Realistic to get small tractor for driveway, etc?

[Crashcup]

Hello TBN,

I've been poking around and reading for a couple of weeks here, and figured I'd go ahead and ask for thoughts/opinions on my situation.

My wife and I will be moving this summer to 3 acres in a rural area, and have plans for an addition to the house, including an attached garage and a new driveway to that garage. The driveway will be a bit over 200 ft. long.

I was surprised to see a lot of small to medium size tractors being sold in the $3000-5000 price range. Some including implements, mostly front-end loaders and box blades, it seems. That got me thinking about buying a tractor to build the new gravel driveway.

Does that sound like reasonable work to expect to do with a 1950's to 1970's era tractor that I buy for that kind of money? I'm thinking that a front-end loader would allow me to move, dump and spread gravel, so I could just buy truck loads dumped just off the road. Would I be able to scrape off the topsoil using a back blade?

And do you think this is something I could learn on my own, or would I just be setting myself up for frustration?

I can see the tractor may come in handy for other tasks -digging holes for planting trees, hauling dirt for planting, plowing the driveways in the winter, possibly to help lift wall sections on the house addition work. But, the driveway is where I see justifying the purchase.

Thanks!

 

[Don87]

Hello TBN,

I've been poking around and reading for a couple of weeks here, and figured I'd go ahead and ask for thoughts/opinions on my situation.

My wife and I will be moving this summer to 3 acres in a rural area, and have plans for an addition to the house, including an attached garage and a new driveway to that garage. The driveway will be a bit over 200 ft. long.

I was surprised to see a lot of small to medium size tractors being sold in the $3000-5000 price range. Some including implements, mostly front-end loaders and box blades, it seems. That got me thinking about buying a tractor to build the new gravel driveway.

Does that sound like reasonable work to expect to do with a 1950's to 1970's era tractor that I buy for that kind of money? I'm thinking that a front-end loader would allow me to move, dump and spread gravel, so I could just buy truck loads dumped just off the road. Would I be able to scrape off the topsoil using a back blade?

And do you think this is something I could learn on my own, or would I just be setting myself up for frustration?

I can see the tractor may come in handy for other tasks -digging holes for planting trees, hauling dirt for planting, plowing the driveways in the winter, possibly to help lift wall sections on the house addition work. But, the driveway is where I see justifying the purchase.

Thanks!

Yes and Yes. Just come on here with any questions you may have and we'll be happy to help. The only stupid question is the 'unasked' one.

Welcome to TBN

 

[s219]

You can definitely maintain a driveway, and re-fresh a driveway, with a tractor and box blade (and/or rear blade, and/or land plane). Putting one in from scratch may be a bit much, depending on driveway length, how deep you need to go down to get to solid ground, and how much stone needs to come in.

I put in a driveway entrance and culvert using nothing but the front loader, box blade, and 20 tons of crusher/run (delivered in two piles). Had to remove 8-12" of topsoil, which was a piece of cake. The entrance came out great. But I don't think I'd want to do the rest of the 600 ft driveway, especially since it will involve removing many trees/stumps and a lot of grading. It might be more reasonable with a bigger tractor, but I really think a dozer is the best bet for that.

 

[Gary Fowler]

Can a driveway be built with a small tractor with FEL and box blade? Sure it can as far as ability. Do you have the skils and expertise to know what to do to make it serviceable and durable? Some things are better left to professionals. Remember old Tim the Toolman Taylor of the TV show, he was alway doing something that he only had a slim notion of how to accomplish and spent more doing it himself than hiring someone. That happens a lot with hobbist but lifes lessons are learned from failures. The smart folks learn from others failures not their own. You can get some pretty good info here most of the time but you do need to sort thru some of it as many times it is opinion only and not based on any facts. You can usually figure out the right advice by taking time to read all the posts.
Now back to the tractor. Would it be handy to have, sure would. Can you manage without it certainly- you can hire just about anything done if you are willing to wait. For 3 acres with gravel drive, I would look for a tractor with FEL and either box blade or scraper blade(maybe both) to keep the gravel in order. You will have to add gravel occasionally hence the FEL. Box blade can grade and remove pot holes using the scarifiers and you can even use the FEL to back drag and smooth dirt and rocks. It will take some practice to get proficient at it which is part of the fun of ownership of acreage and equipment. You dont really need a large tractor to do lots of work. I see where lots of folks do some amazing work with Kubota BX models but I personally prefer a compact rather than subcompact. I like to be able to finish the work quickly rather than slowly. Most of the SCUT (usually20HP or less but some will go 24hp but frame size is small similar to large lawnmower only much heavier ) or CUT( usually 20 to 50 HP with larger heavier frame than SCUT but smaller than a Utility sized) will do the same work and have implements sized to fit them. Larger tractors= large implements = more $$$= less time to do the work
Your choice as to what you want to do. Dont forget that you will need to store the tractor under a shed or inside a building if you want to keep it from rusting away on you so keep that in mind when looking at tractors. Smaller the tractor, smaller storage area and dont forget your attachments. IF you can keep them under shed and out of weather they last a bit longer also. Sometime we get more than we have room for so some things have to set in the weather and might require a coat of paint occassionally for cosmetic upkeep.
If I were looking at tractors and equipment, I would look at newer than 50 year old stuff. You can find some fairly good Kubota B 7xxx and 8xxx in good shape for $4000 or so and they should be a bit more reliable than a 50's era tractor and have a good diesel engine. I would shy away from gasoline powered tractors due to the quality of gasoline today and the storage life.

 

[Mark Page]

IMHO you'll need to create a bed at least 6" deep. Lay down grown cloth. Put down 6" of #2 stone and 2" or so of cr6 gravel. Getting the stone down is a cinch if you're there when it's delivered. Just have the driver tailgate it down and you'll have very little work to do. The problem is excavatating the bed.
That's job for a tracked loader.

 

[Gary Fowler]

A box blade with scarifiers will loosen that up quickly and move it to if you have somewhere to move it off the road. FELs are handy to scoop it up also. I used my Yanmar 4220 with box blade and FEL with tooth bar in combo to cut down a large hill and level it out for my shop location, just scarify, pick up what you can with FEL while making another scarifier run.. The hardest part is getting all the grass off so the box blade will work properly as the grass tends to gum up the works. I dug a pretty nice pond over 6 feet deep in 2 days using only my LS with the FEL and no tooth barand box blade. CUT with FEL do need a tooth bar to dig with, but my LS has the weight to push it on in without needing the teeth. When I got to shale and rock layer, the box blade scarifies were what I needed to break it up and roll out the big hunks. When I got it as deep as I wanted, I put back a layer of clay over the shale to seal it to prevent water loss. It worked pretty well for that so a 6" dig shouldnt be a problem at all for a CUT. About 2-3 passes with the box blade with the scarifiers as low as they will go should have the dirt loosened up great. May not be as fast or pretty as a big excavator, but it wont cost you $80-100 or more per hour either.

 

[Crashcup]

Thanks for the quick replies!

The advantage of the site for the driveway is that it's already at rough grade. There's not a lot of dirt to be moved around. My step-dad, who I'm buying the property from, says there's a lot of gravel there, so hopefully won't have to go down too far to reach a stable base to build up from.

He has been mowing grass there for 50 years, though, so I'm sure some amount of topsoil needs to be moved away.

Not sure how to tell if a front-end loader would be able to dig in to remove topsoil, or if I could scrape it up with back blade, then move with the FEL. With a back blade mounted to a 3-point hitch, you can put downward force on the blade, right?

Anyway, won't be able to get started with the driveway until fall or maybe next spring, so I have time to read, learn, watch the ads, and look at some tractors to be better prepared to look for the right equipment to buy.

 

[bcp]

With a back blade mounted to a 3-point hitch, you can put downward force on the blade, right?

Usually not, just weight and gravity.

Bruce

 

[MF 1532]

welcometo tbn . your'e on the right track . have fun asking questions , looking and shopping . the right choice will come along , for your purpose . :thumbsup:

 

[JMER817]

When I was a kid we farmed with a 50's 600 series Ford tractor. Great little tractor. I bought one later in life to use around the yard the same as you are planning. With that said I would probably advise to stay away from these older 50-60 year old machines unless you are very mechanically inclined. Parts seem to be getting harder to find as well. I stripped the topsoil for my polebarn with mine using just a scraper blade. Took some time but it was fun tractor time. I would probably hire out the driveway...a bulddozer can make fast work. Take a look at the zero percent financing these days on a smaller Kubota / John Deere..etc. You will find many uses for the loader.

 

[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