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Small Cabin Forum / Off-Grid Living / No more wheelbarrow or sled!
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Nobadays
Member
# Posted: 12 Nov 2022 08:53 - Edited by: Nobadays
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Yep another use for the new tractor! The woodshed is 30-40yards from the cabin, a bit uphill. So to bring wood to the porch I usually fill our high wheeled garden cart, throwing wood from the shed door into the cart, then carefully stacking it in the cart so I could get a full load. Then "chase the cart" downhill to the porch where I had to throw it onto the porch, pick it up and stack it. In the winter.... fill a sled repeat!

Now! I can pull up to the woodshed, throw the wood into the bucket, pull over to the porch, poke the bucket up on the porch where I can just grab and stack! Sweet! I'm going to find a 100 uses for that machine!
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KinAlberta
Member
# Posted: 12 Nov 2022 23:43 - Edited by: KinAlberta
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Or buy more racks, pile and strap the wood and then just swap them out to avoid the last step.

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 13 Nov 2022 07:44
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Your screwed now..you will never be without a tractor once you have one. You can C clamp boards on the side of your bucket vertically and stack the wood in there, you. Can get more in each trip that way.

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 13 Nov 2022 08:42
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I keep looking for things to do with mine, just sorry that winter is coming on fast here and slowing down our trips to the cabin.

Nobadays
Member
# Posted: 13 Nov 2022 09:34
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Yep my wheels are turning thinking about all the things I can do with the tractor instead of muscles! You don't know how many loads of lumber I've had on the pickup racks.... unloaded one stick at a time. No more! How many heavy cart loads of soil/ammendment I've wheeled down the path to the greenhouse.... widen that path about a foot... No more!

I think the turning point for my wife came this summer. Our friend who built our yard pad dumped a whole bunch of topsoil on it this summer then weeks, months went by and he never got around to spreading it out. Boy she was grumbling about that. After a couple of months she started saying if we had a tractor we could be planting grass by now. I started shopping!

toyota_mdt_tech
Member
# Posted: 13 Nov 2022 12:35
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Tractor is a game changer. After I bought mine, the grounds at the cabin changed dramatically and quickly, something that would of taken many man hours.

Nobadays, funny how your wife issued you the "PO" which, in a business is a purchase order, but marriage is a permission order.

I got a PO after talking about a tractor for months, was a nice warm Saturday in the spring and she said "well, are we going to look at tractors or not" and the rest was history. My fave was Kubota, so it was my first stop, we never made it any further. Planned on a cash deal, but they all had 0% interest and 0 down, Tractor was delivered following Sat. They actually all had that same deal, but never made it to the green or red tractor guys, ie JD, Massey Ferguson etc.

Nobadays
Member
# Posted: 13 Nov 2022 12:59
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Quoting: toyota_mdt_tech
My fave was Kubota, so it was my first stop, we never made it any further.


I was really hoping to find a good used Kubota but in retrospect I'm glad I found the JD first. My understanding is the Kubota has a fixed steering wheel which for me probably wouldn't have been good. The JD has a tilt wheel so it allows me to get it into a position I can steer with my knee as I operate the loader control.

Now to figure out if/how I can change the backhoe to 3 sticks and foot swing.... at least foot swing. I can wrap my arm around the sticks putting the crowd/bucket in the crook of my elbow, then operate the boom stick with my hand. Very awkward and I'm continually swinging the boom when I want to raise or lower. I've ran a 3 stick backhoe with foot swing and actually it was not too difficult one handed. After 32 years of being one armed my fingers can do a lot of things independent of the others. Maybe a joystick with buttons for bucket/crowd and swing/up-down being the stick movements. Dreaming!

Tim_Ohio
Member
# Posted: 14 Nov 2022 12:39
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I found this to be almost invaluable for the 3-pt hitch. This carry all worked well with a pallet and some sides for hauling a rototiller, generator, firewood, 55 gallon water barrel, and the list goes on. Your imagination is the limit as far as I'm concerned. It turned out to be one of the more reasonably priced tools I coupled to my tractor. When I built the cabin, I loaded up the bucket of the loader with tools, then used the carry all for other stuff. Another use was as a lift for the riding mower by driving up on a board across the arms and fastening it down. It made it possible to drag it around to a location or if it was broken down. Maybe one would be useful to you as well.

Tim_Ohio
carry all
carry all


Nobadays
Member
# Posted: 14 Nov 2022 13:08
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Thanks Tim... might be! I'm trying to be careful about buying addons so I don't upset SWMBO!

travellerw
Member
# Posted: 14 Nov 2022 22:32
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Love it fella. Keep finding those nails to hammer ;)

P.S. I think you should add a skidsteer to your fleet! It just makes financial sense. You don't want to beat up your nice new tractor. A skidsteer is made to be beat up!

gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 15 Nov 2022 11:14
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Im on the lookout for a used pallet fork attachment that mounts on the front (replaces the bucket) of the JD 1025r. The bucket drops easy, swapping attachments quick and I can leave my ballast weight on the 3pt for balance and stability.
With your conditions I think wheel weights for traction may be worthwhile, at least in the rear. The non-freezing liquid and/or the bolt-on cast iron.
Btw, Weighted wheels dont replace a rear ballast (attachment or a weight-box). You want to get the balance point to the rear axle to counter the front 'load'; ie, get it off the front axle. A loaded front axle pivot will throw the balance of the machine 'off' when the wheels are turned to steer. Can be Bad on a slope.
For SWMBO, its a safety thing!

BRADISH
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2022 10:56
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Quoting: travellerw
P.S. I think you should add a skidsteer to your fleet! It just makes financial sense. You don't want to beat up your nice new tractor. A skidsteer is made to be beat up!

If you buy a skidsteer I hope you like being poor. They make too much fun stuff to stick on it and its all expensive! I'll never have money for drugs and booze now.

Nobadays
Member
# Posted: 16 Nov 2022 12:43 - Edited by: Nobadays
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Yeah, a skidsteer is not likely in my future!

On a different note, I've been working with Summit Hydraulics to help find a solution to my 2 stick backhoe problem. They have helped me come up with a viable plan.... and looks like under $1,500. Including foot valves and hoses.

Here is the main stuff.... I will likely design a mechanical apparatus to move the left stick right. The electro-hydraulic control would be mounted on that stick.

I'm thinking about the foot controls used with a hydo hammer, If you got 2 of those to control the swing and hooked it to one 1valve on our D60-3A-12V-SW kit then the other 2 valves you can use our 4-button joystick, SW-J4-3, you could control the dip and curl functions. I will include the link for the kit and the joystick but the foot switch we do not carry. The joystick can be mounted on a piece of round stock or a piece of pipe if you don't want to mount it to a control lever.

Electric Hydraulic Double Acting Directional Control Valve, 3 SpoolValves

Joystick Handle Momentary Control Switch with Deutsch ConnectorsSwitch

Gregoire guy
Member
# Posted: 1 Dec 2022 20:26
Reply 


skid steer is the ultimate handy tool, until you decide to use it to clear/make trails in the bush. at 10,000 lbs, it doesnt float well and can easily make a boring day eventful i only have a gp bucket for it and a cheap set of clamp on bucket forks. use it for snow removal, spreading gravel, etc etc. have just purchased a firewood processor, and use the forks for loading 14' logs onto the processor table. Both machines are a true back saver. we are completely off grid, and our cabin is 98 years old. Built by my Great Grandfather when he immigrated to Canada from Finland. Now our retirement residence. 150 acres of forest. closest neighbour is 5km away. Winter at the door next week with a couple of nights at -30 c. (-22F) Fires will be roaring.

Nobadays
Member
# Posted: 25 Dec 2022 09:23
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And yet another use! A manlift... or in this case a "womanlift!"
It was about 18°F we both wanted the scraping job to stay warm, she won! Beats scraping snow off the roof from a ladder. Unfortunate that the uninsulated porch roof, with low pitch, melts underneath and forms ice then blocks the rest of the snow from sliding.

BTW.. ratchet straps are used to secure the manlift to the pallet forks.
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gcrank1
Member
# Posted: 25 Dec 2022 17:12
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Oh boy, think Im seeing another use for the 'totes' HD wire cages in your diy lift-cage.

Nobadays
Member
# Posted: 25 Dec 2022 20:27
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Quoting: gcrank1
Oh boy, think Im seeing another use for the 'totes' HD wire cages in your diy lift-cage.


Yep! I think I'm going to use the pallet forks a lot!

Brettny
Member
# Posted: 26 Dec 2022 06:51
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They make roof rakes that you can use from the ground. There prety cheap..just dont expect to find a decent once once the winter is in full swing.

Nobadays
Member
# Posted: 26 Dec 2022 09:07
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The porch roof right up to the transition gets iced up from the bottom. This year we have kept after it and have only had about 2". Last year we let it go until late in January and had, in places 6" of solid ice with snow on top. I'm not sure a roof rake would remove the ice...l guess if you raked the roof after each snow. My homemade rake works pretty well but you do have to use a ladder or now the manlift.

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