tractor/loader

[Straightgrain]

My 2 cents

4X4
Buy one size bigger than you think you need (look at lifting capacity)
x2 on the skid-steer type loaders (get the most for your money).
A 36" set of pallet forks (material handling)
Rim Guard or other kinds of ballast for the rear end (no front brakes, keep the rear wheels on the ground).

[valley ranch]

Did you choose one yet?

[Dixon700]

Originally  I had a l2500 kubota 27hp tractor with a 5.5' loder and 6' back blade. The tractor sustained years of extreme abuse doing much more than the tractor was designed for. Used to drag some 60' about 15" diameter  or so trees down a gas well road and have to use the rear brakes to steer. The loader couldn't dig out stumps  and they didn't make a framed  backhoe mount for the 97 tractor so I bought a Chinese 3 pt backhoe  and ended up breaking the tractor in half right at the bellhousing. So i traded it in on a '94 case 580sk tlb and haven't looked back. Much larger and much more capable.  Im going to build a manual grapple for the backhoe for picking stuff up. The front loader has a 4 in 1 bucket (clamshell] I plan to build or buy a quick attach mount for the front of the loader and cut the mounts off the current bucket so then everything is quick attach. I just stuck new fires on the back of it. It is way more capable than my old l2500 or my grandpa's new Mahindra max 23. His tractor is nice if I need to fit into low or small areas.

Here's the l2500 I broke in half


 

Here's the replacement '94 case 580sk all stretched out.
Mind my mess I've cleaned most of the stuff up.


 

[Dixon700]

Man it was a chore to figure out how to post pics... luckily I found a thread in tech support.

[lopet]

Done that, been there. Once you get the hang of the picture thing it's pretty easy.
I bet you got a bit of a scare when that bota brook in half.
Good choice on the 580 Case , they're meant to do what you do with them.

[Dixon700]

Done that, been there. Once you get the hang of the picture thing it's pretty easy.
I bet you got a bit of a scare when that bota brook in half.
Good choice on the 580 Case , they're meant to do what you do with them.

at first it was a bunch of expletives I thought i broke another loader then realized the tractor was running and I look down the steering wheel is closer to me and I could see the clutch so then there was a ton of expletives and yelling... the worse part was my I had previously peeled all the teeth off of 5th n 6th gear in my pickups transmission and my grandpa has just a littke Colorado with highway tread tires so he hooked up his Chinese side by side and I hooked my grizzly 600 to the front of it and had a friend run my quad and I tried to steer the bota  to get it up out of the back yard... it was a long day and I took quite the loss on the tractor. I thought about fixing it, but just the empty case was $1800. Not including any of the other parts that may of broke or the labor of splitting the tractor. Anyways the 580sk is a great tractor. Hydraulics are extremely powerful and it has plenty of weight to move about anything. Getting a little off topic, but my grandpa with his new little Mahindra(it's basically a diesel 4wd lawn mower with a loader and back blade) (lol) was up in his woods trying to drag some trees up  out of his woods and got stuck where the only way out was up the muddy hill. So he came and got me so I took the tlb up and drug him up out then got the boom stretched out and pulled all 3 trees up to the same spot then drug all 3 up out at the same time. Idt I'd ever get a little tractor like that.