What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[rc51stierhoff]

It’s a rain out today up in NE Ohio. No tractoring, but she is getting a free bath. Did manage to do some PMs on the brush cutter and the tiller though.

The Secretary of war and minister of defense have had a much more productive morning un-palletizing the once neatly palletized firewood.

 

[SteveBX23]

3 weeks ago, I said goodbye to my first tractor. Friday, I said goodbye to my first dog buddy, friend, and work companion. 11 years goes by awfully fast. The Kubota would’ve been called to dig a burial, but it was just poor timing. Here was my sweet Miya girl. Crushing.

Trying to muster through, we got the tooth bar on the LX today, and also moved some mulch

 

[rc51stierhoff]

3 weeks ago, I said goodbye to my first tractor. Friday, I said goodbye to my first dog buddy, friend, and work companion. 11 years goes by awfully fast. The Kubota would’ve been called to dig a burial, but it was just poor timing. Here was my sweet Miya girl. Crushing.
View attachment 106388
View attachment 106389

Trying to muster through, we got the tooth bar on the LX today, and also moved some mulch
View attachment 106391

I am sorry for your loss.

 

[Old_Paint]

It's not "split in half" in the sense that it broke, it was intentionally taken apart, for clutch replacement.hope that clears it up. But yes the grease seal is something I wish I knew about beforehand. I did download the wsm at kbooks but printing it has been a challenge.

Oh, I know exactly why it was taken apart. When I was 12, I helped a Ford master mechanic pull an 8N apart for a clutch, only to find a ruptured lift cylinder and blown up differential. I learned a lot of things mechanical that summer. Just seeing a tractor pulled apart means it's a tractor you can't use for a while. It's a lot more fun to sit on them while they're doing work for you than it is to work on them while they're riding on your bank account. Hope you get it squared away quickly.

 

[Old_Paint]

old paint
I have been in the bottom of several hand dug wells. No ladder just climb down the rock walls.
I did one that the over flow drain clogged up with silt. I was standing in 2' of water using an army shovel filling a bucket that was pulled up and emptied. When I got the drain open I just had to stir the silt up in the well bottom and out it went. We had a 2" pump from the fire department running until that drain was opened. That was about 35 years ago. Now I am stiff getting out of the car after driving an hour.
Too many years milking cows.

My shovel started off with being a short handled shovel with the cross-wise handle. Even that was a little too long, and my knuckles complained a lot about it. I cut down a regular shovel to about 2 feet, just barely enough handle to hold on to. My knuckles thanked me, my step-dad made me replace the handle when we were done with the well.

It's a real bad feeling when you realize the handle on the bucket just let go of the rope, ain't it? Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. All you can do is wait for the bucket to hit you. Hopefully, it's because someone on top didn't hook it good and the bucket is empty, or you managed to jump in the right corner (away from the bucket) if it was a full one. Someone would yell "HEADACHE" and I'd just jump to a corner, put the shovel over my head and neck, and wait. If I was lucky, the bucket was turned sideways when it got there. If not, there was usually some bandages involved. I still have scars on my shoulders from a couple of falling buckets that hit me bottom first. The first one that hit me in the head taught me the trick of using the shovel for a shield. Fortunately, that was early in the dig, dry bucket, and not a long fall. We started out using cheap metal 5 gallon buckets from paint, hydraulic oil, etc, but the handles on those started pulling off with heavier mud, so we switched to a much stronger bucket, about 4 gallons. It hurt a lot more when it hit.

Then, one day, I became an engineer. I'm sure it's because of a head injury.

 

[trial and error]

Had a small victory today on the clutch replacement, got the old pilot bushing out and the new one installed, also got the new throwout bearing installed on its shaft. The freezer helped with both applications of the new parts.
Below is a picture of what the old pilot bushing looked like when we finally got it out. It ain't pretty but I didn't care, cleaned up the end of the crank a little bit and sent the new one home.

 

[Old_Paint]

I‘m in east Aladamnbama just north of Lee County. I’ve probably been outside, every morning until noon almost every day except Sundays and yesterday for the last two weeks.

After 27 years in AZ, the heat and humidity here is tough but I do ok. A friend that lives near Moundville reported almost 4” of rain this afternoon in a short period.

Having so much rain the week the tractor was deliver softened up the ground which made digging easier. I added “dentures” to the loader this morning and luckily, didn’t beat the loader up during the first few weeks of ownership. In that time, I improved the drainage here with shallow ditches, added one drain pipe, lots of gravel & a little rip rap.

The new teeth really helped scoop up mulch from when we had pines harvested last year. All of the tops and limbs were mulched down into several piles, one of which is three feet high.

I moved several scoops of mulch up to each side of the driveway near our county road to firm up those sides where the driveway comes down to the house.

The forecast shows a chance of rain nine out of the next ten days. Hopefully, Monday, I can spread hay to help hold the dirt in place above the ditches. A neighbor dropped off a big roll several weeks ago and it’s come in handy. It sure does aggravate my sinuses in the process of spreading it though. Lol.

The new dentures.

View attachment 106357

I have the same bar on what looks to be a similar bucket. It made a huge difference on my LX. I'm currently in the process of drilling matching holes in the bar and chamfering them so that I can bolt it with taper head bolts. The mounting 'flanges' also block the vertical bucket edge which is handy for cutting banks on the side.

My only suggestion would for BXpanded to pre-drill those holes and eliminate the edge hooks and mounting flanges. It's easy enough to get the bolt-hole centers. I know several bucket styles exist, including some that have no holes, but that's exactly why they have to have the bucket dimensions to build that bar. Why not manufacture it so it bolts on to existing holes in the bucket? The downside would be the ends of the bolts and the nuts sticking up inside the bucket, but as opposed to those edge clips doing the same thing?

The other 'complaint' if that's what you want to call it is that the bar is the same width as the the inside of the bucket, not the bucket edge, leaving a good place for small roots and stuff to build up and affect the cutting performance on one side. They ask the bucket edge width, but then still cut the bar to the inside edges. ????? If it were bolted all the way across, it would strengthen both the bucket and the bar against bending. Still, though, it's night and day on using that bucket for digging. As far as back-dragging and levelling, I've never found reason to take the bar off for that purpose. Unless I tilt the bucket forward, I rarely see any grooves in my back-dragging.

You won't regret adding that bar. Friendly piece of advice: NEVER park your tractor with that bucket lifted or the bucket tilted back. Those teeth are very sharp. I've nicked myself several times on mine. It's not a nice wound. Make sure you set it flat so it doesn't expose that edge. It's gonna be sharp a long time, I promise. Mine still is after 30 months in 57 gravel, hard clay, pushing on stumps, and generally abusing the hell out of it.

 

[Old_Paint]

3 weeks ago, I said goodbye to my first tractor. Friday, I said goodbye to my first dog buddy, friend, and work companion. 11 years goes by awfully fast. The Kubota would’ve been called to dig a burial, but it was just poor timing. Here was my sweet Miya girl. Crushing.
View attachment 106388
View attachment 106389

Trying to muster through, we got the tooth bar on the LX today, and also moved some mulch
View attachment 106391

Sorry for the loss of the dog. They can be more family than some relatives. Gorgeous looking lab.

On to more positive thinking, you're gonna love the difference that bar makes on your LX. I have the same tractor, same bucket. See my comments above to K7G regarding fit. See if you agree. Somewhere on here I posted some photos of what I did with some Ken's Hooks and D-Rings. I put the hooks on top straight in front of the loader booms (to avoid twisting the boom), and d-rings in the back/bottom under the bottom SSQA knuckles. The D-Rings I added in case I have to lift something right at the limits of the loader, and the top of the bucket is sticking out too far to do it. That was nearly the case with the WC68 chipper. Nearly 900 lbs ship weight.

I recently dug a parking area with mine and handled 10 tons of 57 gravel finishing it. That bar makes a HUGE difference in gravel, hard clay, whatever you stick it in. It'll make that little SU behave like it's a much bigger tractor. I don't have a backhoe, though that was the original plan. I use a sub-soiler on hard dry clay to break it first, then I can have my way with the FEL. Loaded back tires seem to be heavy enough to hold the back end down up to the limits of the FEL. I've picked up the rears a couple times, but that was with curl motion and the bucket under the edge of a stump (with the Pirahna stuck in it). Hopefully you got the oversize R-14's too. Good tires. I have ZERO complaints on the tires.

The bar and hooks were the first mods I did on mine.

 

[K7G]

3 weeks ago, I said goodbye to my first tractor. Friday, I said goodbye to my first dog buddy, friend, and work companion. 11 years goes by awfully fast. The Kubota would’ve been called to dig a burial, but it was just poor timing. Here was my sweet Miya girl. Crushing.
View attachment 106388
View attachment 106389

Trying to muster through, we got the tooth bar on the LX today, and also moved some mulch
View attachment 106391

I’m so sorry for your loss. 11 years is a good run but never long enough. We lost our Parker to cancer at 5 years old just about 2 years ago. His nephew Bosch came into our lives a few weeks later. God bless you and yours.

 

[Fordtech86]

breaking ground for next years garden expansion

 

[K7G]

I have the same bar on what looks to be a similar bucket. It made a huge difference on my LX. I'm currently in the process of drilling matching holes in the bar and chamfering them so that I can bolt it with taper head bolts. The mounting 'flanges' also block the vertical bucket edge which is handy for cutting banks on the side.

My only suggestion would for BXpanded to pre-drill those holes and eliminate the edge hooks and mounting flanges. It's easy enough to get the bolt-hole centers. I know several bucket styles exist, including some that have no holes, but that's exactly why they have to have the bucket dimensions to build that bar. Why not manufacture it so it bolts on to existing holes in the bucket? The downside would be the ends of the bolts and the nuts sticking up inside the bucket, but as opposed to those edge clips doing the same thing?

The other 'complaint' if that's what you want to call it is that the bar is the same width as the the inside of the bucket, not the bucket edge, leaving a good place for small roots and stuff to build up and affect the cutting performance on one side. They ask the bucket edge width, but then still cut the bar to the inside edges. ????? If it were bolted all the way across, it would strengthen both the bucket and the bar against bending. Still, though, it's night and day on using that bucket for digging. As far as back-dragging and levelling, I've never found reason to take the bar off for that purpose. Unless I tilt the bucket forward, I rarely see any grooves in my back-dragging.

You won't regret adding that bar. Friendly piece of advice: NEVER park your tractor with that bucket lifted or the bucket tilted back. Those teeth are very sharp. I've nicked myself several times on mine. It's not a nice wound. Make sure you set it flat so it doesn't expose that edge. It's gonna be sharp a long time, I promise. Mine still is after 30 months in 57 gravel, hard clay, pushing on stumps, and generally abusing the hell out of it.

Thanks! Always appreciate the hard-earned and occasionally bloody advice!

 

[SteveBX23]

Sorry for the loss of the dog. They can be more family than some relatives. Gorgeous looking lab.

On to more positive thinking, you're gonna love the difference that bar makes on your LX. I have the same tractor, same bucket. See my comments above to K7G regarding fit. See if you agree. Somewhere on here I posted some photos of what I did with some Ken's Hooks and D-Rings. I put the hooks on top straight in front of the loader booms (to avoid twisting the boom), and d-rings in the back/bottom under the bottom SSQA knuckles. The D-Rings I added in case I have to lift something right at the limits of the loader, and the top of the bucket is sticking out too far to do it. That was nearly the case with the WC68 chipper. Nearly 900 lbs ship weight.

I recently dug a parking area with mine and handled 10 tons of 57 gravel finishing it. That bar makes a HUGE difference in gravel, hard clay, whatever you stick it in. It'll make that little SU behave like it's a much bigger tractor. I don't have a backhoe, though that was the original plan. I use a sub-soiler on hard dry clay to break it first, then I can have my way with the FEL. Loaded back tires seem to be heavy enough to hold the back end down up to the limits of the FEL. I've picked up the rears a couple times, but that was with curl motion and the bucket under the edge of a stump (with the Pirahna stuck in it). Hopefully you got the oversize R-14's too. Good tires. I have ZERO complaints on the tires.

The bar and hooks were the first mods I did on mine.

Thanks. They are much more than some actual human family members! The grief and void left behind has been real…

So I got to the part where you mention how sharp it is. I merely “bumped” into with my shin and instantly cut myself open. Impressive.

I moved mulch, but then messed around with shaving some high spots down in bare areas, and I did not think it was cutting at first, that’s how easy it shaved into the ground. It was great. Backdragging when smoothening and grading was greatest concern, but does not seem that will be inhibited at all.

 

[SteveBX23]

I’m so sorry for your loss. 11 years is a good run but never long enough. We lost our Parker to cancer at 5 years old just about 2 years ago. His nephew Bosch came into our lives a few weeks later. God bless you and yours.

Thanks. Darn dogs situate themselves in your life and leave great pain when they go. She ultimately succumbed to liver failure.

Good to see you were able to move on in a short time frame. I’m hoping the days progressively get better. I was not prepared for this. First time in my middle aged life grieving a furry friend

 

[DustyRusty]

View attachment 106419

breaking ground for next years garden expansion

She will need to have a cold one after a hard dusty day of labor.

 

[Fordtech86]

She will need to have a cold one after a hard dusty day of labor.

Absolutely! We had ice cream cones

 

[K7G]

Thanks. Darn dogs situate themselves in your life and leave great pain when they go. She ultimately succumbed to liver failure.

Good to see you were able to move on in a short time frame. I’m hoping the days progressively get better. I was not prepared for this. First time in my middle aged life grieving a furry friend

They’ll get slowly better. Kimble was the beagle my wife brought from Brazil. He died a week short of his 16th birthday. Parker was next and to lose him at only 5 was a kick in the balls. Our house was designed with him in mind all much as much as me! Lol. Bosch is growing into a good vizsla but there are times when we tell him that it’s a good thing he’s cute!

The girls from down the road came over and decided they wanted to be in his crate!

 

[SteveBX23]

They’ll get slowly better. Kimble was the beagle my wife brought from Brazil. He died a week short of his 16th birthday. Parker was next and to lose him at only 5 was a kick in the balls. Our house was designed with him in mind all much as much as me! Lol. Bosch is growing into a good vizsla but there are times when we tell him that it’s a good thing he’s cute!

View attachment 106422

The girls from down the road came over and decided they wanted to be in his crate!

View attachment 106423

Good looking pup. I family members that have 2 of those, great dogs.

5 years old is rough. Was it quick happening?

 

[K7G]

Good looking pup. I family members that have 2 of those, great dogs.

5 years old is rough. Was it quick happening?

Not really. He came up with a limp and an X-ray demonstrated a cracked vertebrae. They couldn’t determine a cause and literally as we prepared to do a biopsy, that X-ray showed it healing.

Then we moved.

A few months into the move, he developed a more severe limp and the dr diagnosed it as the equivalent of a torn ACL. We worked hard to get him into Auburn’s vet clinic. No one picked up anything on X-rays.

His lungs reached a tipping point and he couldn’t catch his breath. We took him to Auburn’s emergency animal ER and he was pretty well eaten up with cancer. They did a biopsy of one lung and the small hole refused to close and heal. They tried to wean him off of the pump removing the fluids but it didn’t work.

It got to the point where it was inhumane treatment so, we put him to sleep. Worst day of my life. Never cried so hard.

Enter Bosch a few weeks later. Unbeknownst to everyone, he suffered a scratch to his eye the day or the day before we picked him up. The next day, his eye was clouded over. Off to Auburn again.

He had cornea flap surgery and then we brought him home a few days later. Enter pneumonia….puppy can’t breathe. Here we go, back to Auburn again. My wife was scared that we’d lose him but, he pulled through.

We like to joke that at first, we didn’t think we could live without him and now, we’re not sure we can live with him! His eye survived but it’s not perfect. Other than that, he’s a great dog!

 

[Trapper Bob]

View attachment 106419

breaking ground for next years garden expansion

Must be hard coming up with new projects for your helpers (you lucky dude). I love it!

 

[BonnySlope]

They’ll get slowly better. Kimble was the beagle my wife brought from Brazil. He died a week short of his 16th birthday. Parker was next and to lose him at only 5 was a kick in the balls. Our house was designed with him in mind all much as much as me! Lol. Bosch is growing into a good vizsla but there are times when we tell him that it’s a good thing he’s cute!

View attachment 106422

The girls from down the road came over and decided they wanted to be in his crate!

View attachment 106423

Look at those eyes, What not me!. I had a Vizsla for a little over 12.5 years. Wooded Redfield was his full name, but answered to Wooden. Touch a shotgun in my house he was ready to go, he just couldn't drive.