Green Tractor Talk banner

What did you conquer with your MCUT

1M views 9K replies 367 participants last post by  duramaxsky 
#1 ·
So, there's a thread for the "too small" and one for "too big", so I thought maybe there could be a thread for Goldilocks' "just right" sized tractors. :laugh:

I recently had to remove some young trees on a hill next to a building. With the trees out of the way, I then decided to regrade the hill a bit. As you can see in the photos, the tractor is backed up the hill where there was barely enough width, which made me glad to have a MCUT instead of anything bigger on this particular day.

A small protrusion of stone ended up being the proverbial mammoth piece of glacier that was almost too big for the 46 backhoe to manage. Almost. By digging out around it, I was just barely able to pull it up and slide it over the edge. I was surprised and impressed that this little hoe was able to do anything with this slab, which I estimate to weigh around 3500 lbs.

And I learned a comical lesson during this work that might save someone else a trip to the dentist. With the tractor being situated tight up against trees and brush, it was tough to get off of the left side to get around to the backhoe. So, I thought I would hang onto the ROPS, step on the back tire, and swing around. With the trans in neutral and the stabilizers down, you can probably figure out without my telling that this was not too bright. The tire spun like a river log and there I was running in place like some kind of cartoon character or an unsuspecting participant on that funny TV show Wipeout. After a few moments, I managed to get one foot on the fender. It made a muddy mess, but thankfully no one saw my amateur move and since no one will ever know about this, I'm saved from any embarrassment. :laugh:

It just goes to show, you really need to think about every move on these machines. Stupidity is always just a synapse away.

Now to figure out what to do with that stone.... :hi:
 

Attachments

See less See more
4
#2 ·
Been there done that. I always do that "hang onto the ROPS, step on the back tire, and swing around" deal but now have the emergency brake on. The brake works real good but what it does not account for is mud covered shoes/boots that just slide right off the tire and you end up looking at the sky.
 
#4 ·
Yes, that would have been helpful. But I don't use the parking brake when using the backhoe. One, when raising and lowering, the wheels often need to roll a bit but mostly, if you need to re-position from the hoe seat, it doesn't work too well with the brakes on. Surely this isn't new news.

BUT, this does remind me of a good little side note tidbit for newer guys to hear. If you have the split brake lever open, and then set the parking brake, only one wheel gets braked. You can see only one pedal being held down. Obviously, this is no good if parked on uneven terrain and the braked wheel is unloaded. I found this out against my will at some point long ago. I don't know which tractors this might or might not apply to other than the 2520/2720.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Chris are you saying you have never raise your BH outriggers while in the BH seat and had the tractor take off on ya? If not than you have plenty to look forward to.:lol: Careful out there!
BTW, I never have! :hide:
 
#6 ·
Oh sure, it happens once in a while. But you know, you get pretty quick at getting things down to the ground pretty fast to put a stop to it.

That kind of thing doesn't even raise my heartbeat anymore. Just everyone else's around me. :laugh:
 
#8 · (Edited)
Great thread Chris, possibly the best thread of all time.:drinks:


We've been getting hammered lately with crazy storms with enormous downpours. Northern Nashville got 7" in 3 hours one morning last week. This was Briley parkway at 6:45 AM last Thursday

Road Rain Thoroughfare Atmospheric phenomenon Lane
Road Asphalt Atmospheric phenomenon Road surface Lane
Vehicle Atmospheric phenomenon Lane Car Road
Water resources Water River Watercourse Bank



Needless to say this amount of rain has been doing some serious erosion to my gravel driveway...

Grass Lawn Grass family Sidewalk Public space
Asphalt Road Road surface Thoroughfare Gravel
Road Asphalt Road surface Thoroughfare Infrastructure


And here it is "conquered":lol:

Asphalt Grass Road Road surface Gravel



Neighbor suffered more damage... He's lucky he has a neighbor with the best "right sized" tractor on the planet.:thumbup1gif:

Asphalt Grass Road surface Lawn Road
Grass Soil Lawn Rock Tree
Water Water resources Reflection River Waterway
Vehicle Grassland Grass Lawn Farm
Water Asphalt Concrete Driveway Road surface



Unfortunately the storms attacked us again before we could get his culvert cleaned out and flowing again. He needs at least 2 loads of gravel to get the grading back to where it needs to be. The last quote he got was $460 for 22 ton delivered. Holy cow! That's insane... I need gravel too but not at $460 a load.:thumbsdown:
 
#9 ·
Needless to say this amount of rain has been doing some serious erosion to my gravel driveway...

And here it is "conquered":lol:
What did you use to get the stone off of the lawn? Please don't report that you had to use any....dare I say it....hand tools

Font Photo caption Album cover Poster Photography
 
#11 ·
Moved 3/4 of our 8 month old manure pile...

Also flattened the turn around for our horse trailer.
I cleared portions of our ATV/Horse path on the property...

Still haven't gotten the backhoe yet... but I've already taken off and put back on the ballast bucket.
 
#15 ·
He doesn't own one.:cray:
 
#17 ·
Just some light work today... loaded up the ballast box with some decent sized rocks. Moved the rest of the manure pile... smoothed out the ATV trail some more with the manure...

Also we had a decent sized tree fall on the path, so I cut it up and hauled it out...
Land vehicle Vehicle Logging Tractor Tree


The firewood pile got much higher today, as I continued to take down small trees for the future horse pasture. Can't wait to get the backhoe so I can dig out these stumps though.
 
#18 ·
Jason, I was in Nashville on business when that storm hit. At breakfast in the hotel everyone was talking about it. we did not have to go out until a little after noon for our appointment so we missed all the excitement. I saw where one creek had over flooded the road and the bridge had all kinds of tree debris on it. We were right around the Grand Ole Opry hotel. I will be coming back to Nashville on the 28th and 29th of August.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Masonboswell
#19 ·
You should drop me a PM when you drop in again. :drinks:
 
#22 · (Edited)
What did you do with YOUR Deere today MCUT!

I've noted that the other thread left us MCUTs out... So I figured I'd start our own.

So I'll start with my "WALL OF ROCK" to block my little Brittany from digging under our 5 foot welded wire fence with electrobraid hot wire at 6 inches off the ground... YEP, she figured out if she digs enough, she can get under the electrobraid, and not get zapped... Her brother (after she escaped) must have not fit, as he's now extremely sure the electrobraid hurts (a lot)...

The wife dug up loads of rocks from the ATV trails on the back property... I went and gathered some up, and started to line the outside of our fence with them. This is me mid-project... stacking rocks against the fence.

You'll note that the culprit is directly in front of me, POINTING to where she got out, and is not quite happy with the fact that NOW she has to dig out rock too! No the thought process is not IF she can do it, it's how long will it take? Her brother is far left, staring at the camera.

Tree Fence Grass Yard Backyard
 
#23 ·
#26 · (Edited)
Thanks Ken!
Whatever the max lift capacity of the loader is, this wasn't more than it could handle... I made about 5 trips like this, lining the outside of our dog fencing, eventually I want to line the whole fence that way.
Land vehicle Vehicle Tractor Agricultural machinery Soil
 
  • Like
Reactions: SAHD96
#27 ·
Just popped a 20+ inch diameter tree stump with my 7 backhoe (the same one that resulted in my bent cylinder earlier)... Weight of the stump was so much that the hoe couldn't hardly lift it. I have to get a picture of the stump, impressively large for my tiny hoe.
 
#28 ·
Stump picture:
Tree Root Plant Soil Woody plant


I am going to need some more "dirt" to fill in where it came out, but you can now drive over the spot, so not bad... this is where we turn around our trailer, and the stump was just a tad to high to clear the trailer.
 
#29 ·
Deere did more work today (and yesterday), me too.

Stuff comes in.... Lumber, lumber, more lumber, box of screws, generator, electrical cords, ladder, workbench
Tractor Agricultural machinery Vehicle Soil Tree

Stuff goes up...
Tree Woodland Furniture Chair Forest


My new Deere Stand, I'm going to share it with my daughter as a fort.
 
#30 ·
It doesn't look it but the "low side" of that stand is 6 feet, the high side is 9, I have quite a view of the back half of the property. Now you all know what I am dealing with in trying to create pasture for my horses.
 
  • Like
Reactions: RAShel
#31 ·
Working on a theory I did this...

Several years ago I had a neighbor remove some trees with his Kubota L45. I bought this MCUT thinking I could do the same thing, only with smaller trees. What he did was dig out the stump most of the way around then pushed the tree over with his backhoe.
Tree Vehicle Soil Forest Woodland

Note that's the 7 backhoe... It has a 7 foot reach, so that pit is pretty decent in depth
Vehicle Soil Tractor Tree Agricultural machinery


Worked like a charm. What you see in the background are all the trees I am trying to remove (Good thing I have time)... It took 2 hours to take this tree down, and I intentionally picked a Hemlock Tree because I figured it'd have the most shallow, weakest roots.
 
#32 ·
I don't have a single picture BUT...

we got 9-10 inches of snow, about 1/2 inch of ice/freezing rain on top of it.

The ATV wasn't able to push it away. So I used the FEL to cut the top layer off... and break it all up... then I followed up with the ATV... got the ATV stuck twice, so I towed it out with the tractor. Then I came back over all of it again with the FEL picking up the snow at the end of the driveway and end of the road (we are on a private road) to clear it from where the other plows plow us in.

Our driveway is about 500 feet long, and we have about a 200-300 stretch of private road before the main road. The neighbor that plows the private road is GOOD, he has a dump truck with an articulated 8ft plow and an arm on it to do the shoulder, but he's not real good about getting to it in the morning (I'll be darned if I complain, I think he works 2nd or 3rd shift).

Anyway, so I plow my drive, and the area in front of about 3 houses other than mine.

Took me 3 freaking hours to do all this. I desperately need something better than the ATV, 9 inches of snow is nothing! Oh and I plowed at about 4 inches, so I was really just plowing 5 (heavy with ice).
 
#33 ·
I would not feel to bad SHNOOL. We received about 10 inches with ice on top of that and this was one of the hardest outings I've seen in a long time. As a matter of fact I dug out my front chains, didn't use them but came real close. Very greasy stuff.
 
#34 ·
This is only our second season in this winter...

I think last winter our largest snowfall was 8 inches (nothing)... I've lived around this area off and on for 20 years... last year was pretty unusually light.

What really stinks though is mid week last week we got an ice storm that left the private road and the gravel part of my driveway an ice skating rink. I finally broke down and released the lock on the split for the rear brakes... and used it extensively to steer the tractor. Worked great.

Wife asked if chains on the ATV or tractor would help... on the fronts I can't see it, can't keep weight on them from what I can see, maybe it's just me.

Oh by the way, during the ice storm early last week, the ATV couldn't touch the ice... used the FEL to scrape off the 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice, worked great on the asphalt portion of my drive... the gravel? not so much.
 
#35 ·
used the FEL to scrape off the 1/4 to 1/2 inch of ice, worked great on the asphalt portion of my drive... the gravel? not so much.
Tell your wife you need a harley rake for the gravel :thumbup1gif:
 
#36 ·
Getting tired of treading through a foot of snow this weekend to take the dog for a walk on our trails, I decided to try plowing them (and at the same time perform a torture test on the new rubber parts on the plow). Getting traction going up the hill was a challenge even with 3 out of 4 wheels turning at all times, but once it pawed itself to the top of the hill the plow worked like a charm and the rubber plow parts survived with no damage even after hitting a few rocks, branches, stumps, roots, etc. Sorry, no pics of the tractor doing its thing. Maybe on the next storm.

No more wet socks and the pooch was pretty happy about the whole thing too.
 

Attachments

#37 ·
Chris,

What kind of dog is that?

As for conquering, today I cleared a bunch of snow (to get ready for the snow we're getting tonight), and helped my neighbor remove a bunch of piles of old frozen snow so he'd have a place to put tonight's snow.

Then around 7 o'clock or so another neighbor knocks on the door and asks if I could use my 2520 and FEL to move some snow at the entrance to a dirt road that heads back about 200 yards to a cabin he has. I get there and a full-size Chevy pickup is at the bottom of a 5' snow bank stuck between some trees. Of course this pickup has all-season tires on it, and there is about 18" of snow. I cleared some snow at the top of the hill and then the neighbor asks if I thought I could just pull the truck out. I told him I don't think so, but let's try it. It took a few minutes, but I hauled the Chevy out. Then he asks me if I can help get his GMC Jimmy out of a ditch. The Chevy was backing down the dirt road to try and pull the Jimmy out. Well off we went about 100 yards to get the Jimmy. There is no way to turn around, so I had to basically tow the Jimmy 100 more yards to the cabin, then 200 yards back to the road and up the 5' icy hill. I tell ya', I was impressed we made it! Both the guys kept thanking me because there was no way short of a big tow truck they were going to get unstuck tonight. No photos because it was freezing rain and dark, and I just wanted to get back home and eat dinner. :lol:
 
Top