I have 30 hours in three months on my L3130 with 723 loader. About half of that is box blade work and half loader work backfilling my new house and moving gravel.
It digs and lifts a heaping full bucket of wet clay or gravel and carries it up a steep incline with no complaints if the throttle is sufficient (usually I keep it around 2000-2200 rpms for carrying a full bucket). Breakout force has been my biggest disappointment, but I've improved my operation skills to better deal with that. I'm ignorant enough about this type of equipment that I do not know whether the breakout deficiency is due to lack of tractor horsepower, hydraulics or loader capabilities (if anyone knows, please tell).
Dragging a full box of moist dirt, no problems. I haven't pulled the scarifiers yet as we haven't had any dry weather since I bought the thing!
Troubles I have had are mostly traction related, indicating I have more power than I can use at times. Even with loaded r1 tires, differential lock and 4-wheel drive I am frequently spinning out my tires.
I was underwhelmed at first impression digging into piles of clay with or without the toothbar, stalling it out occasionally. For context though, the Bob Cat skid steer I rented had great difficulty getting into the piles of clay as well, and was relatively easy to stall making the attempt. I also have found the more I operate it, the more work and efficiency I can nurse out of it, so I think part of it for me is the learning curve.
Maybe after another 100 hours and some dry weather, I can better evaluate its capabilities. Of course, I would need some hours on the competitive models to say with any certainty that one was an underachiever.
p.s. I have never had the seat kill switch shut me down. Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten there was one on the tractor. Next time I operate it I'm going to see if I can get it to shut down to see if it is even operating correctly.
It digs and lifts a heaping full bucket of wet clay or gravel and carries it up a steep incline with no complaints if the throttle is sufficient (usually I keep it around 2000-2200 rpms for carrying a full bucket). Breakout force has been my biggest disappointment, but I've improved my operation skills to better deal with that. I'm ignorant enough about this type of equipment that I do not know whether the breakout deficiency is due to lack of tractor horsepower, hydraulics or loader capabilities (if anyone knows, please tell).
Dragging a full box of moist dirt, no problems. I haven't pulled the scarifiers yet as we haven't had any dry weather since I bought the thing!
Troubles I have had are mostly traction related, indicating I have more power than I can use at times. Even with loaded r1 tires, differential lock and 4-wheel drive I am frequently spinning out my tires.
I was underwhelmed at first impression digging into piles of clay with or without the toothbar, stalling it out occasionally. For context though, the Bob Cat skid steer I rented had great difficulty getting into the piles of clay as well, and was relatively easy to stall making the attempt. I also have found the more I operate it, the more work and efficiency I can nurse out of it, so I think part of it for me is the learning curve.
Maybe after another 100 hours and some dry weather, I can better evaluate its capabilities. Of course, I would need some hours on the competitive models to say with any certainty that one was an underachiever.
p.s. I have never had the seat kill switch shut me down. Until you mentioned it, I had forgotten there was one on the tractor. Next time I operate it I'm going to see if I can get it to shut down to see if it is even operating correctly.
