Sizing advice for attachments

[jrclark]

The tractor in question is a DS3510. I've been looking at two attachments to handle some of my more common tasks.

The first and probably most necessary is a rear blade for snow removal and driveway maintenance. Based on width of the tractor, I figure a 6' blade would suffice. I've been looking at the Everything Attachments HD blade because it can be set off to the side for ditch work. Is that a sufficient blade and width for the DS? Any other blade I should take a look at?

The second is a set of pallet forks. I'm looking at the 42" Titan forks, which will mostly be for moving medium sized logs and picking up an occasional rock. Is there any reason to move up to a 48" fork for the smaller DS?

 

[motoman3b]

Blade would work fine I would think, as far as pallet forks, 42" would probably be fine I found with my tractor the 48" allowed better viewing of the end of the forks otherwise I think with the 42" I'd be guessing on how they were tilted or going. The downfall is the 48" stick beyond the pallet but was not a deal breaker for me they work very well for moving logs and skids!

 

[Baby Grand]

For snow removal it's nice to have a rear blade that's wide enough to cover your rear tire tracks when the blade is angled.
My L3240's rear track is 63", outer sidewall to outer sidewall.
I wanted coverage with the blade set at 40 degrees, so:
63/(cos 40) = 63/.766 = 82.2", so I got an 84" blade.
Get as heavy a blade as you can reasonably afford - heavier will take more abuse and cut better in difficult soil.

 

[oosik]

It would be nice to have a rear blade that will cover the entire width of the rear tire track when offset & angled, but watch out. Doing the calculations will or can cause the blade width to be excessive - - i.e, too large for your tractor to handle and/or lift.

My rear tire width is 80" and my rear blade is 96". When I offset and angle, it still will not cover the total 80 inches. That's because the offset blade is blading snow at least 24" beyond the width of the outside tire. I've only had problems with this setup once. I was lazy and the snow got to around 28" deep on the driveway and it was a wet snow. There were places where I had to make two passes because the weight of the snow was shifting my tractor sideways. There are only a couple places in my mile long driveway where this can happen.

When using a rear blade - weight is your friend. Just don't exceed the manufacturers recommendations.

 

[jrclark]

The blade coverage makes sense oosik. One of the biggest reasons for getting the Deluxe version was that it could swing out beyond the tires. Hopefully that doesn't pull the tractor to one side when blading snow. Our driveway is not quite as long as yours, but still a lot to maintain. Given the smallish stature of my DS, I would doubt that it could handle too large of a blade in deep wet snow.

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Go with a 7 footer. While the ETA blade is probably the best blade for the money, :thumbsup: I'm still partial to the Land Pride units. I would at least check on an RB3784 with skid shoes and maybe even hydraulic angling.

Something that really helps with that side ways pulling is to have your tires filled, extra weight equals extra traction equals better stability.

 

[jrclark]

Go with a 7 footer. While the ETA blade is probably the best blade for the money, :thumbsup: I'm still partial to the Land Pride units. I would at least check on an RB3784 with skid shoes and maybe even hydraulic angling. Something that really helps with that side ways pulling is to have your tires filled, extra weight equals extra traction equals better stability.

I love to look at Land Pride stuff, but figured they'd be out of my price range. While a hydraulic setup is nice, rear remotes are not necessarily in the cards for this tractor. I do have the tires filled. Any idea on what a RB3772 would cost? If I'm considering the huge severe duty ETA product, I guess it would make sense to evaluate all the others.

 

[jrclark]

I love to look at Land Pride stuff, but figured they'd be out of my price range. While a hydraulic setup is nice, rear remotes are not necessarily in the cards for this tractor. I do have the tires filled. Any idea on what a RB3772 would cost? If I'm considering the huge severe duty ETA product, I guess it would make sense to evaluate all the others.

Let me rephrase this since you suggested a 7' unit; do you have an idea on cost for the RB3784?

 

[MtnViewRanch]

Let me rephrase this since you suggested a 7' unit; do you have an idea on cost for the RB3784?

$1400? My guess would be that you would be in the same price range as the ETA unit?? :confused3: Definitely worth looking into in my opinion. If you are going to be doing dirt work also, forget about going any wider than that.

Just my :2cents:

 

[jrclark]

I'll have to look into the Land Pride stuff after the holidays. I was trying to stay below $1000, but absolutely don't want buyers remorse down the road. Thanks for the input!