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Since you mentioned that the loader was compensating for the ground, I am almost certain that you are making the same mistake almost everybody, including me :-),
makes when they first get a loader. All the way forward on the lever puts the loader in "float position" exactly so that the loader bucket will float on the ground and compensate for variation. Float takes away down and up pressure from the loader arms...so it will never pick up your tractor. Try moving the loader arm lever in the down direction...but do not take it past the detent position which is all the way forward (this is the float position) and I am certain you will pick up your front end.

BTW the stupidest thing I ever did with my tractor was the first day I had it and happened with the loader in float and in 4wd. While pulling the bucket backward with a load in it the bucket hung up on a rock, since I was in 4wd in reverse with the loader in float...the front wheels continued going backwards, the loader stayed on the ground..and I stood the tractor on its nose!

Don't do that!

Kim Hartshorn

790 questions
John Deere Tractors
Replies 12 Post by Kim Hartshorn

It does seem a bit odd to put a smaller thrower on your tractor than your wheelbase...but if you pick up one of those "want ad digest" type publications you will see many 36" snowblower attachments for garden tractors. It would prolly not be too difficult to convert one to 3pth.

Does anyone make a 3pth snowblower smaller than 48 quot
Snowblowers / Snow Plows
Replies 3 Post by Kim Hartshorn

The easiest inexpensive way to bury flexible pipe or wire is to buy a j-shaped piece of exhaust pipe...and strap it with hoseclamps to the tool bar on a subsoiler. The idea is that the horizontal part of the j will point out the back of the subsoiler just above the bottom of the blade. The vertical part of the j will come up past the implement frame. To lay flexible pipe you just feed it through the j...it lays in the bottom of the trench in the wake of the subsoiler and the soil then falls back on top of it, no removal of soil is necessary. It helps to run the subsoiler through a couple of times with out the pipe feeder attached until it runs easily at the desired depth.

good luck

Kim Hartshorn

trenching sprinkler lines
Operating and Attachments
Replies 12 Post by Kim Hartshorn

I was recalling that two of the sources I found very useful when I started to clear trees was our NY DEC. They have many pamphlets and free information and are there to keep the environment healthy and the people safe. The other was a book called "Professional Timber Falling" that I got from baileys. www.baileys.com

good luck

Kim Hartshorn

clearing trees
Tractor Projects
Replies 6 Post by Kim Hartshorn

Long before you rebuild the engine you need to consider lots of other stuff.
If you havent changed the coil I would definitly do that. Coils are the simplest and most often overlooked reason for a loss of power. This will show up first under the highest torque conditions, like mowing uphill.

kim Hartshorn

loss of power
Cub Cadet
Replies 5 Post by Kim Hartshorn

I have the earlier 1500 4wd. My guess is that with hills to mow you will not be happy with 2wd on this tractor. It is fairly light and I think you would need the 4wd.

Good Luck

Price check on Ford 1520
New Holland Tractors
Replies 4 Post by Kim Hartshorn

I have been pulling quite a bit of logs with my tractor. You do have to be careful but I have been quite surprised at what it can do. A chain will fly when broken if...it is fastened to something elastic or with it's own momentum.
For instance if it is attached to a winch and it snaps the winch suddenly goes to no load on a maximum pull and propels the chain. If it is connected to the bumper hitch of a car and the car is moving forward...jerking it will also propel the chain. The key is acceleration. if there is no acceleration the chain will not propel. So keep the pulls slow and steady. But also be aware that there may be an elastic momentum somewhere in the line of pull. It is a good idea to put something with some weight on top of a chain that you are pulling to lessen the danger of it flying when broken. One thing I have not done but have thought about doing is threading the first ten feet of a pulling chain through a length of pvc pipe.

One other method of pulling something heavy and worrisome...or sometimes to break something out is to use the bucket roll on your loader. If you have chain grabs on your loader you can chain the tractor to tree and inch the drag using the roll on your bucket....roll back...rehook chain...roll back...rehook chain...roll back...rehook chain. It can be slow but can be done off the tractor in relative safety.

Good Luck Play Safe

Kim Hartshorn

Pulling down trees
Tractor Projects
Replies 21 Post by Kim Hartshorn

Dave,

I think the IRS already beat you to that postulate, it's the first thing they tell you during an audit.

Update on old topic Spark plug removal
Parts and Repair
Replies 3 Post by Kim Hartshorn

I built a rops for my tractor that I use exclusively in the woods. I have not put a seat belt on it yet and may not. I have found that the way in which I use the tractor, mostly for hauling logs and building roads, I am often standing up. I tried to make myself sit down while doing this work but I felt that it actually was much more difficult and maybe dangerous because the main reason I was standing was for visibility, front, back and to the sides. The second reason is that I rarely take the tractor out of lowest low when I am doing work. The few times that I have encountered unstability the tractor was moving very slow and becoming unstable quite slowly. I do worry about sliding sideways inadvertantly and I do plan on putting in a seat belt...but for myself...I have decided that I will not wear it in all situations. I do think that wearing a seat belt with a ROPS is highly advised in most Agricultural situations and every time you are trying to do work on slopes of any kind.

seat belt or not
Tractor Projects
Replies 12 Post by Kim Hartshorn

I bought my 1500 used from a dealer and shortly after had the same problem. The dealer service guy gave me the following advice to try before bringing it in. (Which he said was not a problem...good dealer) Get a pry bar or something that you can wedge between the foot pedal piece and the transmission housing and lever the pedal shaft out from the housing about 1/2 or so. This pulls against the spring described in the previous post. At that point spray it up real good with WD40, if you have the straw try getting the WD40 right down the shaft into the housing. I am assuming that the 1510 rear end is pretty much like the 1500...it sounds like it from your description. This fix worked well for me, it took about five minutes and I havent had any problems with it since.--good luck--Kim Hartshorn

Ford 1510 rear end
Parts and Repair
Replies 5 Post by Kim Hartshorn

ROPS subject is one that I find fascinating. The pat answer is to not modify your ROPS. I made mine...which does worry me some. But my reasoning went like this...I went down to the dealer and looked at original equipemtn rops on the new boomers. If you do this the question that jumps out is "Is that flimsy piece of bent tubing supposed to hold up this whole tractor!" If you look at the first ROPS that were installed on the tractors of the 80's they are very much beefier...made out of the same sort of structural steel I would get from the steel yard if I was going to make one. Somewhere along the line the engineers and the cost cutters must have gotten together and figured the margins. Now I assume that the current ROPS still have a significant safety factor built into the design. I believe the standard safety factor for human operator applications is 10x. Given all of that and the fairly light weight of my tractor $2500 it seemed completely plausible to me that I could design intuitively a ROPS that would keep my tractor off of me. Well I hope I am right, but it is very difficult to see the $600 that the manufacturers say is their cost for a ROPS on a small or compact tractor...even with their liability insurance factored in.

What I am getting at is that I cannot imagine that your alteration would impar the functioning of your ROPS...well I hope I am right :-)

Good Luck

Kim Hartshorn

ROPS Question
Massey Ferguson Tractors
Replies 14 Post by Kim Hartshorn

I think that this forum will generate lots of traffic. Although I do not have a farm I use my tractor for woodlot management. Thanks

Nice New Forum
Parts and Repair
Replies 1 Post by Kim Hartshorn

One thing though is that the things to look out for differ in so many parts of the country. Especially in terms of state regulations. Two things to definitly check out once you are getting serious about a property. Go to the local office, could be Department of Natural Resources, could be county clerk, could be building inspector even...go to the local office that can tell you the wet land situation for your property. This is the "official" wetland situation for your property...not whether or not it appears to be wet. DO NOT TRUST ANY REAL ESTATE AGENT on this matter. It is important to remember that real estate agents are working for the seller and not for the buyer...even if it is listed with a different agent or company. The only exception is if you sign a buyers agent agreement with the real estate agent, but most will not do this and it is also expensive since their pay comes from you and not from a commission of sale. In any case you might find a nice piece of property with a nice building site but no way to get to the building site without crossing designated wet lands. Or an accessible building site but no place for the septic field. Or as in our case a beautiful piece of property that was 100% designated wetland (We figured it out before we made an offer)

The second thing is to check on the drinking water situation, check with neighbors and check with local drillers and check with the local building. inspectors. There might be sulfurated water...or only really deep water.
These issues become especially important when you are looking for vacant land because in some cases the land that is still vacant is vacant for a reason.

Keep this stuff in mind....but have fun too. We took five years to find our piece and it was worth every minute of it. Dont be in a hurry either because the more land you walk the better you will get at assessing it.

Good Luck

Kim

Vacant Land
Parts and Repair
Replies 13 Post by Kim Hartshorn

Try this place

tire chains
John Deere Tractors
Replies 2 Post by Kim Hartshorn

Tom...That's great news! I am wondering about the pipe sleeve that the shaft is supposed to run inside of. Is there any indication of it? Is it missing? it might be handy to have...especially if you are going to be doing any mowing in high stuff.

Nice Fix

Ford 1900 - Four Wheel Drive Doesn t Work
Parts and Repair
Replies 10 Post by Kim Hartshorn

Tom, I looked in the manual in the 1900 section and found some things that you probably already knew, and some that might be helpful. The PTO shaft is the long lever that comes up the left side of the transmission. Directly in front of the seat on top of the transmission case is a raised housing. If there is a lever that comes off the left side of that housing it is for the two speed rear axle (a nice feature) the lever off the right side of that housing is for the 4wd. The shaft to the front differential is enclosed inside of a pipe. If that pipe is missing it would be evidence that someone had been messing with the 4wd drive train at some point in the past and didnt put it all back together...which could be a bad sign. There is one more possiblitly...there might have been a problem, or perhaps still is in one of the final drives...the gearbox between the differential and each front wheel inside of the big bulb at the end of the trumpet. Perhaps one of these crunched up and somebody removed the pieces. The result would be that the differential would turn the axle with the least resistance...which in this case would be the one with the final drive removed. As I sit here trying to think this through...If that was the case I think if you turned the other wheel when not in 4wd...since the drive train would offer more resistance than the missing final drive....that rolling the tractor would have the result of turning the opposite axle in reverse and not driving the drive shaft.

Good luck...and look for used parts :-)

Kim Hartshorn

Ford 1900 By Shibaura 4 Wheel Drive Doen t Work
Shibaura
Replies 16 Post by Kim Hartshorn

That is not a cup holder, it's a loose screw, extra key, hitchpin, wd40 holder

cup holder
Kubota Tractors
Replies 14 Post by Kim Hartshorn

MFWD stands for Mechanical Four Wheel Drive....I am not particularly sure what non-mechanical four wheel drive might be except maybe independent hydraulic motor four wheel drive like you might find on an industrial loader.

Kim Hartshorn

JD Front end problems and MFWD
John Deere Tractors
Replies 3 Post by Kim Hartshorn

I pull plenty of big stuff with my Ford 1500 and my homemade winch. It's a 17hp PTO tractor and I have successfully pulled 16' x 16" logs uphill with the winch.
The tractor itself will skid much bigger than that. I would definitly suggest both loaded tires and chains especially if you are going to be working in snow and ice at all. (This is the best time to skid logs btw) One thing though, why are you going to take a brand new machine into the woods? It is going to get banged and scratched up pretty good. I would seriously be looking at used equipment. Are you going to mill your own timber logs? Depending on how many timber logs you are going to be skidding, and the terrain on your property, you can get an awful lot done with just a long cable and the tractor. The winch is really handy to get bunches of logs to a landing quickly where they can be skidded out in bunches.

Good Luck

If you are milling your own logs I would be interested in hearing what you are using.

Kim Hartshorn

JD4300 and Logging Winch with Loaded Tires
John Deere Tractors
Replies 7 Post by Kim Hartshorn

And dont leave out the tremendous cost of liability insurance. I have read that something like 75% of the cost of a ladder goes to cover liability.

I wonder if anyone realizes how slippery those stickers that say "Do not stand above this step" are when they get wet? :-)

I would imagine that the threat of liability in tractor manufacturing has to be quite high.

Kim Hartshorn

Tractors in USA are too expensive
Tractor Projects
Replies 22 Post by Kim Hartshorn