Well, I'm a tractor owner now baby!

[thunderheart]

Yep. Just bought the YM 3110 I talked about in this thread: How to by a used Yanmar. Thanx to all the posters for the advice and information.

But that isn't what made me a tractor owner. It was the act of buying my first parts to fix my tractor that made it official! :laughing: The section of fuel line from the filter to the injector pump was leaking. It was so old and stiff it had cracked under the clamps. 2 feet of fuel line from Autozone, some new clamps, and a little diesel on man hands fixed 'er right up. Good as new. :thumbsup:

And best of all I think my wife likes it: Doni's first ride on our Yanmar

So now the first task I have for it is to turn over our new garden in preparation for next spring. The plot is about an acre and a half and though cleared in the past, has set unmowed for about 5 years. There are a load of little persimmon, sweet gun, mimosa and poplar saplings that have grown up from knee to shoulder high (a few head high) along with blackberry canes, broom sage and other nondescript weeds.

My plan is to hit it with a rotary mower and then use a turning plow to turn it over and let it sit during the winter. Next spring I want to be able to get in there and rototill and then draw rows with a set of hippers or a bedder. So that brings up a couple of questions I imagine can be answered here:

1) How big of a bush hog would be safe to run behind my 3110? (I'll get an overrun clutch from TSC)
2) What is the biggest sapling I can safely mow down with a rotary mower?
3) Could my 3110 manage a 2 blade bottom plow?

I know the tractor is light and may not be appropriate for breaking plows but the ground is actually quite dry and loose. Hoping it can handle at least a single blade plow. The rear wheels are ballasted.

Thanks for any input,

Dallas

 

[clemsonfor]

You can easily turn a 5 foot bush hog in chest tall grass. And probly a 6 footer in shorter grass up to knee high. A sappling, if you can run it over you can cut it. I mean with in reason, dont run wide open at a 6" diameter tree, but even with my light duty 4ft cutter (i mean real light not just cause its 4ft) i have cut down sweetgums with 3"diameter stumps. I have either run them over first or backed up to them and then lowered the bush hog down on them slowly letting it chew it down to the ground. Its loud as heck and cutting tall or down trees is a bit dangerous as you will see spears up to 6ft long fly out to the sides and behind the Hog. I always lean foward when i bushhog those big ones to reduce my profile and hide my neck from the flying "spears".

But with a 3110 you can easily just run over anything in your 5yr old plot. And i think in an "old garden" you should easily be able to pull a double 12" maybe 14" bottom. You could easily pull any single bottom with that tractor, when properly ballased, even beter if you have 4wd.

Glad you got a new tractor and you did the best thing i think in looking for a good proven second hand tractor. That was the one i would of bought as well i think. I also was thinking the 3000 as i like the simple gears, which is why i bought the 2000, but after being here on here for 3 years i really have not seen any problem with rieliability of these powershift trans, which was my fear at first. But the ability to go slower and faster without reclutching has positives, especially when mowing.

 

[California]

Thunderheart, I think that 3110 should be equivalent to an old ford 8N. You will probably have to ballast the rear tires with water including antifreeze before it will have the traction of an 8N. If you can find cast wheel weights that is even better.

So the huge range of used implements available in 8N size should all be suitable. 5 ft rotary mower, whatever discs and plows, etc.

Does someone here have direct experience using 8N implements on these?

And like Clemson said, a rotary mower will shred anything you can get the front axle over. Just watch to not damage sheet metal, fuel lines, etc as you drive over stuff. I've ripped off the oil pressure sender wire. It was disconcerting to drive back to the barn with the NO OIL PRESSURE light on, but all it needed was a wire splice cap to patch the wire. Don't be as careless as I was.

 

[clemsonfor]

I think thats a good measure California. The 3110 has more power than the 8n but i think the 8n still has a bit of weight on it. Dosent an 8n weight in the 3-4k range?

So i think your gonna need a good 600lbs to get close to the pulling power, and if you have 4wd that will help a bit. I have close to 500lbs of ballast now on my 2000, but not had a chance to pull anything with it yet. I have almost 200lbs on the front bumper and i have the rear tires filled with around 17 gallons of winshield washer fluid to get me into the 300lb range of rear ballast. The front weight was absolutly necessary to keep my front end down when useing my ballested disk harrow, the rear weight is to help "stick" it to the ground when pulling it.

 

[thunderheart]

Cool Beans fellas. I was thinking that it does have about as much HP as the 9N/8N models but I know that they are considered heavy for their HP range. The rear wheels do have water/antifreeze mix but I have no idea how much weight that adds. I guess I could try to find a nearby scales and weight the thing. I borrowed a trailer to move it so I'll have to wait until the end of September when I move the tractor to the farm if I'm gonna do that. Is the general practice to fill the tires nearly full of fluid and then pressurize with air? If so then I could find the formula for calculating the volume of a toroid and get pretty close. Just use the weight of water per gallon and ignore any difference the antifreeze and air would make.

Thanks,

Dallas

P.S.: Are there suitcase weights specifically for the Yanmars or are those things generic? We never used them on our JDs when I was a kid so I have zero understanding of them.

 

[madmax12]

Cool Beans fellas. I was thinking that it does have about as much HP as the 9N/8N models but I know that they are considered heavy for their HP range. The rear wheels do have water/antifreeze mix but I have no idea how much weight that adds. I guess I could try to find a nearby scales and weight the thing. I borrowed a trailer to move it so I'll have to wait until the end of September when I move the tractor to the farm if I'm gonna do that. Is the general practice to fill the tires nearly full of fluid and then pressurize with air? If so then I could find the formula for calculating the volume of a toroid and get pretty close. Just use the weight of water per gallon and ignore any difference the antifreeze and air would make.

Thanks,

Dallas

P.S.: Are there suitcase weights specifically for the Yanmars or are those things generic? We never used them on our JDs when I was a kid so I have zero understanding of them.

U probably know this already, but, a gallon of water weighs around 8 lbs. If u could figure out how many gallons u have in each tire, you'll know how much weight added to each.

 

[clemsonfor]

There are charts to figure gallons for a tire size then do as max said and just multiply by 8. Usually you put valve at the top and fill till its full which they call 75% full, then you put air in it to get it to the pressure your suppose to run.

Your tractor has more HP than the N series tractors. I think they had 26-28Hp and you have 31 at the pto so you have mid 30s at the engine.

 

[California]

In this chart 75% means: Jack up the axle until no weight is on the tire. Put the valve stem at the top. Stop filling when the valve stem goes under water.

CaCl is Calcium Chloride. This is heavier than water but is generally no longer used, because it causes extreme corrosion and will kill your garden if you get a puncture.


Suitcase weights are more or less generic. Getting a near fit and adding spacers to snug up the slack will be far less expensive than buying correct ones and should work just as well.

Here's a picture of some weights that sort of fit, before I finished installing them. Here's a picture later after I made spacers to make them snug. (Note also I found and adapted two 70 lb weights for the rear wheels by the time of this picture). Then just yesterday I wired in two 10 lb cigar-box cast weights (salvaged from exercise equipment, free from a neighbor) into that slot on the nose of these weights. You'll laugh, but I had a 30 lb chunk of railroad rail chained in there all summer to keep the nose down while I pull that watering trailer uphill.

 

[clemsonfor]

thanks California, i was to lazy to link to one and i dont have them saved. There just a quick search away though.

The strange thing is that i saw a chart that showed my 9.5x24 would hold 20 gallons (im pretty sure it was labled at 75% fill) and all other charts i have seen are 17 gallons, which is what it holds maybe more like 16.5.

 

[thunderheart]

Ok. Looks like 292 pounds per tire so close to 600 pounds. Total tractor weight of approximately 3330 (2730 tractor weight + 600 pounds ballast). Very useful information as I am also looking for a good trailer to haul it with.

I really, really appreciate y'all taking time to answer my questions. Hope I can repay the kindness in future. :drink:

Dallas