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NotJustANumber99 posted:Ok so I was serious about the jcb 3cx. It's either that, equivalent or a 6 to 8 tonne tracked excavator with pallet tines. In the UK looking to spend... 12k up to like 18k? I absolutely hate backhoes for digging when a mini-ex is even possibly an option. How much do you really need the hoe? Sounds like you need a tractor with a loader that has skid steer quick attach so you can swap between a bucket and pallet forks and to rent a mini-ex for your very occasional project that actually need the hoe. That leaves you with a 3 point hitch on the back of the tractor for more frequently useful things like a box blade.
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Feb 12, 2020 03:09
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Did some satisfying landscaping at the new place over the weekend. It involved a chain:  And now I'm rid of that ridiculous abortion of a weeping thing grafted onto who knows what kind of dwarf rootstock. Typical lovely landscaping aesthetic from the early 2000s. Oh yeah, I replaced it with a bunch of elephant hosta all over that bed, and left space for something evergreen to make it a 3/4 season look. Haven't figure that part out, but I wanted that ugly rear end thing gone.
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Apr 27, 2020 03:19
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rdb posted:Did you swap your mahindra for a Kubota at some point? I still have the Mahindra, but I'm gonna sell it. It was just too small - I'd never run a SCUT before and thought "hey, that looks like the right size." Turn out they're not the right size for anyting. They don't weigh enough to be anything other than a deathtrap when you're using the loader, and it doesn't have enough power to spin a PTO and climb a gentle slope at the same time. So I went back to the "small tractor" I'm used to: a CUT. And kinda went overboard with a cab model so I can be comfortable when plowing. Solkanar512 posted:By the way, the tree is likely valued in the low thousands due to their slow growth. Not anymore. And yes, it was some variety of japanese maple.
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Apr 27, 2020 18:20
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Oh you're WAY beyond what I'm needing at 100 HP. I replaced the Mahindra 10 HP sub compact with a 26 HP compact. A compact of that size is the smallest thing I've ever run prior to getting that bad idea of a subcompact, so I get where you're coming from. I don't necessarily have a Mahindra problem, but they are pretty basic. I don't know about the 3616 in general but some of the other problems I didn't list were weird 3 point geometry that required me to modify things that shouldn't need modification (lift arms were WAY too drat short in a way that no production cat 1 top link could fix.....nothing was short enough) and just generally cheap build quality. Also my local dealer were freaking morons, which doesn't help at all. Some quality issues were like, it has fuel tanks under each fender. But the one on the left (fill on the right) never filled because it was airlocked. There was no way to fill it....at all. The crossover hose runs between the BOTTOMS of the tanks under the seat. The fuel gauge is in the one you can't fill. So it's always at like 1/8 tank until your drat near out of fuel. The dealer tried to fix this twice and I finally got a "that's a design problem". Okay? That's not an answer nor is it a solution. So yeah. I'm not a big fan.
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Apr 30, 2020 00:35
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rdb posted:Yeah, I had dealer issues like that as well. It came with a defective exide battery that leaked out of the positive terminal. Mahindra said they would fix it, dealer had me pay for the battery and then slapped on a bolt on terminal and said thats all they would do. Well, it ate up the entire front harness, so it takes 20 turns of the key to start unless I pop the hood and reseat a connection on the positive terminal. I had intended to just replace the harness myself until the dealer went out of business. They sell massey now. If I need mahindra parts, like when I broke their lovely proprietary 3 point stabilizer arm, its an hour drive, prepay to order, hour to pick up once it comes in. Mahindra parts dealers have territories they are allowed to serve apparently, so online isn’t possible beyond filters really. Yikes, you need more than a 6' for sure. Disappointing to hear a similar Mahindra story. It seems like they got 85% of the way there and then gave up. They only way they seem to be competing is by advertising rock bottom prices. Prices which I've found you can get from Kubota on equivalent (but better made) equipment easily if your dealership isn't crap. FYI, the parts guys at the Mahindra dealership HATE dealing with them. Not only do they take forever to ship and their ordering systems is garbage, but when they order something "express", meaning you pay an extra $40 to get them to pick and pack it within 24 hours, for some reason they can't give the parts guys a shipping price until it's been packed. They literally don't have part weights in their inventory system so they're doing it one off. And I think I mentioned the fluid capacity table in the manual for mine that miscalculated the conversion into ounces/quarts/gallons. Nice job. Motronic fucked around with this message at 15:15 on Apr 30, 2020 |
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Apr 30, 2020 15:12
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Arborvitae are not really deer resistant. They are more like "one of the last things they will eat each season, when things get really tough." I know exactly how high my deer can reach based on the ring around the row of them in the front yard. If you want to keep them full you'll likely need to wrap them in burlap from like late december until spring.
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Apr 30, 2020 21:23
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You need to start with a string trimmer and knock all that crap down. Or hand pull weeds, whatever, but it's not even really possible to tell what you have to work with because it's so overgrown. Good news, what you want to do is likely to be totally achievable, but it would be nice to see if like, the paths (I think there were some walkways there) are serviceable or if you need to break up concrete or whatever. And if the yard is somewhat flat or full of holes and rocks. Once you can see what you have to work with you can make a plan and figure out what it's gonna cost and what order to do things in.
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May 14, 2020 23:51
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abelwingnut posted:so a string trimmer could clear out everything still standing? Looks like it. Then depending on what you find you may needs on of various types of remediation, including potentially chemical. But I don't go that way first. And there are always more labor intensive alternatives - for a places as small as that black plastic"solarization" could work a treat. All depends on what you have at hand, what you can easily get, what costs what........
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May 15, 2020 01:14
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So if you have nothing tool wise, what are your plans when this is done? Will you be mowing and trimming it yourself? If so, that looks like the perfect size for some of the newer battery system stuff. A little battery mower and trimmer that share the same battery system would be about perfect.
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May 15, 2020 02:11
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Oh if you have a reel mower don't bother with something new. That should be just fine if it's in good shape (once your lawn is a lawn again). Don't worry about what's growing where now. You just need to get it all out/dead to see what you're working with. If it's reasonably flat and decent all you will need is a rake, grass seed and patience - then the reel mower. You can deal with the rest/add beds/whatever later. This doesn't have to be done all at once and it shouldn't take a lot of stuff.
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May 15, 2020 02:46
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SpartanIvy posted:Besides wasting herbicide I needed for other plants, is there any real danger here? You need to be very specific about the active ingredients to get a real answer. Probably no, but that depends. Edit: sorry, I didn't see you link. It's triclopyr. Nothing broadleaf will live anywhere near that for a while, and that's probably just fine for you. Ot acts the same way a 2,4-D: it's a synthetic growth hormone that causes unsustainable levels of growth. Motronic fucked around with this message at 01:47 on May 20, 2020 |
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May 20, 2020 01:42
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1.) Wood/vines aren't going to compost very well, especially in large pieces. I'd cut it up/bag it up and send it out with the trash a bit at a time if your city doesn't have any better options. 2.) Pictures would help. You may still have something to work with with aggressive pruning, you may not. Even if you do it may not be what you want. Best to start with some sort of assessment.
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May 31, 2020 20:53
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Sir DonkeyPunch posted:This might be the wrong thread, but I get my lawn treated. Dry treatment I assume. Should be just fine to wait for rain.
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Jun 2, 2020 23:14
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Fanged Lawn Wormy posted:OK, so Imma post all the yard bullshit I have decent photos of. The ivy just needs to be trimmed back to the top of your EP Henry/reconstituted stone. Not my preference in looks, but you can make it tidy. Cut down anything that isn't ivy, trim anything that isn't on top and growing out of the sides. You can also try glyphosate on the face of that where the ivy is coming out but good luck. It's ivy so it will take persistence and multiple applications. Fanged Lawn Wormy posted:The greenery here was a potted flower of some kind had been put on the ground outside the fence there. It slowly spread and grew all over the retaining wall. There is also a couple red oak saplings there that have been cut off a few times but haven't given up yet. My wife cleared it all out, and I'm waiting for it to re-grow a bit to see what isn't dead. We'll probably have to go at this a bit with the shovel and some concentrated herbicide on some fresh cuts of the saplings. You need to trim a hell of a lot more, or just nuke it. Same thing as before, you can make this tidy and see what you think of it. I'd be going in with a string trimmer and/or hedge clippers. This is time to shock and awe. Fanged Lawn Wormy posted:I'm not 100% sure I want to keep the vines at all. It seems to grow aggressively. I think that tall plant is goldenrod. If it is, I may try and get more and just plant it all along that wall. Glad you like hosta, because it's basically unkillable and only need maintenance every year or two (splitting it so it doesn't end up with a big hollow center and/or taking over your entire property slowly but surely)but the viney poo poo.....that's a maintenance nightmare. You have the right idea with glyphosate/2,4-D on cuts. Fanged Lawn Wormy posted:
Your green balls need trimming. Aggressively. If you don't take off at least 20% every season they will get very woody and have holes in them. If you like them the size they are, do that. Depending on how long they've been there that may be a thing you can keep on doing successfully. But those are stupid landscape bushes that are on dwarf rootstock or whatever and they only last for so long before there is no way to not make them look like poo poo at that size. Fortunately that timeline is like a decade and a half. See how thick/woody they are inside of the leaves for a hint at their expected lifespan at that size. Fanged Lawn Wormy posted:
Yeah, so here's the thing. If you trim a rose bush before it blooms early int he season, just for MAINTENANCE to keep it the same size you are typically taking off 2/3 of it. I do this with a gas hedge trimmer. Because an established rose bush don't give a poo poo. At least if it's both established and native. I'm not specialty rose grower, and I know that's a thing, but I have a lot of natives and I treat them that way and they just come back and spite me. If you're trying to grow some rose bush that's just slightly out of your climate you may need to treat it real nice and do proper trimming, etc, but......no, this is not my experience for established native species. Hell, I have enough trouble just keeping up with the runners that are trying to shoot up a couple feet from the established ones. So I don't know what that bus is compared to your climate, but I bet you could literally cut it to the ground right now and have something 1/4 of it's size show back up in the spring because it looks like it's pretty native/well adapted for where you are. FYI, I have a rose bush that is at my old house. I'm treating it nice because it's part of my grandmothers from the house I grew up in. I need to move at least some of it to my new house. My idea of "nice" is soaking it in vitamin B1 a couple days before I wrap it in a moving blanket, dig it out and throw it into a hole at my new place. And water it down/soak it with some more B1 fertilizer. I have no doubt that the fertilizer bit is completely unnecessary, but I almost feel bad since it's already in boom and I got to it late so I'm going the extra......inch?
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Jun 4, 2020 02:44
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Fanged Lawn Wormy posted:I think I'll have to pick up a hedge trimmer. I've actually invested in the Ryobi Lithium-Ion system lately. I had the string trimmer to mow the little stamp of grass we had at our last house, and I bought the mower when we moved to this house, and they're both great. I think the trimmer would do OK for the hedges and vines, but I'm guessing I'd need gas for the chunky roses. I've got the gloves, so I'd be fine with doing those by hand. I'm sure that trimmer will do almost everything, but you're right, not the roses. You can go get yourself a $25 pair of old school manual hedge trimmers (the kind that look like big scissors) and spend half an hour a year per bush with it. I wouldn't buy and maintain a separate gas trimmer just for that. I've got a lot more to trim including hydrangea and forsythia which just laugh at even electric corded trimmers. Solkanar512 posted:I’m sure you’re already aware but if you have a smaller space or want to spread it out more, you can always take cuttings, strip them of their leaves, soak them in water for 24 hours, root hormones and then put them in really moist soil. I'm looking at a bit more instant gratification for the back of one large bed near the front of my driveway. But yeah, I've done exactly what you suggest to give other people parts of this bush. I've also harvested a bunch of it's runners and put them around the new place. I just want to go get the big one now.
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Jun 4, 2020 16:10
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The only time I've ever used an actual edger as a landscaper was for remedial work. Like first time out at a derelict property. What is the problem you are having with using a string trimmer to edge? Maybe you just need to learn the technique.
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Jun 10, 2020 04:05
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cakesmith handyman posted:Sounds like a landscaping problem rather than a tool problem, you'll likely destroy an edger on loose aggregate/asphalt so you'll have to fix the problem whatever you buy. Yep. It's either that or "edge" with glypohsate and 2,4-D.
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Jun 10, 2020 16:02
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Hubis posted:at an edger is good for is establishing a nice, clean line and trenching a small gap so that your roots air-prune rather than spreading onto the adjacent surface. With a trimmer you can cut back the overgrowth just fine, but a blade will actually prevent the overgrowth as well (or at least restrict it to the top growth). They are great for a once/twice a month maintenance pass around your hardscape, and for establishing/maintaining bed edges. You can use a trimmer to clean these areas up but they aren't doing the same thing an edger does. In practice I use both -- edger at the beginning of the season and periodically to maintain a defined edge, and trimmer every week or two in order to give the grass a "haircut" around said edge. I totally agree with the reasoning behind this, I just don't need an edger at the beginning of the season or for periodic maintenance because once it's been edged I'm keeping the air gap with the string trimmer. Being able to do that so that you aren't bringing out an additional tool several times a year is really landscaper 101 type stuff. If at your home you don't mind having the extra tool so that you don't have to be as aggressive and timely with a string trimmer I get it - it's not a fun job.
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Jun 10, 2020 16:57
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BonoMan posted:Ha I was just coming in to say both "it's really more of a convenience thing" and " actually using it near the asphalt is probably just going to ruin it." So you have a weed problem too. Centepedegrass is very susceptible to 2,4-D in the spring, but it should still work this time of year.
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Jun 10, 2020 17:26
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Hubis posted:Amusingly I've seen some lawn/landscape YouTubers argue the opposite, with one (GCI Turf) going so far as to say "if I catch a guy on one of my crews using a string on hardscape he is fired on the spot" because he says the edge quality is so much better which seems pretty ridiculous to me. I suspect that this is one of those things where if you ask any two landscapers what the best technique is you are going to get two answers no matter what. Yikes. Unless this guy's entire job list are elaborately hardscaped literal mansions that's not really a reasonable business decision. Very few clients care, certainly not enough to pay for it. But I get how it might be a useful bluster for your youtube image.
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Jun 10, 2020 18:28
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BonoMan posted:Wait, I may be saying the wrong thing here. Centipede grass makes up a lot of my lawn there. I don't want to kill it right? If that's what your lawn is made of and what you want - then no, I suppose you don't want to kill it. That's a nuisance weed around here, which is what I thought you were describing it as.
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Jun 12, 2020 17:01
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Irritated Goat posted:Goons, help me kill this bastard once and for all. The stump in the middle is less of an issue than the stuff growing around it. Go to Lowesdepot and buy a bottle of stump killer. Drill holes in the stump and put it in them according to the label instructions.
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Jul 5, 2020 16:29
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Wow, it's a rough time of the year to be starting grass and that looks GREAT. Keep up the watering and it looks like you'll be fine.
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Jul 12, 2020 20:25
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Rhyno posted:So I've been told. I had no idea, we just had to get it going. It was this or sod and that would have cost a fuckin fortune. Worst case if it doesn't entirely fill out you can overseed when it cools off and you'll have a nice thick and healthy lawn in the spring.
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Jul 12, 2020 23:02
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KKKLIP ART posted:So my wife and I want to add a small retaining wall (less than 2.5ish feet at the highest point). Right now, we have a small grass slope going to the edge of our driveway. The plan would be to dig it out, put in drainage, and backfill it to be even with the capstone. Problem is, we hate the look of drat near every retaining wall product. They all look like a variation of cinderblocks, just different colors. We like the look of various natural stones (river rocks, stacked stone, etc) but are having some problems finding products. Any good ideas of what to look for? The problem with natural stone is that a retaining wall is an engineered structure. To meet design goals it has to be done with known strength and size materials. Perhaps it would be best if you made it out of cinder block and lintels (something I've seen done for many low retention walls) and then put on a natural stone face and cap?
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Jul 18, 2020 13:15
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KKKLIP ART posted:I had that idea, wife wasn’t as jazzed about it but if that’s the only way to really get the look we want, it is what it is. I mean, it really depends on just how much soil of what composition you're trying to hold back. If you're in a situation where it's little enough load that you don't need an engineered solution with sleepers, etc then you're really just building a wall and you can make it out of whatever. If it needs to be an actual retention wall you need to be able to tie in sleepers and I'm not sure how you'd do that with just natural stone unless you could get some pieces that are very long, heavy and expensive to use as sleepers. I've got a 2.5' at it's highest wall around my back patio - it's natural stone and it's actually just dry stack. Because there's nothing for it to hold up other than 3 feet of soil (landscape bed) and then a concrete patio behind that. Didn't even need to actually use mortar or anything. But when you're saying "retention wall" I'm taking it to be, well....the technical meaning of that.
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Jul 18, 2020 14:59
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Daric posted:My yard is looking pretty good at the moment but I threw down some Ironite today so I'm curious to see how that will look next week. We're supposed to get some rain from the dirty side of that tropical storm but it shouldn't be anything heavy. Anyone use Ironite before and feel like it made a significant difference? Be careful with that. It's literally mining waste, therefore not subject to hazmat rules. And yes, it contains arsenic and lead.
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Jul 26, 2020 15:45
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Daric posted:The real answer is that the version of Ironite made from mining waste was discontinued in 2005. Since then it is owned by an entirely different company and is no longer dangerous. Well, I suppose that's good to know. Strange how they would keep that name with all of the negative association that comes along with it. Steve French posted:Can you explain to someone utterly unaware of such things why being mining waste makes it not subject to hazmat rules? Honestly curious In two words: lobbyists, money.
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Jul 27, 2020 03:07
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I'd be looking at the pebble fill or whatever you like to or the wood (what s stupid loving idea for expansion joints, sorry dude) with proper expansion joints in there and then a skim coat refinish. You may need to patch some sections that are low (hard to tell in pics) but overall it shouldn't bring the height up much. This is the kind of product you might be looking for: https://www.quikrete.com/athome/video-resurfacing-concrete-slabs.asp
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Jul 28, 2020 23:58
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FogHelmut posted:I think the long horizontal ones going away from the house are expansion joints, and the diagonal ones are just decorative. That would be an unnecessary amount of expansion joints if they all are. But the 2x4's are so wide its just really stupid. Well, I mean......I get that there are too many and were put there for the sake of "style", but they are all expansion joints. Which means they are all going to work as expansion joints and need to be treated as such or you will be very displeased in regards to the amount of cracking of your infill and refinish coat.
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Jul 29, 2020 18:48
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CommonShore posted:4) To what extent can I add other functions to a lawn tractor? Is it, for example, possible to put a front scoop/bucket on a mower like this, short of like rebuilding it entirely? I'm gonna start here: No. You aren't going to add a front end loader to that or anything like it. With the amount of snow you're talking about I'm already leaning towards "don't buy that thing" but I have some questions: - How much grass will you be mowing? - What other kind of property maintenance will you need to do? Dirt/stone driveways or paths to maintain? Mulching a significant amount? - How many trees do you have over the grass? This makes a huge difference on the bagger recommendation. For example I have an 18 cubic foot PTO driven VAC that I have to empty like 6 times just to get through my front yard when the leaves are really coming down. - Are you willing to exchange money for time/less effort? If so, how much? - Grades: is your yard hilly or mostly flat? Because I'm thinking SCUT (subcompact utility tractor) with a mid mount mower deck on it and some manner of bagger, but need more info on the amount of leaves. Motronic fucked around with this message at 23:38 on Aug 19, 2020 |
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Aug 19, 2020 23:35
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CommonShore posted:The yard is pretty much an open area, mostly flat. The trees are essentially a wind break on all 4 exterior edges, so it's about 1.5 acres of mowing. The trees are a mix of elm, boxelder, and ash, all pretty mature. There are a few slopes on the property but nothing too drastic. The current owner just does it all on this mower, but he just mulches everything. As I said I want that sweet compost. Okay, that doesn't seem unreasonable then. Those lawn tractors kinda suck to be honest. A baby tractor (SCUT) with a loader and a 3 point hitch/PTO is going to get a lot more work done, but it doesn't sound absolutely necessary in your position. A zero turn mower is going to be far superior for mowing a smaller area like what you're talking about. But yeah, now that two different things. But let's talk about the compost: you sure don't want to be catching all of your grass clippings or you're going to have to do a lot of fertilization/inputs to maintain the lawn. If there are so few leaves that the could be mulched you may not get a ton out of that either, so if that's what you meant by "mulching" you can probably get away with a pretty simple bagger like this: https://www.lowes.com/pd/John-Deere-100-6-5-Bushel-Twin-Bagger-for-48-in-Tractor/50329427 If you have heavy leaves to deal with you're looking at something that is powered. I mentioned my old one:  This is it on a SCUT. It's got a vac powered by the PTO of the tractor. It worked great, but the tractor was underpowered and had a hard time going up hills while pushing the mid PTO for the mower deck and the rear PTO for the bagger. Do not buy a Mahindra SCUT. They are just not good. This was a mistake I obviously made. Once I realized this, I decided to go with a zero turn mower for mowing, and up-size the tractor to a compact. This is a lot more useful to me since I'm doing heavire work with a lot of wooded land and using pallet forks for things. It was super sketchy on a SCUT, they just don't weigh enough for that kind of work. In any case, even though you CAN put a mid mount mower deck on a compact tractor, that just wasn't worth the expense just to re-use the 3 point leaf vac. So I went with a cart that has it's own engine on it:  (excuse the minor state of being disassembled) Picked it up cheap and rusty, needing some welding repairs and new tires and I'm almost done. I think this is going to work out a lot better for me, and it can be pulled by the zero turn mower. So there are some options. What I'm going to actually suggest: you already have the lawn tractor. Stick with it for at least an entire year. See how it works for your particular circumstance. Blow/rake some leaves into a tarp and make your compost pile. Maybe run it over with the mower in circles so the are all blowing to the inside, just to rip them up a bit, then put them in a pile. See how that all works out before spending more money. If it works out for you and all the jobs you need to do, great! Go it an appropriate sized bagger like the one I linked, or a cart if you need more capacity/less dumping. If it doesn't work out, start looking at used SCUTS with mower decks and your choices for attachments open up greatly. For the snow..........how much are we talking/how big of a driveway? Because that tractor probably doesn't weigh enough to push much so you might want to find a used blower like you were talking about for now. Get something cheap in case the entire idea of that lawn tractor doesn't work out. It's going to be a lot more comfortable plowing with a SCUT. And if you've got a lot of it and are willing to spend the money, one with a cab and a heater. You can also get front or rear mount blowers for those if that happens to work out better for your particular situation. Motronic fucked around with this message at 00:59 on Aug 20, 2020 |
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Aug 20, 2020 00:57
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CommonShore posted:Ok actually around to ask follow-up questions now. It's not powered, so it's not gonna be great for anything heavy. It will turn into a clog-o-matic. You got heavy leaves to pick up? Enjoy doing a quarter or less of your deck width at a time. CommonShore posted:There is also this 42inch tow-behind lawn sweeper I'm seeing that I was wondering about. The price difference isn't significant between the 6 bushel bagger and the lawn sweeper. Any experience with the lawn sweeper? My instinct is that it looks like a hunk of poo poo I don't know anything about that one obviously, but every lawn sweep I've ever seen has been a hunk of poo poo. CommonShore posted:I might pick up one or the other for year 1 just because all of this stuff resells at a pretty good price And that's the real deal. If you can buy things and unload them at nearly no loss........why not? Try it out. CommonShore posted:I'll look more into the subcompact and compact tractors. In a lot of cases for me when seeking this sort of thing my biggest obstacle is developing the vocabulary. "Subcompact tractor" and "compact tractor" are giving me far better search results already, since it seems to be the specific term the dealers use Yep, there you go. Glad I could help. Don't rush into buying anything, but know that these things exist, what they are capable of, and how much they cost.....epsecially used. It could end up being just the thing you need. Stay away from off brands, and also stay away from any major brand where you don't have a dealer service center anywhere close. Sometimes you just might need them, whether it's service you can't handle or "dammit, I'm halfway though doing this thing and a belt broke and I don't have a spare." Often this type of service will require them to come pick it up (if you can' move it) and the further away they are the more the transport will cost. For me, that's Kubota (which in my opinion is a solid choice, not just from the equipment I've bought but from decades of running this stuff growing up). I can drive the tractor there (at all 12MPH it goes) inside of 20 minutes if needs be. If I had a Deere, New Holland, or Case dealership nearby I'd be considering any/all of those as well. In my case I especially need the dealership because I got all dumb and overcompensating and bought the luxubarge version of a compact tractor with a cab heat/ac/bluetooth/lol. Motronic fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Aug 20, 2020 |
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Aug 20, 2020 03:30
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angryrobots posted:Everyone I've talked to who had a subcompact with a loader thinking it's a "do-all" has regrets. Granted, that's not including snow removal cause we don't get that. But my impression is that they're a bit too heavy and cumbersome to mow in a yard that's landscaped, and too light for pushing much dirt with the loader (which has a very limited lift rating). This is why I bought the compact and a zero turn after the SCUT. You need to be sure of your use case and whether it will fit. But like everything with tractors, size/money makes them work faster. You gotta figure that compromise out on your own. I just couldn't safely handle trees unless they were cut down a lot, couldn't move dirt unless I was taking partial bucket loads, had to constantly worry about keeping weight on the back for pallet forks, etc. They obviously doesn't mow as well as a zero turn, because nothing short of a walk behind will, so you end up trimming more. So while I COULD get nearly everything done with the SCUT, I'd rather have the bigger machine and do it faster/easier and have a separate mower. I'm doing enough loader work that the fact the Mahindra loader didn't have corner function (raise/lower and curl at the same time) was super annoying for me as someone accustomed to running "real" equipment. Your point about "running a bunch of PTO attachments" is a good one too. In my case, I need a rotary cutter/brush hog as well, so I needed the 3-point. I also use a box blade a lot, and ended up with a 3-point core aerator and wood chipper as well. The single best attachment I have for the new tractor is a grapple. It turns dealing with fallen trees into a video game. CommonShore, this is my long winded way to say again, don't get anything now. Figure out what you need. There's always gonna be something unexpected about a new property. There were plenty with this one, which is why I ended up making the wrong decision the first time around. Also, see if you can get loaners/rentals of what you're seriously considering. Use them for jobs on your property. Make SURE it does what you want in the way you want. And if you've got that many dealerships nearby you probably have a lot of good used inventory for machines and attachments.
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Aug 20, 2020 16:10
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angryrobots posted:Yeah. Mine usually stays on the tractor, except for putting out hay bales. It is endlessly handy. Where it your 3rd function valve control on that? Doesn't look like it's on the loader stick, but that might just be the picture.
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Aug 20, 2020 17:44
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angryrobots posted:It's electric over hydraulic. There's a button on the joystick which controls a diverter valve on the loader curl/dump lines. Press and hold to swap the diverter. Curl/dump becomes open/close. So you can't curl and operate the grab at exactly the same time, but switching back and forth is near instant. I'm pretty happy with the setup, keeps everything one handed without having to come off the joystick. Oh, nice. I haven't see a setup like that. Mine is open/close buttond on the side - it's an ovemolded button thing that fits over the stock stick:  I kinda like the idea of a single button and using dump/curl. That's the circuit this diverter valve is on anyway, so it's not like you could open/dump at the same time anyway. The only real issue I have with it is that you have to shut the tractor off and turn it back on to accessory to dump all the pressure out of all of the lines (this one is electric over hydraulic as well). Otherwise good luck hooking up the hydraulics. I really should swap these over to some of the nicer flat faced connectors the self bleed. Because even with dumping the pressure off the tractors, getting those hydraulics hooked back up can be painful if there was a huge temp change between disconnecting them and hooking them back up again.
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Aug 20, 2020 19:32
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angryrobots posted:So I did some quick research, and sure enough none of the kits come with anything that looked like mine. I finally found a guy who added exactly the same thing to his Kubota. lol, that's pretty awesome. That would explain my never seeing something like that before. I really think it might just be a better way of controlling it rather than separate buttons.
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Aug 20, 2020 20:14
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KKKLIP ART posted:How do we feel about push mowers? Mine was a hand me down that was on the fritz when we got it and it seems like it is giving up the ghost. We don't have enough yard that I feel like a self propelled is totally needed. A lot of sites seem to like the Honda NeXite line, having a bag wold be nice but not totally needed, and I don't specifically need anythign fancy except maybe an adjustable deck because our gras doesnt like being cut super short. You should be cutting at the same height all the time, and never more than 1/3 of the total height. Every deck is adjustable in some sense, but it's a set it once and leave it thing. Probably 2 1/2" as an average rule, but it depends on the variety of grass. Most people seem to cut too short, which leads to distressed grass that is not very low water tolerant and weeds creeping in to fill the gaps. Anything with a Honda on it is going to generally be good. Why do you want to bag your lawn? What will you do with the clippings? Or is this just for mulching leaves that you are going to compost? (first thing bad, second thing good)
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Aug 23, 2020 05:22
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Hubis posted:~LiViN tHe DrEaM~ You are much more detailed with what you will do with grass than I am, and I appreciate the additional insight. But I was NOT expecting zoysia which (I know I'm wrong) should always be a call out because it's a special snowflake.
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Aug 24, 2020 01:29
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| # ¿ May 14, 2024 14:35 |
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Well well well, it's that time of year. Magnolia scale. And Distance IGR only comes in quarts. So I just spent $250 on a $100 magnolia I planted last year. Sigh. (I can use it for more than that, so it's okay)
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Aug 25, 2020 23:04
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