Must have tractor attachments

[Peeps]

For those that use your tractor for snow removal what have you had best luck using? The bucket, snow pusher, plow, or blower?

 

[Mortenson]

For those that use your tractor for snow removal what have you had best luck using? The bucket, snow pusher, plow, or blower?

All I've ever used was a bucket. Guys who have the need seem to like blowers. Aren't snow pushers mostly for parking lots and runways?

 

[Wild Thing]

For those that use your tractor for snow removal what have you had best luck using? The bucket, snow pusher, plow, or blower?

For a few inches of snow the back blade works very well. Bucket does not work well at all IMO. Also have a front mounted plow which works Ok but I would prefer a front mounted blower I think. Not at all interested in a rear mounted blower.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

Blower is the way to go but also very expensive. We have had them on subcompact tractors at the northern MN cabin and they work well for a few hundred feet of driveway.

 

[Foggy47]

Cab with HVAC. Everything else is secondary. Grin.

 

[Buckly]

I live in one of the biggest lake effect snow areas in the USA and a front mounted blower is where it’s at. And I’ll be needing to put it on shortly.

 

[SWIFFY]

I wouldnt get through the winter without a blower. I have a 3 point but would love a front mount. someday maybe.

 

[Foggy47]

I started 15 years ago......with 110 acres of a pine plantation that had been high-graded by a timber company and then sold to me. LOTS of trees to deal with and I spent years making trails and food plots and grinding stumps from my property. Guessing....but I know I ground over 3500 stumps.....and cleared about 10 acres for plots and a few miles of trails. I used every implement at my disposal during this period from rotary cutters, tandem disks, tooth bar, stump grinder, middle buster, tiller, landscape rake, cultivator, drags, post hole digger, ballast box, box blade, loader bucket, forks, drop and spin spreaders, corn planter, and more. Each was greeted with enthusiasm when I bought them.....and all were useful for some purposes.

The very most useful thing for those past years was my front end loader grapple. I bought mine from Markham ....which was a low cost, decent quality, relatively light weight, provider back then. Mine is a 48" wide single lid grapple.....and I would buy that size again in a heartbeat over the other (wider) sizes. Mine does have a bit too wide of a floor for ideal use for me....but it has worked like a champion none the less. I think I paid about $700 or so delivered. I don't think it's ever cost me a cent to repair. I've picked up countless piles of brush and pine trees with that grapple.

The grapple has been converted from the JD pin-on mount to a QT mount when I bought my Kubota. Now I seldom use very many of those tillage implements.....and I dont think I had my grapple on last summer. My land is broken and my trails established. No big trees go down in the wind these days. I find the implements I now use the most are my No Till Drill, my loader forks, and my flail mower. The balance pretty much sits there. A few were a bit too light duty and somewhat abused.....but most were just used and remain in good shape.

Thinking on down sizeing and selling some of those implements.....but then the time comes when they remain useful. None really owe me anything.

In spring I may sell the ballast box, JD 71 two row planter, box blade.....maybe my lime spreader after I get another load applied next summer. That drill was a real game changer for me.

 

[Wild Thing]

I started 15 years ago......with 110 acres of a pine plantation that had been high-graded by a timber company and then sold to me. LOTS of trees to deal with and I spent years making trails and food plots and grinding stumps from my property. Guessing....but I know I ground over 3500 stumps.....and cleared about 10 acres for plots and a few miles of trails. I used every implement at my disposal during this period from rotary cutters, tandem disks, tooth bar, stump grinder, middle buster, tiller, landscape rake, cultivator, drags, post hole digger, ballast box, box blade, loader bucket, forks, drop and spin spreaders, corn planter, and more. Each was greeted with enthusiasm when I bought them.....and all were useful for some purposes.

The very most useful thing for those past years was my front end loader grapple. I bought mine from Markham ....which was a low cost, decent quality, relatively light weight, provider back then. Mine is a 48" wide single lid grapple.....and I would buy that size again in a heartbeat over the other (wider) sizes. Mine does have a bit too wide of a floor for ideal use for me....but it has worked like a champion none the less. I think I paid about $700 or so delivered. I don't think it's ever cost me a cent to repair. I've picked up countless piles of brush and pine trees with that grapple.

The grapple has been converted from the JD pin-on mount to a QT mount when I bought my Kubota. Now I seldom use very many of those tillage implements.....and I dont think I had my grapple on last summer. My land is broken and my trails established. No big trees go down in the wind these days. I find the implements I now use the most are my No Till Drill, my loader forks, and my flail mower. The balance pretty much sits there. A few were a bit too light duty and somewhat abused.....but most were just used and remain in good shape.

Thinking on down sizeing and selling some of those implements.....but then the time comes when they remain useful. None really owe me anything.

In spring I may sell the ballast box, JD 71 two row planter, box blade.....maybe my lime spreader after I get another load applied next summer. That drill was a real game changer for me.

The no-till drill was a game changer for me as well. Acquisition of the drill allowed me to sell my conventional JD drill, my 4 row JD planter and my 12’ Brillion cultivator. All of them BTW, sold for quite a bit more than I paid for them. After 7 years of no-till, my disc, 3 Pt cultivator and 3 Pt fertilizer spreader sit idle as well.

I have purchased many of the same implements you listed Foggy, but I do wish I had a flail mower and a grapple.

 

[Maddog66]

I have acreage. Trails, food plots, logs, rocks, stumps and dirt are all in great supply. My must haves, in no particular order are: cab with hvac, loader bucket, grapple, rotary cutter, ballast box, pallet forks, 3 pt snowblower, Firminator, 3pt spreader, water buffalo, and lime spreader.

I use all of them often.

 

[Tree Spud]

I have a 6' Firminator seeder, back-hoe, bucket with hooks, grapple, rear brush cutter, rear blade, cultipacker, disc, polyethylene seed/fertilizer spreader, & post hole digger.

Haven't used the poly seed spreader, plan to this winter with lime addition after my soil tests.

Thinking of buying a used tractor just for the brush cutter & post hole digger as I use those alot and would allow my main tractor to be set-up with the back-hoe. Takes some time to mount the back-hoe so i have to leave on and have a list of projects to power through.

What I am missing?

 

[rocksnstumps]

^^^ why not if you have the shed space. Maybe something before all the diesel tier regs making things a hassle. If you are one of the need a cab for lots of mowing guys could be more expensive but being up north the mowing season isn't bad weatherwise so open station is ok. Get yourself a big golf umbrella for the sun and let er rip.

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

I have a 6' Firminator seeder, back-hoe, bucket with hooks, grapple, rear brush cutter, rear blade, cultipacker, disc, polyethylene seed/fertilizer spreader, & post hole digger.

Haven't used the poly seed spreader, plan to this winter with lime addition after my soil tests.

Thinking of buying a used tractor just for the brush cutter & post hole digger as I use those alot and would allow my main tractor to be set-up with the back-hoe. Takes some time to mount the back-hoe so i have to leave on and have a list of projects to power through.

What I am missing?

I have two. The bushhog stays hooked up almost permanently to one. I HATE swapping implements alone. I have said enough swear words to make a sailor blush before. I had a buddy say his goal was to have a tractor for every implement! Obviously he was kidding but I understand what he meant.

 

[Maddog66]

You are missing a mini-ex, Tree Spud!!!!

Now that I have the tractor, it quickly rose to the top of my equipment bucket list.

 

[yoderjac]

I have two. The bushhog stays hooked up almost permanently to one. I HATE swapping implements alone. I have said enough swear words to make a sailor blush before. I had a buddy say his goal was to have a tractor for every implement! Obviously he was kidding but I understand what he meant.

Me too! It was such a pain in the butt to hook up some implements, I had to come up with a solution. My first try was a quick-hitch. That did not work out well. First, it does not work with all implements and second you need a lot of room for implement storage so you can back up to each implement. I have limited storage, but I do have a nice cement floor in the barn.

My final solution was building implement dollies using Harbor freight dollies connecting them with 2x4s. I don't mind putting all steel implements outside, but I like to keep anything with a gearbox and PTO inside if possible. I can now roll most implements around the barn myself. I position the one I want in the doorway, back in and hook up. I have a hydraulic top-link and with the implement on a dolly, it is easy to more the implement rather than the tractor for small movements to hook up the arms.

There is another thread on here some place where I've got pictures of some of the implements on dollies.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[Foggy47]

I have two. The bushhog stays hooked up almost permanently to one. I HATE swapping implements alone. I have said enough swear words to make a sailor blush before. I had a buddy say his goal was to have a tractor for every implement! Obviously he was kidding but I understand what he meant.

Attaching implements to the three point goes pretty smooth with PAT'S EZ Hitch. They work similar to a quick hitch on the lower links but are independent of each other. Then I use a hydraulic top link. This combination makes swiping implements go pretty smooth. I do keep some implements on dolly's in my shed but many need to sit outside due to lack of space.

Early on.....I tried a quick hitch, but quickly found I had too many implements that were not compatible and saw the limitations for me. PAT's Works great if you have three point implements that are non-compliant.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I live in one of the biggest lake effect snow areas in the USA and a front mounted blower is where it’s at. And I’ll be needing to put it on shortly.

Do you have a gravel driveway? If so, how well does it work with the gravel driveway? I assume it is like a plow, pack down the first few snow falls ontop, then adjust the skids on it?

 

[Buckly]

Do you have a gravel driveway? If so, how well does it work with the gravel driveway? I assume it is like a plow, pack down the first few snow falls ontop, then adjust the skids on it?

Yes , I have a gravel driveway. The blower works just like the bucket and has a float function so the blower just rides on top of the gravel driveway . I can also tip the front edge up slightly at first or when it’s soft. Once it’s packed then I just drop and go but the float works really well early on. I can also go right across soft grass on the lawn without ever digging in. I get carried away and blow about half the lawn off too just in case I get a lot of company. Far less damage than a plow in my opinion.

 

[Natty Bumppo]

For those that use your tractor for snow removal what have you had best luck using? The bucket, snow pusher, plow, or blower?

I use a 3 point 7' snowblower and a 5' snow blade on the FEL. I get VERY heavy snowfalls each year, and this set up is more than adequate. I also use aggressive snow chains...my tractor is like a tank in the heaviest snows. With the blower I never have snow banks.

Here are the shortcomings. To use the blower, you have drive backwards and look behind you the entire time. This can get old. Also, on windy days, the snow can blow right back in your face. That gets old. I think when I am a bit older this won't be ideal. I also have to get off the tractor to manually change the angle of the front snow blade. That's a drag.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I use a 3 point 7' snowblower and a 5' snow blade on the FEL. I get VERY heavy snowfalls each year, and this set up is more than adequate. I also use aggressive snow chains...my tractor is like a tank in the heaviest snows. With the blower I never have snow banks.

Here are the shortcomings. To use the blower, you have drive backwards and look behind you the entire time. This can get old. Also, on windy days, the snow can blow right back in your face. That gets old. I think when I am a bit older this won't be ideal. I also have to get off the tractor to manually change the angle of the front snow blade. That's a drag.



View attachment 46860

You need to flip flop them around. Snow blower on the front, blade on the back.