Perfect Tractor Attributes

I used to feel the same way, but I see a bigger picture now. That is because in 10 years time my daughters will be working and contributing 400 percent more then you alone are contributing in taxes now, and then eventually in 20 years time, when their children have children, and my Grandchildren are contributing 1200 percent more than you are now (not factoring in inflation). In this way, it becomes quick to see that tax deductions now, pay dividends in the future.

In bringing this quickly back to firewood terms, many of us burn firewood because we see a national dependency upon oil and are nervous about that. Do we really want foreign dependency upon an out of country work force?

Children are NOT the future of our country, they are part of our wonderful country RIGHT NOW!

 

540/540E/1000/1000e pto
MFWD
4 rear remote valves
Loader with 3rd function valve
Cab with good visibility.
A/c & heat
Radio
Comfortable seat
Comfortable buddy/banker seat
Command arm style controls
Ivt with 4 progamable quickshift speeds
Left hand reverser
Joystick for the loader with the 3rd function & speedshift buttons
GPS with autosteer
Lights
Lights
& more lights

I'm sure there's more but that's a start.

 

HST right side pedal(s) and independent brakes on the left.
And a beer holder

 

+1 on a comfortable seat, with a smart designed drainage system, it can rain here and a day later everything is dry on the property except for a standing puddle in my tractor seat!

And a guidance system for avoiding rubble piles!

I am a city boy that bought a farm, got me a tractor (3 years ago) and have been learning things the hard way. The second day that I had the tractor (Leyland 270) I was buzzing some paths with a Ford brush hog so my wife and I could walk our 3 dogs around the property. Running along the south fence line feeling good about things cruising in 3 low and got to a section that was a little hilly, came over a rise and my gut was telling me to proceed slowly - but my ego was screaming, "you get this all done in the next hour and Mama will be thrilled AND impressed!".

Well lesson learned - listen to your gut! Giant rock/ boulder pile under the tall pasture grass in a little dugout area. Stuck, stuck really good. High centered on the front axle and underneath the rear hitch! Called the only other tractor guy I knew and explained what happened, he told me not to drive on rock piles! Then he explained ye olde logger trick of getting a ~6" round and chaining it to the tire so it will lift you off the pile. Of course I didn't have any chain and hadn't discover the hidden stash on the property yet, but using that theory I did get creative with some lumber and crafted some wedges/ ramps and managed to get unstuck just as my wife was returning from town with some chain!

The tractor? Fine, scratched some paint, that was it.

Oh, another thing, 4wd for my Perfect Tractor.

 

Our Chopper had a Buddy seat on it and it was nice. This is one of my favorite photos. Everything is gone now. The chopper burned just after the photo was taken. The dairy farm filed for bankruptcy. The little girl is now 11 years old, and the trees have all been cleared to make a new field. BUT Alyson sure looked comfortable in it for a 2 year old!

(I have only had daughters, but I never treated them any different than I would a son).

 

I just want a tractor full stop

 

Big enough to get the work done, but small enough to squirrel around the tight areas. Its always a compromise.

 

Enough weight and power to skid a load of 6 oak logs, 20" x 24' and move around large boulders
Soft enough to drive over lawn/pasture without damaging the turf, even when wet in spring/fall.
FEL w/ SSQA
Back hoe that goes on and off in less than 5 minutes.
Turns right over on the first try at 0*F
Small enough to maneuver around trees and rocks on my property.
No EPA emissions or turbocharger
Accessory hydros front and back.
No mid-PTO. "Mowing lawns is for lawn mowers, not tractors"

 

Why no turbo?

 

More parts = more problems. of course my "ideal" tractor cannot exist i in real life.

 

Of all the parts I've had fail a turbo has yet to let go.

 

I was wondering the same thing.

I think turbo's are some of the best things they ever put on an engine, and even when they bust, they are not that expensive to replace, and not that hard to remove and reinstall.

Starting in 0 degree weather is easy to do too, but the starters are no longer made. The best thing they ever had was liquid cooled pony motors. Those gasoline engines always started in the cold, then the warm coolant flowed jointly through the master engine warming it. Of course being a clutch-driven engine, the starter could be run forever without fear of burning up the starter. Because of those two things, the big engine always started no matter how cold it was, but because there was two motors to keep running, people have decided pony motors should be replaced with electric starters. Bad move...

The other type of starter was the air starter. We used them on the main engines of the tug boats I worked on, and they worked well; spinning the engine really fast, and again as long as needed since there was no electric motor to burn up.

 

Glad to hear this. I'm a newbie to tractors. FWIW, My tractor has a 4 cylinder normally aspirated diesel engine. Started fine in the low single digits this winter.
However, my car has a 3.0L, I6, turbo-diesel, with 2 turbos, one for lower RPM's and one for higher. Since it's a modern CARB compliant (DPF + urea injection) BMW, I don't think it will be easy or cheap to replace if either one fails. Fingers crossed. I never want to find out.

 

I like my tractor but I would add a forestry winch and a grapple. Also would replace the tires and rims with tracks, and make it wider and a bit lower (thus more stable). A heated cab would be nice but cabs tend to get jacked around in the woods, so something more like a skidder cab/cage would be better. OK so I am basically building a mini-skidder in my mind. A 50-70 hp mini skidder with a front-end loader. And no more than 6' wide. A 4wd system with locking front and rear differentials. A suspension seat that drains.

 

Grapple in the front Farmi winch in the back, pretty happy with this setup. No cab for me had one on my New Holland tractor, there great but I spend almost all my tractor time in the woods not in the fields. Don't get me wrong the stereo, air conditioning and heating are really great but I can get around and see so much better without a cab. I will admit the cab did give me plenty of room too toss empty beer cans behind the seat though. Lol

 

That is not called "the perfect tractor", that is called a rental company.

For me it is Eagle Rental out of Waterville, Maine, but renting has its issues too. Mostly it is cost, but some other stuff as well. Some of it is transportation as that has a fee, and constantly swapping equipment means a lot of delivery charges. It is not bad on smaller trucks ($85/hr), but can really get expensive for the big equipment ($120/hr).

Cabs with rental equipment become both a pro and con. If the weather gets wet or snowy, a cab means the equipment keeps working, but also is a liability because if a person smashes a window on a limb, you are paying for it!

Another issue is availability. Here, a construction company might rent a dozer lets say for a month, then just keep paying the lease month after month "just in case" because they can justify the cost. Me, I am waiting and waiting and waiting for the bulldozer, so that can often suck...availability.

But the real way to get efficiency out of a piece of rental equipment once you do get it, is to get the seat time on it. Most of the time it is not the hours that gets put on a rental machine first, but the days. Lets say you rent an excavator for a month...a 28 day lease...typically those 28 days are up before 160 hours can be logged on. Rain delays, material delivery, etc all play into that, so actually seat time with the engine running is not all that much. BUT if a person can use that machine for the allotted 28 days/160 hours...it is a very good deal since the purchase, wear and tear, and maintenance and repair is on the rental company. Of course that seldom happens and so they make money on the deal.

 

For awhile Kubota had a half-track tractor available. I am not sure what the size was, I would guess 60 hp or so, but I could be wrong, but I have never seen it outside of a demonstration area at a local fair. I always thought I would like one, but the farm experts claim rubber tracks are not really as good as first assumed. because they flex unlike steel tracks, they still have compaction and do not float like steel tracks. I am not sure how rubber would hold up in the woods either.

 

I have planned vacations around equipment rentals in the past. I compile a list of required tasks, find out what kind of machine I'll need for those tasks, schedule vacation time and the rental simultaneously, and then hope the weather cooperates. With the proper machine and a reasonable amount of experience, you can get a LOT of work done in a week, even pushing the 40-hour limit common to a weekly rental. I'm planning just that for later this year, I have to build some stone walls, move a lot of logs, pull a bunch of tree stumps, dig post holes for a garage lean-to and deck footings, move my outdoor wood boiler, build a new wood shed, and plant a whole bunch of fruit trees. I won't get everything done but I will make sure I max out the rental hours.

 

You guys are forgetting a big attribute.... Paid for.. A HUGE attribute since mine is.