Road Repair and other trees

[LazyWP]

With cows coming in on Monday, I figured I better fix the road along the river where the cows start out.

The good part of the road.

The view off the road.

Just to prove there are bluffs in the sandhills.

Then there are hole in the road.

And then repaired holes.

And my trusted repair tool.

 

[George]

I feel my work load was cut about 1/2 since I started using a skid steer ( 7753 BobCat) and it was cut in half again after I traded and got the 277 Cat with low ground pressure tracks.

I know it has sure made life much easier and I don't put things off as much as I used to!

 

[LazyWP]

I am sure the skid steer won't push as much as the antique D-4 at 1 time, but I am quite sure that I can do more work with the skid steer. It works great in the sand, and is much nicer to run.

 

[George]

I have gotten so spoiled with the 277 Cat - - - 82HP and 12,000# I believe it will out push a 450 case dozer

But I have a dozer ( D37 P5 Komatsu ) so I don't doze with it but I have 2 buckets, a graple bucket, tree shear, bale spear, pallet forks, post hole digger, wood spliter, lifting boom so far.

It is air conditioned and very quiet in the cab, uses about 1 gallon of diesel per hour, and with wide, long tracks barely leaves a track even in deep mud.

I kept my old model 700 BobCat when I traded the 7753 off so that I could leave one at my son's place and keep the 277 at the pit but I am looking to trade the 700 off now as I have gotten so spoiled with the active suspention on the cat ( Made by ASV )

I had driven a 190 BobCat with tracks and a New Holland LS 170 with tracks and they beat you to death as they have no suspention.

My neighbor has a 2010 LS 170 with heat and Air and he sells a lot of hay ( square bales ) thay he puts up with an acumulator that picks up 15 bales at a time. He puts one acumulator on a tractor to load in the field and another acumulator on the LS 170 to work the barn. He sold 5,000 bales to a sale barn and needed skid steers at both ends. I rented him my 2005 277 Cat and he is now looking to trade his loader tractor off. My 277 will run 12 MPH with 15 bales across rough ground and ride smooth.

He is selling another 3,000 bales to another sale barn the first of may and is going to take his LS170 to the barn for them to use and is going to load at his barn with my 277 cat.

Another friend of mine has a ASV PT 60 and it is a good machine but he works in the woods a lot and about destroyed the fiberglass hood so he took a front bumper off an old Massey Fergeson tractor and modified it to protect the hood and put about 300# of weight back there for extra lift. The ASV does a great job as long as he keeps out of swamps but when he tried to work with me on one job I had to bring the logs out of the swamp and let him take it from there as with 5' of 12" wide tracks on each side he would bury up but with 8' of 18" wide tracks even though I weigh about twice as much I would hardly leave a track and just keep going.

I believe the 277 Cat has earned the position of the handiest all round machine I have ever owned! It will break out 7,200# and is rated to carry 3,800# and I believe it will do that and more.

Moving snow

Pealing ice

Triming trees

As you can see this is one machine that you could find a use for 365 days a year!

 

[Hayguy]

George, do you have any pics of the skid steers with the bale accumulators in use? i use a tractor mounted one but am finding that one at the other end would definitely be an asset. thank-you

 

[George]

I do not right now but will be loading more later in the week and I will take a few and post them.


The neighbor with the LS170 tried to use an 18 bale accumulator but kept dumping over center as the bales stick so far out in front so he bought the 15 bale unit.

The 277 would have no problem with 18 bales. I only put up about 500 square bales a year for in the barn feeding so I have never bought an accumulator but if I was a younger man I would deffinately get one and sell square bales. I only sell what hay I have left over from my own use and mostly I sell it to my son and as such we run 2 round balers ( I still use my 510 JD and he uses a 530 JD )

The neighbor just sold 5,000 third cutting alfalfa bales for $5.00@ and he has another 3,000 bales going to another sale barn and I'm sure that is more profitable than selling round bales at $110.00 per ton and with the equipment he has he is getting it done with minimal labor.

 

[Hayguy]

look forward to seeing your pics. thats the trouble with accumulators is that the load is so far out in front, seen one mounted on an all terrain fork-lift that worked pretty well. but a fork-lift is limited to what else it can do.

 

[Big Muddy rancher]

Would a 277 have enough reach to set bales on top of a loaded high boy?

Would it have enough reach to load dirt in a tridem end dump?

 

[George]

I am able to put bales 5 high on a semi trailer with no problem with the 277 and I can load Tri Axle dump trucks with it although I can't dump in the middle of the tri axle truck - - - to fill the truck I need to load from both sides.

The bales with this accumulator are on edge so that makes each level 18" high. The LS170 can only load or unload 4 high on a semi unless you can get the trailer in a dip but that is not a problem most times as the travel distance is short enough that two trucks stacked 4 high can normally keep up with the baler.

Here is a site that gives the specks

http://www.johnson-machinery.com/assets/uploads/267B_277B_287B.pdf

This is another site with a discussion of various skid steers

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/bobcat-construction-equipment/61659-cat-vs-bobcat-rubber-track.html