Should I upgrade?

[chim]

Not necessarily. You need to compare the ground pressure of the various tractors. Just because something is heavy doesn't mean it is more or less likely to get stuck in grabby mud. Larger tractor=larger tires. I don't know the exact comparison between the L3301 and an MX, but I bet it's not that far off.

I wasn't concerned with grabby mud, but part of our property has a small creek that floods with some regularity. When we only had our little lightweight Ford with R1's I couldn't mow for close to a week after the yard flooded without leaving tread patterns in the yard. Then we added a B7500 with R4's and didn't need to wait as long. The B7500 was replaced with an L3200 with R4's and the wait between flooding and mowing went down again. As we went with larger tractors, the tire contact area increased.

We were watching for another tractor with a little "more" and came upon a clean L4240 in December. It has factory A/C, more loader capacity, more HP for a larger RFM and other useful features. It has been fun in what little snow we've had this year. My one concern was how it will do on the lowland after flooding. I convinced myself that the big R4's on the L4240 had considerably larger ground contact than those on the L3200, so even with the extra weight it should work OK. Whether I lied to myself or not will be apparent after our first flood during mowing season

 

[TheMadOne]

I wasn't concerned with grabby mud, but part of our property has a small creek that floods with some regularity. When we only had our little lightweight Ford with R1's I couldn't mow for close to a week after the yard flooded without leaving tread patterns in the yard. Then we added a B7500 with R4's and didn't need to wait as long. The B7500 was replaced with an L3200 with R4's and the wait between flooding and mowing went down again. As we went with larger tractors, the tire contact area increased.

We were watching for another tractor with a little "more" and came upon a clean L4240 in December. It has factory A/C, more loader capacity, more HP for a larger RFM and other useful features. It has been fun in what little snow we've had this year. My one concern was how it will do on the lowland after flooding. I convinced myself that the big R4's on the L4240 had considerably larger ground contact than those on the L3200, so even with the extra weight it should work OK. Whether I lied to myself or not will be apparent after our first flood during mowing season

Let me know how that works out for you. I'm looking into basically doing the same thing, transitioning to a L3560 from my L3301. The standard L line is a great tractor, but you know as well as I do how nice it would be to have a cab around these parts, and the extra stability from the added low-down weight can't hurt in these hills.

 

[Egon]

Want more pulling power? Put chains on all four wheels, load up the bucket and put weight on the back.

Pulling with the three point would let you get lots of weight on the back balanced by a full bucket of the heaviest material you got. You have to be carefull to keep the rear hook up low with one foot on the clutch & the other one being really light on the HST forward pedal.

 

[s219]

I finally got to use my new L3301 w/bushhog and grapple.

I felt like it was underpowered when I needed to push over 3" trees.

Tell us how you were pushing over 3" trees. Not only is that potentially challenging or pointless to do with a tractor, it could easily cause damage. The front end loader is not a bulldozer, remember that. Same is true for larger/heavier/powerful tractors. And from my experience with the L models, you aren't going to be pushing much anyhow, since the tractor will run out of traction before it runs out of power in most cases, so being "underpowered" may not even be a factor.

I can knock over up to about a 6" pine with my L3200, which is about the same tractor as your L3301 but previous generation. I do not use engine power to do this, as that is not feasible (due to traction) and it could easily damage the front loader arms. It's all done with hydraulics. Raise the bucket to full height and angle/curl the bucket so that it's upper and lower edges are parallel with the tree. Now drive forward so that the bucket is just touching the tree but not applying pressure (use loader controls if you need to fine tune it and/or don't have the needed precision with the HST treadle). Once you are up against the tree, lower the bucket. The loader arms will move in an arc on the way down and "push" the tree over with hydraulic power, and be self limited by the hydraulic relief so that you can't damage anything. If you can't knock down a tree that way, then the tractor is too small for that particular tree. Obviously, don't use this technique if the top of the tree is rotten or has loose/hanging branches. This should only be done on trees that will not cause a hazard for the tractor/operator below.

If you had been driving up against the tree and pushing with only engine power, then it's the wrong way to do it for many reasons. Seeing as how I can knock over up to 6" pines (which have a long tap root to fight) I would conclude that you were using the wrong approach if you couldn't push over a 3" tree with essentially the same tractor.

 

[TheMadOne]

I was assuming he was backing over them with the bush hog. You may be right though.

 

[tradosaurus]

You guys need to remember that I've never driven a tractor until now. I'm getting on the job training.

My wife convinced me to keep the tractor.

I'm debating on whether to get a ratcheting rake or a Quick attach spade.

 

[TheMadOne]

You guys need to remember that I've never driven a tractor until now. I'm getting on the job training.

My wife convinced me to keep the tractor.

I'm debating on whether to get a ratcheting rake or a Quick attach spade.

Never used a quick attach spade. Done a lot of land clearing with a ratchet rake. It works well, though I thought you had a grapple? A properly used grapple will do a lot of what the ratchet rake can, in terms of clearing land. Ratchet rake is excellent for grading.

 

[jeff9366]

I'm debating on whether to get a ratcheting rake or a Quick attach spade.

I recommend the Ratchet Rake prior to Bucket Spade. No leverage.

Bucket Spade is very useful but better for an operator with 200 hours of experience. Bucket Spade applies considerable leverage. Imprudently used, it has the potential to damage the bucket. Wait on the Bucket Spade until you are familiar with norms of your L3301 operation.

(I have used Ratchet Rake and Bucket Spade on a Kubota 'B' B3300SU, as well as my current L3560. I have damaged neither but I am retired and never in a hurry on the tractor. In retirement life is an endless weekend.)

VIDEO: ratchet rake grading - YouTube

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I thought you had a grapple?
A properly used grapple will do a lot of what the ratchet rake can, in terms of clearing land.
Ratchet rake is excellent for grading.

Yes.

 

[JOHNTHOMAS]

I have bought two RatchetRakes over the past 14 years. I was an early buyer when one could buy them direct from the factory, actually that was the only way to buy them. I've been their #1 supporter, recommender for many years and still do for landscaping. I finally bought a Pirinha for my bucket and sold my RR to my nephew. I'm more into woods work now vs home landscaping. The Pirinha will be better for the tree work since it doesn't have the dropping down section, just straight on sharp teeth which can dig at the back of the tree and can even dig a ditch/holer. The RR is better for landscaping though and I really missed it when I reseeded a small section of gravel drive turned into seeded yard but in the woods and for digging the Pirinha is king.
I bought a tree grabber/grapple type device a couple years ago and it's pretty good for grabbing 3" to some 4" trees and a couple of back and forths and the tree is out and I have it grabbed still standing and carry it to the burn pile. I got a bit aggressive with it and broke it but have now got it fixed and back to working. Titan works makes a similiar attachment for about half the price I paid for my tree grapple that has just one arm that moves and grips the tree between the one fixed arm and the moving arm. Search results for: 'tree remover'

 

[tradosaurus]

I thought about the Piranha bar but didn't want it permanently mounted. I might reconsider after reading your experience.