auger,box blade , grappler,fork quick attach. I will be working over 100 miles from my home, so have a 3500 Dodge Ram with a flatbed, and a 20 foot flatbed rated for 12k so will be removing tress pines and oaks up north east Texas way, planning on milling the tress back home, have a very large workshop with room to cure wood, the plan is to clear the land for building my retirement cabin on the lake, have an out 4.0 acres to heavily treed you can barley walk onto the property
have a nice 1 acre pond I own 1 /2 of on my property, looking forward to getting this started, looking at buying the harbor freight saw mill and making some changes to their unit, picking up the tractor Monday July 6 Monday, will not start the clearing until I fab up a thumb or buy one on eBay ,comments suggestions are welcome

Nice rig. I have been working ~ 35 miles from home for two years (part-time) clearing my retirement property and putting in the driveway. I built a camp site there and have three storage bins for working supplies of all kinds, porta potti, etc. I kept most of the expensive things (chainsaws, etc.) in the vehicles and left the support equipment, fuel, chains, straps, etc., etc. at the camp site. Nothing was bothered until the transient contractors started working there.

Currently the contractor has started on the home and I am leveling a 48 x 85 spot for a shop with a lean to for implement storage and outside equipment trailer storage. Shop itself will be for tractor, new truck, tool and work shop area. I just got (300 miles) a 2015 RAM 2500, crew cab, diesel, 4WD, moderately loaded Big Horn.

Glad I did not have to work 100 miles away. Might be a good idea to have a camper on-site once you get a spot cleared.