Realistic to get small tractor for driveway, etc?

[k0ua]

I have cleared and sculptured plenty of land with nothing more than a tractor with a FEL (Front End Loader). All it take is time and patience> A boxblade would probably speed things up a bunch. But it is all doable.

James K0UA

 

[Crashcup]

Hey all, since I got some thoughtful replies and advice, I thought I'd add an update should anyone be interested.

I had my eye on a JD 1050 for a while, with FEL, box blade, Turbo diesel and turf tires. Seemed like a good combo. However, when I finally was ready to make a make a move on it, I found out someone had bought it a week before!

A few weeks later ended up buying a '71 Intl 444 with FEL for $5400. I added a 6' United HD box blade. The loader came in handy while breaking up some old concrete steps to haul the chunks away. Sure easier than the wheelbarrow.

Then started in on a bigger job regrading outside a walkout area of the house and removing dirt to form a drainage swale. I've been moving a lot of dirt and making good progress until today when a front spindle broke (a whole nuther post). I never expected an old tractor to be trouble free, but sure hope for better luck after I get a new spindle installed.

It didn't seem too hard, as a newbie, to get a feel for operating the 444. I learned pretty quickly how light the rear gets with a FEL bucket full of concrete chunks... partially skidded down a small hill and tore up the ground pretty good.

What seemed tricky to me was picking up dirt from the bottom of a pile and getting a full bucket. Getting much better now with some practice!

The box blade has been easy to use and very effective. I can see that this will work well for the driveway construction. (Although the new driveway is going to have to wait a bit while we try to work with some unreasonable neighbors.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Does the 444 have loaded (water in )tires? Check it buy positioning the valve stem any position except TDC and water should come out. If only air, go to NAPA , TSC or maybe local tractor dealer and buy a little valve for putting in water via hose connection. Lots of folks buy the windshield washer fluid and pump the in to prevent freezing while other all non-toxic anti-freeze. You dont have to put the ratio as high as what you would for a car radiator to prevent freezing as a slush mixture in the tires is OK.
This will make it much more maneuverable with the FEL full of dirt. A heavy implement on the rear works also. I see you have a box blade. I used that for a while for ballast and added as many solid concrete blocks as I could stack on it and tie down. Some folks added weight bracket to rear and hung weights on the box blade also. Anything to keep the weight off the front axle. The more counterweight you have on the 3 PH, the less weight is put on your front spindles when loading the FEL and the more stable the tractor, just dont get so much on that you overload the 3PH beyond its capacity. This isnt likely if you put a reasonable amount of weight. The lift capacity of the 444 should be in the 2000+ pound range. Tractordata.com should have all the stats on that tractor.
Well I was wrong, tractordata.com had no info on lift capacity although it shows over 2600# of ballasted weight so you should be ok to add about that much to the rear in water and wheel weights. A 6600# tractor should have a lift capacity beyond 2500# so I dont think you will overload it with a boxblade and all the concrete or scrap iron that you can stack on it.

 

[Crashcup]

Hey Gary,

Yes, the tires are at least partially fluid filled. Previous owner didn't know how much, though. Are there recommendations for how much liquid? I suppose I could find that somewhere here on the forums.

The skidding on the hill I mentioned was before the box blade, and the extra 450lb on the back does help a lot. I've got plenty of concrete blocks and bricks around, so I can try loading it up more.

I wonder how this will affect box blade operation? I have been going back and forth between FEL and blade, scraping up 3-4 boxfuls, then loading it off to a big pile on the side, or hauling it off to a low spot I'm filling in another part of the yard. So I wouldn't want to be swapping blocks on and off all the time.

Hopefully more weight would help dig in the tough spots, but I could angle the blade back for other areas so it doesn't dig down too quickly.

 

[kebo]

Hey Gary,

Yes, the tires are at least partially fluid filled. Previous owner didn't know how much, though. Are there recommendations for how much liquid? I suppose I could find that somewhere here on the forums.

The skidding on the hill I mentioned was before the box blade, and the extra 450lb on the back does help a lot. I've got plenty of concrete blocks and bricks around, so I can try loading it up more.

I wonder how this will affect box blade operation? I have been going back and forth between FEL and blade, scraping up 3-4 boxfuls, then loading it off to a big pile on the side, or hauling it off to a low spot I'm filling in another part of the yard. So I wouldn't want to be swapping blocks on and off all the time.

Hopefully more weight would help dig in the tough spots, but I could angle the blade back for other areas so it doesn't dig down too quickly.

Sounds like you didn't waste ANY TIME getting down to business with the new tractor!

Most people recommend that you fill the tires with liquid ballast so it's at least above the top of the rim. This way, the metal rim is not exposed to air which can allow it to rust. Sometimes on a cool damp morning (after warm weather), you can see where condensation forms on the outside of the tire. This will show you where the top of the ballast is at.

 

[Ron JD670]

Hey Gary,

Yes, the tires are at least partially fluid filled. Previous owner didn't know how much, though. Are there recommendations for how much liquid? I suppose I could find that somewhere here on the forums.

The skidding on the hill I mentioned was before the box blade, and the extra 450lb on the back does help a lot. I've got plenty of concrete blocks and bricks around, so I can try loading it up more.

I wonder how this will affect box blade operation? I have been going back and forth between FEL and blade, scraping up 3-4 boxfuls, then loading it off to a big pile on the side, or hauling it off to a low spot I'm filling in another part of the yard. So I wouldn't want to be swapping blocks on and off all the time.

Hopefully more weight would help dig in the tough spots, but I could angle the blade back for other areas so it doesn't dig down too quickly.

Don't know your machine but as a newbie I found having both a BB on back and loaded tires was the safest way to go moving with a loaded FEL. I learns real quick to drop the FEL if things did not feel right.

Here is a link regarding filling the tires.

Adding ballast to tires
Worked for me! Here is a link to where you can get an adapter and they have good instructions for you to look at also:
Installing Liquid Ballast in Tires | Gempler'sx


RoN