What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[RCW]

This came up in my wife’s memories from 12/17/2020. Was about 0500 in the morning.

I remember I had quite a bit of seat time on the Kubota that morning….. had blown 4-6” before I went to bed.

Forecast was 12-18” as I recall…..

Oliie wasn't going out to go potty through that.....

 

[DustyRusty]

5" of snow and my wife's dog doesn't want anything to do with it. He is a 5-pound Yorkie.

 

[g_man]

^^^^Poor little guy

 

[Old_Paint]

5" of snow and my wife's dog doesn't want anything to do with it. He is a 5-pound Yorkie.

Can’t say I blame him. More than 1” around here makes the stoopid start oozing out of folks who have never driven in snow before. I don’t claim to be an expert on the matter, but I am smart enough to know that A) we rarely get snow without a sheet of frozen rain under it and B) a good/safe driver becomes insignificant pretty quickly on ice that is mistaken for snow.

I live in the South for a reason, and annual snowfall was not part of the equation. I just stay home any morning that I can’t see dry pavement with any sighting of the white stuff since the last time the temperature dropped below 40F. No point in adding to or becoming part of the chaos and calamity that comes from being in a place that has never seen a snow plow while all the experts are finding out what snow actually is in Alabama.

 

[S-G-R]

Blew some snow and managed to suck one of my wife's metal yard decorations into the blower fan and stalled the tractor. Got it out with minimal effort and continued on.

 

[DustyRusty]

That little dog is tough and doesn't mind the cold. It is just the snow that bothers him if it is higher than his underbelly.
As for driving in snow, I used to be a tow truck driver and had to go out no matter what the weather. I am also a retired EMT (we weren't called that when I started) and once again, we had to go out no matter what the weather. The ambulances were equipped with studded snow tires and we put chains on if the roads weren't plowed or it was still snowing when the call came in. I clearly remember one Easter Sunday that came late that year and an unexpected blizzard also blew in (winter of 1968-1969). All the town trucks had removed the snowplows and the roads were heavily covered. Our 2 ambulances were the only thing moving that day, and more than once we had to take calls one after the other. One dual call was a slip and fall that came in first and the other was a heart attack. We explained to the person who had an arm fracture that the heart attack patient took priority and while they were already onboard, we had to make the second stop for that patient. It turned out that the suspected heart attack was very mild and both were in the ER at the same time. Back then we didn't have an unlimited number of available ambulances like there are today.

 

[nerwin]

Woke up to half a foot of snow today. Still snowing now...I'm getting anxious. Can't wait to get on the tractor and move some snow baby!

 

[pokey1416]

Woke up to half a foot of snow today. Still snowing now...I'm getting anxious. Can't wait to get on the tractor and move some snow baby!

Grooving your R4’s will help with traction in the snow, nothing like good chains though. And, during the warm months you’ll be tracking dirt into the garage. Oh and, this can be a controversial subject.

If you want to go this route PM me and I’ll ship you my groover to borrow, just replace any blades if needed. I think @mcmxi did his tractor and maybe tractors, all with one blade. I did mine 2 or maybe 3 years ago so they’re do for a slight touchup to make the grooves a little deeper.

 

[nerwin]

Grooving your R4’s will help with traction in the snow, nothing like good chains though. And, during the warm months you’ll be tracking dirt into the garage. Oh and, this can be a controversial subject.

View attachment 144826

If you want to go this route PM me and I’ll ship you my groover to borrow, just replace any blades if needed. I think @mcmxi did his tractor and maybe tractors, all with one blade. I did mine 2 or maybe 3 years ago so they’re do for a slight touchup to make the grooves a little deeper.

Does it make considerable difference? I just finished plowing about 8 inches of snow...didn't really have any issues this time. Although instead of using float I threw it float and backed out that way the weight of the loader added traction on the front end. Worked great! I'm just lucky my driveway is all flat. If I have to spend longer on the tractor to clean up....what's wrong with that? hehe. More tractor time for me! But yeah this grooving thing could be interesting. Might look into it.

 

[mcmxi]

Does it make considerable difference? I just finished plowing about 8 inches of snow...didn't really have any issues this time. Although instead of using float I threw it float and backed out that way the weight of the loader added traction on the front end. Worked great! I'm just lucky my driveway is all flat. If I have to spend longer on the tractor to clean up....what's wrong with that? hehe. More tractor time for me! But yeah this grooving thing could be interesting. Might look into it.

@pokey1416 very kindly shipped me his groover to use and he's right that I only used one blade to cut all four R4 tires on the MX6000. I think that the traction has improved since siping the tires.

The groover was easy to use and did an amazing job of cutting the tires.

Siping R4 tires and a very generous OTT member.

I made a comment a few weeks ago about eventually siping the R4 tires on the MX once I got around to buying a siping tool. A member sent me a PM offering to mail me his very expensive siping tool since it just sits on the shelf. Within a few days it showed up in my mail box. I'll mention his...

www.orangetractortalks.com

 

[nerwin]

@pokey1416 very kindly shipped me his groover to use and he's right that I only used one blade to cut all four R4 tires on the MX6000. I think that the traction has improved since sipping the tires.

Was it hard to do? I never done such a thing before.

 

[mcmxi]

Was it hard to do? I never done such a thing before.

Very easy, and oddly satisfying. I posted lots of photos in the thread linked in my post above.

 

[nerwin]

I don't know, I think orange looks pretty good in the snow. I had a great time plowing today, I'm really starting to get the hang of it. I was super worried that having little to no experience using a tractor I adapted to it really fast. I'm proud of myself, something that was intimidating to me at first was really nothing at all. The only way to learn was to just hop on and do it.

Using the plow has really help me get a good feel for using the FEL and being able to raise and lower the boom while keeping the plow relatively level.

I have to say, it's quite fun plowing the snow. I rarely need to plow during a storm, only I we get a huge dumping. I often wait until its done snowing and just go do it after lol.

now it has snow all over it. Well it's gonna all melt off in the garage anyways!

 

[D2Cat]

The groover is similar to a 250 soldering gun. The blades are various widths and shapes. Some are rounded, some square (at the bottom). Operator determines the depth of the cut. You end up with a bucket of licorice! Don't grove completely through the bar and you'll have less chance of the tire getting chips broken off in rough terrain.

I suppose you need a strong wrist and ability to hold a straight line.

Does make a difference in traction.

 

[nerwin]

The groover is similar to a 250 soldering gun. The blades are various widths and shapes. Some are rounded, some square (at the bottom). Operator determines the depth of the cut. You end up with a bucket of licorice! Don't grove completely through the bar and you'll have less chance of the tire getting chips broken off in rough terrain.

I suppose you need a strong wrist and ability to hold a straight line.

Does make a difference in traction.

View attachment 144834 View attachment 144835

Mmmm black licorice lol