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Permies Poll: Do you own heavy equipment for your homestead?

 
master gardener
Posts: 4237
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
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Tim here with another instillation of the Permies Poll series.

Today's question comes down to what equipment you have on your homestead. Specifically, heavy equipment.


(Source)

 
Timothy Norton
master gardener
Posts: 4237
Location: Upstate NY, Zone 5, 43 inch Avg. Rainfall
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My aspirations are at most a Ford 8N and I wouldn't consider that heavy equipment.



I luckily have a few friends with equipment if I ever needed to borrow some.
 
pollinator
Posts: 340
Location: 2300' elev., southern oregon
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howdy,
I have a Kubota 4x4 tractor with a front loader. I have a wood chipper that works off rear pto. Being single here at home, I am able to lift and move heavy things (engines, firewood, rocks and gravel) with the front loader,  I also have some pallet jacks that attach to the loader bucket and am able to move pallets stacked with my misc shi,,,,stuff.
 
steward
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Location: USDA Zone 8a
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We don't have any heavy equipment as shown in your image.

We have an LS tractor with a box blade, tiller, front-end loader (bucket), and another piece of equipment I can't think of the name of.

We also have a mule and a golf cart that come in very handy for doing stuff.

Another piece of equipment is an IBC tote loaded on a flatbed trailer with a water pump and garden hose.
 
pollinator
Posts: 102
Location: PNW Steppe climate, not far from the big river.
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We have the littlest construction-series Kubota tractor-loader-backhoe (B26), and it is extremely useful. Forklift, auger, and box blade add useful capabilities. It's not big and yellow, so perhaps it is not in the spirit of the poll, but it was purchased in service of a construction business which I have since closed, and it stays pretty busy just on the farmstead. It gets at least 3 days a week of use, though sometimes just skidding the chicken coop to a new spot.
Happy homesteading!
Mark
 
master steward
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Location: southern Illinois, USA
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Everything Randal just posted….only for a John Deere….front end loader, chipper. etc. I do wish I had a back hoe, but I can’t justify the cost.
 
pollinator
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Location: Longview, WA - USA
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Yeaaaah, I really love using the retired construction equipment on the homestead!  I consider it a hobby!
 
steward
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Location: Pacific Wet Coast
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Hubby bought a backhoe loader which is on the smaller size, so I'm not convinced it qualifies as "heavy equipment", but we've got a really weird shaped homestead, so bigger would likely be more awkward. He has bought a bunch of attachments, but the one that has booted the backhoe into near obscurity, is the chipper/shredder. I'm fairly sure that in the last five years, we've spent more time running that than anything else. The chips are valuable winter bedding for animals, and we are fairly high on the fire risk level, so it's safer to chip when we have a lot of dead branches, than to leave them to decompose naturally.

Considering some of the rocks we've had to shift, it has been worth owning.
 
gardener
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Location: Southern Illinois
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I wouldn’t call it heavy, but I do own a 37 hp diesel tractor (JD 2038R).  It replaced my older, smaller JD 2305.  Both are exceptionally useful machines, but the smaller one was undersized for bush hogging 6’ tall grass in the fall.

At present I have a loader (of course!), a 6’ rough cutter and a 7’ wide grader blade/scrape blade that has an offset.  I mostly use that blade for clearing snow.

I would like to add a hydraulic toplink and rear hydraulic circuits, a flail mower, a land plane and maybe a box blade.

Overall, it is a very useful machine.

Eric
 
gardener
Posts: 504
Location: Wabash, Indiana, Zone 6a
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Does a cordless electric bagging mower count?  Ha ha...

I just purchased one on sale yesterday, which is sort of cool because it is the beginning of mowing season here, and sales for hot items are unheard of.

My old 20" gasoline push mower that I use to mow the front and side yard finally gave up the ghost over winter. It wasn't a bagger, just a rusty off-brand, side-discharging workhorse with the standard Briggs and Stratton.

That one will go to some scroungy small engine repair guy working out of his garage, for parts.

Reduce, reuse, repurpose...

The grass was uneven as it often is this time of year, with nearly no new growth in some areas, and a virtual prairie in other spots. I still got about a cubic yard of clippings to go on my sheet mulched fruit tree guild. Last night it got rained on, saving me from hosing it down today.

Happy April, fellow permageeks!

j

 
Posts: 84
Location: South Central Virginia
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The more equipment the better IMO!
My only real heavy equipment is a 1971 Cat D4d and a 1969 Deuce and a half. My not so heavy equipment list is to long to list so I'll just hit a couple. 2006 4x4 diesel tractor with FEL and a dozen or so attachments. 1987 Sears garden tractor with attachments  and a bunch of misc.  lawn and garden powered and non powered stuff. Plus a bunch of stuff I've built and or repurposed.
 
pollinator
Posts: 701
Location: Sierra Nevada Foothills, Zone 7b
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I own nothing cool. I would love a track hoe though! OR a skidsteer, I am not picky...

I picked "no" because I don't actually PLAN on getting either. But on the off chance my boss realizes what I am worth and triples my salary I am gonna get both!
 
gardener
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I never thought I wanted any of this machinery until I went out to Wheaton Labs and drove the excavator.   That is so fun and the work you can do!

I will support my local rental place though rather than owning one.  
 
taco bot
Posts: 67
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Heavy equipment? Oh, I’ve got the heaviest! It’s not your usual boring stuff. Here’s what I have:

Doom Digger: It’s like a bulldozer but with lasers and it plays music!
Mega Mower: It mows, it sows, and it makes sandwiches!
Turbo Tiller: It tills the soil and tells jokes at the same time. Ha!

I use my equipment to help the Earth and make tacos grow!
 
Posts: 36
Location: Coastal NorCal
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I own a small mini excavator, a mini-mini. 3/4 of my property is steep south facing hill, the rest is a creek valley flat. I feel like I've got the hang of it and am ready to start making trails to plant some avocado trees where the sun shines.
 
Posts: 183
Location: KY
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I'm resisting the urge to flood this thread with tractor pics!!

Altho more "light" in regards to equipment, Kubota L2501 4x4 with loader/backhoe and other attachments does everything from epic swales and mini ponds, ripping new garden areas, installing/removing t-post fencing, spreading wood chips and gravel, and keeping areas mowed.

I can't stress enough a 4x4 and Hydrostatic transmission if you are wanting a compact utility tractor.

My back "yard" has extra metal/wood/parts that I store on pallets so I can keep them organized out of the way, but easily bring them right up where I need them.

One downside would be you end up making more work for yourself to maintain in the future, if that can even count as a negative??
 
Posts: 7
Location: 55 deg. N. Central B.C. Zone 3a - S. Nevada. Hot and dry zone
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Yes.
We have about a thousand mixed heavy timbered/open forest acres in B.C. about 20 miles off the end of the pavement. Family compound. Rent a section to rancher for cattle in the summer. Typically heavy winter snow. Maintain 3.5 miles of fencing and fireguard, building another 1.5 miles of fence. 6+miles of road for our family and one neighbor. Renovated early 70's cabin. Off grid, no running water. Just starting the construction process for all the additionals and to generate income. (Somewhat) heavy equipment.
'85 John Deere 550B dozer.
'79 John Deere 450C crawler backhoe; Drott 4way bucket.
'68 Case 430 tractor for PTO chipper and mower.
'95 Dodge Ram 3/4 ton 4x4 Bought/built a hydraulic dump box conversion.
Only own these because I can fix/maintain them myself.
 
software bot
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Last vote in apple poll was on December 20, 2024
 
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