Tractor Tards get in here... Tarctor Tard Thread

Well, her name is Ta-Tonka (buffalo) for a reason! Yes, she is a big girl!

I had this machine as part of my logging outfit, before going to work as a Forester for the state.
I have many acres of timber, so this helps me to keep the dead and dying trees cleaned out of the stand, and sent to the mill to make boards.

She also pulls 1/2 ton round bales around to different spots on my property for my horse, mule and sheep.

And, she does the driveway maintenance like snowplowing and back-blading the running surface.

I love Big Iron, and was an equipment inspector for fire apparatus for many years.

Love this thread OP, 5 *****.

When the feces hits the oscillating blades, these tractor critters will be important tools for the Homesteaders, as long as the petroleum products hold out.

Then, plan B is the mule and horse!

Cheers!

TOL

and that's one problem with new tractors they're so computerized they average Joe farmer can't do much fixing. So any little thing that goes wrong you call Titan Machinery to come out and hook up their computer to find the issue. And if you're lucky the bill will be less than 1K, but any real fixing your talking many thousands.

I've only got 5 acres and that is mostly brush and timber.

I bought a JD 3830E off Craigslist and it came with backblade, front bucket and a six foot rotary brush mower.

Since then I welded up some bobcat forks (the JD has a quick attach bucket) for handling the smaller logs (it can only lift about 800 pounds) and I bought a rototiller.

I also rigged a 7.5 foot snowplow that was for a pickup truck that I can put on the front. Pushing snow is a lot better than driving over and pulling with the backblade.

Not my cup of tea but I'll remember that one for the jukebox.

Do it! Better hurry... spring's coming. That's why I got this done early. Beat the rush of people thinking the same as you.

Well that beats any Tonka I ever had!

Looking for recommendations on a fairly heavy duty tiller 5 or 6 ft wide category II

Was looking at King Kutter they look like they'll handle a beating.

My property has a hillside steep enough to roll most tractors.

I asked myself what do the Italians use to farm those grape arbors and discovered Antonio Carraro and the reversible driver concept.

Here is an Australian deal; I want one of these:

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] (2.6 minutes)

If you asked me several years back where the largest grape grower in the world was located, I would have guessed either France or Italy. Both wrong. Washington state.

These guys went to Antonio Carraro for the power in a small low package. They own close to 100 tractors. I called them and asked if they sell them at so many hours, but they don't. They have their own repair shop and keep the old units as parts donors.

Here's their story in 4.5 minutes:
[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Well, I can't afford an Antonio Carraro but the concept of reversing the drive on a tractor fascinated me. So many things are more visible. I had driven an International years back with a fork lift so I knew it had been done.

Here is an old Allis Chalmers WD or WD45 that has been reversed. He is using the original hydraulic pump which put out good pressure (3,000 pounds +) but it is low volume. And that engine isn't running very smooth, but the paint is nice:

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] (2 minutes)

I've got a '00 model JD 4300 4X4.
I got it at a good deal and figured I'd use it for a stop gap to trade up later.
Turns out, it's all I need.
It runs almost an entire day on a single tank of fuel.

The nice thing about those old Allis Chalmers is they used a pair of six inch channel iron for the main frame. That means you can pull the engine without breaking the tractor in two parts. So, I got an old WD for scrap iron price with a froze and cracked block.

I am shopping around for a small diesel, but it is a lot easier to find a small four cylinder gas like a toyota or datson with more horsepower than the original Allis (only about 35 hp)

Here is a short video about this Farmall with a 4 cyl cummins:
[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

Here is a reversed Farmall with the loader on the rear.
Video is only two minutes and has wind noise. But you can see the obvious advantage of carrying the load on the ass end rather than the front.

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

There's some good info in this thread!

Like adding lubricating additive to the diesel fuel (which now-a-days ultra low sulpher) to protect the valves and injectors.

One thing I would advise is, while your excitement and enthusiasm about your tractor purchase is high, go ahead and do a COMPLETE fluid and filter service on the tractor!

It might take you two days and cost you $500, but you will likely never do it 100% if you don't do it now. And keep service records of everything you do (alongside any records you get from the previous owner).

It likely would cost you $1000 to $1500 to have a tractor dealership service it, and based on my experience they won't do it as well as you would.

And by doing it yourself you will have crawled over just about every nook and cranny on your tractor and will find worn belts, cracked hoses, cracked castings, loose or broken bolts, etc that you would not notice otherwise.

A true forestry mulcher takes a lot of horsepower so you won't get into those options on the cheap. But those old farmalls and Allis linked above can be converted to reverse drive. You can see the obvious advantage on this smaller rig (about 50 horsepower) with a flail mower.

Cutting weeds and small brush; 1.5 minutes:
[link to www.youtube.com (secure)]

I have a Kubota 50hp for general farm work.

A John Deere 2040 for disking.

A Kubota 40hp 4wd with loader and backhoe.

A Ford backhoe.

A Farmall 140 and a couple of Cubs for gardening.

A Ford 4000 4wd, just because so few were made.

And a David Bradley walking tractor.

Also several more tractor projects that will never get rebuilt. But hey, I LOVE TRACTORS!!

Yeah some of the compact/subcompact 4x4s pack some real power. More than enough for most.

Honestly mine's a little heavier than I'd like. 8K lbs without the loader so must be well over 10k with it.

Be interesting to see how I do in the marshy stuff... Gonna take baby steps with this damn thing until I'm really comfortable with it. Especially working around my lake. Just seems like its gonna sink straight down into anything soft.

Yep... Have warmer weather on the way and that's the plan at a minimum.

So far it looks to have been fairly well maintained aside from the salt exposure. It was originally a municipal/city tractor. I can tell just by looking that they greased everything regularly which is def a positive sign.

Gonna be fun figuring out what the hell to do with all that oil etc. Gallons! Not exactly set up like a heavy equipment mechanic here.

So is the backwards set up reversible? IE can you convert it back to normal?

Weird but I see the appeal. Steers like a forklift.

There are a number of compact 4X4s built in Europe where the drivers seat and controls rotate so you can use them either direction.

In the larger tractors Versatile came out with a 100 hp unit in 1985: [link to www.farmshow.com (secure)]

The early ones are mostly high hours and ready for a major overhaul by now. The design has been taken over by Ford-New Holland now. They have models with three point hitch, PTO, and hydraulic hookups on both front and rear.

I looked at a high hours Versatile that had a backhoe on the rear and a loader on the front (which is a common thing to backhoes anyway). It was priced at $17,500, but I figured it was due for an engine overhaul.

I have seen pictures of reversible tractors with snowplow on one end and snowblower on the other and that was a Canadian unit.

The other attachment I bought was a three point hitch backhoe that has its own pto driven hydraulic pump. Nice unit that I have used to dig out four stumps to improve my driveway.

Next project is a partially dug in greenhouse; there's a name wallipede (???) for the idea. Looking at designs now.

Easier to remember is sunken greenhouse. The word is Walipini.

A number of variations on the concept exist.

Here is a Nebraska guy raising citrus fruit and his additional concept is to bury a manifold of heat ducts under his lawn. He has written an instruction manual that is for sale:

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] (18.3 minutes)

Directly associated with the Walipini idea is the geo-thermal or earth battery concept. The University of Minnesota gives away a free design manual. They want your contact information as this is an ongoing project/study. Their design buries about a 100 ton pile of rock and they run heat ducts through the rock pile to moderate temperature.

Here is another design: [link to www.youtube.com (secure)] (7.2 minutes - part of a series)

Walipini, sunken, earth battery, pit greenhouse.

Here is a slow loading (lots of pictures) website:

[link to insteading.com (secure)]

All work made easier if you have a compact tractor.

Looks like a big version of my grass cutter.

JD F710



Not me or my vid, Rando YT vid featuring a F710.

Here is an Antonio Carraro (made in Italy) driving a Seppi (German?) forestry mulcher knocking down brush and trees that look up to 25 feet tall.

Probably close to a hundred grand investment.

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] (about 4 minutes)

Perhaps what you need is an off road rough terrain fork lift to handle bundles of lumber, or logs, or large square bales.

Or boxes of apples? [link to www.youtube.com (secure)] (7 minutes)

Impressive! That thing was taking down some big stuff. All in one shot like it was never there.

Perhaps you are a crazy Russian who thinks playing in the mud is fun. Then, logging conditions like this should be right up your alley.

[link to www.youtube.com (secure)] (8.3 minutes)