What did you do to or on your Kubota today?

[S-G-R]

Got a few more loads of fill. 11 or 12 in total. I looked hard and found a couple of rocks @McMXi should i send it back?

 

[nerwin]

Changed the L2501's engine oil, oil filter, fuel filter and air filter. Surprisingly a very simple job and extremely easy to do. I had no reason to remove the loader, everything was easily accessible

I also did the 100 hour check as what the manual says. All systems green.

I turned on the PTO which I don't think has ever been turned on. I never had a reason to but thought maybe its a good idea to make sure its all working good and it is!

Torqued the wheels, couple lugs were a little loose! Also greased all fittings. The tractor is nice and happy, running smooth and ready for more work.

I went ahead last night and filled the ballast box with concrete and it came out well.

I got some more mods I want to do, like add a basket on top to through chains and what not. I want to add some shovel and rake mounts, I was gonna put tubes in but I didn't want to lose even more capacity.

It took 6 80lbs bags of concrete and I add mesh as I filled it up. I think there is 4 or 5 pieces of wire mesh from bottom to the top. So I think its gonna be plenty strong enough! I didn't have a trowel other wise I would have made it smoother but come on its for ballast box.

It is noticeably heavier than the few cinder blocks I had in there hahaha. Not sure what the exact weight is, but I am sure that its still curing and it hasn't even been 24 hours yet so I'm sure it will shed a few pounds. But it should be at minimal 480 pounds of concrete, I know concrete doesn't like "dry" it cures so I believe it weighs slightly more than the 80 pound bags. I don't know how much more though. Also didn't count the 100 pounds the ballast box weighs. So I estimate its around 600 pounds total of ballast weight which I think is pretty good. I'm happy with that.

I'm going to weld up a little frame with some casters on it to drop the box in when I don't need it so I can wheel it around in the shop and easily put it on the tractor.

Anyways that's my tractor adventures update for you all today.

 

[Youbet]

I've done that too in the past, but moving the ladder was faster easier in this case ...

It depends, but neither your way or mine is approved by OSHA ... FEL's have been known to fail too ...

Life is full of dangerous things ... Pick your poison, I'm an adult and except the risks I take . . . I don't need a nanny.

OSHA… I would never get anything done.

I woke up from a 8 ft ladder fall with cracked ribs and bad headache. Bucket for me.

 

[S-G-R]

@BBFarmer salesman called this afternoon and said the L5460 was ready to go less the led's and third function. Set up for this Friday for delivery.

 

[DaveFromMi]

I mowed off a few hilly trails in the back 40.

 

[Stewart]

I got to mow my meadow finally! Been trying to get it done all summer and I actually got time today to start.

 

[skeets]

Just looked at the girls when I got in the truck to go to the store, between the heat and bloody rain, it might be November before I get to mow again

 

[S-G-R]

Just looked at the girls when I got in the truck to go to the store, between the heat and bloody rain, it might be November before I get to mow again

I'd love to see a couple days of steady rain here. Things are looking at bit crispy.

 

[McMXi]

Got a few more loads of fill. 11 or 12 in total. I looked hard and found a couple of rocks @McMXi should i send it back?

View attachment 159551
View attachment 159552

You call that a rock?

I like your updated signature. How exciting. You're really going to like that L5460 and I look forward to hearing all about your upgrade as well as seeing lots of photos of it in action.

 

[Old_Paint]

I knew I would catch a lot of flack with thr "feels like 100 comment". We have a saying in Minnesota, "it's not the heat, it's the humidity".

Come back in 6 months when it's -20 degrees real temp. Haha.

And -20 is another good reason to live down south. I ain't designed for that kinda cold. Not near enough insulation on this skinny old frame.

 

[Old_Paint]

Changed the L2501's engine oil, oil filter, fuel filter and air filter. Surprisingly a very simple job and extremely easy to do. I had no reason to remove the loader, everything was easily accessible

I also did the 100 hour check as what the manual says. All systems green.

I turned on the PTO which I don't think has ever been turned on. I never had a reason to but thought maybe its a good idea to make sure its all working good and it is!

Torqued the wheels, couple lugs were a little loose! Also greased all fittings. The tractor is nice and happy, running smooth and ready for more work.

I went ahead last night and filled the ballast box with concrete and it came out well.

View attachment 159550

I got some more mods I want to do, like add a basket on top to through chains and what not. I want to add some shovel and rake mounts, I was gonna put tubes in but I didn't want to lose even more capacity.

It took 6 80lbs bags of concrete and I add mesh as I filled it up. I think there is 4 or 5 pieces of wire mesh from bottom to the top. So I think its gonna be plenty strong enough! I didn't have a trowel other wise I would have made it smoother but come on its for ballast box.

It is noticeably heavier than the few cinder blocks I had in there hahaha. Not sure what the exact weight is, but I am sure that its still curing and it hasn't even been 24 hours yet so I'm sure it will shed a few pounds. But it should be at minimal 480 pounds of concrete, I know concrete doesn't like "dry" it cures so I believe it weighs slightly more than the 80 pound bags. I don't know how much more though. Also didn't count the 100 pounds the ballast box weighs. So I estimate its around 600 pounds total of ballast weight which I think is pretty good. I'm happy with that.

I'm going to weld up a little frame with some casters on it to drop the box in when I don't need it so I can wheel it around in the shop and easily put it on the tractor.

Anyways that's my tractor adventures update for you all today.

I'm not quite sure why you would put any kind of reinforcement inside a steel ballast box full of concrete. I'm curious why you thought you needed reinforcement in a dead weight chunk of concrete inside a steel box. Personally, I'm still thinking I'd just keep it full of sand and wet the sand every time I wanted it to be heavier. That thing's nearly half a cubic yard of volume, and a half yard of wet sand will be nearly 1000 pounds.

I'm not criticizing what you did at all. It works for you and is exactly what you wanted. I'm just curious where you're going with it and what you ultimately plan to lift with an L-frame tractor. If you weld/bolt a basket on top of that, you might want to drill some drain holes right at the top of the concrete to make sure it can't fill up the last couple inches with water and soak anything you put in the basket. An inch of water will slosh a LOT. I don't think it'll freeze and break, but if you lay a chain or anything in that, you'll find out how quickly a chain will rust laying on concrete, especially curing concrete with water standing on top of it. Concrete that thick will cure for YEARS. Doesn't really matter, though, it's in a box and will set enough to drive a 747 on it in 48 hours.

If you still want long-handle tool tubes on it, weld them to the outside or add them to the basket you said you wanted. Using steel will add a few more pounds to it, not that you're really going to need it. Make sure to leave the bottoms of the tubes open so they don't fill up with water and ruin your tools or freeze and split. Just drill a hole and put a piece of round stock through it, and weld that in place to stop the end of the handle, then weld it to the box in your favorite location. Before you buy and weld any pipe, though, make sure to check what size you need. An axe or sledgehammer handle tends to need a slightly larger tube than a shovel handle. You won't have to worry about your tools falling over with that ship anchor, either. If you don't want the solid tubes, U-Bolts with jamb nuts work equally well for stowing tools, but you'll need a stop to prevent the handles from dragging and getting broken. Just make sure the handles stop above the bottom of the box.

 

[nerwin]

I'm not quite sure why you would put any kind of reinforcement inside a steel ballast box full of concrete. I'm curious why you thought you needed reinforcement in a dead weight chunk of concrete inside a steel box. Personally, I'm still thinking I'd just keep it full of sand and wet the sand every time I wanted it to be heavier. That thing's nearly half a cubic yard of volume, and a half yard of wet sand will be nearly 1000 pounds.

I'm not criticizing what you did at all. It works for you and is exactly what you wanted. I'm just curious where you're going with it and what you ultimately plan to lift with an L-frame tractor. If you weld/bolt a basket on top of that, you might want to drill some drain holes right at the top of the concrete to make sure it can't fill up the last couple inches with water and soak anything you put in the basket. An inch of water will slosh a LOT. I don't think it'll freeze and break, but if you lay a chain or anything in that, you'll find out how quickly a chain will rust laying on concrete, especially curing concrete with water standing on top of it. Concrete that thick will cure for YEARS. Doesn't really matter, though, it's in a box and will set enough to drive a 747 on it in 48 hours.

If you still want long-handle tool tubes on it, weld them to the outside or add them to the basket you said you wanted. Using steel will add a few more pounds to it, not that you're really going to need it. Make sure to leave the bottoms of the tubes open so they don't fill up with water and ruin your tools or freeze and split. Just drill a hole and put a piece of round stock through it, and weld that in place to stop the end of the handle, then weld it to the box in your favorite location. Before you buy and weld any pipe, though, make sure to check what size you need. An axe or sledgehammer handle tends to need a slightly larger tube than a shovel handle. You won't have to worry about your tools falling over with that ship anchor, either. If you don't want the solid tubes, U-Bolts with jamb nuts work equally well for stowing tools, but you'll need a stop to prevent the handles from dragging and getting broken. Just make sure the handles stop above the bottom of the box.

I was doing research and a few people had theirs crack so especially during our climate so I wanted to make sure it will be fine. I got no intentions of leaving it outdoors. Small enough to fit inside the garage.

When I pick up a full bucket of top soil, it's surprisingly heavy even with loaded tires still lifted the back off the ground. I picked up a large hickory tree probably max lift and without the ballast it wouldn't. Plus I believe this ballast will help with traction when slowing snow too, especially heavy wet snow.

But the first time I used the ballast box, ai couldn't believe how better the tractor felt more planted.

I always tend to over build things. You should see my deck, you could put a 40k pound excavator on it lol.

Maybe it's too much weight, I don't know. I can't believe it's over 1000lbs. Originally I was going to sell it for a box blade but I liked the size of the ballast box, especially for snow plowing. So I wanted to keep it since I practically got it for free.

 

[BBFarmer]

@BBFarmer salesman called this afternoon and said the L5460 was ready to go less the led's and third function. Set up for this Friday for delivery.

Heck yea brother!

That'll make for a good Friday right there!

I'm possibly losing mine next week. Ole lady is supposed to holler at them today or tomorrow. A bit nervous if they take a few weeks my grass will be totally out of control.

I'll have to turn the boy loose with the cub cadet LOL. Hmmmmm 46"..... 6 maybe 7ish acres, could be fun LOL.

 

[Old_Paint]

I was doing research and a few people had theirs crack so especially during our climate so I wanted to make sure it will be fine. I got no intentions of leaving it outdoors. Small enough to fit inside the garage.

When I pick up a full bucket of top soil, it's surprisingly heavy even with loaded tires still lifted the back off the ground. I picked up a large hickory tree probably max lift and without the ballast it wouldn't. Plus I believe this ballast will help with traction when slowing snow too, especially heavy wet snow.

But the first time I used the ballast box, ai couldn't believe how better the tractor felt more planted.

I always tend to over build things. You should see my deck, you could put a 40k pound excavator on it lol.

Maybe it's too much weight, I don't know. I can't believe it's over 1000lbs. Originally I was going to sell it for a box blade but I liked the size of the ballast box, especially for snow plowing. So I wanted to keep it since I practically got it for free.

I guess I wouldn't be as worried about it cracking. I put 6x6 rewire in the slab for my shed as well as a double 1/2" rebar perimeter under the edge which is poured a foot thick. It still has a hair-line crack right down the middle because of the shrinkage. It isn't moving and the crack doesn't go all the way to the edge, so I don't worry about it at all. It's a workshop, not a clean room.

Haven't looked at where you are, so didn't realize you had snow to move. For some reason I had it in my head that you were down in Florida. Ain't no snow there, though. You're gonna want chains on your tires. Even with ballast, ice is slicker than greased monkey snot. I see the box has a receiver hitch on it, so perhaps a receiver hitch mounted tool rack would be better? Like something for an ATV? Then you could still use the same tool rack with just a trailer hitch adapter on the 3 point. There's loads of tool racks out there for ATV's. Just pick one you like and you have nothing to build. Just throwing out ideas.

What size bucket do you have on the L2501? Mine's a 54", and I don't even bother with any ballast at all if I'm just moving dirt. If I'm moving brush/scrub with the grapple, again, no ballast. If I'm moving heavy logs (one weighed more than my tractor), I put the 900 pound chipper on the back.

I grew up on tractors, so maybe I don't feel they're as squirrely as some do. I drove one of the worst tractors EVER for tipping over sideways, especially to the left (Cub Farmall) for thousands of miles. The Farmall has a very high center of gravity and the engine/drivetrain is offset to the left so the driver can see the centerline under the tractor. FANTASTIC little tractor for a small farm. Ya just learn to work within the limitations of the equipment and be safe. Neither of ours had FEL's so that was a little new to me, but I have run fork-lifts and telehandlers at work before, so I completely understand the lifted load concepts. I aced Static and Dynamics in college and can quickly look at something and say "NOPE!" if it looks dangerous.

 

[nerwin]

I plowed last winter without chains and it was no problem, better than my side by side with knobby tires! Moved a lot more snow. My driveway is pretty flat. I thought I would need chains but I was shocked how well it worked without them. With the 6 foot land pride plow which is what like 550+ pounds way out front further away from the pins, you could feel that weight difference. I think having the ballast box on during plowing is gonna make it feel a lot nicer. I know someone else who plows with the tractor with a concrete ballast and said it made huge difference when plowing snow so I guess we will see.

I have the 66 inch bucket.

I don't need to use the ballast all the time but I definitely think it's gonna be handy when I do need to lift up heavy stuff or do loader work. It helped tremendously when doing driveway work.

I don't have the same experience as you do. Haven't even had the tractor for a year and no prior FEL experience so when I put the ballast on for the first time, suddenly doing more heavy lifting, I just felt more comfortable and safer than without it.

I'm going to make a frame for it to sit on with heavy duty casters so wheel around the garage. I don't store the chains on the tractor, they're hung up in the garage so I'm not worried about those. Although I kinda want to get those Kubota loader tube thingies and throw the 10ft chains in them that I use with the bucket. That would be cool and they'll stay clean and dry.

 

[Old_Paint]

Yeah, another foot of bucket would make a difference. Probably another 3 cubic feet of soil. The ballast is definitely going to help by putting more weight on the back tires to help them push more, and you're certainly going to be a lot safter when lifting things, especially heavy items because it will keep the center of gravity lower. Just remember to lower the weight as low as possible without dragging it. Dragging it essentially removes its value.

Rubber sewer cleanout plugs work very well in the loader tube. Just remember, though that the chain is going to beat all the paint off inside that tube, and probably around the edges when pulling it out. I put an ammo can on the ROPS (using existing holes) and keep my 20ft 5/16 chain with me. I want to get a 20ft 1/4" chain, but the grab hooks on the bucket won't hold a 1/4" chain without damaging it. Guess that means I need another set of hooks too, LOL.

Speaking from personal experience with casters under something that heavy, if you don't want it to be hard to move, use steel casters, not rubber of any kind. The casters I have on the frame I built for the chipper (900 lbs) are rated plenty high (1200 lbs each) but are extremely hard to swivel and roll under that load.

 

[Hugo Habicht]

@nerwin : the concrete is a curing process, a chemical reaction of the cement with the water. Does not matter how big the amount of concrete is, with the correct amount of water it will cure. Adding mesh does not prevent cracking. Keep the top moist or even wet for a few days, when it dries out the chemical reaction stops. Heat makes curing faster, but do not expose it to too much heat. Nominal strenght is reached after 4 weeks at 20°C. I think you did the right thing keeping it indoors initially.

 

[Shawn T. W]

@nerwin instead of tubes for tools, look at Ken Bolt on Hooks, I believe he has a few different items that may interest you ... One is I believe called "fisty clamps" @Kennyd4110 could tell you more ...

I also used 6 - 80 Lb bags of concrete mix, just added water, mines 707 Lbs with the steel frame and some rocks I put in to fill it up!

 

[nerwin]

@nerwin instead of tubes for tools, look at Ken Bolt on Hooks, I believe he has a few different items that may interest you ... One is I believe called "fisty clamps" @Kennyd4110 could tell you more ...

I also used 6 - 80 Lb bags of concrete mix, just added water, mines 707 Lbs with the steel frame and some rocks I put in to fill it up!

I'll take a look. I was looking at getting some clamp on grip tool holder things. That would be neat, I wouldn't be something I would use everyday but definitely be handy!

How did you weigh yours?

 

[Shawn T. W]

I bought a crane scale off eBay, goes to 1100 pounds, I've weighed all my attachments, other than the loader itself .. Kenny gave me the idea, was about $60 ...

Just picked up another QH for my new to me Kubota yesterday ... Weighs about 3 Lb more than the other one I have ...