Thinking About a Tractor

You can get a pretty good cut for an open lot with a good level bush hog with good sharp blades. Better yet - sow it in alfalfa and get an inexpensive sickle mower and baler and make some cash on the side. ;)

As far as the 3-pt -- there should be chains (or at least attach points where chains used to be) on the lift arms and underneath the axle that keep the lift arms from swinging into the tires. Also, you'll probably want to get a stabilizer bar that attaches to the outside of one of the lift arms and then attaches under the axle on one side. That keeps whatever you're using with the 3-pt from swinging back and forth between the limits of the chains.

Go ahead and invest in a good top link if you don't have one already. A good adjustable top link can take a lot of frustration out of getting mowers, plows, etc. adjusted correctly more easily.

Figure out what size and tooth count you have on the output shaft of your PTO - it'll be handy to have as general knowledge as you shop around for new attachments. Sometimes (not sure if it's standard or not), there is a snap/retainer ring that holds the output shaft in the rear chunk that you can pop out and flip the PTO output shaft around to change the tooth count - you'll have to be fast, though, cause you'll be losing fluid while you have the shaft out. ;)

I'm jealous.. I've been telling Rachel that I want to move out farther so we can have LAND. I even told her my goal is to have enough land that I need a 50-60hp tractor to 'maintain' it. :)
 
Having mowed with a bigger tractor, I'd definitely lean toward trading the Snapper for something with a 72" deck, but still a dedicated mower. Without a lot of trees though you have more options. The 6 acres of runway takes me about 2 hours with the 935, so you'd likely do your 8 acres in under 3 since you say you don't have much in the way. For me the big time suck is the remaining lawn with all the trees on it. My post lottery win solution would be something like a Toro 5100 wide area mower (16' cut, 80 hp diesel) for the runway and open areas of lawn, combined with a largish lawn tractor with a 60" deck for around the trees. Gotta get an airplane purchased before I upgrade the mowing though!

Patrick
 
I was figuring that, before I bought a finish mower, I'd try using the brush hog on the rest of the yard. That'd give me an idea of general usefulness of the tractor as a mowing implement. The yard I haven't mowed about needs a brush hog anyway.

How sharp should brush hog blades be? These are dull as bricks.
 
Sharp is good. I use a small grinder to take out the gouges then I use a 3" belt sander with 120 grit on the taper. After that it cuts like a dream for a few weeks anyway.
 
Mowing my farm strip with a 15' Rino batwing dragging a 14' chain harrow behind it. Tractor is a New Holland TS115.

If you want your place baby butt smooth, get a chain harrow. :yesnod:


 
More toys....







Aerial view haying. The huge trees are what are known as 'anchor trees'

The trees were used back when the land was cleared to anchor the mule teams. Clearing land used to be back breaking work.
 
Farmall! We were thinking about a Farmall, but this M-F came up.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
I was figuring that, before I bought a finish mower, I'd try using the brush hog on the rest of the yard. That'd give me an idea of general usefulness of the tractor as a mowing implement. The yard I haven't mowed about needs a brush hog anyway.

How sharp should brush hog blades be? These are dull as bricks.
Click to expand...

Bush hog blades need to be real sharp and kept that way. Amazing how dull blades will slow the rpm! Use more fuel, etc. I have mowed a 3000 ft. Strip, farmall M with a woods. It did a great job. Blades were kept sharp with a hand held rotary grinder type tool. I think owner took the blades off from time to time and dressed them up on a shop wheel grinder.
 
txflyer said:
Mowing my farm strip with a 15' Rino batwing dragging a 14' chain harrow behind it. Tractor is a New Holland TS115.

If you want your place baby butt smooth, get a chain harrow. :yesnod:


Click to expand...


I've just been reading along because I'm no tractor expert, but I love my little Ford for our measly 4 acres. I just put around with the brush hog a few times a year to keep the grass from being three feet high so I can find the dogs outside.

But damn, I never thought about pulling the chain harrow behind the mower. That'd work slick as hell. And our place is bumpy and needs it.

Here's one for all you smart tractor loving land barons...

The property is all mixed prairie grass here and very dry. The prairie type mixed grasses are pretty patchy in some areas and in any open dirt I constantly fight with weeds like Russian thistle and other common junk one might see in an area where the grass is weak when the weed seeds blow in and are more than happy to sprout.

I'd like to naturally thicken up the normal grasses a bit and the local conservation society has appropriate mixed prairie grass seed available at a reasonable price. Reasonable being somewhere below "oh ****!" and cheap enough I can make multiple attempts in a year to grow a little more grass.

Obviously I'm going to have to get a little lucky on when to seed and somehow do it right before a late spring snowstorm to have any chance at all of getting any of it to take root with as dry as it is here.

I suppose I could make some silly attempt to water it and do it in tiny sections with a big tank behind the tractor, but I don't see having time for that. Nor would I probably not get laughed at pretty hard by the neighbors. :)

Also would prefer not to go all scorched earth and rip up what's already there.

What's the best way using a small tractor (or even not with the tractor) to prep the areas of patchy grass and soil and put down that seed and cross fingers for enough water from the sky to get it to germinate and hang on enough to start choking out some weeds naturally and thicken up the grass in general?

Not going for Major League Baseball grass or anything. Just trying to save the acreage from the onslaught of weed seeds from everywhere.

I've seen a lot of chemical weed "solutions" to the weed problems at the local ag/ranch store, but am generally clueless and some of them are nasty enough they appear to require a State issued test to even purchase them, let alone know when and how to utilize them.

I do have a fairly decent sized but not large, tow behind sprayer that's currently configured to tow behind the lawn tractor. It has a power distribution box and switch mounted on it for the pump, and it looks like dad was either already spraying something once in a while with it, or was planning to. I haven't messed with it at all, yet. I suspect he may have been getting a pre-germination type of milder herbicide of unknown type for the weeds and spraying early in the season with it. Never found any notes or used bottles of whatever he was using, though.

Appreciate any thoughts.

And that chain harrow dual-tow thing. Sheesh. Brilliant. (Slaps forehead...) Looks like I have a little project to do sometime in the garage to make up a way to attach the chain harrow to the mower. Cool.
 
Jimmy cooper said:
Bush hog blades need to be real sharp and kept that way. Amazing how dull blades will slow the rpm! Use more fuel, etc. I have mowed a 3000 ft. Strip, farmall M with a woods. It did a great job. Blades were kept sharp with a hand held rotary grinder type tool. I think owner took the blades off from time to time and dressed them up on a shop wheel grinder.
Click to expand...

I was figuring I could use my hand-held angle grinder on those blades. Of course, making sure everything is properly supported matters, don't want to be a pancake. The hydraulics are pretty good on it.
 
denverpilot said:
.....
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I'd like to naturally thicken up the normal grasses a bit and the local conservation society has appropriate mixed prairie grass seed available at a reasonable price. Reasonable being somewhere below "oh ****!" and cheap enough I can make multiple attempts in a year to grow a little more grass.

Obviously I'm going to have to get a little lucky on when to seed and somehow do it right before a late spring snowstorm to have any chance at all of getting any of it to take root with as dry as it is here.

I suppose I could make some silly attempt to water it and do it in tiny s......
Click to expand...

Nate and other...

First, after reading all this tractor stuff I made an adult beverage yesterday night and cruised through youtube looking for harrow and land drag ideas....... Kinda addicting seeing how others play with their tractors..:redface:

On my ranch ( it's tiny @ only 80 acres but the runway is 100'X 3000'... and I wanted to seed it for smoothness, soil retention, and all the other reasons people make grass runways..

After my excavator spent a week or more with a huge rototiller to rip up all the old, sparse pasture grass and then they took a BIG grader to level it and add a 6" crown to it and then they rolled it with a vibra roller... When they were through it was flat, smooth, level and had a nice crown to it.. The bad news was it was left completely bare dirt..

So, I asked around here and other piloting websites looking for tips and how, what to use and when to seed it.. The vast majority if guys said to use Kentucky 31 Fescue as it it drought tolerance, will stand up to landings and take off, doesn't clump and grows rather short...

I get on the net and look for seed retailers /wholesalers close to here and end up picking a large operation down in SLC ( aka , the promise land):redface:..
Like an idiot I let the guy talk me out of the Fescue and he highly recomended a seed called Sodar Streambank Wheatgrass.. He claimed all the highway dept's in the West use it to seed along roads... He also told me it won't clump, no matter how I apply it ( within reason)..

After chatting with him and alot of others in cold climates " Alaska" they suggested a late fall planting just before the first good snowfall. That way the seed will lay on the ground and in the spring during the snowmelt it will work into all the cracks formed in the dirt from the winter... Problem was the ranch already had a couple of feet of snow covering it. So, plan B was to wait till early spring when the snow is set up in the morning but softens as the day heats up.... Ok... I take my broadcast fert spreader, make tiny wheel chains for it so the tires actually turn so the broadcast thingie works....

I head down there in mid Feb with the spreader, enough seed to cover it at double the application rate, ( I seem to remember I bought 600 lbs) = 1,400 dollars of seed,my snowmobile and a few beers..;)

The idea worked perfectly, I made numerous passes up and down the runway and I could watch the coverage since the seed was very dark and the snow was blindingly bright and I got a VERY even spread..:):)..

Then , as I was loading up, the snow started to soften from the sun and the dark seeds actually were melting down into the snow... This is good because now the birds could not eat up all my hard work....

When the snow melted in late June /early July I flew down, landed and walked the runway and low and behold the grass seed had settled into the fissures, germinated and were sprouting... YIPPIE.... I flew down each week to monitor the progress and sure enough the grass was a different shade of color then the surrounding fields and the runway was visible for 10+ miles.... Only later in the summer when it was established did it become apparent this crap DID clump..... :mad: .. Not too bad, but I was expecting a Johnson Creek smoothness and got a runway a bit rougher then I wanted...

Leason #1.... Don't believe a salesman from Salt Lake City.

#2... Spread the seed before the first heavy snow fall ( altho I had a great day playing in the snow with my snowmobile):):).. YMMV..
 
denverpilot said:
I've just been reading along because I'm no tractor expert, but I love my little Ford for our measly 4 acres. I just put around with the brush hog a few times a year to keep the grass from being three feet high so I can find the dogs outside.

But damn, I never thought about pulling the chain harrow behind the mower. That'd work slick as hell. And our place is bumpy and needs it.

Here's one for all you smart tractor loving land barons...

The property is all mixed prairie grass here and very dry. The prairie type mixed grasses are pretty patchy in some areas and in any open dirt I constantly fight with weeds like Russian thistle and other common junk one might see in an area where the grass is weak when the weed seeds blow in and are more than happy to sprout.

I'd like to naturally thicken up the normal grasses a bit and the local conservation society has appropriate mixed prairie grass seed available at a reasonable price. Reasonable being somewhere below "oh ****!" and cheap enough I can make multiple attempts in a year to grow a little more grass.

Obviously I'm going to have to get a little lucky on when to seed and somehow do it right before a late spring snowstorm to have any chance at all of getting any of it to take root with as dry as it is here.

I suppose I could make some silly attempt to water it and do it in tiny sections with a big tank behind the tractor, but I don't see having time for that. Nor would I probably not get laughed at pretty hard by the neighbors. :)

Also would prefer not to go all scorched earth and rip up what's already there.

What's the best way using a small tractor (or even not with the tractor) to prep the areas of patchy grass and soil and put down that seed and cross fingers for enough water from the sky to get it to germinate and hang on enough to start choking out some weeds naturally and thicken up the grass in general?

Not going for Major League Baseball grass or anything. Just trying to save the acreage from the onslaught of weed seeds from everywhere.

I've seen a lot of chemical weed "solutions" to the weed problems at the local ag/ranch store, but am generally clueless and some of them are nasty enough they appear to require a State issued test to even purchase them, let alone know when and how to utilize them.

I do have a fairly decent sized but not large, tow behind sprayer that's currently configured to tow behind the lawn tractor. It has a power distribution box and switch mounted on it for the pump, and it looks like dad was either already spraying something once in a while with it, or was planning to. I haven't messed with it at all, yet. I suspect he may have been getting a pre-germination type of milder herbicide of unknown type for the weeds and spraying early in the season with it. Never found any notes or used bottles of whatever he was using, though.

Appreciate any thoughts.

And that chain harrow dual-tow thing. Sheesh. Brilliant. (Slaps forehead...) Looks like I have a little project to do sometime in the garage to make up a way to attach the chain harrow to the mower. Cool.
Click to expand...




You just need to go to war with your weeds for a couple of season's.

Spray your place with GrazonNext. GrazonNext is broad-spectrum specially formulated for thistles and several other difficult weeds. Weed spray is going to be your biggest bang for the buck. Hit it early spring when the weeds start to pop up after a rain and hit it again if you have to later that season. Hit it with about 3 pints per acre. After a couple of season's the Grazon will have residual effect.

Mowing just spreads weed seeds around and you don't get ahead. If you kill the weeds, the grass will fill back in and once the grass is thick and healthy, it chokes the weeds out and you don't have to spray as much.
 
Got my PTO driveshaft all set, filled her up with gas, and went to cutting my hayfield... err... lawn with the brush hog. It works well! This is way more fun than a lawn tractor. The 72" makes quick work of things, even though I'm not going at breakneck speed by any means.

I found the brake adjustments. The main thing that seemed to do was make the slop in the pedal decrease, but I still have to stand on it to get anything resembling a slowdown, and it's not much of one. I don't have a feel for how good brakes should be for these, and I know they're manual so I shouldn't expect much.

The seat is completely falling apart, so I need to put a new one in. Any suggestions? if I'm going to put a new seat on, I'd like something that's comfortable.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Got my PTO driveshaft all set, filled her up with gas, and went to cutting my hayfield... err... lawn with the brush hog. It works well! This is way more fun than a lawn tractor. The 72" makes quick work of things, even though I'm not going at breakneck speed by any means.

I found the brake adjustments. The main thing that seemed to do was make the slop in the pedal decrease, but I still have to stand on it to get anything resembling a slowdown, and it's not much of one. I don't have a feel for how good brakes should be for these, and I know they're manual so I shouldn't expect much.

The seat is completely falling apart, so I need to put a new one in. Any suggestions? if I'm going to put a new seat on, I'd like something that's comfortable.
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Good brakes work and work well. You should be able to step on the left or right brake and spin the tractor on a dime.

Composed by 1,000 monkeys pounding on 1,000 typewriters on Tapatalk.
 
CJones said:
Good brakes work and work well. You should be able to step on the left or right brake and spin the tractor on a dime.
Click to expand...

Ok, I need to fix the brakes then. Thanks.

Another question on the brush hog. The gearbox for it has the PTO come in the front, then goes down to the blade. The nuts are tight on the bolts, but that whole gearbox/head assembly (whatever you want to call it) moves around about 1/2". That doesn't seem right to me, but I don't know what sort of moving around it's supposed to do as a brush hog...
 
If you dig a sand pit with a loader brakes are critical if you don't want to roll it on its side. Keep the bucket low and the speed slow and re ready to lock them up when it starts to tip.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Ok, I need to fix the brakes then. Thanks.

Another question on the brush hog. The gearbox for it has the PTO come in the front, then goes down to the blade. The nuts are tight on the bolts, but that whole gearbox/head assembly (whatever you want to call it) moves around about 1/2". That doesn't seem right to me, but I don't know what sort of moving around it's supposed to do as a brush hog...
Click to expand...

What kind of shape is the deck in? Maybe you're seeing the sheet metal flex. Some are more rigid than others, and you'll see flexing, especially in real heavy stuff. Look for cracks.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Got my PTO driveshaft all set, filled her up with gas, and went to cutting my hayfield... err... lawn with the brush hog. It works well! This is way more fun than a lawn tractor. The 72" makes quick work of things, even though I'm not going at breakneck speed by any means.
Click to expand...
Be sure to keep that PTO shaft well lubricated (both U joints and the telescoping shaft), they don't take kindly to running dry for very long.

I found the brake adjustments. The main thing that seemed to do was make the slop in the pedal decrease, but I still have to stand on it to get anything resembling a slowdown, and it's not much of one. I don't have a feel for how good brakes should be for these, and I know they're manual so I shouldn't expect much.
Click to expand...
The brakes on my 8N were like yours until I fixed the oil leaks in the hubs and soaked the pads in solvent to get the oil out of them. I don't know much about your tractor but drum brakes are usually designed to be "self energizing" which simply means they pivot in a way that allows the drag of the shoe on the drum to help push the shoe into the drum. If that's the case with yours, any oil on the pads will eliminate most of that effect making them rather ineffective. Same thing if the pivots heavily worn and to some extent if the pads themselves are too thin or worse yet worn unevenly.

The seat is completely falling apart, so I need to put a new one in. Any suggestions? if I'm going to put a new seat on, I'd like something that's comfortable.
Click to expand...
Northern Tool sells a variety of tractor seats at pretty reasonable prices.
 
Chip Sylverne said:
What kind of shape is the deck in? Maybe you're seeing the sheet metal flex. Some are more rigid than others, and you'll see flexing, especially in real heavy stuff. Look for cracks.
Click to expand...

No cracks, sheet metal is fine.

When I say move, I mean like I can pick it up about 1/4" and have space under it.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
No cracks, sheet metal is fine.

When I say move, I mean like I can pick it up about 1/4" and have space under it.
Click to expand...

What's supposed to be holding it down? Maybe there are some bolts missing?
 
Ted DuPuis said:
The seat is completely falling apart, so I need to put a new one in. Any suggestions? if I'm going to put a new seat on, I'd like something that's comfortable.
Click to expand...


My damned seat busted on mine yesterday, too. Made a turn and something didn't feel right, like the airplane was skidding around the corner. Shut her down, got off and looked and the attachment under the seat had ovaled out over the years and the pin just passed right through.

Guess it's time to find a good parts supplier or welder and fix that as well as putting the rear attach hydraulic lever back on, that a pair of vice-grips have been doing a pretty good job of pretending to be for a year.

Always something.

Thanks for the info on the weed problem. Spent half a day whacking some of them near the house back into submission with the Stihl.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
No cracks, sheet metal is fine.

When I say move, I mean like I can pick it up about 1/4" and have space under it.
Click to expand...

That's not right. Should bolt up tight to the deck. What brand is it? There's a site called Messicks.com that has a bunch of brands with online parts diagrams. Maybe you are missing a spacer or bushings or something.

As for you guys fighting weeds, broadleaf weeds thrive in poor soil. Grazon is good, so is 2,4D. Fertility and PH are key. You might want to get a soil test done before you spend $ on seed an fertilizer so you buy the right stuff.

I overseed the pastures in Feb. The repeated. freezing and thawing cracks the surface and works the seed into the soft ground. So do the horses hooves. Then it's ready to go when the ground warms up.
 
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Ted DuPuis said:
No cracks, sheet metal is fine.

When I say move, I mean like I can pick it up about 1/4" and have space under it.
Click to expand...

It shouldn't do that. It should be solid against the deck As already mentioned, check the bolts and make sure washers didn't get left off for some reason. Deck might be rusted out and bolts have pulled through. The nice thing about this stuff - if you've got a welder, you can fix (or IMPROVE! :idea:) darn near anything.

Also probably want to find somewhere to get 2 1/2 jugs of 80/90W gear oil cheap. You'll use it eventually. :)
 
Thanks, I'll pull a bolt later today or tomorrow so I can get replacements and put them in. The guy I bought it from knew nothing about tractors, and didn't find PoA. ;)

I've got a bunch of little things on order for it. Gotta go buy a bunch of M1129A spec trans/hydraulic fluid. Figure this week I'll do fluid changes.

Then I gotta figure out WTF I need to do to make the brakes work. I don't mind driving it since the engine braking I so good, but I want the brakes working right.
 
Tractor rehab is coming along. I'm getting all the lighting working, should have them all working within a week or so. Got a new seat ordered (old one is completely falling apart). Replacing little odds and ends. Converted to a spin-on oil filter (which my 3 year old promptly hit with a hammer and dented). New hydraulic fluid, there was a lot of water in there. Still is some, it will take a few more iterations to get it all out.

I'm trying to figure out what to do for plowing snow with it. I am going to add a front end loader, but haven't yet. I have a 3-point mount metal blade, but some have cautioned using that on gravel since it can tear up my land pretty good.

Thoughts?
 
3 point grading blade works great. It's what I used for years before I got the skid steer. Yes, you can take some gravel with it, just don't lower it so far it digs in to the base. You can also use check chains.

You're also a lot less likely to get stuck because you have those big wheels pulling the engine weight rather than pushing. Chains help a bunch too.
 
The blade won't be terrible when ground is frozen. You can put adjustable skid plates on it if it's a concern. I usually use front bucket to clear driveway and blade to clean cement. My drive is about half mile long. Most snows melt away quick enough you are better off not blading anyway. The trick to blading is to drive as fast as possible and throw the snow as far as possible. If you leave ridges along drive the next wind will usually make drive as deep as ridges. If your drive is fairly open you may not have to clear it much anyway. Mine will blow off most of the time.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Ok, I need to fix the brakes then. Thanks.

Another question on the brush hog. The gearbox for it has the PTO come in the front, then goes down to the blade. The nuts are tight on the bolts, but that whole gearbox/head assembly (whatever you want to call it) moves around about 1/2". That doesn't seem right to me, but I don't know what sort of moving around it's supposed to do as a brush hog...
Click to expand...

Yeah, brakes on those work very well and even though they are mechanical, they use the shoe float to lever the application so they really don't need a whole lot of pressure when they are correct.
 
Henning said:
Yeah, brakes on those work very well and even though they are mechanical, they use the shoe float to lever the application so they really don't need a whole lot of pressure when they are correct.
Click to expand...

He's got mechanical disc brakes in that machine. Even correct, they are sufficient, but not great.
 
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In case you're unaware, they make 3 point snowblower attachments also.

I just drive through the snow and pack it down with a 4x4 until it gets well over a foot deep. Then I go hit it with the snowblower attachment.

Around here that's only a few times a year, if that. Knock on wood.
 
Yep, I know they make 3-point snowblower attachments. With the gravel driveway, I'd rather just plow it. And if I can use my attached blade then all the better.

I haven't figured out exact fuel consumption yet, but it is a bit of a gas hog. Seems to do around 3-5 GPH.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
Yep, I know they make 3-point snowblower attachments. With the gravel driveway, I'd rather just plow it. And if I can use my attached blade then all the better.



I haven't figured out exact fuel consumption yet, but it is a bit of a gas hog. Seems to do around 3-5 GPH.
Click to expand...


I've found if I plow it there's always that "oops" where you dig in a bit (without adding skid plates anyway).

The snowblower has skid plates and/or I can easily adjust the three point so it simply can't get lower than an inch or two off the ground and just get it over with. Couple of passes in 4WD low in 2nd gear and it's done. 25 minutes or so.

Driving backward for either one, sucks. Without a comfort cab, better go with the wind or it sucks more. Especially with glasses. :)

If I didn't already have the stuff to do it with the tractor, I'd just get a rust bucket pickup truck with a real plow and have it done in one pass and not care about beating up the truck at all. Tractor is the hard way to do it second only to the 28" John Deere snowblower with tire chains on.

I'd slap some chains on an old truck and leave it aimed down the driveway at the propane tank and just go plow it off every six inches or so that fell, even overnight.

I'd lose a couple hours sleep if it was dumping overnight and wouldn't care. Keeping up with it is easier than plowing it later.

Of course the reality is, if we get that much snow I'm going to be waiting for the motor grader to make it two miles back from the county paved road to the road in front of the driveway anyway...

So I'm not going anywhere for a while.

About all the plows and snowblowers are good for is keeping something plowed that a medevac helicopter could land on safely if a neighbor has a heart attack while shoveling. Haha.

Ain't going anywhere if there's enough snow to use the blower anyway.

Gonna be grabbing some canned chili or soup from the pantry and hanging out. If the power lines break, I'll be dorking around getting the generators going. ;)
 
Oh hey. One other thing.

If you don't have side markers on your road that stand up tall and you have ditches, get them installed now before it snows. :)

I pull mine out to mow every summer and put them back about now when the grass won't be growing enough to mow again along the road and in the ditches on either side.

Last year I used some electrical conduit that would let you push those $15 packs of five or six LED solar walkway lights on top of the conduit to make a stake about a foot and a half tall.

Lighted taxiway. ;)

They were up on the edges of the road. This year I'm going to make them taller and pound the conduit in down in the ditches so they're just off of the road. Easier to miss them that way and maybe just leave them in the summer.
 
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