Garden Tractor

[M-technik-3]

Appears to be a nice quiet area.

[gwb72tii]

this is the dirt (no rocks) and land. the pile of dirt is where the house is going.

IMG_0535 by , on Flickr
IMG_0537 by , on Flickr

[mrsleeve]

Yeah a good discing and rake out will do everything everything your wanting and not cause unneeded compaction and help with getting a cover grass started

[gwb72tii]

How deep are these ruts we are talking about.... What are you planing on doing the remainder of the property after you get your structures up and lawn areas established?

My advice as would be (if you have neighbor that has a operational farm this will be easier) approach them to bring a large farm tractor and a disk over and turn the land over many will do this for a small fee when not busy. Then drag it out with a york rake behind your rig a couple of times, then a pasture drag, to get it more uniform, reseed with an appropriate cover crop/grass and be done with it....


You could also likey get your builders dirt work contractor to regrade your property, but this would likely be far most costly than the above method,

ruts are 6-8" deep and 10-12" wide from a Kubota L2500 4WD tractor towing a bush master (?) mower.

The aim is to keep the majority of the property natural grass as it is now. the 8 acres are level without trees (yes! I am done with fir needles in everything). I hesitate to just roll it because of compacting the soil??

[mrsleeve]

How deep are these ruts we are talking about.... What are you planing on doing the remainder of the property after you get your structures up and lawn areas established?

My advice as would be (if you have neighbor that has a operational farm this will be easier) approach them to bring a large farm tractor and a disk over and turn the land over many will do this for a small fee when not busy. Then drag it out with a york rake behind your rig a couple of times, then a pasture drag, to get it more uniform, reseed with an appropriate cover crop/grass and be done with it....


You could also likey get your builders dirt work contractor to regrade your property, but this would likely be far most costly than the above method,

[flyboyx]

hmmmm.....without being there to look at it, its a bit hard to say. does the tractor make ruts in the ground when the soil is dry or only when its wet? it sounds like the ground needs to be smoothed out and then mowed with a much lighter machine such as a zero turn.

in the mean time, it sounds to me like the po spent years mowing the grass the same way every time building up those ruts. if you cut the lawn in the same direction he did, i am guessing it would go a lot smoother rather than driving over the top of his ruts diagonally or transversely.

it sounds so silly to me that a builder would suggest a garden over building you a house.

there are ways around all of this. soil samples can be taken. they run a core drill into the ground to see how deep the soft dirt goes. the loam can be dug out where you want your house and replaced with something that can be compacted. all of that can probably be done for less than 6 grand depending on how deep they would have to go.

also, your house could be built on a pier foundation where they drive poles into the ground and set the house on top of them.

[gwb72tii]

what kind of soil do you have? depending on your answer, possibly the bucket would work. maybe you need a rototiller. possibly a box blade, or maybe if you have sandy ground(doubt it) you could get by with a drag.

if your soil is clay, the best thing would be to wait for a good rain. let it sit for a couple days and then push it around with a box blade.

Sandy loam, essentially really good topsoil without much rock. Builder said we should plant vegetables and not build a house.
PO suggested renting a roller and waiting until the soil is nearly dry and rolling it

[flyboyx]

Good thread
I just bought 8 acres to build our house on and shortplat down the line.
PO uses a 4wd Kubota diesel to mow it and keep the grass under control.

So here’s a question. From all the mowing over the years the acreage is furrowed, to the extent that when I used his Kubota to mow where our house is going I kept on almost getting bucked off the tractor.
How can I smooth out the furrows?

what kind of soil do you have? depending on your answer, possibly the bucket would work. maybe you need a rototiller. possibly a box blade, or maybe if you have sandy ground(doubt it) you could get by with a drag.

if your soil is clay, the best thing would be to wait for a good rain. let it sit for a couple days and then push it around with a box blade.

[gwb72tii]

Good thread
I just bought 8 acres to build our house on and shortplat down the line.
PO uses a 4wd Kubota diesel to mow it and keep the grass under control.

So here’s a question. From all the mowing over the years the acreage is furrowed, to the extent that when I used his Kubota to mow where our house is going I kept on almost getting bucked off the tractor.
How can I smooth out the furrows?

[mrsleeve]

I am shopping hard for a 40ish HP 4wd unit with a lift capacity of 1800+ on the loader. so if anyone runs across a case IH 3220 4wd thats not beat to shit let me know.....

[M-technik-3]

Nice tractor Pete. I couldn't afford a bota they command too high of a price still here in the NorthEast as you know.

[flyboyx]

Wow very cool! Thank You for the tip. NLA parts was my big fear when purchasing this tractor. I'll have to find the seals and then do a clean up, especially because I plan to plow with it. Is there a good go-to spot for Kubota Parts?

Locally, all we have here is about 5 landsdown moody dealerships. They are pretty pricey, but sometimes you need a part yesterday. I try to buy on line when I can, but still Have not found much of a discount. All four of my loader cylinders are pissing fluid and I really need to rebuild them. Unfortunately, kubota charges 110.00 a kit for a few small orings and seals. I need to take one apart and see if I can find the parts at McMaster Carr.

[PeteD]

Wow very cool! Thank You for the tip. NLA parts was my big fear when purchasing this tractor. I'll have to find the seals and then do a clean up, especially because I plan to plow with it. Is there a good go-to spot for Kubota Parts?

[flyboyx]

By the way, I highly recommend taking off the (manual) steering box,cleaning it up, installing new seals and lube. If water gets in there, the bearings go bad, and it will ruin your recirculating ball syst. For my tractor, the parts are Nla. I bet they are for yours as well.

Man, when I was selling off parts, I bet I had 40 calls for the steering box. My guess is that this is a very common kubota failure point.

[flyboyx]

Thank You! It's deep 4 foot bucket. Tractor data says it is 16HP, but I have read if it is 4x4 to 10HP to that estimate, which mine is 4x4. The owner said it was 28HP. Frankly, I have no idea, but it's a little beast.

Yes I remember your tractor. You and I are now connected through e30s and kubotas haha. Are your back wheels extra wide? They look huge.

Yes. It’s complicated. Originally, I bought a 2wd tractor with turf tires. The price was a whopping 700 bucks! I miraculously found that pair of r4 monsters in a craigslist ad. They were brand new on the rims for 350 dollars. Time passed and another miracle happened when I found a 4wd L235(same tractor with detuned engine) with factory front end loader (5 foot bucket). It was in “puzzle condition” according to the ad. Located in Prescott, az.

After a couple weeks of negotiation and about 2500 shipped, a big pile of parts was unloaded in my back yard. It was complete except no head and no crankshaft. I spent about 2months selecting the best parts from the 2 in order to build the tractor you see in the photo above. The awesome part is that those r4 tires you see were exactly the same diameter as the tires that came with the 4wd but they are about twice as wide.

I also wound up with extremely rare power steering, a rops bar, and underslung muffler.

I sold off all the surplus parts and ended up with almost a free tractor when the dust settled.