What did you do with your Power Trac today?

[ponytug]

I think it is different strokes for different folks. I needed the slope mowing capability, but not a full blown slope mower, and the 1445 has the HP to climb the steep sections fully loaded. Terry talked me out of the 1430 for HP / slopes reasons. I have come around to really enjoy the HP.

Candidly, having the automatic brake was and is a huge plus around my slopes. I once missed a shift on an old Allis and nearly backed it into a creek gully that probably would have killed me. A rapid stomp on the brakes and a retry on the shifting got me out of it, but one wheel and axle were already past the lip of the creek edge.

The rain gauge said 2.5"; the buckets said more like four. Most of it seems to have sunk in, without too many washouts. The cows looked happy to be washed clean and fluffed, while the horse was happily wearing half the field. We are at the top of the hill, so no flooding here. Forty miles north of here got 12", sixty five miles northwest got 26".

Just the rate of rainfall was overwhelming for many areas; we don't get hard rain so nothing is built for it.

All the best,

Peter

 

[m5040]

I went from the 1430 to the 1460. At the time it wasn't much more money and it was a lot more tractor. I think most people that buy the larger tractors are business that don't have the personal interest in all the details. It is just a tool for them.

 

[PowerTracManiac]

Since we are talking 1460 I will chime in and give my machine some props.
Exterior of house is pretty much done. Have a little gravel to move and some grading but in general good to go.
Machine has been indispensable in my home build project. Below is a picture of what is possible with a 1460.

 

[joshlee]

I went from the 1430 to the 1460. At the time it wasn't much more money and it was a lot more tractor. I think most people that buy the larger tractors are business that don't have the personal interest in all the details. It is just a tool for them.

Yeah, that makes sense. It makes me wonder how many of them are out there and what are the people using them for.

 

[ponytug]

The follow on with the well drillers took a week. We had 2.85" of rain on clay soil. I used the PT to haul rock to fill in the drainage ditch on the road, added dirt, and the truck made it fifteen feet inside the gate, as it couldn't pull the front wheels up the foot from the road to the pasture, even with a graded ramp. The truck was 20' long. Yup.

With chains on the PT, I couldn't budge them either. No traction on wet clay, even with chains. So they installed the pump by hand. Literally. (Mercifully, as we have been relying on stored water for the last week.) One guy stood on top of the pump house and held onto the pipe as he slowly lowered each 20' segment of pipe into the well. That's with the pump hanging off the bottom. With 120' in the well, I pitched in because the poor guy was having trouble controlling the pipe. We used the PT 4n1 bucket in the air as a rollover point to lower the cable down the well. I will spare you the runaround to find fittings, or lack there of. (Seriously? How hard is it to sit in the shop and think "I have 1 1/4" pipe coming up the well, so I need a 1 1/4-2" reducing fitting, a male, male six inch piece of 2" for the well cap, a 2" Tee, a well cap, an eyebolt for the safety line, a 3/4" offset conduit section, and an LB conduit body"? But I digress, and yes more than one of those items were and are missing.) But at the end of the day, we have a new pump. Of course, it isn't wired up yet, as that requires an electrician, which hopefully happens today. After which, I will install a new sand sediment filter, and we should be back in business.

It took me fifteen minutes or so with the PT to remove the dirt and rock from the drainage ditch, grade the road shoulder, separate the rock from the dirt with the 4n1 bucket by letting the dirt drain through a partially open bucket, and return the rock to my rock pile.

The rural life saga continues.

All the best,

Peter

 

[cqaigy2]

Good read right there Peter.

 

[ponytug]

Well, it has been interesting. Amongst other that msg the first crew neglected to chlorinate the well.

Photos:
That is the well tucked behind the new sediment filter that needed 35lbs of gravel and 150lbs of zeolite and forty gallons of water put in it. 65” in the air…

Here is the little funnel to pour everything through.

The solution is to use your PT as a man lift to pour the media in from;

All the best,

Peter

 

[m5040]

I needed to use my Igland 4501 logging winch and it was stored inside a shipping container. Tough to back in and connect the 3pt hitch, so had to move out. But which tractor was free? Only the PT018 with a 600 lb lift capacity to lift a winch that weighs 575lbs (plus cable spool, chains, etc. and the big drop exiting the container). Well I gave it a shot instead of removing hyd driven attachments from the bigger tractors. As you may see in the picts, it worked perfect. I did notice the front tires a little soft, maybe cause of cold weather. Great little tractor to have around!

 

[MossRoad]

Yes they are handy.

Anyone have canna lilies? This is my bulb harvest a couple weeks ago. Have to wash and dry them, then store them indoors over the winter.

 

[MossRoad]

A family friend a few blocks away had a large oak tree fall on their neighbor's house. Insurance paid to have it removed from the house, cut into pieces, and branches hauled off, but not the pieces. So they offered it to me. I made several trips with the PT425 and my forks to load and unload. Pretty nice to be able to drive on and off the trailer loading and unloading with the forks, and never having to get out of the seat.

 

[ponytug]

Wow, that is an amazing canna lilly harvest! Do you do anything special? Do you have them in deep compost or something so that they are easy to dig out?

Nice haul on the oak.

All the best,

Peter

 

[MossRoad]

Thanks. The cannas don't get much special treatment. I till up a strip about 2-3' wide along the fence and bury the bulbs about 4-6" deep. Cover them up. Once they poke through the ground, we put down Preen with fertilizer to keep the weeds down. They get a misting of water from the drip system for about 10 minutes every morning. Maybe some miracle grow if I remember about 2-3 times during the summer.

After 1st frost, we cut them down to 4-6" tall and I take the PT small bucket with teeth and dig them out. Spray the dirt off the bulbs and let them dry. I put about 25 in a kitty litter bucket. 8 buckets gives me 200 bulbs. Store them in the open buckets in the back of the basement where it never freezes. The rest get buried in the back yard. Some years they sprout up, but mostly, they just rot, as they can't take being frozen.

I used to get stressed out about saving all of them and finding them free homes. But they triple every year, if not quadruple. One year I saved 1500!

So now, the 200 plants that strip along the fence with plenty left over for pots or friends, and I'll have 6-800 by fall.

 

[MossRoad]

There's a 52" fence behind these somewhere. This is July 17. They got to about 8' by the end of summer.

 

[joshlee]

I needed to use my Igland 4501 logging winch and it was stored inside a shipping container. Tough to back in and connect the 3pt hitch, so had to move out. But which tractor was free? Only the PT018 with a 600 lb lift capacity to lift a winch that weighs 575lbs (plus cable spool, chains, etc. and the big drop exiting the container). Well I gave it a shot instead of removing hyd driven attachments from the bigger tractors. As you may see in the picts, it worked perfect. I did notice the front tires a little soft, maybe cause of cold weather. Great little tractor to have around!

Did you put a hydraulic cooler on that?

 

[Goose1776]

4n1 bucket for the win..!
Tornados that went through awhile back did a number on our makeshift pool cover, and it was 1/2 in the pool.
We couldn’t move it by hand
Clamped onto it with the bucket and lifted, and pulled it out.!

 

[m5040]

Good work, no need to leave the seat. Work smarter, not harder!

 

[CreativeGuy]

I used the 4-way bucket to hold onto a 2X10 board to “plow” our driveway.

 

[m5040]

Screening with the 1430. It can't get enough dump angle when all the way up, so the 4 in 1 allows it to dump into the screener.

 

[ponytug]

@m5040 How do you like that screen?

All the best, Peter

 

[m5040]

The screen works surprisingly well. Too high for the PT. If you know about them, they have that back strip to funnel and slow down the material. If something gets stuck, you use the loader bucket to push the funnel away and it will pass the large rocks etc. Someone put a lot of thought into it. I have only use the largest screen, I think it is 3".

I use the PT because although it is marginally sized, it does work. If I use the 60HP Kubota I don't want to drop a rock off the back of the bucket as I raise it and have it fall on the hood and cause $1000s in damage. The PT is basically indestructible, cosmetically anyway.