One of my renters talked me into getting a big Massy Harris 50 (pre Furgeson) He used it. I didn't and then he moved. I tried to drive it but it had so many levers on it and no power steering, I quit. I did get the loader to go up and down. but it was huge had three point attachment and places for all sorts of things, I know not what. So I sold it and got a good deal on a JD 575. It has a little loader that my daughter loves, a huge deck that I haven't used yet, a blade...but no weights came with it. Mostly I use our lawn tractors. I should probably fence in the acres of lawn and get more sheep.
When I was breaking new ground, my little tractor couldn't hack it, because, although the stump and trees were gone, there were many underground roots. A neighbor had just acquired a 50-horse something (I don't recall the make) and he had a three-bottom plow with it. With great difficulty, he plowed up what was to become a fairly large garden. He sold the tractor shortly thereafter, as it didn't have hydraulics.
The guy I bought my box blade from had 10 acres or so and it was all garden, pasture and pond. He picked up a mint condition lo-hour smaller John Deere like that, and has received tons of unsolicited offers on it. He loaded that box blade into my truck with it (although we did have a heart attack moment.) There's a slot that all of these things fill (it makes me smile to think of all these people owning tractors.) No matter what size, we get so much utility out of them. And 25HP is nothing to sneeze at...it's all about the gearing
Exactly. I think I made thee right choice for my use. There have been a couple times I would have liked more power, but I need to get places and do things that larger machines cannot do.
My Kubota won't pull up a lot of the roots from small trees. I cleared that area behind my garage with a skid loader and a couple of small trees had taken root there. I hooked up the box blade and put the tractor on 4WD and in Low gear, and it would not pull those roots...it got stuck. I had to back up, lift the three point hitch, and just drive past them. Fortunately, I'm gonna lay gravel over that area, not plant a garden. As I have to remind my neighbor when he asks me to do stuff...these are ag tractors, not construction equipment. I'm curious to see if that boom pole on the 3 point hitch might be able to yank up some of this stuff that the front end loader can't. I've not checked out their relative specs.
You can use a boom pole rig or a snatch block setup to pull stumps, but I find it easier to just rent a small excavator and dig around the big stumps, or just pop the small ones out of the ground. My little tractor can carry them away if I have ballast on the back.
I saw this on an online auction not too far from me: It's a 1957 Oliver Super 55 with a Massey Ferguson front end loader affixed.
The description says "It would make a great garden tractor." It looks like that front end loader rig weighs more than the daggone tractor.
I don't think I would call that a "garden tractor". It might not even be a good farm tractor, but it appears to be able to do some kind of work...but what that work would be, I am not sure.
I commented in the Tractor Supply thread that I picked up another chain and some hooks & connectors to make easier work of stuff. When I first moved here, I bought a 1 1/2 ton Milwaukee lever ratchet hoist at a yard sale. Mine is all rusted and is not this pretty...nor does it have any paint on it: I've not had a lot of use for it, but now that I have a boom pole for my tractor, I think the combination will be put to good use pulling small stumps & such, and as an ambulatory ComeAlong. The fast-adjustment of the length will also come in handy to pick up stuff & move it around.
OK, all you manly men. I have a mechanical question. I am thinking of replacing my kawasaki fd791d 26hp engine. There is a site called sale-motors.com where the cost of the engines are half that of anywhere else. Anyone know of or had dealings with them? I believe it is in Indonesia. They say there is free shipping too. Who is to say the dealers here don't get their equipment from them? What say ye?