New Owner

[Cathy Liebchen]

"Won't be paying somebody $400.00 plus a pop.....if they show."

That was exactly our experience- no shows, or leave half done and come back a week later

 

[Utopia Texas]

Lots of great advice so far and welcome to the addiction!
You will soon wish you had a need for a tractor years ago....

If you take the shredder off the rear end and intend to use the bucket be sure you have some sort of counter weight on the rear end. A fully loaded bucket of something like wet sand can occasionally lift the rear end off the ground on bumps enough to make you wet your shorts.

Always carry loads on the front as low to the ground as possible.

Try to avoid driving up or down a steep slope diagonally.
Straight up and down is safest.

 

[Tractor NUG]

Thanks - that is good to know. They are putting beet juice in the rear tires- would i still need to put a ballast on the rear as well if I am using the loader?

 

[pgmrdan]

Won't be paying somebody $400.00 plus a pop.....if they show.

And you won't be getting $300 or $400 a pop when they hay the place for you.

Had a guy stop by yesterday afternoon asking if he could buy some of my hay. Like money in the bank!

 

[Utopia Texas]

For light loads the beet juice will work fine but if you max out the front loader some counter weight is appropriate.
Eventually you might look into a set of pallet forks for the front end where you can stack and carry stuff on wooden pallets with ease. For example bags of concrete, bricks, animal feed, fertilizer etc. I have a bad back and load and unload things from the rear of my pick up truck all the time. Also store things on racks in the barn up high on pallets that no one could lift by hand. I'll be glad to help you spend your hard earned money on tractor accessories!

 

[Tractor NUG]

LOL. Thanks - I will see how it goes. Lots of implements to choose from for sure.

 

[D2Cat]

You probably meant diesel, but you keep talking like this, "Gas gauge did not move off full the entire time and I added gas a couple times." and someone will eventually put gas in there!!! Get a yellow container and call it diesel just to save you some grief.

 

[Missouribound]

Thanks - that is good to know. They are putting beet juice in the rear tires- would i still need to put a ballast on the rear as well if I am using the loader?

Your manual will tell you how much weight you need on the rear. The beet juice is good for traction but it does not take any weight off of the front end. A ballast box will accomplish that for you. You want to counterbalance the weight not just add to it. And be careful when you lift a load on uneven ground....it can be on it's side in a matter of seconds.

 

[Tractor NUG]

Your manual will tell you how much weight you need on the rear. The beet juice is good for traction but it does not take any weight off of the front end. A ballast box will accomplish that for you. You want to counterbalance the weight not just add to it. And be careful when you lift a load on uneven ground....it can be on it's side in a matter of seconds.

That makes a lot of sense - I did not consider the effect of the weight versus the counter balance- thanks. [emoji106]

 

[Shadetree03]

Attached pic of when it arrived. Salesman delivered and went through operation with me. He did a very good job through entire process.
Added another pic of the finished front part of property. Tractor ran good the entire way. The hours recorded for whole job was 4.7. I went slow because grass was high and first timer. Also took off front bucket to see better. Seems like the L2501 can handle what I need it for with no problem.
Won't be paying somebody $400.00 plus a pop.....if they show.

Couple things after the fact.
1. Did not check if seat went back any further? 6'2" and right leg hitting hydraulic bucket loader lever.

2. Gas gauge did not move off full the entire time and I added gas a couple times. Emailed my sales guy and he said because it's a V-Shaped tank it won't move until it gets a lot lower. He said this is a frequent complaint. Not sure I fully understand this.

Yep,, as far as the gas gauge, I also mentioned it to the dealer that the gas gauge was stuck on full. Looking at the tank and reading up, the tank has a top "shelf" that holds a lot more per inch of fill than the lower half that fits down below the dash area. I have run the first 6 plus hours, and the gauge is just now starting to read below 3/4 full. I was impressed with how this torquey diesel is sipping the fuel, and also pleased with the 10 gallon fillup of diesel from the dealer

 

[flagcraig]

Yep,, as far as the gas gauge, I also mentioned it to the dealer that the gas gauge was stuck on full. Looking at the tank and reading up, the tank has a top "shelf" that holds a lot more per inch of fill than the lower half that fits down below the dash area. I have run the first 6 plus hours, and the gauge is just now starting to read below 3/4 full. I was impressed with how this torquey diesel is sipping the fuel, and also pleased with the 10 gallon fillup of diesel from the dealer

I was also pleased with fuel consumption. I would be interested to know how many acres a 10 gallon tank can do brush hogging at Medium. Because I thought gas gauge didn't work I filled it up a couple times. Did not want to worry about bleeding the lines.

Thanks for your input.

 

[Cathy Liebchen]

I was also pleased with fuel consumption. I would be interested to know how many acres a 10 gallon tank can do brush hogging at Medium. Because I thought gas gauge didn't work I filled it up a couple times. Did not want to worry about bleeding the lines.

Thanks for your input.

our L3901 uses about a gallon of low sulfur diesel an hour. Our bush hogging is slow going, lots of small plots and trees, not much in the way of large open fields, with several miles of 12 foot game trails