Posted by K5_489 on November 10, 2019 at 10:15:03 from (99.203.105.212):
I live on rural Arizona desert land, and had no idea of the rate of weed and brush growth in the desert during the rainy season until I moved out here..After battling it by hand for a few years, I've finally accepted that I need something more capable than a rake and my Craftsman lawn tractor...and it would be nice to have something that could also handle grading out my 1/2 mile of dirt driveway/road as well.
Unlike my neighbors, I don't have the financial resources nor desire to go in to debt, so buying the fancy new $25K Kubota/Yanmar/John Deere isn't going to happen here.
I happen to have a soft spot for old iron, particularly International trucks. My current project is a 1959 International B-162 - 2.5 ton stake bed truck, and daily drove early 60's Scouts for quite a few years, thus I'm well aware that "old" stuff takes more involvement than new stuff, but has character unlike new stuff :)
I've never owned anything bigger than the typical 20HP lawn tractor, and the closest I've gotten to operating a "real" tractor was running Grandpa's old Case 442 in the Michigan woods hauling firewood and plowing snow 30 years ago.
My needs will be clearing a couple acres of grassy weeds and light brush, moving all that stuff I cut down somewhere else, grading the 1/2 mile of dirt/gravel road, clearing out a ditch when the rains bring a bunch of debris down it, and using the tractor to move heavy stuff like truck axles and engines around the property. One of my current needs here is how I'm going to an axle center section that's at least a couple hundred pounds back into the housing of that old International truck (my buddy's new 25HP Yanmar backhoe couldn't get it off the ground), and moving the old 400lb rear end from the Ford out back was...interesting.
I've been doing research for months on this, and I'm pretty sure I should be looking for something in the 20-40hp range, with a 3 point and front end loader. Getting a box blade for grading, and probably a rear blade as well.
I'm thinking that while a back hoe would be a nice thing to have for things like clearing debris out of the ditch, I could make do with a FEL and shovel here. The most weight I could see myself lifting would be somewhere around 1,500 pounds, and likely normally being under 1,000 pounds. I'm thinking either chaining things to the FEL bucket, or making a 3 point boom pole with cable winch as a poor man's crane for things like pulling engines from parts trucks, lowering that axle center section back in from above on the International truck, pulling the flatbeds off my pickups for repairs, etc., as I don't have concrete to use a normal engine hoist on out here.
I have ZERO desire to do _any_ kind of farming/crops/gardening here. I have no desire to have any kind of grass or other "lawn" here. A large part of the reason I moved to the desert was to get away from having to cut grass. My plan is to clear property of all the weeds and most of the brushy stuff, leaving behind the several large trees and a few brushes that tend to grow up rather than out, and having the rest of the property be clear desert ground.
Which leaves me with questions, as I've learned in my 40 years that what make sense in my head doesn't always work out in practice, especially when I'm venturing into new territory for me.
I've noticed that some the older tractors don't have draft control/position control on the 3 point. Since I won't be plowing here, is that a concern for me? I'm not sure if that's something I would want for running a rear blade/box blade/boom poles.
Using the FEL/boom poles for lifting 1,000 pounds - is that even feasible on a 20-40HP class tractor? I realize that this can vary widely depending on tractor/FEL models, especially the older stuff that don't necessarily have FELs on them from the factory, I've been looking at a lot of different models on Tractordata.com, and seeing a number of them that list lifting capacities of 2,000+ pounds on the FEL and 3 point, but I don't know how that might translate to what I can realistically do with it.
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