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My neighbor got a couple cows to keep the grass in his field under control. We had no problems for a year or so, but recently one of them has started eating our Camelia hedge. The hedge has been growing for 20 years, and now in the space of a week there's a hole in the middle of it! :mad...

Funny incident from this weekend... We had half a dozen citrus trees that were in decline. They were showing signs of greening and needed to come out. I fired up the tractor, put the grapple on and got to work. The first three were smaller and in the worst shape. They pushed over easy, no...

Jeff Jepson has a couple great books on tree work that might appeal to the folks who frequent this site. "To Fell a Tree" is all about safely getting trees on the ground and cutting them up. "Knots at Work" is about the knots and rigging used in tree work. Both are well written and illustrated...

So I got this cool military surplus diesel generator called a MEP-803a. It weighs about 1200 pounds. It's set up for moving with forks, would I be able to move it if I had a set of quick attach forks? It has skids on the bottom, so I can drag it and nudge it into place if need be, but if I could...

I plan to build a metal garage on a concrete pad. I'm trying to figure out how much dirt work I need to do ahead of the concrete guys. I've taken out all the trees and bushes and topsoil. I'm working on raking the roots out of the soil with my grapple. How deep do I need to go? How small of a...

Anyone have ideas on how to adapt a ball hitch to a grapple? I have the grapple on most of the time, and it would be so handy if I could use it to move trailers around. Right now I loop a chain over one of the grapple tines, but don't like the loose connection with the trailer on soft or uneven...

I've got a slow drip of fluid from one of the couplings on my third function. It looks like there is an O-ring inside of one half, is it worth trying to replace that or should I just go ahead and replace both halves of the assembly? How do I figure out what parts to order? Picture below, thanks...

I'm working on adding front supports to my canopy to beef it up. TripleR was my inspiration, the plan is to attach them to the grill guard like he did here: TripleR Grill Guard There's something I need to learn here because I'm breaking my drill bits trying to drill through the guard. :eek...

From early on, one side of my FEL has been about an inch lower than the other, measured at the outside edges of the bucket. I chalked it up to "novice abuse" while I was learning how to use it, but then today I noticed something that has me second guessing. When I lock out the FEL all the way...

One of the repetitive tasks I can see I'll be doing is pulling grape vines down out of trees. If you get them while they're small, no big deal. Let them play with no supervision for a year, bigger deal. Working on free-range vines that have never been touched by a pair a loppers, big deal. I've...

Back in the summer when I was shopping I heard that it was a good time to get a L3800 because the tier 4 engines were about to be introduced and the prices would go up. Did prices go up? How much? -- Carl

I have a bunch of 2" to 4" hickory trees that I want to pull. They have a large, deep tap root. I don't get anywhere trying to pull them over, the trunk bends and I get no leverage. Digging them out is like trying to dig up a phone pole, the root just keeps going. Best thing to date has been to...

I'm in Central Florida and I want to ballast my tires with water. How do I figure out if I need to worry about freeze protection? We sometimes get freezing temperatures, but usually not for days on end, and I don't have to use the tractor in those conditions anyway. What's "too cold"? I know...

Every time I work on the tractor this hawk follows me around. He sits in the trees and watches for something (usually toads) to move, then swoops in. I'm surprised he can still fly, worked on grape vines this morning and he feasted. -- Carl

I was using my rotary cutter the other day and a band of yellow jackets objected to me disturbing the peace over their hole in the ground! :eek: Got away with only half a dozen stings. While nursing my wounds (had to explain to my wife that the first-aid advice is to use ice for pain, and...

I've been having a lot of fun learning to use my tractor and implements to reclaim part of our property that looks like an abandoned super-vine research station. I found something that will smother grape vines: air potato vines. I'd like to see kudzu and air potato vines go head to head to see...

Not sure what it is, but something about the sound of an HST under load reminds me of TIE fighters from Star Wars. Am I the only Star Wars nerd tractoring? That stump looks pretty stubborn, better use the (hydraulic) force on it... :) -- Carl

Built a canopy to keep sun, rain, and falling limbs at bay. Here's part of the structural test. -- Carl

In reading up on my Land Pride rotary cutter before using it I came across this: "Danger: Do not use cutter as a fan. Cutting blades are not properly designed or guarded for this use. Using cutter as a fan can result in injury or death." I laughed because that use would not have occurred to me...

I want to make a canopy for my L3800 and like the way the Wells Ag FOPS rated canopies look. Can someone with one of those tell me the thickness of the sheet metal used on top? I heard it was 18 gauge, but that seems on the thin side to me. Thanks! -- Carl