Looking at a new L3301 plus attachments

[Aztec]

I'm working on clearing a small site, 2 acres, and I'm looking at an L3301 with FEL, BH, plus attachments. It will be a small tree farm. The land has lots of small rocks, 4" to 10" and large grass. I'm pondering a landscape rake, tiller, or a ripper.
What's the best implement to help till the soil, help rip up the rocks so the soil will be tillable. Once I get rocks removed, I plan on using a landscape rake to keep the grass cleared. I'm worried some of the attachments will be damaged by the rocks.
I need the larger tractor for FEL and BH work.
Any suggestions??
For power losses, a couple of days at the most....is a PTO generator a good choice for powering a few appliances??

 

[85Hokie]

I'm working on clearing a small site, 2 acres, and I'm looking at an L3301 with FEL, BH, plus attachments. It will be a small tree farm. The land has lots of small rocks, 4" to 10" and large grass. I'm pondering a landscape rake, tiller, or a ripper.
What's the best implement to help till the soil, help rip up the rocks so the soil will be tillable. Once I get rocks removed, I plan on using a landscape rake to keep the grass cleared. I'm worried some of the attachments will be damaged by the rocks.
I need the larger tractor for FEL and BH work.
Any suggestions??
For power losses, a couple of days at the most....is a PTO generator a good choice for powering a few appliances??

A tiller will be the last tool on my list to start with.......rocks like that will be hard on the innards! The landscape rake will find the rocks for you easily after the grass is removed, and might make a few rocks roll to the surface. The rocks are going to be hard to manage with any ground engaging tool, I hope that they are not all near the surface?

As far as size of tractor, get the biggest your pocketbook can stand.....bigger is usually better and in this case getting the rocks out will need all the HP you can manage!

As for a PTO genny - I would not head that way for two reasons......

first is cost - a new pto genny will cost a large amount and will tie up the use of the tractor if you need it while the power is out.

second - the diesel used at the correct (high)RPM will be more than another stand alone machine will use or close to it. A typical stand alone generator will use about .5 gallons per hour on a typical 5500 watt generator - that would be the smallest I would consider. It will run the fridge, microwave etc....

now if you need to step up to the next level 10kw-15kw - whole house generator then the cost will will get up to the pto driven unit - but still I think $ for $ the stand alone will be a better choice, no matter what type of fuel it uses. Many here have stand alone - just in case the power is off, AND then need the tractor for a dozen other jobs to boot!

 

[CaveCreekRay]

Aztec,

Welcome!

The soil up your way is a lot softer than the stuff we have down the hill in Cave Creek. I have a L3800 I bought from a gentleman in Cottonwood a couple years back. It came with a PTO-powered tiller, a rake and a box. He had good success with the tiller though it cost a bunch and took its toll on the tiller whacking rocks. Tillers are more for clean un-rocky soil.

The box will be great for grading and spreading and is a must buy. A lesser though cheaper alternative is a simple articulated blade for the 3pt. I am thinking about finding one of those in good shape locally for use on my DG driveway. They each work a little differently. A good small blade is under $300 and a box is in the mid-$500 range. Implement deals can be had when buying the tractor so get it all at once.

The problem with smaller tractors is getting the power to the ground. That is something that large and powerful does well. Smaller tractors need additional weight in the form of filled rear tires, wheel weights, or hauling around an implement to give you more weight. You need to accept that and work around it by limiting how much drag you throw out behind the machine.

Rakes are handy but they don't break up hard ground. They also don't like to hit rocks in solid soil. You need to break up the surface first. Also, rakes rotate 360 degrees on their mount. Pulling with the tines curled under digs the tines in. Spin it 180 and the tines rake but don't dig in nearly as much.

For getting the rocks out of your soil, I would go with a single or double plow/ripper attachment. You can vary the depth and take more each pass. It will pull up rocks which you can recover with the rake attachment. Some of the larger rocks can be rolled into the Front Equipment Loader (FEL) and hauled away. Some of those huge huge red eggs may be beyond the capacity of even a large machine. You can bury those further by dragging material on top of them with the box. Think of the box scraper as your mini-earth mover. It drags material around and smooths things out.

These rippers or plows will seek a depth limited by the 3pt hitch on the tractor. 3-point hitches put lifting pressure on implements but don't force them into the ground. That is done by gravity and by the style blade on the implement. The 3pt can control how deep the implement can go but above that setting, the implement "floats."

The guys in Cottonwood can suggest what you will need.

Let us know how it goes and send us pictures! Tractor "porn" is very popular for folks on this site.

Ray

Generator PS: What Hokie said. If you are running a big farm operation and need high wattage for a short period, then a PTO might be OK. I bought the top-rated 2014 and 2015 Westinghouse 6500w gas generator from Home Depot for $599 last year and its an amazing machine for the money. (Just checked and its still 5-star rated but the price is $761!!! Seasonal pricing I guess!) Anyway, PTO is not the best way to go...

 

[Aztec]

Thanks for the suggestions. I think a ripper and a landscape rake is just the ticket.
I think a stand alone jenny is the best set up for me.
I may consider a wood chipper. Maybe just rent one every few months.

 

[mdhughes]

I may consider a wood chipper. Maybe just rent one every few months.

I have a WoodMaxx WM-8M wood chipper and I'm very happy with it. I have run some stuff close to 8" in size and my L3901 handled it no problem. I have mainly been using it to clean up the tops of trees I cut down in our woods for firewood. So I don't run a lot of big stuff through it.

I'm very happy with my L3901 and I think you would be happy with a L3301.

 

[lonegunman]

I picked up a set of bucket teeth for my L3200 and it helped a ton. I have some rocky acres around the house and I own a 120 acre plot out in the sticks as well. The bucket did not want to dig into the rocky ground at all until I added a set of teeth. It made it a ton more useful.

They are fairly inexpensive and work really well, it takes about five mins to remove them.

 

[bmmitch]

What kind of price have you been quoted on L3301 I am looking for one the best price I have found is $20000.+ tax that is with loader and HST.