I am currently looking to purchase a Kubota L2502HST tractor but need to choose implements carefully. I have a 1/2 mile two track back to my off the grid cabin through a swamp with sandy soil. Ruts readily develop, especially spring and fall, and it is narrow as trees are on both sides. I also need to be able to clear the snow in the winter to maintain my cabin as four season. Current thinking is a box blade, an articulating snow blade for the front with hydraulics, and a grappler for dealing with lumber. Question is for four season road maintenance, have I selected the best implements?
1/2 mile drive in Michigan through a swamp
- Thread starter sifuback
- Start date
Have you thought about putting a driveway base in?
Depending on how serious the situation with swamp is, maybe consider some type of winch (logging or something for a 2” receiver). Logging winch makes a pretty good ballast, trailer hitch, light duty blade, and best of all, a winch. (Although backhoes and front loaders can both help claw the machine out. ).
do you have power at the cabin and / interest for a PTO generator?
do you plan to receive any drop shipments or haul anything on pallets? Forks are pretty helpful IMO.
maybe also a carry all or work platform / cage for the forks depending on what all you plan to do.
How do you plan to keep the brush along from encroaching your trail? At a half mile maybe a sprayer? Or a some sort of rear cutter?
not sure any of that helps but those are couple things that come to mind. I hope it helps? If truly a swamp I’d be thinking about an Argo or maybe a PUG or CROC/COOT (but I don’t think they are made anymore).
Depending on how serious the situation with swamp is, maybe consider some type of winch (logging or something for a 2” receiver). Logging winch makes a pretty good ballast, trailer hitch, light duty blade, and best of all, a winch. (Although backhoes and front loaders can both help claw the machine out. ).
do you have power at the cabin and / interest for a PTO generator?
do you plan to receive any drop shipments or haul anything on pallets? Forks are pretty helpful IMO.
maybe also a carry all or work platform / cage for the forks depending on what all you plan to do.
How do you plan to keep the brush along from encroaching your trail? At a half mile maybe a sprayer? Or a some sort of rear cutter?
not sure any of that helps but those are couple things that come to mind. I hope it helps? If truly a swamp I’d be thinking about an Argo or maybe a PUG or CROC/COOT (but I don’t think they are made anymore).
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\Have you thought about putting a driveway base in?
Depending on how serious the situation with swamp is, maybe consider some type of winch (logging or something for a 2” receiver). Logging winch makes a pretty good ballast, trailer hitch, light duty blade, and best of all, a winch. (Although backhoes and front loaders can both help claw the machine out. ).
do you have power at the cabin and / interest for a PTO generator?
do you plan to receive any drop shipments or haul anything on pallets? Forks are pretty helpful IMO.
maybe also a carry all or work platform / cage for the forks depending on what all you plan to do.
How do you plan to keep the brush along from encroaching your trail? At a half mile maybe a sprayer? Or a some sort of rear cutter?
not sure any of that helps but those are couple things that come to mind. I hope it helps? If truly a swamp I’d be thinking about an Argo or maybe a PUG or Frog (but I don’t think they are made anymore).
Thank you for the input. This all came about because I did have a neighbor that was a 1/2 mile beyond my cabin and he always took care of the road as it was shared to his place. So he took care of a mile of two track for us both. He suddenly past away and so I am now trying to figure out how to maintain everything as I currently do not own a tractor. Thus the interest in the L2502 and implements. I plan to spray small trees to keep them back from the road. Others I will likely pull out with gripper chain to remove roots or cut them as necessary. My cabin is off grid and run off solar panels and a generator. Due to the swamp I believe it would cost me >30k to get grid power.
The neighbor did live up north full time, I am on weekends and over the summer, which creates the issue of buildup of snow during the winter to prevent me of getting to the cabin
i am thinking value of snow blade vs snow blower if be in a heavy snow area and subject to drifting / in-fill snow storms.
Might you run out of room to push snow to the side on a long / narrow driveway versus having the ability to throw it well out of your way?
Might you run out of room to push snow to the side on a long / narrow driveway versus having the ability to throw it well out of your way?
That actually has been an issue, one that limited my ability to get propane delivered as the road was not sufficiently cleared. The biggest issue I am already stretching my finances buying the tractor, a snow blower would be ideal, just not sure I can swing the cost.
Take a look at https://www.youtube.com/@GPOutdoors on YouTube from Ontario. He has a LX2610 with Cab. The LX has a midPTO that would allow you to blow snow with a front mount blower. He usually uses a rear blade with the snow blower in Winter.
He also regularly uses his grapple. If you look through the videos, you'll like find similar use cases.
He also regularly uses his grapple. If you look through the videos, you'll like find similar use cases.
gotcha!
I am of the opinion buy what you need once and keep it forever vs. maybe getting something that needs to be upgraded later if doesn't work.
Hopefully seems like you are in an area where vg condition used might be able to be found as 60 - 66" used blowers seem to be a common size suitable for your L25##.
Keep your eyes open and I bet you will come across one at a great price sooner than later. I had a 66" FarmKing that was in vg condition listed for sale at 1/2 price of new and it took me 6+ months to find a buyer and I am north of the border from you.
What did your neighbor use to maintain and plow the whole driveway? That should give you a good idea of what equipment you'll need.
He had a rear blade and used simply the bucket to fill low spots. Also used a rake to maintain during the spring and fall season. He used the rear blade for the snow removal, not sure it was the most effective method.
My only earth moving implement I own is a rear blade and I wouldn't have it any other way. Once you get comfortable with it it it is a incredibly versatile tool for many types of material.
As others have said, maybe consider a road base?
As others have said, maybe consider a road base?
To show my ignorance I am not sure what you mean by road base. I AI what it would cost to put gravel down to solve my issues, it was 10-25K
What I meant was something to build a solid base for a potential graveled driveway to come.
This is kinda dependent on your area of the country and your terrain. Being you are in a swamp the ground is likely very soft so you would need to start with very large material to push down into the ground.
No need to waste a ton of money on nice fine gravel to get buried in the ground.
Local to me, lots of people make a base out of recycled roadway asphalt. Sometimes you can get this very cheap in the form of millings, which are usually mixed in size pieces. There are also some that like to use large slag chucks, a byproduct of steel mills.
This is just an idea, I understand that being an offgrid cabin you may prefer to keep the entrance road as it is now.
Thank you for the feedback, I did not think about recycled resources, not sure where I am at that will work, but it was something I did not think about, so I will explore.
North Idaho Wolfman
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So throw out the box blade, useless for what you want, just get a simple rear blade to maintain the road.
Get a tractor with turf tires so that it will float more than sink.
Get chains for them.
If you get any amount of winter snow and you're not there and it builds up, you are going to be limited to what you can do with it.
And if ice ends up in the middle of the snow it that's going to add a whole lot of issues, and that eliminates a snow blower.
A front blade is good but I'm betting if there is any amount of build up it's going to overwhelm you and the abilities of the tractor.
Get a tractor with turf tires so that it will float more than sink.
Get chains for them.
If you get any amount of winter snow and you're not there and it builds up, you are going to be limited to what you can do with it.
And if ice ends up in the middle of the snow it that's going to add a whole lot of issues, and that eliminates a snow blower.
A front blade is good but I'm betting if there is any amount of build up it's going to overwhelm you and the abilities of the tractor.
Thanks for the feedback, but I am uncertain what you are advising. According to what you have said their is no good solution. So how should I move forward with my purchase?
airbiscuit
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New Holland T2310, New Holland TC21D, Kubota l3010 GST, Farmall H
He had a rear blade and used simply the bucket to fill low spots. Also used a rake to maintain during the spring and fall season. He used the rear blade for the snow removal, not sure it was the most effective method.
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That tells me your road isn't awful. If it was a boggy swamp. the mud would sink down 10 feet. The poor man's way to deal with it would be to corduroy it- lay down logs across the road and cover with gravel so it "floats"
You mentioned swamp with sandy soil, so it implies that it is solid enough to drive on. That means what you have to do is make sure water runs off the road. Make the road have a crown, ditches and swales to direct the water away. That can mostly be done with a bucket (with a tooth bar) and a rear blade. For snow removal, a 3pt snowblower isn't all that expensive (later, you will want a rear pull snowblower).
If you only get there occasionally, and get a lot of snow accumulation, and your tractor is at the cabin, you may need to snowmobile in or use snow shoes.
It doesn't sound like you need a rough cut mower, but everyone needs a rough cut mower, and a set of forks.
Oh, and a light/powerful chainsaw.
Runs With Scissors
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L2501 TLB , Grappel, Brush Hog, Box Blade, Ballast box, Forks, Tiller, PH digger
Not sure where your place is (snow belt or not), but ours is just north of Alpena.
We don’t have the exact same problems, but they are “semi-similar”.
The snow build up "between visits” can be problematic to say the least.
The best solution for us, was to buy a plow for the truck. Even that has some problems, but its the best I have come up with.
Normally, it’s no big deal to “plow yourself into” the place, or out of it, but there have been times when we “get hammered” with snow for 2 weeks, when we are not there, then it’s quite difficult to access it, even with a plow on the truck.
The problem with having the tractor with the plow/snow-blower is that I would have to "trudge through knee deep snow” to access the tractor, and even then, sometimes/many times the pole barn doors are “snow welded” shut……….And typically it’s dark/late when I get up there, making things more difficult.
One suggestion is to have a “snow service” (or neighbor that you pay in my case) plow your place on a regular(’ish) basis, (if thats possible?) Then use the tractor for “maintenance”…..
Just an idea……...
We don’t have the exact same problems, but they are “semi-similar”.
The snow build up "between visits” can be problematic to say the least.
The best solution for us, was to buy a plow for the truck. Even that has some problems, but its the best I have come up with.
Normally, it’s no big deal to “plow yourself into” the place, or out of it, but there have been times when we “get hammered” with snow for 2 weeks, when we are not there, then it’s quite difficult to access it, even with a plow on the truck.
The problem with having the tractor with the plow/snow-blower is that I would have to "trudge through knee deep snow” to access the tractor, and even then, sometimes/many times the pole barn doors are “snow welded” shut……….And typically it’s dark/late when I get up there, making things more difficult.
One suggestion is to have a “snow service” (or neighbor that you pay in my case) plow your place on a regular(’ish) basis, (if thats possible?) Then use the tractor for “maintenance”…..
Just an idea……...
You won’t be happy with a SCUT with tiny wheels and low ground clearance. You will want a utility tractor 80-100HP with large front wheels and ground clearance. Get studded Euro chains on all four wheels.