Compact Tractor

My neighbor growing up had a JD with a belly mower. I helped him remove the deck a few times. Its pretty easy to do on level ground. It didn't have the reversible wheels like you described either.

 

I thought JD you rolled over the mid deck now a days?

 

What were you riding? A lot of miles.

 

Yup, the larger ones do that. Perty cool.

 

We started out with a couple front deck Zippers and wore them out. Then we went through several Dixie Choppers in gas and diesel flavors. Hard to beat a gas powered 72" ZTR for busting out acres of turf.

We bought a new ZTR one year and I was the only who drove it. I put almost 600 hours on it in one year.

 

"I put almost 600 hours on it in one year." ... that's a lot of azz thrashin... gawd my back hurts just readin' that...

 

Air down the tires a little, lean forward, and roll out. Riding it wasn't bad....but that's a lot of blade changes.

 

I love 4450s. Especially when they've been fiddled with.

 

Those Toro reel mowers do an awesome job of knocking down the tufts too don't they? Those trailing rollers are great. Bet it was a mighty smooth runway.

 

Yeah, running a reel mower with dull blades wouldn't work as good as dull blades on a rotary, that's for sure.

 

Recently got a 98 Massey Ferguson 1230 4x4, loader, 60" deck, pto&3point cat1, 28hp Iseki diesel, Combination soft/hard cab with heat. Haven't much time to play with it yet. Still trying to remember which lever does what. Did move some logs around a few days ago. Replaced skid steer I sold last fall. No issues with skid just could not use it much and I was never comfortable in it. The MF has much better ground clearance with the deck off course. The trade off is in the lift capacity and maneuverability, but much better in the versatility department and 3 point attachments are considerably less expensive than equivalent items for the SS. Sold the SS for same price I paid for it 6 years ago, and these CUT units are the same or worse in the price department. Didn't really care about the deck, it does add to the resale ability though. Got top half of a grapple fabbed up, got to do the bottom 1/2 yet and then maybe convert the loader to quick tach, although pulling the bucket off isn't all that bad as it stands, adding quick tack reduces lift capacity though.

 

Chris, we are going to need some pics of that grapple.

I agree, a couple pins to pull the bucket is no big deal if not doing it often. Also smarter as you mentioned to save that precious lift capacity.

We are gonna need a tractor pic thread.

 

I will get some pics up in the next couple days. Not familar with the Deere quick-tach, Although I have seen listing for conversion units that are not as massive as the full ss units. For the grapple I will need to find a way to rig another hydro circuit or change out the current loader valve to a power beyond type ( pricy) With deck on nothing left to tap. Don't need a ton of flow rate for the grapple. As with most tractors this is a closed circuit system, I believe. Might be simpler to due a conversion from an old snow plow electric over hydro or something along that line -more than enough flow rate/pressure there. I know there are some small electric hydro power pacs around that are not astronomically priced.

 

I own about 120 acres and used to have a JD 5425 which was a 81 hp, 65hp to the pto. My farm is all wooded except for about 30 acres, I used that thing alot. When I quit cutting hay, I sold it along with most of my equipment that went with it, including my 3pt splitter. This was a mistake, I did not relise how much I used it, so now I have been looking for something in the 30-35hp range, loader and brush hawg. I have looked at all brands and around here they are all close in price, EXPENSIVE!!!! I even priced a Branson $19,300 for the tractor and bucket. Point is you will get alot of use out of it, more than you think. Just be patient and look for a deal, that is what I am doing. Some people buy these, think it is cool, and then never use them, so they sale them. There are a few good deals that come up, look for them.

 

Isnt branson the same as montana and didnt LS leave those guys high n dry and pull out of the US market a few years ago?

I know farm track had that done and the guys that bought them were left without warranty support.

 

In that hp range check on tractorhouse.com. I bought my New Holland from Forrester farm equipment in chambersburg pa. Found them and the deal on their.