Need to vent. Mortgage frustrations.

[westracing01]

I'd reroute and go 81 north up to Scranton and take to 84 east. Avoid NJ, and 95 through NYC and Connecticut. Unless you want to see the city.

That! For God Sake do that! DO NOT go through NJ/NY/CT on 95. That is the single worst piece of shit highway in the nation... And I mean more than traffic. It's a nightmare of poorly designed bullshit.

81N, 84E, go all the way across CT or bail off 84 just into CT and meander some back roads up to the Mass Pike.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Seriously consider a skid loader and a big zero turn or a Toro groundsmaster, gravely and Kubota also make good front mount mowers. Everyone I know with a 25-75 HP tractor that tries to use it for dirt and basically anything but farm work hates it.

I’ve been watching the heavy equipment section of the Maine Craigslist as well. Still doing research on what’s going to be right for me and what I want to do on the land. I know I’m gonna do some ground prep for a shop build when materials come back down to reasonable levels. I’ve got those huge fields to for now at least keep trimmed until I decide for sure what I’m going to do with them. Snow clearing in winter on my parking area and long driveway for sure.

im not super familiar with zero turns. Haven’t had the property for a riding mower since I was in high school. Back then we used a larger John Deere diesel mower with a 60ish inch deck on it. Worked well for the acreage of lawn we had in Ohio. I’ll have to read up on new mower tech and zero turn stuff.

 

[posford]

Tractor is one of the first things on the list. I’ve been doing some research on them and I’m thinking a utility size should be perfect for the property I have to work with. Something in the 50 to 75 HP range with a class 2 3 point hitch I think. Ideally I want a bucket loader on the front, some clamp on forks for that, a bush hog for keeping the fields cleared and cut, maybe eventually a backhoe attachment and post hole digger. Figure I can use that for plowing and clearing the driveway and parking lot area as well.

also going to want a smaller standard riding mower for trimming the actual lawn area. With the two septic tanks and leach field under the lawn, the tractor would be too big and heavy to mow that with.

the gator would be more for the wife to tool around the property on, maybe use for light gardening duty and running down the driveway for the mail and stuff. She suggested a golf cart originally, but I said if she wants something like that I’d rather get a gator or similar. Something that will do what she wants it for but also have the flexibility and utility to serve other purposes as well.

Clamp on forks suck balls, anything you buy now in that size should have quicktach bucket, get quicktach forks worth every penny.

Backhoes are generally sucky too, the good ones have a subframe so you don't snap the tractor in half, but that makes it harder to remove it for a bush hog. 3 point hitch only backhoes are trash. You're $ and sanity ahead to plan out to rent a mini-ex if you're into a project that big. I know they're cheap down here.

Big price jump from golf cart to gator, I'd find her a used golf cart and see if the use warrants more, but then again I didn't buy my house in cash My wife rips the wheeler around and puts a garden cart on that, just another dual purpose thought

 

[posford]

I’ve been watching the heavy equipment section of the Maine Craigslist as well. Still doing research on what’s going to be right for me and what I want to do on the land. I know I’m gonna do some ground prep for a shop build when materials come back down to reasonable levels. I’ve got those huge fields to for now at least keep trimmed until I decide for sure what I’m going to do with them. Snow clearing in winter on my parking area and long driveway for sure.

im not super familiar with zero turns. Haven’t had the property for a riding mower since I was in high school. Back then we used a larger John Deere diesel mower with a 60ish inch deck on it. Worked well for the acreage of lawn we had in Ohio. I’ll have to read up on new mower tech and zero turn stuff.

For snow consider a snow blower for the tractor. Might as well get a cab too. heat in winter, AC in summer. Seriously.

Depending on how flat the lawn is, anything more than 60 will scalp the high spots badly. Friend has a 72" on a Deere 955 and its always scalping

 

[arse_sidewards]

For snow consider a snow blower for the tractor. Might as well get a cab too. heat in winter, AC in summer. Seriously.

Depending on how flat the lawn is, anything more than 60 will scalp the high spots badly. Friend has a 72" on a Deere 955 and its always scalping

Tractor snow blowers are $$$$ whereas any clapped out old plow can be put on a quick attach plate with relative ease. With the amount of land he's looking at buying I don't think he'll have a problem finding space for snow banks. Don't get me wrong, a snowblower is nice but it's not at all necessary and it's worth spending a few winters and deciding if you actually need one before you shell out for one.


I 100% agree on getting something with a heated and cooled cab if you get something with a cab.

 

[posford]

Tractor snow blowers are $$$$ whereas any clapped out old plow can be put on a quick attach plate with relative ease. With the amount of land he's looking at buying I don't think he'll have a problem finding space for snow banks. Don't get me wrong, a snowblower is nice but it's not at all necessary and it's worth spending a few winters and deciding if you actually need one before you shell out for one.


I 100% agree on getting something with a heated and cooled cab if you get something with a cab.

I gave $200 for a perfectly working 5' 3 point hitch snowblower

 

[Krackle959]

Tractor mounted blowers are stupid money, I got quoted $16k for a 72" loader mounted blower and power pack for my JD 4052R. I did put a 54" blower on the JD 2025R because its the mow the lawn, snow blow the driveway, and small landscape tractor, it also has a rototiller and 60" mower. The 4052R is setup with a loader, grapple, and skidding winch as it is my woods tractor. It will be getting a 12' bat wing mower once we open up 10 acres of field this summer.

I would look at a yard truck with a plow, way cheaper than a big cab tractor or blower setup. If you decide on a big cab tractor, you could get a loader mounted plow instead of the plow truck. As far as tractor mounted backhoes, they are useful enough to get by, but no replacement for a mini excavator. The quote I got for one was $12k for the 4052R, planning on getting a mini excavator with better specs for $30k or so. The tractor backhoe gets old when you have to get off the backhoe, get on the tractor, reposition it, get back on the backhoe, dig a bit, move it again, it gets old quick.

 

[92 Green YJ]

Most of the tractor mount blowers I’ve come across are rear mounted which frankly sounds like a pain in the arse to me. Having to run in reverse the whole way down the driveway sounds not fun. The front mounted blowers are money, but I’ve come across a few decent looking tractors on Craigslist that come with one as part of the package. We still won’t be there for a few months yet so all I can really do at this point is research what I ideally will want/need so I will have a good handle on what to look for when we finally get there. I know typically I always want to buy a little more and a little heavier than I really think I’ll need to future proof myself a bit.

 

[posford]

Most of the tractor mount blowers I’ve come across are rear mounted which frankly sounds like a pain in the arse to me. Having to run in reverse the whole way down the driveway sounds not fun.

I might be biased as I've spent a good chunk of my life on a farm tractor looking over my shoulder, but after the first couple times backing down the driveway it isn't bad. I have a longer driveway, but don't believe as long as yours. And I don't have a cab.

And I'm not surprised that some loader mounted abortion is stupid money, sounds fuckin retarded.

 

[Dethmachinefab]

If anyone wants a Kubota front mount one they can come take it. Fawk that thing is useless on my gravel driveway. Broken shear bolts every 10ft.

An older wheel loader has been priceless around my house. From snow removal to dirtwork, pulling, lifting, unloading, unstucking, it's been a great purchase.

 

[92 Green YJ]

If anyone wants a Kubota front mount one they can come take it. Fawk that thing is useless on my gravel driveway. Broken shear bolts every 10ft.

An older wheel loader has been priceless around my house. From snow removal to dirtwork, pulling, lifting, unloading, unstucking, it's been a great purchase.

See that’s another reason I’d prefer a plow to a blower. The entire parking area and driveway is all gravel and I’ve read how much trouble that can be with a blower. True I will likely do the parking area in asphalt eventually, but most of the driveway is going to stay gravel as I’m sure it would be really expensive to asphalt the whole thing.

 

[arse_sidewards]

If anyone wants a Kubota front mount one they can come take it. Fawk that thing is useless on my gravel driveway. Broken shear bolts every 10ft.

An older wheel loader has been priceless around my house. From snow removal to dirtwork, pulling, lifting, unloading, unstucking, it's been a great purchase.

Am I an idiot for not taking you up on the blower? All my shit is paved but I feel like with the ~70ft of driveway and 50ft of on-street parking I need to clear it wouldn't save any time compared to just using the bucket.

 

[Dethmachinefab]

Am I an idiot for not taking you up on the blower? All my shit is paved but I feel like with the ~70ft of driveway and 50ft of on-street parking I need to clear it wouldn't save any time compared to just using the bucket.

It worked great for clearing my 40x60 pad. Bucketing snow sucks unless the bucket is as wide as what your clearing. The blower is just useless on unpaved surfaces.

 

[aczlan]

To make a blower work well on unpaved surfaces, cut a slit in the side of a piece of pipe (1-2" OD), pound it over the blower's cutting edge and weld on some tabs to hold it on.
I have done that on the little 54" blower on my inlaw's BX2660 and the 84" blower that we had on our Kubota and we can blow on grass, gravel, etc with no drama as long as we pickup any large rocks before the snow starts.
Can't find pictures now, but it turned out similar to: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/covering-blower-cutting-edge-with-pipe.372279/

Aaron Z

 

[Dethmachinefab]

To make a blower work well on unpaved surfaces, cut a slit in the side of a piece of pipe (1-2" OD), pound it over the blower's cutting edge and weld on some tabs to hold it on.
I have done that on the little 54" blower on my inlaw's BX2660 and the 84" blower that we had on our Kubota and we can blow on grass, gravel, etc with no drama as long as we pickup any large rocks before the snow starts.
Can't find pictures now, but it turned out similar to: https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/threads/covering-blower-cutting-edge-with-pipe.372279/

Aaron Z

I'll try that next season. Then I only need to look out for buried dunnage and steel cut drops. My plow piles are melted. Now just 4x4s, little I beams, and gravel remain.

 

[aczlan]

It worked for us snowblowing a path across the pasture (back when we had pygmy goats that couldn't handle deep snow) with the 7' snowblower and a 38HP tractor (FYI: a Kubota L3830 is not quite enough tractor for a 2000# 7' snowblower). I think I used a piece of 1.5" galvanized pipe on the 7' snowblower.

My father in law has not been able to scalp the lawn since I put the piece of pipe (actually 1" DOM IIRC) on the blower for his BX2660, he generally points it where he wants to go and doesn't stop until he breaks a shear pin, but he is in his 80s and doing well, so I just try to keep it fixed and make it harder for him to break stuff.

Aaron Z

 

[arse_sidewards]

I'll try that next season. Then I only need to look out for buried dunnage and steel cut drops. My plow piles are melted. Now just 4x4s, little I beams, and gravel remain.

Don't you hate when you find an old axle with the snow blower.

 

[[486]]

Don't you hate when you find an old axle with the snow blower.

I've been finding mattress wire with the mower lately

 

[Gregj50!!!!!]

;n345310]

I've been finding mattress wire with the mower lately

The evolution of this thread?????

I want to start cleaning up the fields at my place..... you guys are proving my concerns to be real!!!!

 

[[486]]

The evolution of this thread?????

I want to start cleaning up the fields at my place..... you guys are proving my concerns to be real!!!!

it ain't bad, just get you a crapass riding mower and get after it before the ground wasps warm up enough to start flying

 

[MattS]

;n345854]

it ain't bad, just get you a crapass riding mower and get after it before the ground wasps warm up enough to start flying

No. You wait until they start and then camp out over their hole and watch the mower work. I run the engine on rabbit engage the PTO and then idle down. Then you can see them get spit out the deck.