First snow
November 27, 2013
About 8″ of soft, slippery stuff. My 2WD tractor was at a loss without tire chains attached, and I had little inclination to muck around in the slush to put them on.
So I hitched the 5′ snowblower to the small Kubota I bought to mow lawns and fields of tree seedlings. Its 4WD HST and compact size made short work of the snow.
Mind you, I did get very wet. The TAFE has a good loader and a cab with lights on it. On cold winter nights it may well still appeal, though for a moment this morning when the Kubota B7510 was chewing its way uphill on the slush while pushing a snowblower, I allowed myself to think about how the farm might run without any tractors larger than the 21 hp ‘Bota.
Bush hogging with the Kubota B7510
June 2, 2013
23 May, 2013
Today I prepared the B7510 for mowing around some of the 15,000 little trees on the farm. That involved removing the five-foot mid-mount mower and hooking on the 48″ rotary mower. The off-brand “bush hog” normally mounts on my Bolens G174 where height control is achieved by means of a pair of chains to the upper bolt on the 3 pt hitch. The fittings came with the 4′ Woods finish mower and it seemed reasonable to add the chains when I bought the rotary mower new.
Removing the MMM turned out to be a handful because I have it set for a 3 1/2″ cut and didn’t want to change it. That reduced clearance underneath, so I lifted the front with a floor jack. The little plates which hold the trailing arms for the mower had been mangled by frequent lifts and hydraulic force. I had to remove one and blacksmith it back into shape. Apart from that the dis-assembly went well.
Hitching the Kubota up to a 3 pt hitch implement was a pleasant surprise. The arms of the hitch arch together and above the implement, making it easy to centre things. When I lowered the hoist, I watched the arms spread out to about where they needed to be. Minor adjustments to position can be done from the ground by discreet pressure on the forward and reverse pedals. This was real bonus. Hitching up the idling tractor was surprisingly easy.
The 7510 doesn’t seem to need suitcase weights to balance the 405 pounds of the mower on the 3 pt. hitch. The chains were extraneous to this application so I taped them securely out of the way. The lift height control seems quite precise and it holds its position well. While I always used 4WD with the Bolens to allow it enough traction to turn the awkward implement, with its greater weight, longer wheelbase and larger tires, the ‘Bota gets along well in 2Wd on the rough field.
Mowing long rows of seedlings goes much more quickly on the Kubota than on the Bolens.
From two hours of field work, the B7510 seems poised to boot the Bolens out of the garage. At the moment I can’t think of anything the 1980 G174 can do which the ’05 Bota can’t do better, and with insolent ease.
24 May, 2013
Today I finished that 5 acre field of seedlings. It took another 2.3 hours to compete the job, so with a 48″ bush hog the Kubota covers a bit more than one acre per hour of mowing. That’s about what my TAFE 35 hp gear driven tractor does with a 5′ bush hog. There’s no doubt the HSD* is a time saver when cutting around trees. The Bolens was much slower at this job.
HSD: Hydro-static Drive
HST: Hydro-static Transmission
HST: 13% consumption tax in most Canadian provinces
the Walnut Diary 