Dear diary,
I thought this was to be my new toy, all sorts of fun and good times, it’s a pita!
It wears me out. This is no little Cub Cadet garden mower, it’s a big tall machine and you just don’t raise one foot and you’re in. You have to climb up and maneuver through the glass door of the cab making your way around the foot pedals and e brake handle that jabs me in the leg - line up facing forward and take your seat. Oh yes, it’s so nice when it’s nearly 100 out and 75% humid you don’t sweat any when the ac is on!
The first implement on this new machine is the pallet forks. You would think this would be so easy. I don’t feel I can say using forks on a tractor is nearly the same as using a dedicated forklift. It’s a much bigger pain in the rectum on a tractor, even with 48” forks and standing up, I still have a hard time seeing the fork tips. It helps a little when I sprayed the first 8” of both forks a bright Red and you have to gage the leveling sight rod with a different color ring of tape because a loader bucket parallel to the ground is at a different spot then for the forks.
My first project was to drop the 73” loader bucket and pick up the pallet forks. First pull the bottom pins so the bucket can come off and go to the forks and line up. When you pick up the forks you have to jump out. - (again) and adjust the tines for the pallet and re-pin. I’d pay extra for some way to avoid jumping up and down for these dam pins!
So I have to go through judgment for leveling the fork tines to go into the pallet without pushing the pallet forward. It helps on this tractor to take the idle all the way down. This actually helps the hydraulics so it won’t be so touchy-jerky with the stick. I think the harder part was moving 7 pallets of paver bricks to the other side of the house across a couple acres with a good incline and set them down on grass that is a little high.
the trick for me was to set the pallets down on the correct angle so I could back out and not drag the pallets back with me Or drag the heals of the forks tearing up the grass. This all would be so much better if I could only see out in front where everything is going on. Glad I don’t have to move pallets too often.
Not having the grapple I bought and paid for until sometime in 2023 I have to do some chores in other ways. I decided not to go through all the trouble and expense to rid myself of all the branches of the trees and bushes by renting a chipper - I’m just gonna burn it all.
Lets see, go to Home Depot at 6:30 am to pick up a 7” chipper. Cost $300 plus tax plus damage insurance of another $30 + so now it’s about $350 per day. I have to keep the chipper hooked to the truck and be parked in a position that lets me feed the hopper the branches. It’s a big big BIG pile I collected so I don’t have a clue how long it will take me. A day, 2 days? Hire some help to do this might be a good idea - That’s $20 cash an hour.
Here’s where the forks will work better than trying to pick up branches with a loader bucket (Yes, I put teeth on the lower front edge of the bucket.) I really rather not have to go through loading the bucket by hand, I think I could really pile on a huge amount. I can then move it to the center of my open field and go pyro on it all. Now it’s all about waiting for a no breeze day and that’s tricky! I’ve been hitting the weeds with total kill (Gordens @ Tractor Supply is the best and cheapest - ask me for my methods) But it has to be done on only calm days otherwise you risk some getting airborne and then you get some undesirable effects!
It can be calm out, then I go to start spraying and the winds start. Seems at times it takes watching for days - it’s always breezy up on the hills here and the river has a lot influence too.
The best accessory so far is the stump buster bucket, man does it make short work of removing stumps out of the ground!
Got a New York rake at Tractor Supply, I’m going out in a little while and hook it up. I’ll have a learning curve using that too I’m sure!
I thought this was to be my new toy, all sorts of fun and good times, it’s a pita!
It wears me out. This is no little Cub Cadet garden mower, it’s a big tall machine and you just don’t raise one foot and you’re in. You have to climb up and maneuver through the glass door of the cab making your way around the foot pedals and e brake handle that jabs me in the leg - line up facing forward and take your seat. Oh yes, it’s so nice when it’s nearly 100 out and 75% humid you don’t sweat any when the ac is on!
The first implement on this new machine is the pallet forks. You would think this would be so easy. I don’t feel I can say using forks on a tractor is nearly the same as using a dedicated forklift. It’s a much bigger pain in the rectum on a tractor, even with 48” forks and standing up, I still have a hard time seeing the fork tips. It helps a little when I sprayed the first 8” of both forks a bright Red and you have to gage the leveling sight rod with a different color ring of tape because a loader bucket parallel to the ground is at a different spot then for the forks.
My first project was to drop the 73” loader bucket and pick up the pallet forks. First pull the bottom pins so the bucket can come off and go to the forks and line up. When you pick up the forks you have to jump out. - (again) and adjust the tines for the pallet and re-pin. I’d pay extra for some way to avoid jumping up and down for these dam pins!
So I have to go through judgment for leveling the fork tines to go into the pallet without pushing the pallet forward. It helps on this tractor to take the idle all the way down. This actually helps the hydraulics so it won’t be so touchy-jerky with the stick. I think the harder part was moving 7 pallets of paver bricks to the other side of the house across a couple acres with a good incline and set them down on grass that is a little high.
the trick for me was to set the pallets down on the correct angle so I could back out and not drag the pallets back with me Or drag the heals of the forks tearing up the grass. This all would be so much better if I could only see out in front where everything is going on. Glad I don’t have to move pallets too often.
Not having the grapple I bought and paid for until sometime in 2023 I have to do some chores in other ways. I decided not to go through all the trouble and expense to rid myself of all the branches of the trees and bushes by renting a chipper - I’m just gonna burn it all.
Lets see, go to Home Depot at 6:30 am to pick up a 7” chipper. Cost $300 plus tax plus damage insurance of another $30 + so now it’s about $350 per day. I have to keep the chipper hooked to the truck and be parked in a position that lets me feed the hopper the branches. It’s a big big BIG pile I collected so I don’t have a clue how long it will take me. A day, 2 days? Hire some help to do this might be a good idea - That’s $20 cash an hour.
Here’s where the forks will work better than trying to pick up branches with a loader bucket (Yes, I put teeth on the lower front edge of the bucket.) I really rather not have to go through loading the bucket by hand, I think I could really pile on a huge amount. I can then move it to the center of my open field and go pyro on it all. Now it’s all about waiting for a no breeze day and that’s tricky! I’ve been hitting the weeds with total kill (Gordens @ Tractor Supply is the best and cheapest - ask me for my methods) But it has to be done on only calm days otherwise you risk some getting airborne and then you get some undesirable effects!
It can be calm out, then I go to start spraying and the winds start. Seems at times it takes watching for days - it’s always breezy up on the hills here and the river has a lot influence too.
The best accessory so far is the stump buster bucket, man does it make short work of removing stumps out of the ground!
Got a New York rake at Tractor Supply, I’m going out in a little while and hook it up. I’ll have a learning curve using that too I’m sure!
