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Did you swap your mahindra for a Kubota at some point?
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Apr 27, 2020 17:25
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Motronic posted: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. I feel you on the too small bit. My mahindra 3616 has done what I needed it to do, but its marginal for lifting round bales and it terrifies me to do it. Beyond that, its too small to pull a batwing and has no cab so my toddler can’t ride. I intend to replace it, something around 100hp, haven’t decided on the color. CNH has some great financing right now and I can drive it home the dealer is so close, but I can’t get over the Italian machinery thing. Kubota doesn’t appear to have a stellar reputation in that size tractor, and deere is not offering any deals. Massey is made in china now, and I won’t buy mahindra again for a multitude of reasons. That’s pretty much every dealer in the area.
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Apr 29, 2020 23:37
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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. We are probably going to wind up with 100 or so acres by the end of the year. 50 or so open. My 6’ bushog wont cut it.
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Apr 30, 2020 00:56
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I have to trench 3000’ of 2” water main. Terrain is pretty bad. Would a mini ex or a ditch witch be easier? Frost line is about 20”. I can have the plumber do it, but he gets to be pretty expensive on long runs. Reason I ask, a used mini ex is $10k, used trenchers are far less.
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Aug 29, 2020 12:46
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angryrobots posted:One thing about trenchers is they don't love rocks or tree roots. Smaller the machine, the smaller the rocks it can throw, or roots it can cut without getting hung up. Also the ground needs to be relatively clear and level(ish) for a smaller model. Just mentioning this since I'm not sure what RDB means by "rough terrain". I bought 95 acres. House is going near the middle, 100’ higher than the road. By rough, I mean its uphill, and it will also go across a hill. Its all old pasture and hay ground, 5’ of topsoil before it starts to hit the rocky layer. I don’t think roots will be an issue because its been open for the last 100 years. I worry about tipping a mini ex on the hillside because its narrow and tall. The hill has been terraced for waterways to collect runoff into a pond. The pond has gravity fed hydrants connected to it, but where the water utility is willing to put the meter that wont be a problem provided I run straight back and over. I also have an RV site elsewhere that needs water line. I already know I will need a booster pump to reach the home site. I thought about drilling a well, but after talking to neighbors its not a good option. There is a lot of coal/iron/some sulphur smelling rock under the hill and they say it affects the taste. One drilled a well, got decent flow and two weeks later regretted it after the water started to reek. I can pay someone to do all the trenching but used equipment is always tempting. The driveway company can do it too but thats 3-4 a foot on top of the $10 a foot for the driveway, and the driveway doesn’t come in near the water meter.
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Aug 29, 2020 20:34
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angryrobots posted:As I said I'm no expert on this, but on the face of it, it sounds like a utility-level scale issue. I interviewed most of the neighbors about it. They all said use the public water. There is a house at the same elevation I will be, they use a booster on the public water without issue. Electric is a co-op and they charge 400 a pole. Its a non issue there. Internet is fiber and the local coop installs free. I would do a thread, but I am going to be on cell only for the next year. The property itself is hilly as gently caress. I mowed the perimeter today, at least the non wooded part. There are 4 old coal mines, 3 drift and one pit. The drifts are all closed. A cemetery, 2 ponds, a house from 1810, old barns, lots of rubble. The back fence line is terrifying. There are ravines someone dammed up that T into another sketchy ravine and the fence runs along the top. The weeds (giant ragweed) were so tall I had to go by feel mowing along the top. I suspect there is culvert down in the bottom but I don’t want to find out. Along the very back I put an old tpost through a tire on my mahindra 3616 so thats pretty much ruined my day. We have an amish contractor coming out next week to do high tensile fence along 2 sides and back to the barn. Going to leave the stuff thats too steep to mow to the goats/cows. We booked a local excavation company to do the driveway. Its only 1800’, pretty much straight up the face of the hill. Hes going to put in some 6’ ID clay pipe culverts so animals can cross under the driveway. There was a local clay pipe factory (Can Clay) that the city shut down a couple years back and is slowly selling off their inventory. The excavator we hired has a YouTube channel so expect a video then.
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Aug 30, 2020 00:57
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I am hesitant to spend that much money on an occasional use machine. My concern with any medium/large tracked equipment is the tracks. I would be lying if I said I could judge an undercarriage, so I would expect to spend $30-50k on a decent one. Also, money itself would be an issue there. I have enough left to build and some of that’s contingent on selling my other mini farm/house. I was hoping that buying a $2500-3000 used ditch witch would save me a few thousand over the cost to have someone else do it, and I could sell the machine when finished. I bought a honda pioneer this week and I am tired of spending. The amish contractor asked for a “gator” and to use my bigger tractor (Powerstar 120). The pioneer is shockingly capable. That thing goes places I cannot believe, and I grew up riding a 4x4 Kawasaki Bayou on my grandparents farm. The pioneer would poo poo on that 4 wheeler. I guess its kinda necessary, but drat is everything outdoor related expensive as gently caress right now.
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Aug 30, 2020 02:07
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angryrobots posted:At 95 acres I'd say you need a legit full sized backhoe for the long term. RV, mostly, for the last 3 weeks. My wife uses the kitchen in the old house. We do laundry in it and use its well/septic. Everything else is camper. Too much lead paint in the house for my toddler, and too much termite damage for me to have any desire to fix it. The floors are spongy, and the exterior walls are bowing in. I am tying into the houses septic tank next week for the RV so I don’t have to use the turd grinder again. First time I used that i connected the hose wrong, and when I turned it on and pulled the black tank valve all hell broke loose. My old house/mini farm is just about fixed to the point where I can sell it. Watching the contractor tear out doors/trim and subflooring there was heartbreaking. That house is from 1930, so its never going to be perfect, but there was some scary stuff hidden. Hopefully the next owners don’t have the same experience there that I did. And if I could have bought some of the neighbors fields there I would have stayed.
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Aug 30, 2020 02:18
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I should add the well in the old house is shallow, the water has 3-4 treatment canisters on it, and it while it doesn’t smell, it does turn cloudy. We don’t drink it.
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Aug 30, 2020 02:20
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We do make money with the goats but its not my day job. The cows- we only have a couple but are expanding. Working with wagyu angus crosses to get some decent marbling. Trying to be a little different than everyone else around here. The only equipment we want now is hay related. But I would settle for custom baling and save my vacation days. Its about 60 acres open, 30 or so I would have the balls to run a baler over. The rest is going to be pasture or I am going to just let it grow back in. The remainder is woods. It was logged a couple years back but they mostly took ash and oak. Theres still a ton of huge hickory, walnuts, some beech and some huge pines. E: and yeah, you guessed it. I tore up a running board, and having my truck covered with mud is old. I care way too much about the truck to take it back there again. rdb fucked around with this message at 02:35 on Aug 30, 2020 |
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Aug 30, 2020 02:30
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I probably need to do a thread... But we hired an Amish contractor to run fence. These are the beams he is using for corners. They are 10-12’ long and pounded 5-6’ into the ground. I’m not even sure they were intended to be posts. 
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Sep 3, 2020 23:27
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angryrobots posted:The gently caress is he putting them down? Mule powered pile driver? A post driver on the back of a Kubota M7060 open station. They have a newish case track loader with an auger on the front so they can pre drill some of the tough ones. I am not sure what the rules are. I see them drive the equipment, but they have an 18 year old helper to drive the aluminum body F550 PSD, and sometimes he drives the kubota. But you can tell hes new at both. The local livestock auction is also owned by an Amish family. Its hooked to grid power. So I think the rules around what businesses can do is different from what families can do. No one ever said they were poor.
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Sep 4, 2020 11:33
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Got my big tractor ready for some grade work. Had the third remote installed and picked up this giant bush hog blade. No problem regrading my gravel drive even though it was too dry for my smaller tractor and box blade. There were a lot of old buildings torn down on my new place and a lot of waterways/trails that need fixed. The big blade will definitely do the trick but final grade will still require the small tractor, or maybe a gauge wheel on this. 
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Sep 12, 2020 14:59
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It does an offset, tilt and angle.  
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Sep 12, 2020 17:49
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angryrobots posted:What are the outriggers for? The skid shoes? Plowing snow without removing gravel. The wings on the end just make it easier to move large amounts of material. I may take them off to do some lighter work. Overall, the blade is overkill. Bush Hog lists its weight at 1100lbs, but I think the hydraulics added quite a bit. I ordered it 5 months ago, along with the third remote. The remote just came in last week. The dealer had a smaller series blade on the lot, but when I read the brochure the one he suggested wasn’t rated for the power my tractor puts out. So I picked that one, paid for it, and just now got to use it. The driveway at my old place has never been smoother. It feels like it will tear up just about anything. I think it cut through and turned over about 5” of packed material on the first pass. That would have taken me 10 passes with the scarifiers down on my 5’ box blade. I used it to redo the slope and cut a small ditch on the side. It should rain this afternoon so we will see how it did.
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Sep 12, 2020 21:25
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angryrobots posted:Yeah those things, I don't know anything about plowing snow! I haven’t tried them yet. I think they spin somehow, and grooves are better than piles of gravel in the grass come spring.
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Sep 13, 2020 00:08
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I had a thought too, most people reading this thread probably don’t own tractors. So I want to clarify a point. Most tractors don’t have hydraulic down force on the 3 point hitch at the back. Only belarus (mtz to the rest of the world) that I can think of and those are uncommon in the US. This means the amount of ground engagement is limited by the amount of downforce the implement generates on its own. If you look at a 3 point plow, its shaped to pull itself into the dirt for that very reason. So for grading, a tractor has a disadvantage compared to a dozer or the blade on an excavator. The tractor can’t push down, so a heavy implement and proper soil conditions are required to really do any work. Once a blade starts gathering material, the weight of the material is usually enough for smaller stuff to work, but getting things started can be difficult when conditions are dry.  This is the section of driveway that I hate the most. Don’t cut into a hill like that. It collects water, and as the water goes downhill, it picks up speed, more water, and gravel. It always washes my driveway into the field, and creates 10-12” deep washouts down at the bottom. Today I graded it towards the fence and made a small ditch at the bottom. That will at least keep it out of the field. It really needs geo-grid to keep from losing gravel but that can be the next owners problem.
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Sep 13, 2020 04:04
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OSU_Matthew posted:That’s exactly what I was thinking. Or even if you don’t want something on the surface, carve out a discharge ditch to the side, and bury some perforated drain pipe every so often for water to collect and drain out to the side. It sucks rear end. As far as burying drain tile goes, the bedrock is only a couple inches down in places, so it would have to be cut. Down at the bottom is also on an easement and flood plain, although I am sure the guy that owns it wouldn’t care what I dug up. Theres fiber optic, old phone line and public water near the end, so not a DIY job. I did cut a ditch along the right side, and diverted the runoff coming from the pasture on the right by building a road on the other side of the big sycamore. The easiest and cheapest thing to do would be geogrid. I am selling this place however, so someone else’s problem. In reality, its nearly 10 acres of mowing and maintenance. Whoever buys it will need a tractor, and fixing the driveway is a 30 minute job with a box blade. The bedrock also produces another problem. When the water table is high, there is a spring. In winter, everything that comes out freezes. So its steep and icy, even if it doesn’t snow. I sold my prius and got a subaru for my wife because it just didn’t have sufficient ground clearance or traction. Heres another view of the problem. This is after 3” of rain over the course of an hour and a half. Apologies for my mouth breathing. I have sinus issues and had just gotten over something serious when I shot this in July. https://youtu.be/XcMD0asmewM It was the wrong spot and bad design when it was put in. People have lived on this site since 1890. rdb fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Sep 13, 2020 |
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Sep 13, 2020 14:16
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That doesn’t look like a birch to me?
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Sep 22, 2020 14:37
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My grandparents had a big farm in the tug hill region of upstate NY. They had a couple spots that beavers would occasionally invade and dam up. The key to getting rid of the dam is to kill all the beavers first. They are wary as hell and its easier to trap them than shoot them all. Once they are gone, you can remove the dam however you want. One of the dams required a bulldozer, the other spot they liked to dam up needed an state crew with an excavator since it was a road culvert. The toughest part was getting rid of them first. A mattock and a shovel sounds difficult at best because they usually have 10” diameter logs comprising the majority of the structure. I don’t think you will easily get through by hand. All it takes is one left, and they will repair whatever break you make overnight.
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Sep 27, 2020 22:41
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Thats actually a good idea. And the materials don’t look that expensive.
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Sep 28, 2020 02:20
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For every one you see theres about six you don’t. Also, you will almost always catch them swimming, so your target is just the head above the water. And you only get one cold barrel shot, because they will den up immediately when they hear the gun. Its not target practice. I had a hard time with it and I was a teenager with a 30/30 and plenty of opportunities.
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Sep 28, 2020 14:27
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Auxiliary Treats posted:I’m looking to get rid of this birch tree in my backyard. We had an ice storm yesterday that brought it almost to the ground. This happened last season too and over the summer it had about a 40° lean into the neighbors yard. For anyone else that reads this, the danger here is called a barber chair. https://youtu.be/EKzvkRnCF58
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Feb 6, 2021 03:47
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Inzombiac posted:So I'm gonna get rid of the grass and replace it with white clover. I'll also need to level out some portions of the soil between steps. The problem with clover is its not a year round cover. If your up north a cool season grass (fescue, Kentucky Blue etc) will move in after clover dies back in the fall or if it gets dry. Your lawn will be healthier if you keep grass along with a legume like clover. The grass builds organic matter, roots trap water and provides ground cover when nothing else can. The legume fixes nitrogen for the grass and releases it when it dies back. If you really want a cool monoculture lawn they make alfalfa you can spray with roundup.
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Apr 12, 2021 00:58
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eddiewalker posted:I’m shopping for a zero-turn to mow the 3 acres of nice lawn we just bought. It’s fairly smooth. I’d like to be able to mow quickly but also keep it looking sharp and striped. Have a 2014 model year scag tiger cat and its been a pile of poo poo. Mostly because I cheaped out and got the yearly “low” price build with a briggs engine. It had a bad oil leak under warranty at 15 hours and then tossed a rod after 5 seconds of knock at 150 hours. It developed a hydro leak on year two, burned up a clutch (my fault, ran over a log and didn’t see it, mower died, I restarted and engaged the blades a couple times and ruined it), and this year its got an idler pulley thats sounding pretty bad. Also scalps pretty bad with a 60” deck. Still under 200 hours. On the bright side it lays some nice stripes . Contrast that with the used ferris hydrowalk I have. Thousands of hours, kawasaki motor, a few leaks but keeps chugging along. Probably spent more hours behind that than on the scag because it doesn’t break and is much safer on hills and around ponds. I have demod a gravley pro turn 100 and did not like the higher center of gravity when compared to scag but I have a lot of hills. Hustler makes some good stuff as does John Deere. If you have never operated one ask for a demo. And never ever point one downhill and expect to be able to stop or turn. You really need to think through any sort of hills. And don’t mow around ponds, besides being really good at rolling, they also get stuck in the slightest bit of mud.
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Jun 23, 2021 03:21
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Motronic posted:Not saying it's the only thing, but these days this seems to be one of the top things you want. B&S is......well, not what they used to be. Kholer was always hot garbage. At the time a tiger cat with a 60” deck and a kawasaki motor was $9500, the one I got was $7400 or so. I thought as a homeowner it wouldn’t make a difference. I was so wrong. I even did the dumb thing and replaced with another briggs, although this one says vanguard on it and has forged internals. It will get replaced by a ventrac some day.
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Jun 23, 2021 10:49
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eddiewalker posted:What about used? I think this looks like a good deal, but he's been posting this same one for a month now. He seemed like a genuine guy over the phone. https://kansascity.craigslist.org/grq/d/oak-grove-gravely-pro-turn-commercial/7340207092.html That motor will be reliable but a fuel hog - I think thats about the largest kawasaki you can get on a ztr and its carbed. That does seem like a deal overall, you should at least check it out. Probably well maintained. Homeowners usually take better care of it vs the lower end contractors using guys on work release for $10 an hour.
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Jun 23, 2021 15:05
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A 50S RAYGUN posted:motronic is p much on the money - i haven't run a zero turn that wasn't a kawasaki engine that held up, but all of my past use is commercial so 1x a week use might hold up better. price being equal (or close), though, always get the kawasaki. I can confirm that kawasaki is worth it for home owner use even if its $2000 more. The replacement vanguard engine cost $1700, and who knows what percentage of the cost the original was. That bad boy deck looks awful unless your yard is less than 1% slope everywhere and has no ditches or dips anywhere. If you scalp a rise enough times it eventually levels out!
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Jun 24, 2021 18:03
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I have been pretty happy with the greenworks 80v one that I have. It does take an odd chain if you like to keep a spare. But its been super handy to have and hasn’t given any issues.
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Jun 26, 2021 02:12
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I personally have the 2 hour rule with my lawn. I don’t want to spend more than that per cut working on it. This includes loving with the mower. The zero turns you have been looking at should be able to cut three acres in two hours especially if its flat with minimal obstacles. But throw in another 5 acres, and I agree with Motronic - you need to be cutting 12-15’ swaths. Unless you live for cutting grass.
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Jul 1, 2021 03:06
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eddiewalker posted:A goat is more likely to happen than a tractor. I have about 40 and I can tell you its a bad idea.
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Jul 1, 2021 15:55
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Alarbus posted:Sounds like you need to start a youtube channel! No, I can only complain about them and no one has time for that poo poo. We also use deep manure packs in the barn and theres usually flies and nasty spots - the reality of livestock. They aren’t pets. They aren’t really good at clearing brush either. You have to pack them in and provide no other food options. So to keep 5 acres clear you would need about 40-50 and the electric fence from hell. Sheep and goat woven wire works too as long as you run electric along the top. They are also highly prone to dying from stupid poo poo so constant vigilance is a must. I have seen them go from fine to dead in 12 hours from diarrhea, blind in as little as a day from diarrhea and b vitamin deficiency, bucks in rut die overnight from urinary calculi (they get stupid and only eat the most tasty things when in rut), all sorts of parasite problems, and there I go, complaining. Invincible tin can eating brush destroying pets they are not. Lord forbid you have yew on the property or one of a plethora of not good things for ruminates. I can go on and on.
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Jul 1, 2021 17:26
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shirts and skins posted:Didn't actually realize there was a thread for this, so I'm cross-posting from A/T: Water has to go somewhere and it likes to go down. Also, you need to fill the hole with something that water wont wash away. The correct fix here is to put gravel in the hole and give the water somewhere else to go by fixing the slope. Or call the landscaper before it becomes a sinkhole.
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Jul 1, 2021 17:29
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shirts and skins posted:Well, I called landscapers and they're booked solid. Seems my job is too small in the days of covid demand. Wait until it rains and tell me if water is going in the hole or coming out? Did they hit the drain pipe with a post?
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Jul 7, 2021 01:00
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Did a little mowing today and hosed up. 
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Jul 7, 2021 01:03
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Got it out, I put a bucket on it instead of the pallet forks (i had already removed them in this picture) used the kenetic rope to pull the bush hog off the drawbar a little, worked it back/forth and around a little to the right side using the right brake and EVENTUALLY I used the loader to pull it up the right side of the embankment. The left side looks shallower but water seeps out. Stepping out of the cab I sunk halfway to my knee. The mahindra and my UTV couldn’t make that thing budge in either direction. Tractor is 120hp, weighs 10,000lbs without the loader/bucket, smaller tires and no ballast. I would estimate as pictured the tractor weighs in around 13-14k plus the batwing. The mahindra weighs around 2700 with ballast I think. Wasn’t gonna happen. I didn’t dare come out in my truck, neighbors offered to pull me out with a 230hp tractor with duals but I would have had to wait. Batwing is still buried. Maybe tomorrow I will mess with it. I really hate taking that PTO shaft apart but I had to. That batwing (2013 JD CX15) probably weighs 7500lbs and the front is plowing mud at this point. The mud was touching the bottom of the rear axle. You can just see it halfway up the tire in this picture.  I was trying to avoid that gully but the soft spot to the side surprised me and once the batwing got mired it was all over. I will snap a picture of the back of the tractor before I clean it for lols.
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Jul 7, 2021 23:22
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It is, its just what locals call a seep. The geology here is mostly weathered sandstone beneath sandy loam. I have owned this place for 1 year as of July 16th so I have no idea if its tiled. If it is, its old clay poo poo. I have the excavation company out this week to put in septic and they are going to quote a pond to cover up some of the valleys. But I have already been warned that’s expensive and because of the size (dam would be over 20’ tall and volume exceeds 100 acre feet) I need stamped engineering plans, a permit from Indiana DNR and a $100 inspection every five years. We will see I guess. I think a poo poo ton more cows would help too. 
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Jul 8, 2021 13:03
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Yeah but it would turn poor ground into a nice lake to fish in. I miss catching stripers.
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Jul 8, 2021 15:07
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Thats not enough dirt for someone to come take. Rake it back into the lawn. I have put over 100 posts in with a 9” auger this year. Even using a 6” post and a sack of concrete in each hole the dirt thats left is barely anything. In the pictures below the posts haven’t been set yet.   
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Jul 14, 2021 23:31
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Is the brown patch subject to runoff when it rains? I would suspect that or something that was in the soil before the new grass was laid. I am sure you can test the soil somehow, here there are labs that can tell you pH and nutrient levels. It won’t tell you if there was contamination however, and it sounds like the old grass was dead in that spot. It could also just be the heat. The turf looks like a fescue and they don’t do so well in the middle of summer. Hard to say. Sounds like your keeping it watered. I would lean towards something in the soil.
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Jul 25, 2021 12:54
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