Go BottomLearning Experience
 | blizzard
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 282 Central Maine 
 Pics
|
2003-09-10 63539
Just a few thoughts after my first month as a CUT (L3130HST, 81 hours) owner.
I should have bought this tractor years ago!! There seems no end to the jobs made possible or a lot easier. Right now I'm replacing a crushed culvert near my house, a job I've been putting off for QUITE a while, due to the backbreaking work involved if done by hand. Hauling felled trees is a snap if care is taken (Don't turn too sharp, use the drawbar not the chain hook on the bucket!), and the FEL makes stacking them easy.
My FEL dexterity is improving, but is still novice level. I've learned to keep the work area clear of obstructions, and to NEVER assume everything is clear ( punkin' sized rock rolled off the top of the pile I was building, ran the back wheel onto it next load, cleaned shorts). Getting more comfortable with the machine, but hopefully not cocky. Don't the darn things seem tippy at first. Climbing ability has really impressed me, but I go oh so slow, and keep that bucket low.
Cleared about 10 good sized Fir and Birch and many saplings from around my power line that the utility company won't mess with till I lose power. All were bent away from the lines into a cleared area using a 1/2 nylon line and snatch block so I can pull from the field or driveway, woods is awful rough and pretty soggy after almost 4 inches of rain last week.
Just re-torqued the wheels and FEL, maybe got 1/2 flat on a couple of bolts. ( Hey Art, 15 min for bolts and greasing this time ) Fluids all fine, I check EVERY morning. Range selector for the HST is still a little stiff, but getting better. Only thing I don't like is the damn parking brake.
I use low range a lot and RPM 1800-2200 so if I don't kick the pedal hard I sometimes drive a ways with the brake on.
I wish they had an audible alarm for the brake not just a light!
I've rambled on quite enough for one night, hope to put up some pictures soon. Best luck to all the members and visitors, and thanks to all who have responded to my questions, and also to those who posted their thoughts and experiences about so many subjects.
G'night,
bliz
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
 | TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley 
|
2003-09-11 63563
Sounds like it's going real well. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
 | Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
Pics
|
2003-09-11 63576
Glad to here you are getting used to it and enjoying it! If you go to your local parts store there is enough power in the light line for your brake to run a car seat belt buzzer. Good luck!! ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| stemmler1
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 22 Connecticut
|
2003-09-11 63580
You mentioned the one complaint I have with the Kubota tractors... Not having some type of brake alarm. I cannot tell you the number of times I end up driving the tractor with the brake engaged. I am cutting a lot of wood and always put the brake on when I am off the tractor. I may try Art's suggestion and look into a car seat belt alarm. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
 | Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
Pics
|
2003-09-11 63584
Tip 'o the week time.
Your eye will detect and be drawn to aflashing light far faster than a constantly on light. It is an instinctive reaction, kind of like an animal spotting a moving item of prey but missing the frozen-in-place one.
Put a simple electronic flasher of the kind used for the turn signals in your car in line with the warning light for the parking brake. When the brakes are applied the light will flash until they are released.
I have tried my learned friend Art's idea of the buzzer, but if you spend much time with the brake on and the machine idling the novelty of that noise runs out REALLY fast, the blinking is only noticeable from the operator's seat.
Enjoy the new machine.
Best of luck.
....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
Pics
|
2003-09-11 63604
Murf, you have a good point, but if the suns on that section of the dash tht blinking isn't noticed by to many. You could do both if you wanted to and really be safe. We have hooked up regular taillites on top of the dashes for some of the tractors, Maybe a toggle switch if you wwanted to use the trctor stationary, but then would you remember to turn it back on? ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| blizzard
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 282 Central Maine
Pics
|
2003-09-11 63647
Thanks for the info about the brake lights Art & Murph. This is definately a TO-DO as soon as I get my 28' 12" culvert in place. Have to take advantage of the good weather, and UPS is coming soon with some stuff for my fuel drum from Northern Tool. I was good today though, seatbelt, kick the brake pedal HARD, off I go.
Gosh, my eye is so bad estimating how big a pile of material I will have out of a hole! Was piling the driveway fill I am removing (pit run with large rocks) on the drive, and had to move the pile -TWICE
I can really see why we have such a terrible 'mud season' here in Maine. There's about 8-12" of topsoil, then 10-12" of 'Bangor Clay Loam' (mostly clay by my eye), then maybe 6" of gray clay, then a concrete-hard mix of clay, gravel, and rocks. I wonder how any water gets down to my well! I think firewood harvesting would be feasible though, as the R-1's bite well in all but the loose surface vegetation and the (wet)topsoil.
Thanks again, and I hope everyone is having as much of a blast with their CUT as I am!
bliz ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| TomG
Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 5406 Upper Ottawa Valley
|
2003-09-12 63667
My brakes aren't quite even. I suppose I could adjust them but it always tells me when I try to drive before releasing them. As long as they hold on hills and don't pull when I'm stopping, I'm just not motivated to adjust them. Well, can have I have motivation problems.
I've heard there's a large area in the Canadian Prairie where the surface water migrates to aquifers at rates less than an inch per year. Good chance that the water you're using now was surface water a long time ago. Some people's wells draw what is essentially glacier water. Just a curious thing to think about. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| stemmler1
Join Date: Jul 2003 Posts: 22 Connecticut
|
2003-09-12 63673
I just went out and purchased one of those auto blinking lights and plan on installing it on my BX this weekend. The only problem, I think, is that the Bx has no brake light on the dash currently. Where would I hook up the light to if there are no wires running to the brakes. Any help would be most appriciated. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
Pics
|
2003-09-12 63677
If there is no existing indicator light a little more work is involved.
You need to mount a small momentary contact switch in such a position that the switch turns on if the brake pedal is depressed slightly and goes off in the normal driving position. Then one wire goes to a 12v. source from the ignition switch, the other goes to one lead on the light itself, the second lead on the light then gets grounded to the negative side of the circuit.
Best of luck. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
 | DRankin
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 5116 Northern Nevada
Pics
|
2003-09-12 63678
The only way that comes to mind to install a warning light on the BX would be to set up something like a brake light switch under the floor pan that activates when the brake-lock pedal is in the down position.
The real problem is the BX has a marginally effective parking brake. On both of my John Deere's you can overpower the parking brake, but there is no doubt that the tractor is struggling mightily to do it.
The BX would run right past the brake. I also found I couldn't trust the brake alone on steep hills. I had to turn the engine off AND set the brake if I wanted the tractor to stay put on an incline. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
 | kwschumm
Join Date: Feb 2003 Posts: 5764 NW Oregon
Pics
|
2003-09-12 63688
Maybe an audible warning buzzer would work unobtrusively if you used two switches wired in series with the buzzer. One would be a seat switch that makes contact when you sit in the seat, the other would make contact when the parking brake is on. This way the buzzer would only sound when the parking brake is on AND you sit on the seat. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
Pics
|
2003-09-12 63697
Or maybe an electric fence energizer connected to the seat swith and parking brake circuit .... certainly would be noticeable .....
ROFLMAO ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
Pics
|
2003-09-12 63718
Murf, you are tough on people, any of your help make it past the first 24 hours? ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| Murf
Join Date: Dec 1999 Posts: 7249 Toronto Area, Ontario, Canada
Pics
|
2003-09-12 63729
Some of them make it, the tough, thick-skinned ones anyways, come to think of it my good lady has lasted 5 years.... LOL.... How I'm not sure but that another story.
Sorry guys, I come by my sense of humour honestly though, I was out with my Father recently, at the place we stopped for coffee a fellow at the next table couldn't stop sneezing. When he passed comment that he wished he could find something to stop the sneezing, my Father said he had a guaranteed cure, take Ex-lax, a whole package of Ex-lax. The guy, without thinking, said "Ex-lax will stop my sneezing?" Dad replied "You eat a whole package of Ex-lax & I guarantee you won't have the nerve to sneeze for DAYS!!"
It worked too, the guy laughed so hard that he could barely breathe, let alone sneeze.
Don't even ask about his cure for hiccups....
Best of luck. ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add PhotoLearning Experience
| Art White
Join Date: Jan 2000 Posts: 6898 Waterville New York
Pics
|
2003-09-14 63828
Murf, if I would have had a mouthful of coffee hearing that, I would of blown it across two tables!!! ....
Reply to |
Quote Reply |
Add Photo
Go Top
Share This