What attachments did you THINK you needed but don't use much?

[Heywood Jannockitov]

Toothbar. Ordered one with the tractor. Used it for awhile then took it off before the first winter. Never put it back on. Maybe they help on a small cut or scut with insufficient weight to push into a dirt pile, but on a 5425, I found it made no difference to the fels ability to scoop material.
Didn't like that some dirt always got trapped behind the bar and wouldn't dump out.
Will probably never put it back on.

 

[Botabill]

Maybe I have taken the original post wrong. Some of you are saying that this implement or that implement is not needed because you can use something else, and that is fine for YOU. But I don't think that you should be telling people in general that there is no reason to get this implement or that attachment. Just because you have no need for something does not mean that that something is not going to work for someone else in someone else's circumstances.

I don't think anyone is saying an implement is bad and no one should have one. They aren't saying if you have one you aren't a right thinking person either. They are simply saying for THEM the implement has not been the most useful. Lets accept the fact that different folks find value in different implements and move on. Personally I'd like to have all the implements in my barn as at some point each and everyone of them would find a use.

 

[3RRL]

A very interesting question with interesting replies.
To answer the original posters question, for me it was the forks for the FEL.
I looked high and low to find a used set of forks so I could build my own set. I've had them (and plans to build) for almost 2 years now and haven't needed them yet. I do have a forklift truck in my barn so maybe that's why. But I envisioned using them out in the field on the tractor where the forklift truck would not go ... it's not an off road model.

But there again that's only for me, in my case.
I guess it really depends what you mostly use your tractor for and what is the least you use it for. That will (to some larger degree), dictate what implements you use most. And it will vary from year to year as your place comes around from what it was to what it is, and what it's going to be in the future. Following suit, it also depends on what your place was like when you got the tractor and implements you thought you needed.

In my case, my property was a wild Oak forest on a sloping piece of property.
I pretty much needed one of everything to do what I wanted to do. My needs lean towards building roads, clearing, pulling trees, ditching, footings, building pads, preparing to have my home and barn built. I did not need any farming implements (yet) since that was on the back burner. When I did need to plow I improvised and used the boxblade for that too. Now we have a tiller because things have changed (again).

I'll bet my box blade (for me) along with the FEL and bucket grapple have been the most used.
Then the backhoe. At the time, the added bucket grapple and backhoe were life savers for me. My sloping ground need an implement that I could "tilt" different than the wheel base to build roads and trails on my sloping property. That way I could contour and not just follow the lay of the land. Like banking my roads in the turns cutting into the hillsides. But again, that is because my set of circumstances required those types of implements more than others.
No doubt your needs may vary, of course.
Rob-

 

[GeneD14]

Since I bought a tractor with a loader several years ago the 3 point boom pole has collected plenty of dust.
The most used by far is the loader and material bucket.

 

[EastTexFrank]

Like Eddie, I haven't used my box blade much in the past 4 years. In fact I haven't used it at all. I did use the heck out of it when I first got it. Same story with the Kuhn tiller. I used it a lot when I first got it but once I got everything tilled up I haven't used it more than once a year to get the veggie garden in shape. Since I've got a 6' bush hog on the L4740, I've not used the 4' one on the B2400 though it still might be useful in the tight spots down in the "thicket".

I've always had a longing for a backhoe but I've got no real need for one but it sure would be a "cool" toy. I think if I tried hard enough, I could probably find something to do with it but I just can't convince my wife that it's a necessity. It would probably end up sitting next to the box blade, gathering dust.

 

[mjncad]

A 3PH Post Hole Digger was my stupid implement mistake. I traded it in as a down payment on a JD L130 lawn tractor.

 

[Gary Fowler]

I have to say that the 3 PH fertilizer spreader/ seeder is not been used in 2 years (never actually). The box blade I use all the time, FEL, post hole digger is also used a lot. We use PHD to dig holes for planting shrubs and flowers since the soil is so rocky on the Arkansas farm a shovel is pretty useless for digging a hole and dont have a back hoe. I used the box blade scarifiers to work the soil and cut the roots around some large thorn trees and then uprooted it with my FEL. Worked great.

 

[Gary Fowler]

To WOLC123: not all 3 PH disc are light weight and pieces of junk. Look up the J Bar Corporation website. I have one of their 8 foot models and it weight is at over 800 lbs plus I have a couple sections of railroad steel attached for a little extra weight in the rock and clay soils of Hot Springs county Ark. It gives my 4220D Yanmar all it wants to pull

 

[Gizmo2]

I guess it really depends what you mostly use your tractor for and what is the least you use it for. That will (to some larger degree), dictate what implements you use most. And it will vary from year to year as your place comes around from what it was to what it is, and what it's going to be in the future. Following suit, it also depends on what your place was like when you got the tractor and implements you thought you needed.
Rob-

Agree, as I posted before. Now, after reading Heywood Jannockitov's post I would have to add the size of the tractor would make a difference. As with me, a tractor with 3PT down pressure would make my PHD a completely different attachment.

 

[dillo99]

clamp on pallet forks.

Don't have much need plus they are kinda wobbly.