I is back...and a few new developments

[wisconsitom]

Hey all, long time on my part not active here.  Just a bit of update on what's been going on;  Some may recall me inquiring about "heavy duty" utvs, and indeed, I'd priced a Kubota unit that caught my eye.  I was only interested in diesel, "slow" but higher-torque machines.  Then one day, up at the new shed-more on that in a bit-my son said, 'hey dad, I really think the tractor is what we need first around here'.  That got me thinking, and long story short, I now have a Bobcat utility tractor up at the place.  Front end loader, rear pto, class 1 3-pt.  Seems a very high-quality machine, at 63 hours, lol!  It is, of course, a re-badged Kioti, although there are differences and I don't believe you could buy a unit exactly like mine in orange paint.  Speaking of orange, I had earlier had a proposal written up to purchase a Kubota of basically same size, specs, etc.....but saved right around $4500 dollars by going with a white and orange paint scheme :D.

This machine has done a great deal of work for me already, such as lugging right around 400 hybrid larch stems I thinned out of my plantation area last winter.  I just use a "cat choker" I got from Westech Rigging....very nice cable choker.  I'd pull 10 or 15 bunched together at a time.  We did not have a heavy snow winter this past one, but even with say, 18 inches on the ground, my machine did not require tire chains, no slipping or grief of any kind.  It was easy-peasy all the way as far as that goes.  My old Husky 42 Special got a nice workout too on these smaller stems.

Then there's the shed we park the thing in.  It is an Amish-built steel-clad unit, 40 ft. long by 14 wide-they haul these down the road pre-built- and has been split in 2, such that one half is tractor garage and assorted tools and workbench, etc. and other half is little living quarters.....shhhhh!  Don't tell the county inspectors!  Just last Friday I had yet another Amish fellow do the spray-foam insulation in the cabin half.  Good value can be obtained in working with these Amish folks is all I'm going to say about that.

Plenty more going on, but I feel like the main thing has been quite a bit of $$ being spent, but all on hard goods that'll be of use long into the future.  And what a difference having a tractor makes!  Retirement here I come....on Jan 3rd, 2022, at 2:00PM!

[John Mc]

Congrats, Tom. I know you'll get a lot of use out of it. What model did you get, and did you go with Ag, Industrial, or turf tires?

[wisconsitom]

Hey John, thanks.  Yeah, it's the CT2025, so "just" 25 HP, but I can't stall it out, make it slip, or otherwise reveal any deficiencies in what I've been doing with it.  I got it with industrial tires.  In a fairly low-snow winter, maybe at tops we had 18 inches on the ground where my land is, I had no trouble pulling whacks of say, 15 hybrid larch trees, cut and left unlimbed, up the hill all winter long.

When we bought the thing, the salesman was kind of pushy.  I had intended to buy "a" tractor, but he had the what i would call demo model all ready for me before I had agreed to anything.  Son and I double-teamed the guy and we walked out with beet juice in the rears....and delivery of unit to location 60-some miles from dealer.  I felt good and in fact, i seriously doubt there's a better utility tractor deal out there right now, having noticed the prices are still the same as when I bought mine a couple summers back.

Also moved lots of crushed stone, firewood, etc.  Backfilled and compacted trench for electrical service to building.....lots of stuff I would have been scratching my head trying to accomplish!

[SwampDonkey]

Welcome back! Yes, a tractor. I used my Kabota to move 16 truck loads of topsoil this spring, besides some prep work before hand. ;D You'll like a UTV to, I don't take tractors in the woods, so I have narrow trails for my Ranger 570 to bring my firewood out. I can sneak into places on undisturbed ground and bring out bucked/split firewood. Perfect because I don't want to tear up the ground, nor do I want roads. I have the steel cab roof.

Happy trails.

[wisconsitom]

Thanks Swamp.  Heh, one thing I had to make dang sure of was that this unit would fit in the shed we just built up there.  I had literally 15 ft. to work with, such that even a forestry winch on the back would make the unit too long.  As it is, just right.  I've got 2 different lengths of "cat chokers" hanging off the back end of my 3-point.  Long one for cinching up around a bigger bundle of stuff, and short little guy to snug a bigger log or what have you up closer to machine.  For my "hobby logging" that I'm doing right now, this works well enough.  Most dragging is in winter over snow-covered ground.

When time comes to do some serious forestry-we may have significant pole-size material to thin out within next 10 years-it'll be time for real equipment to be on the scene.  Numerous loggers in area, including a number of Amish concerns.  

But for the interim, the Bobcat can handle what we've got to do.  Yes, life is good with a tractor, front-end loader, etc!