Forestry tractor modifications

John Mc · August 12, 2015, 09:30:07 AM

Bill, if you are ever out near Monkton, I'd be happy to show you in more detail. I may also be able to arrange for you to see the work this guy did on a larger tractor owned by a forester who sometimes does smaller-scale, low-impact logging.

Your reasons for leaving off some of the screening are similar to mine. If your logging winch has a screen mounted on it, you may not need to worry about rear coverage anyway. On my little tractor, the winch screen pretty much covers the rear of the ROPS anyway. Maybe it would fall short on a larger tractor with a higher ROPS (on the other hand, maybe it would have a larger winch with a bigger screen?)

John Mc · August 12, 2015, 09:39:15 AM

I've only used the tractor with the new mods in the woods a couple of brief times so far, but I have to say those limb risers are GREAT. It's so nice to be able to slide under lower-hanging branches and just have them ride right on up over me, rather than trying to catch them before they hit me, and lift them up over the ROPS. Just barging through and breaking off the limbs has it's own risks.

mf40diesel · August 14, 2015, 07:14:14 AM

John Mc,

Being in VT, am I correct in assuming that when you say Tom did the work on your tractor, you meant Tom Addington? I as well, am hoping to utilize his work in the not too distant future. I am looking at the possibility of buying a new home, with a fair amount of land (42 acres) unfortunately, right out of the gate, a fairly large area that was all field has been allowed to grow up, unchecked, for several years, and quite honestly is on the edge of still being able to be bushhogged. If I don't catch it soon, the view will be lost. Therefore, I need some undercarriage protection for the very high bushes I will encounter immediately.

John Mc · August 14, 2015, 09:48:04 AM

Quote from: mf40diesel on August 14, 2015, 07:14:14 AM
Being in VT, am I correct in assuming that when you say Tom did the work on your tractor, you meant Tom Addington?

No, the guy who did mine is Tom Burritt of Quality Fabrication, here in Monkton, Vermont (western VT, SE of Burlington). He does great work, and puts a lot of thought into making the design user-friendly for ease of maintenance on the tractor. I dropped the tractor off when I was leaving for a week's vacation, and picked it up when I got back. Now that I've used it a bit, I don't know how I got along in the woods without it.

If I'd been willing to spend more, he could have added even more doo-dads and tweaks to make it even more convenient. I just wanted to get this done with without upsetting my wife over my spending to feed my gadget fixation. I may add options later.

Sorry for the obscure name reference, I thought I had posted info on him earlier in this thread, but that may have been a different thread, or in a PM to Wfcjr, who is considering similar mods to his tractor.

brendonv · August 31, 2015, 05:51:40 PM

John mc. Can yo show a close up of how they tied the forest risers into the factory rops?

wfcjr · September 01, 2015, 08:07:16 AM

Quote from: mf40diesel on February 20, 2015, 10:21:01 PM
Due to him having never done my exact model... a JD 5055e, he stated that it would be a case where I drop the tractor there and pick up a week or so later.

You may also want to check out GR Manufacturing. They do packages that are model specific for John Deere. I had their forestry mods added to our dozer & the fit & finish is great. Of course, you will need to add the cost of shop time to their parts. They will only sell to Deere dealers & then the dealer needs to do the install. Currently considering it for our 5095M.

http://www.grtractors.com/

John Mc · September 01, 2015, 11:28:05 AM

Quote from: brendonv on August 31, 2015, 05:51:40 PM
John mc. Can you show a close up of how they tied the forest risers into the factory rops?

Here are a couple photos. The newly added FOPS/risers were made from round pipe. Her formed flat stock around the pipe in a U shape, and bolted that to the existing ROPS. There were already three holes through the top of the ROPS as it came from the factory (not sure what they were there for... maybe mounting accessory lights?) It might have been better (from a liability standpoint, if not from a strength standpoint) to have extended the U brackets back and just made them clamp the ROPS rather than go through it? I'm not worried about it, strength-wise.

Top View:

Bottom View:

brendonv · September 01, 2015, 02:42:15 PM

Awesome. Thanks so much for that

John Mc · September 01, 2015, 06:26:15 PM

Using the round tubing was a good idea on his part. He could pivot it where ever it needed to go to make the roof level without having to do anything fancy where that tube meets the top of the ROPS

DeerMeadowFarm · September 09, 2015, 08:05:13 AM

Looks like I need to come up with some guards for Fergie. This weekend I ran a stick through my grill:

Bad enough but it got to the battery and poked a hole in it as well. :-\

I also broke this "shift position sensor" (2nd time since I've owned it)....

John Mc · September 09, 2015, 02:30:50 PM

Quote from: DeerMeadowFarm on September 09, 2015, 08:05:13 AM
Looks like I need to come up with some guards for Fergie. This weekend I ran a stick through my grill:

Ouch!

mf40diesel · September 24, 2015, 08:17:20 PM

wfcgr... I appreciate the link to GR manufacturing. I had heard of them before, and their products look great. Surely the fit and finish will also be excellent.

Funny though, I called them several months ago, back last winter as a matter of fact. They do not make a set up that fits my exact model (2014 5055e) they only offer "e," specific models in your size range. They do make the kits for the 5X25 models, which I think are nearly, it not exactly the same. Strangely, they were completely unwilling to put any effort whatsoever into cross referencing to see if they were the same. I tried too, on the phone I was like "I think they might be really similiar, just the newer model designations," and I got a really cold "NOPE." then I asked if their was any plans on building new plans later, I got an equally cold response.

It was really funny, and quite honestly I wasn't at all impressed. I have no doubt that their products are great, but quite honestly I don't really want to call them again. With that said though, I would love to see pictures of your machine when complete. Too bad that we can't put it on ourselves, my hunch is Deere charges a ton to install.

DeerMeadowFarm · September 25, 2015, 09:07:40 AM

Got the front end guarded up. Still got a lot more to do....

wfcjr · September 26, 2015, 06:12:47 PM

Deer Meadow Farm.... too bad about the grill. On a good note, the new front screen looks good & stout... nice job.

mf40diesel....
Too bad that the folks at GR were not more customer friendly. Too many businesses do not do a good job with customer relations.
Even if they have no plans to expand their offering, there is a nice, tactful way to say no, and there is a cold tactless way to do it as well.

In terms of the tractor mods.... I have not pulled the trigger. The Deere dealers, both heavy equipment and ag, are brutal in their installation prices. They really jack up the time required. What makes it worse is that GR will only sell to authorized John Deere dealerships. So if one goes that route, one is really at the mercy of the JD dealership service department.

If the dozer mods from GR are representative of the tractor mods, the fit & finish are excellent. But the installation charges are brutal.
I got an estimate from our local Deere dealership on installation. Based on how high the numbers were, I have put this project on the back burner.

John Mc · September 26, 2015, 06:45:57 PM

Bill - would you be willing to share what the installed cost of the GR mods were for your tractor?

wfcjr · September 26, 2015, 07:05:11 PM

Quote from: John Mc on September 26, 2015, 06:45:57 PM
Bill - would you be willing to share what the installed cost of the GR mods were for your tractor?

John,

I did not do the installs on the tractor. I did them on our dozer, but held off on the tractor.
If you like, happy to PM you with parts costs on tractor & labor (install estimates) on tractor.
Please bear in mind that any mods that GR does are specific to certain JD model tractors only.

Lemme know.....

Bill

DeerMeadowFarm · September 28, 2015, 09:00:03 AM

I'm looking now at fabricating some belly pans. My FEL has a sub-frame that runs all the way to the back and would give me some good support to attach some plates. How thick should I go?

John Mc · September 28, 2015, 11:14:37 AM

Quote from: DeerMeadowFarm on September 28, 2015, 09:00:03 AM
I'm looking now at fabricating some belly pans. My FEL has a sub-frame that runs all the way to the back and would give me some good support to attach some plates. How thick should I go?

Depends on your tractor and how large a span will be unsupported. My belly pan is 1/2" thick. I thought that was overkill, since I was mostly worried about things flipping and poking up in to it (which is what occurred both of the times it was damaged). The guy who did the fabrication talked me in to 1/2". His thought was that even with a compact tractor, once you've got the tires loaded, a loader and other implements on, the weight gets up there. If you do high-center it, you want something that will not bend easily. Once it's bent, it will be hard to get on and off for maintenance, and good luck ever getting it back into its original shape.

You do want to do some thinking about how to get it on and off with a minimum of fuss. It doesn't take much 1/2" plate before you'll need a floor jack to raise and lower it into position. Also, be sure to make provisions to access various grease zerks, oil filters, and such for maintenance. (I think getting my hydrostatic filter off will require removing my large rear pan, but fortunately that's something I only need to access every 300 hours.)

DeerMeadowFarm · September 28, 2015, 02:52:54 PM

Yah I was thinking 1/2" but also was thinking that 1/2" will be big $'s....

As far as handling the pan(s) I plan to make it in a couple different pieces to make it easier to install/remove when needed. I'm thinking of mocking it up in luan first to make sure I get everything where I want it.

DeerMeadowFarm · October 16, 2015, 10:09:23 AM

Just completed some mods to my skidding winch. I added a saw scabbard, extended my chain boxes and welded a mount onto the back of my self-releasing snatch block. I made (but haven't installed yet) a mount for one of my Peaveys. I need a way to carry a combi-can to it and I'll be good.

g_man · October 16, 2015, 04:02:23 PM

I like those chain boxes for the chokers to hang in. I think I will steal that idea. It would be a lot faster than chasing a chain all around the winch to get it free like I do now.
This is my cant hook set-up.

gg

711ac · March 23, 2016, 08:18:51 PM

I missed this thread somehow. Thanks to JohnMc for the link. I'm "bumping this thread.
This is what I did to my tractor, a M9540 Kubota with a very "exposed" underside. Trans. filters, hyd lines, loader valving, fuel tank and some wiring. The most time consuming part was that there are only a few suitable/sturdy mounting points that were at different "elevations". I wanted as smooth of a pan from front to back that would support the tractor when I find that hidden rock or high stump. I did the "pan" & front bumper/grill guard first, then the 4 post canopy, and finally the limb risers. as part of the skid pan job I built a storage box that will hold 2 saws and a couple of 5 gal. buckets (or a can of "mix" and bar oil). That was the the icing on the cake! ;D
Here's a few pics, but I took a ton more if anyone is interested.