What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[Sidekick]

Another day of using the tractor instead of making things for the tractor. Moved about 8 cubic metres of garden blend soil - about 10.5 cubic yards. Loving it, but will still be modifying the FEL. might even finish welding the bucket one day.

What would be the typical unit of measure used for soil in the US and Canada. In Australia it depends how much you're buying - per skid steer bucket (0.25 me) for small amounts, or per tonne or per cubic metre for larger amounts.

Most around me sell soil, gravel, mulch, and compost by the cubic yard. Home centers sell bags either by weight or cubic ft.

 

[KubotaHawg]

I thought you just had some chickens that were hard to move.

Is that a BB1248? Didn't notice at the time, but I got a BB1248 with my tractor package. It probably would have been OK if I had standard size R1 Ag tires on it, but I've got oversize R-14's which make the tractor have a 54" track at the back. I really need a 60" or 72" box blade because the 48" is too narrow.

It’s a 1260, covers tire width by about 3” on both sides (L2800 with ag tires). Light duty and iirc weighs around 325# but I mainly just smooth gravel driveway with it so works fine.

Unfortunately I probably couldn’t even move those chooks with the BB—1) they’re spoiled and stubborn, and 2) the chicken mama watches her girls like a Great Pyrenees anytime I get on the tractor

 

[Paul Allwood]

After finishing the hydraulic cylinder mount I disassembled everything (all parts bolted together) and managed to weld all the parts for my trailer today. Weather will get bad now for the next 1 1/2 weeks, so the spray painting has to wait.

View attachment 173715

That's a nice trailer - great job. It always amazes me how it looks like so many parts on things we make when they are all separated for painting, then looks like so few parts when it's all put together.

 

[Paul Allwood]

I see it sold in 40# bags at stores or by cubic yards for any real quantity around here. Mulch is often sold by the bag in stores. At local greenhouses or garden centers (centres for you ) it is sold by the cubic yard some places or by the "scoop". I don't know how close they are with the cubic yard measurement. The quantity of the "scoop" varies by the size of the scoop and how aggressively the operator charges into the pile to load it.

Sounds about the same as here except for the units of measure and spelling.

 

[NCL4701]

To continue, if anyone's still here. I met with the Planner and staff engineer Monday morning, expressed my concern with erosion and runoff. By the meeting time, the developer had agreed to a berm to direct previously uncontrolled runoff to their pond. At the meeting, I expressed several related concerns. There is a blue-line stream involved that brings in Corps of Engineers approval. I wish I could be included in that review, but not likely. The Planning Commission gave preliminary approval and it goes to the Board of Supervisors in a couple of weeks. I've been promised notification of the resolution as soon as it occurs. I plan on being at the supervisors' meeting.

Don't know if I mentioned that practically all of this 65 acre tract drains to me and there's as much as 75 feet of elevation change.

I need to go back out and take pictures now to have in case of future issues.

My 15 years experience fighting a two front war with developers has been it’s something you really have to stay on top of. That and once it starts, it’s a never ending war. It’s more akin to the Pakistan v India conflict in Kashmir than it is to a boxing match. I’m convinced one of their primary strategies is to wear you down and outlast you. Document, document, document. And use govt agencies to fight other govt agencies when you can. A couple planning boards, one zoning board, and one developer here low key wish I’d disappear. Forest Service folks are cool with me and seem to enjoy stopping development where they can. The other developer, as my attorney told me, doesn’t hate me, they @$&* HATE me. To me, it’s worth the fight.

Sounds like you’re off to a good start. Good luck with it.

 

[Paul Allwood]

I moved the second half of our pile of soil this afternoon then had a go at leveling it using the bucket on float mode as well as the rough land plane I made recently. Pretty happy with how it all worked.

I think the land plane works well enough to be worth beefing up the bottom angle iron, adding a second piece, and adding some proper abrasion resistant cutting edge. Then I'll be able to use it for the driveway some day.

I'm amazed at what this little 40 year old 17 HP tractor can do. For a small tractor it's incredibly capable....and it doesn't even have a backhoe yet.

 

[Old_Paint]

It’s a 1260, covers tire width by about 3” on both sides (L2800 with ag tires). Light duty and iirc weighs around 325# but I mainly just smooth gravel driveway with it so works fine.

Unfortunately I probably couldn’t even move those chooks with the BB—1) they’re spoiled and stubborn, and 2) the chicken mama watches her girls like a Great Pyrenees anytime I get on the tractor

I wish I could let my girls free range. Too many predators, mostly uncontrolled domestic animals that are probably fed chicken flavored feed. I’d hate to have to leave a collar in someone’s mailbox, but wouldn’t hesitate to protect the girls. The best protection is a coop with a large run. We have a few large redtail hawks around too, one of which has what looks like a 4 foot wingspan. He’s plenty big to take out a large chicken. He sits on the corner of the run every now and then and dreams of chicken dinners. I’ve had a few snakes, but nothing venomous. One took out 3 of our last mini flock. A 5 footer got in the coop, swallowed the three chicks (about 6 weeks old) and couldn’t get back out the way it came. So I helped it out the front door with a hoe and deprived it of its head. Fair trade I reckon. It’s amazing how strong and diverse the personalities of chickens can be. Some of them try to get in my lap when I’m filling the feeders or water tanks, others want nothing to do with humans. They watch from the far end of the yard.

But, getting back on topic, did a bit of brush cleanup this morning. I had 4 huge pines taken down by a tree service (top and drop) a couple weeks ago. One done, 2 to go.




I’ll trailer the other two piles to the chipper so I don’t have to handle the chips. The WC-68 is a beast behind the little LX2610SU. I sharpened the knives last week and used the grapple to do some sorting of the stuff the WC-68 can’t handle (too big). I want a decent little chain saw to keep on the chipper, but don’t want to add on another brand of batteries that have their own charger, so instead I use used the pole saw to take off knots that would jam in the chipper.

 

[Old_Paint]

Had an intermittent problem opening the grapple this morning. Hmm, what now?

At first I thought it was the control switch because the closing switch went wonky a couple years after I got the 3FV kit from Long. Just a minor issue then that it wasn’t securely fastened to the support, easy fix. I took the joystick knob apart and could feel the switch clicking when I pressed the button, so second guessed my initial diagnosis. Decided to take a peek at the valve to make sure something didn’t break the wiring and found the bottom solenoid nearly off the valve spool actuator and the plastic cap was missing. Uh oh. I decided to try to remove the top one and the whole actuator came out of the valve. Which is when I also discovered that moisture is apparently collecting inside the cap and has corroded the end of the actuator. This is starting to snowball. The corrosion shouldn’t bother the valve operation, but it did interfere with getting the solenoid back on. Sanding fixed that problem, and I think I will coat the plunger with grease to mitigate some of the corrosion problem. Popped the hoses off and loosened the bracket so I could put the valve back together. Now for the bottom spool repair. Ain’t no way I’m finding a 1” diameter cap on 2 acres after 6 hours of brush a log wrangling last week, not to mention the frog strangling turd floating gulley washer we had 2 nights ago. 3 inches of rain in 4 hours. I had some nylon spacers and plenty o-rings, but no clue what the thread was on the end of the plunger. I just happened to buy a large metric tap/die set back in February for some repairs on who remembers what, and figured the valve was probably metric. Pegged it with a 14-1.5 die. Found a little block of aluminum, bored a 1/2” hole, and tapped it to 14-1.5. Bob’s yer uncle.

Put it all back together and it works like magic.

Adapt, improvise, and overcome.

 

[yyri]

Some ploughing with b6000

Spring ploughing 2026

Second time trying ploughing with kubota, some tuning still would be needed but quite ok

www.youtube.com

 

[S-G-R]

Spread some grass seed this morning and ripped out a few trees with the grapple.



Swapped the grapple for the SA10 PHD and 24" auger and poked 14 holes for the replacement trees.

 

[Old_Paint]

Had an intermittent problem opening the grapple this morning. Hmm, what now?

At first I thought it was the control switch because the closing switch went wonky a couple years after I got the 3FV kit from Long. Just a minor issue then that it wasn’t securely fastened to the support, easy fix. I took the joystick knob apart and could feel the switch clicking when I pressed the button, so second guessed my initial diagnosis. Decided to take a peek at the valve to make sure something didn’t break the wiring and found the bottom solenoid nearly off the valve spool actuator and the plastic cap was missing. Uh oh. I decided to try to remove the top one and the whole actuator came out of the valve. Which is when I also discovered that moisture is apparently collecting inside the cap and has corroded the end of the actuator. This is starting to snowball. The corrosion shouldn’t bother the valve operation, but it did interfere with getting the solenoid back on. Sanding fixed that problem, and I think I will coat the plunger with grease to mitigate some of the corrosion problem. Popped the hoses off and loosened the bracket so I could put the valve back together. Now for the bottom spool repair. Ain’t no way I’m finding a 1” diameter cap on 2 acres after 6 hours of brush a log wrangling last week, not to mention the frog strangling turd floating gulley washer we had 2 nights ago. 3 inches of rain in 4 hours. I had some nylon spacers and plenty o-rings, but no clue what the thread was on the end of the plunger. I just happened to buy a large metric tap/die set back in February for some repairs on who remembers what, and figured the valve was probably metric. Pegged it with a 14-1.5 die. Found a little block of aluminum, bored a 1/2” hole, and tapped it to 14-1.5. Bob’s yer uncle.

Put it all back together and it works like magic.
View attachment 173867
Adapt, improvise, and overcome.

I owe WR Long an apology. I did not buy the 3FV kit from them, but instead bought the Summit kit. Now that I know what I know, words of wisdom are the retainer “nuts” for the solenoids on the Summit kit valve are plastic (non-ferrous/non-magnetic) so they don’t get magnetized and stuff sticks to them. It’s very possible that I managed to kick up a solid piece of brush that took out the one on the bottom. It’s pretty close to the FEL mount and I thought pretty well protected but I may have been mistaken. The new one is aluminum, so still non-ferrous, but a lot tougher than plastic and not likely to break.

I also had a brain fart thinking the bottom solenoid was the OPEN solenoid and the top one was the CLOSE. I had that idea bassackwards. I also realized that the QD fittings are both male. Still trying to figure out why I did that, unless the female fittings are too big for the allowed space. I normally try to plumb the male fittings in the direction of normal flow (in the direction to fill the cylinders) so that I CANNOT connect them backwards. Fortunately I have color coded dust covers on them so I can find the problem quickly if stuff moves backwards.

 

[nerwin]

I went to a logging expo today to check out all the cool machines and to get some free stuff. When I got back, I saw something orange in the driveway! The Z452i was delivered!



I didn't waste any time, I got on it and played around with it for a bit. Man this thing is a beast, built well, everything looks rugged and easily accessible. After I felt comfortable, I made my first mow of the season, grass still hasn't yet fully grown but it was enough to mow! This thing is so much better, the suspension seat is incredible, absorbs all the bumps!

What I couldn't believe was how quickly I was able to mow the lawn, I wasn't even going full speed. I don't know if it's that extra 10 inches of mowing width or what. Maybe perhaps I am going faster than I think!

It also surprisingly makes great stripes! Its gonna take me a few mows to get the full hang of it, I knew the limitations of my old one, so I need to find them on this one.

I also used very little gas mowing 6 acres. I'm like what? On my old one it would be like a half of a tank...although the old one had a much smaller tank (3gal vs 6.8g). The EFI system is really cool, just start and go for the most part.

Overall, I'm very happy with it.

I had to park the other Kubota tractor besides it. Looks awesome! Yes, I'm probably going to keep the ROPS down, I have several trees I need to get under.

 

[mdhughes]

I used the L3901DT and Homestead land plane to work on our driveway.

 

[imnukensc]

A 50lb bag of fertilizer was mistakenly delivered to me.
The seller didn't want it back so it was moved from the garage to the shed. My little BX is the best 4 wheel drive wheel barrow I've ever had.

 

[GrumpyFarmer]

I moved the second half of our pile of soil this afternoon then had a go at leveling it using the bucket on float mode as well as the rough land plane I made recently. Pretty happy with how it all worked.

I think the land plane works well enough to be worth beefing up the bottom angle iron, adding a second piece, and adding some proper abrasion resistant cutting edge. Then I'll be able to use it for the driveway some day.

I'm amazed at what this little 40 year old 17 HP tractor can do. For a small tractor it's incredibly capable....and it doesn't even have a backhoe yet.

Good day.

couple item from me:
1. Good looking black dog (I looks like a lab and I like that it doesn’t not charge the bucket…seem like it’s been around equipment)

2. What am I seeing with the inner rear wheel rim that is black and looks like shiny bolts. Is that just panted black or is there a wheel weight in there?

just curious.

 

[Bearcatrp]

Every time I see those zero turn lawnmowers, reminds me of rowing a boat.

 

[S-G-R]

Swapped out the 24" auger for the 9" and poked 20 holes for 20 replacement trees.

 

[KubotaHawg]

I wish I could let my girls free range. Too many predators, mostly uncontrolled domestic animals that are probably fed chicken flavored feed. I’d hate to have to leave a collar in someone’s mailbox, but wouldn’t hesitate to protect the girls. The best protection is a coop with a large run. We have a few large redtail hawks around too, one of which has what looks like a 4 foot wingspan. He’s plenty big to take out a large chicken. He sits on the corner of the run every now and then and dreams of chicken dinners. I’ve had a few snakes, but nothing venomous. One took out 3 of our last mini flock. A 5 footer got in the coop, swallowed the three chicks (about 6 weeks old) and couldn’t get back out the way it came. So I helped it out the front door with a hoe and deprived it of its head. Fair trade I reckon. It’s amazing how strong and diverse the personalities of chickens can be. Some of them try to get in my lap when I’m filling the feeders or water tanks, others want nothing to do with humans. They watch from the far end of the yard.

But, getting back on topic, did a bit of brush cleanup this morning. I had 4 huge pines taken down by a tree service (top and drop) a couple weeks ago. One done, 2 to go.

View attachment 173865
View attachment 173864

I’ll trailer the other two piles to the chipper so I don’t have to handle the chips. The WC-68 is a beast behind the little LX2610SU. I sharpened the knives last week and used the grapple to do some sorting of the stuff the WC-68 can’t handle (too big). I want a decent little chain saw to keep on the chipper, but don’t want to add on another brand of batteries that have their own charger, so instead I use used the pole saw to take off knots that would jam in the chipper.

It’s a trade off—my 7 acres is fully wooded and on a rocky hillside so there’s overhead cover to protect against most winged predators (and 4 protective roosters I might add). We have lost one girl to what I think was probably an owl—and that was in the run in mid day. The little woodland Cooper’s hawks are too small to be a threat

The trade off is I can’t access our run and coop with the tractor. It was already built where it is when moved here. I would have put it where tractor access was possible but there is only one other area that’s not too steep.

My neighbor up on the plateau with pasture lost chooks constantly to hawks and bald eagles until he built a big covered run. Eagles year round here in the White River Valley area. But again he could access and drop posts with his auger.

I guess that trade off is fair—eggs from forest range bugs and greens are darn tasty…

 

[Paul Allwood]

Good day.

couple item from me:
1. Good looking black dog (I looks like a lab and I like that it doesn’t not charge the bucket…seem like it’s been around equipment)

2. What am I seeing with the inner rear wheel rim that is black and looks like shiny bolts. Is that just panted black or is there a wheel weight in there?

just curious.

Jayse is a lab/golden retriever cross and, yes, sure is good around the tractor. Before this she used to follow me around the yard when I was mowing, keeping a safe distance, but keeping me in sight. Just waiting until I stopped.

The rear wheels are second hand bobcat skid steer rims that I bought for $100 each and adapted to fit the tractor using some 12mm plate that I had laser cut. I bolted it all together so there would be no warping and I could change it if needed. It turned out pretty heavy so the bits also do help add weight to the wheels.

Skid steer rim





One of these plates per rim



And one of these plates per rim



The complete assembly



There's a thread on the front and rear tyre upgrade here https://www.orangetractortalks.com/forums/threads/b7200-new-tyres-and-rims.77668/

 

[nerwin]

Looks like I need to buy new hearing protection to be used with my new Kubota Z452 zero turn. I used the same 3M Peltor 98 ear muffs I been using for years but for whatever reason with this particular machine, they seem to amplify the bass so obnoxiously that it sounds quieter without them on! I know it's not creating a perfect seal around my ears because of my hat...but it wasn't an issue with my older mower. I'm not really sure what to do, I don't like ear buds as I hate putting things in my ear but if it solves my problem then that will have to be what it is.

Any suggestions?