What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[Sidekick]

Plowed snow again. Yesterday we had 5 inches and I did my first plowing with the RTV. Today we got another 3 inches that was up to my Corgis belly and it had to go. I can say that RTV is the worst shifting vehicle I have ever had. Even with the brake fully depressed it is almost impossible to get in reverse to back up from a pile facing downhill. Definitely a bad machine for my plowing I found.

Picked up a used Curtis loader mount plow for the new tractor this weekend. Hopefully that will be ready to go for the next storm. Drained the cylinders and changed the quick connects for the angle this morning. Working on grinding out the quick connector slots because it came off an old Kubota that uses the smaller rectangular pins and mine are 1 inch round.

 

[Old_Paint]

Woah. That's a big log. Quit impressive it managed to pick it up. How heavy is your grapple compared to the pallet forks frame? I noticed a quite a few grapples are actually closer to the pivot pin than forks so wouldn't that technically be able to pick up more despite being possibly heavier than the forks? I've always wondered that.

Correct. The farther away from the boom pivots the larger the negative affect on the boom lift. Same for the curl as the load moves away from the curl knuckles. The boom “pushes” to lift with a little more force than lowering because fluid is being pumped into the head end of the cylinders which have a larger cross section than the rod end. The curl function usually retracts the cylinders (pulls) to curl up meaning it can push down harder than it can pull up. The model number on Kubota FELs is also the weight rating in KG. That rating is what the loader can (safely) lift at the curl knuckles. The‘breakout’ force is somewhat less. There’s some extra geometry going on with the shape and position of the cylinders, but generally speaking, it’s basically a lever and fulcrum. The closer the load is to the fulcrum, the more force the lever can produce to lift it. Kinda like the fat kid on the playground has to sit closer to the pivot on the seesaw.

 

[mcmxi]

It was a cold but sunny day yesterday and I made some progress on getting the lower driveway prepared for winter plowing. The edge is all cleaned up (used the M6060 and rear blade) and the surface is about as good as I can get it with the EA land leveler. I'll bring in some more gravel next spring to fill in a couple of low spots.

It was cold and foggy today but nice conditions to make a few more passes. I removed the land leveler and don't plan on using it again until next spring. I need to get the blower back on but that's a five minute job.

I should add that I've been playing with draft control on both tractors pulling the land leveler and rear hydraulic blade but I have no idea what I'm doing, or if it's working. The owner's manuals are kind of vague about it so I still have much to learn.

 

[RCW]

Nothing today, but we're forecasted for some of the Lake Effect Wednesday/Thursday.

Sounds like we're in the 4-9" range. One thing about Lake Effect is it can vary greatly.

Nothing major, but snowblowing at 25* F with 30 mph winds isn't pleasing.....

With 30 mph winds, I'll also want to make sure the generator is ready to go at 25 *F.......that's not pleasing either.....

 

[rc51stierhoff]

It was a cold but sunny day yesterday and I made some progress on getting the lower driveway prepared for winter plowing. The edge is all cleaned up (used the M6060 and rear blade) and the surface is about as good as I can get it with the EA land leveler. I'll bring in some more gravel next spring to fill in a couple of low spots.

It was cold and foggy today but nice conditions to make a few more passes. I removed the land leveler and don't plan on using it again until next spring. I need to get the blower back on but that's a five minute job.

I should add that I've been playing with draft control on both tractors pulling the land leveler and rear hydraulic blade but I have no idea what I'm doing, or if it's working. The owner's manuals are kind of vague about it so I still have much to learn.

View attachment 143488

View attachment 143489

Good day.

Looking at that pic the front blade seems like it will clear a pretty good swath by itself…do you plan to use the new rear blade offset in tandem with the front blade? Seems like that would clear your drive in single pass almost. If that is the plan I bet that will move some snow quick fast and in a hurry.

 

[mcmxi]

Good day.

Looking at that pic the front blade seems like it will clear a pretty good swath by itself…do you plan to use the new rear blade offset in tandem with the front blade? Seems like that would clear your drive in single pass almost. If that is the plan I bet that will move some snow quick fast and in a hurry.

I had that same thought about running the hydraulic snow blade on the front of the M6060 with the hydraulic rear blade out. It would be great on the lower gravel driveway but I also have 9,000 sq.ft. of asphalt to clear so the MX with the front blade and rear blower is my main snow removal machine.

Once the snow gets here in a big way I'll only use the M6060 and rear blade to clear snow from the edge where it has a tendency of building up due to my not wanting to get too close to drop off.

 

[Lil Foot]

Plowed snow again. Yesterday we had 5 inches and I did my first plowing with the RTV. Today we got another 3 inches that was up to my Corgis belly and it had to go. I can say that RTV is the worst shifting vehicle I have ever had. Even with the brake fully depressed it is almost impossible to get in reverse to back up from a pile facing downhill. Definitely a bad machine for my plowing I found.
View attachment 143476
Picked up a used Curtis loader mount plow for the new tractor this weekend. Hopefully that will be ready to go for the next storm. Drained the cylinders and changed the quick connects for the angle this morning. Working on grinding out the quick connector slots because it came off an old Kubota that uses the smaller rectangular pins and mine are 1 inch round.
View attachment 143477 View attachment 143478

Looks like Curtis hasn't changed the basic design of that blade in decades.
I have seen at least 4 or 5 that are nearly identical, including mine:

 

[River19]

Been somewhat lazy in changing things over to "winter mode".....needed to have the FEL on to spread the RAP a couple weeks back that I posted about but since then I have been watching the weather. Looks like real snow coming tomorrow night so I pulled the FEL and mounted the subframe in-between meetings today and will finally get the blower on tomorrow just in time. Rear blade has been positioned and the carryall with the sand-salt mixture is ready to go.......

No fancy fun tractor work per se, just regular old getting crap ready to do its job.

 

[Sidekick]

Looks like Curtis hasn't changed the basic design of that blade in decades.
I have seen at least 4 or 5 that are nearly identical, including mine:
View attachment 143492 View attachment 143493

That's exactly how this one started out on the owners first tractor. He upgraded to a Kubota with quick attach and had the assembly welded to a quick attach mount later. It seems very well made and fits my tractor nicely. It is quite old but was always stored indoors on a dolly it came with. Nice how they have the blow off have that prevents overpressuring the hydraulic system by bypassing oil to the non pressurized cylinder. A nice plow That's not to heavy.

 

[mdhughes]

Woah. That's a big log. Quit impressive it managed to pick it up. How heavy is your grapple compared to the pallet forks frame? I noticed a quite a few grapples are actually closer to the pivot pin than forks so wouldn't that technically be able to pick up more despite being possibly heavier than the forks? I've always wondered that.

The grapple is 302 pounds, and the pallet forks are 308 pounds.

I used forks for 3 or 4 years to move logs, but it is a lot easier with the grapple.

 

[nerwin]

The grapple is 302 pounds, and the pallet forks are 308 pounds.

I used forks for 3 or 4 years to move logs, but it is a lot easier with the grapple.

I'm definitely interested in getting a grapple and setting up 3rd valve but I'll give the forks a try first while I save up! haha.

 

[biketopia]

It was a cold but sunny day yesterday and I made some progress on getting the lower driveway prepared for winter plowing. The edge is all cleaned up (used the M6060 and rear blade) and the surface is about as good as I can get it with the EA land leveler. I'll bring in some more gravel next spring to fill in a couple of low spots.

I should add that I've been playing with draft control on both tractors pulling the land leveler and rear hydraulic blade but I have no idea what I'm doing, or if it's working. The owner's manuals are kind of vague about it so I still have much to learn.



View attachment 143489

If I could get my driveway looking like that with my landplane I would be ecstatic!! I drug the driveway last month and did a really bad job, I must have been in a hurry. I'm off for a few days next week, hopefully, it's not frozen solid and I can spend a little time on it and drag it a few times to make it decent for the winter.

 

[mcmxi]

If I could get my driveway looking like that with my landplane I would be ecstatic!! I drug the driveway last month and did a really bad job, I must have been in a hurry. I'm off for a few days next week, hopefully, it's not frozen solid and I can spend a little time on it and drag it a few times to make it decent for the winter.

Spending a few hours with the new to me rear hydraulic blade helped a lot. I'm still figuring out draft control and not sure if it's working much, if at all. I'm still considering rear gauge wheels for next year to end up with a poor man's road grader. That said, I realize that it takes time to get this stuff figured out, and time to get good at grading. Many of us only spend a few hours a year doing this stuff so don't have the experience to know why it's going wrong or how to correct it.

What I'm learning is to allocate more time to the driveway, realize that it takes quite a lot of work, have a plan or an idea of what I'm going to do or want to achieve, think about what I need to do in order to get the results I want, and then stick with it. Because the lower driveway is used by my neighbor and their tenants (they have an easement), I feel some pressure to get it done quickly, but I'm learning that "quick" and "good" are often opposite sides of the same coin.

 

[River19]

Ran out in between today's meetings and work BS to finish mounting the blower.

Hydraulics tested, blower tested and hydro lines safely tethered to keep them safe.

Gotta run back out later and fuel it up and toss the Ram 2500 back in the Morton and button things up for snow overnight.

Now where are my insulated Carthartt bibs......and my good gloves, and my waterproof shell.....

 

[PoTreeBoy]

Spending a few hours with the new to me rear hydraulic blade helped a lot. I'm still figuring out draft control and not sure if it's working much, if at all. I'm still considering rear gauge wheels for next year to end up with a poor man's road grader. That said, I realize that it takes time to get this stuff figured out, and time to get good at grading. Many of us only spend a few hours a year doing this stuff so don't have the experience to know why it's going wrong or how to correct it.

What I'm learning is to allocate more time to the driveway, realize that it takes quite a lot of work, have a plan or an idea of what I'm going to do or want to achieve, think about what I need to do in order to get the results I want, and then stick with it. Because the lower driveway is used by my neighbor and their tenants (they have an easement), I feel some pressure to get it done quickly, but I'm learning that "quick" and "good" are often opposite sides of the same coin.

My understanding of draft control says it's not going to help with road grading. DC works by sensing the force exerted on the top link to maintain a more-or-less constant load on th tractor. This works well when the object is to pull a plow as deep as the soil conditions allow, adjusting to the tractor's capability. But if you're grading a washboard, you want the blade to knock the tops off, not raise each time it hits the resistance.

That's my understanding, if I'm all washed up, somebody will correct me. I think gauge wheels on the back would be pretty effective.

 

[Chanceywd]

Ran out in between today's meetings and work BS to finish mounting the blower.

Hydraulics tested, blower tested and hydro lines safely tethered to keep them safe.

Gotta run back out later and fuel it up and toss the Ram 2500 back in the Morton and button things up for snow overnight.

Now where are my insulated Carthartt bibs......and my good gloves, and my waterproof shell.....

View attachment 143535

Yes to the carhartt bibs, their arctic chore coat with hood along with some lined leather mittens are this old guys tractor cab when plowing with the 8N! That combo has been keeping me warm working outside for years.
The trick with them I found after my first set shrunk after washing, was to buy a size bigger and then I found it was a whole lot more comfortable when bending, kneeling, or sitting in them.
The pockets on that coat are really handy for carrying extra gloves tools or parts. When I was still working I could stuff a thermos I had then in one.
We have snow forecast here this week, they are waiting for me by the door!

Bill

 

[RMS]

Just finished cleaning this last little storm. About 3" of heavy snow/almost slushy stuff. The blower did real well and the rear blade did good too. I really like this combination.

 

[nerwin]

Well it may not have been enough snow to bother plowing but man I couldn't wait anymore!!!! I had to get some seat time and practice with her some.

First time plowing with a tractor, what an experience. I've only have experience plowing with a side by side and a quad with winch operation. I'm not gonna lie I wasn't sure at first and I definitely dug in the ground some hehe. But how else can you learn? After a few minutes I actually put it in float and took it back out and just raised it a tad and I found I can curl or dump to adjust the plow edge. When I curl up, It won't cut into the snow as much causing less damage but certain spots I could "dump" and really scrape it down easy, even hard pack ice under the snow just went right through it like nothing. Something my side by side wasn't capable of doing.

The best part was back dragging! I just put it in float and back dragged and it worked perfectly, no down pressure needed yet. Didn't cause any damage to the drive way or grass, only some spots when I was learning haha.

But overall, it was a great experience. I definitely needed four wheel drive and it didn't have a problem after that. I find plowing with hydrostatic kinds nice because it's so precise where as the side by side was very jerky.

Since it was just little bit of snow, I used medium range. If it was heavy stuff probably use low but I think even light fluffy snow medium will be fine.

It's gonna take some time getting use to but I feel like I have better control over the plow than the side by side.

 

[mcmxi]

My understanding of draft control says it's not going to help with road grading. DC works by sensing the force exerted on the top link to maintain a more-or-less constant load on th tractor. This works well when the object is to pull a plow as deep as the soil conditions allow, adjusting to the tractor's capability. But if you're grading a washboard, you want the blade to knock the tops off, not raise each time it hits the resistance.

That's my understanding, if I'm all washed up, somebody will correct me. I think gauge wheels on the back would be pretty effective.

@MtnViewRanch swears by draft control for grading but I'm still in the learning phase so don't know enough yet to have an opinion on whether it works for me. It does seem counter-intuitive that draft control would be well-suited to grading a driveway, but many things are counter-intuitive despite being true.

It seems to me that a set of gauge wheels way behind the rear blade would create a cutting plane centered between the rear wheels of the tractor and the gauge wheels. As the front wheels move up and down due to the terrain, a rear blade would typically move in the opposite direction to the front wheels which isn't good for grading resulting in peaks and troughs. If the position control lever is in float mode I would think that the blade's elevation wouldn't change much at all as the front wheels move up and down following the peaks and troughs on the driveway.

It would be interesting to hear from those using draft control with a rear blade to get an idea of how they use it, how effective it is, and if they're using draft control or mixed control.

 

[RCW]

@MtnViewRanch swears by draft control for grading but I'm still in the learning phase so don't know enough yet to have an opinion on whether it works for me. It does seem counter-intuitive that draft control would be well-suited to grading a driveway, but many things are counter-intuitive despite being true.

It seems to me that a set of gauge wheels way behind the rear blade would create a cutting plane centered between the rear wheels of the tractor and the gauge wheels. As the front wheels move up and down due to the terrain, a rear blade would typically move in the opposite direction to the front wheels which isn't good for grading resulting in peaks and troughs. If the position control lever is in float mode I would think that the blade's elevation wouldn't change much at all as the front wheels move up and down following the peaks and troughs on the driveway.

It would be interesting to hear from those using draft control with a rear blade to get an idea of how they use it, how effective it is, and if they're using draft control or mixed control.

View attachment 143568

Trust me, I’m sure @MtnViewRanch knows a lot more than I do. Looks like it’s use of both DC and PC.

Probably takes some understanding and practice. I have neither.

I’ll be very interested if you can master it. Caught my interest when he said that also. (With a BX, I don’t have DC or PC).

You certainly have a great setup now to do so.

If you can get that to work would negate the need for gauge wheels.

Hopefully works out either way. Looks like a great blade!