Heavy equipment thread

Hello all,

I have looked around on this site for a thread on tractors and I am glad I found this one.  I thought I would comment/recommend a slightly different type of tractor.  For 12 years I owned a subcompact tractor.  These machines look like an overgrown riding mower but have many features of a full sized tractor.  

These features include the following:
A Diesel engine
A three point hitch
Hydraulics to operate a loader
Mid and rear PTO’s

These tractors are fairly small but very powerful for their size and can operate a large number of attachments & implements.  They are also quite efficient by virtue of the Diesel engine.  Mine burned a meager 2/3 gallons per hour.  I highly recommend these machines to the landowners who need the extra mechanical help but still want to minimize the impact on the land (they don’t really compact soil).

Hope this helps someone,

Eric

Does anyone have a shop manual or service manual for this sumitomo sh60-1 LS-1600F2 this is my email address. bedepos@gmail.com ... thanks for the help, because I'm having trouble fixing

If you're looking at 30-40 hp farm tractors, but also want a backhoe/excavator, and want to use skid steer attachments, then I highly recommend a John Deere 110 TLB (Tractor Loader Backhoe - not to be confused with a John Deere 110 lawn mower).  The 110 TLB is yellow, not green.  Built much more heavy duty than the green ones, 43hp, frame mounted backhoe comes off easily to access farm-standard PTO and 3-point hitch, skid steer plates on the front loader arms so you can use any skid steer attachment - switching from front loader bucket to pallet forks is as simple as flipping two levers.  Most have 1-pair of auxiliary hydraulics on the front loader arms for use by the skid steer attachments, some have a hydraulic thumb on the backhoe, and a few also have 3-pair of auxiliary rear hydraulics (rear remotes) for 3-point implements that require hydraulics.  I've had mine for 16 years and wouldn't trade it for any excavator, tractor, or bulldozer.  Built my homestead with it, I make hay with it, log and lumber handling, you name it.  Unfortunately John Deere stopped making them around the time the housing bubble burst (2009-2012??) so only used ones are available now, and because they are such an awesomely versatile 'Swiss army knife', they are still pretty expensive even used selling in the 15-30k range currently.

R Parian wrote:If you're looking at 30-40 hp farm tractors, but also want a backhoe/excavator, and want to use skid steer attachments, then I highly recommend a John Deere 110 TLB (Tractor Loader Backhoe - not to be confused with a John Deere 110 lawn mower).  The 110 TLB is yellow, not green.  Built much more heavy duty than the green ones, 43hp, frame mounted backhoe comes off easily to access farm-standard PTO and 3-point hitch, skid steer plates on the front loader arms so you can use any skid steer attachment - switching from front loader bucket to pallet forks is as simple as flipping two levers.  Most have 1-pair of auxiliary hydraulics on the front loader arms for use by the skid steer attachments, some have a hydraulic thumb on the backhoe, and a few also have 3-pair of auxiliary rear hydraulics (rear remotes) for 3-point implements that require hydraulics.  I've had mine for 16 years and wouldn't trade it for any excavator, tractor, or bulldozer.  Built my homestead with it, I make hay with it, log and lumber handling, you name it.  Unfortunately John Deere stopped making them around the time the housing bubble burst (2009-2012??) so only used ones are available now, and because they are such an awesomely versatile 'Swiss army knife', they are still pretty expensive even used selling in the 15-30k range currently.

Nice. I looked for one for quite a while... I couldn't convince myself to pay 50k for a used one 15 hours away, and haven't seen one since. If there's something more versatile, I haven't seen it...

The only qualm I had when seeking one was power; 43 ponies isn't much for haying. What size mower do you run?

I used the JD 110 TLB exclusively for 9 years making hay - one tractor operation with no other tractors.  It did it all.  I started mowing with an old Gehl flair chopper mower.  It was barely enough HP to run it, but it worked.  After a year or two I upgraded to a Turkey Tarim 165 drum mower (not a disc mower) that I imported new directly from the manufacturer in Turkey.  Braber Equipment (BE) in British Columbia sells basically the same machine.  You can also buy them online at Hay Tools. Drum mowers require the least amount of HP of any modern mower that I know of and the 110 ran it easily and at high ground speed (my ground speed was governed more by the roughness from mole hills than by the limitations of the mower).  Oh, 110 TLBs manufactured 2004 or before didn't have a spring mounted seat, so that also limited my ground speed!  After mowing I take off the mower and attach a 2 basket Kuhn tedder that I later upgraded to a Fella 4 basket 3-point tedder to spread out the grass to dry faster (moist climate here in the PNW).  I started with a ground drive tow behind New Idea rake to rake up the wind rows, but ended up switching to a New Holland 57 PTO driven 3-point rake which is really nice because I can pick it up at the end of a row and turn around and wouldn't just drag a wheel under a heavy windrow.  After raking, I take off the rake and attach the baler.  I started with a Massey Fergusson 120 baler.  The 110 TLB ran it without any problems.  But the baler itself had issues with a slightly loose flywheel shear bold bushing that caused the $60 bushing to go flying out into the pasture whenever the shear bolt sheared which happened fairly frequently depending on conditions such as too much moisture.  Sometimes I was unable to find it.  Also, the knotters on this baler were getting hard to find parts for.  I ended up upgrading to a well used New Holland 565 baler which was a really nice upgrade with the larger pickup head and no shear bold or knotter issues.  The 110 TLB was able to run that baler just fine also.  On both balers, I installed quarter turn bale chutes so the bales would get set on the ground on their side so I could then hop on my 1960's era New Holland 1047 Hayliner self propelled bale wagon and pick up 120 bales at a time without touching any.  That machine, however, has so many moving parts and age that it is guaranteed to have at least one breakdown per season.  But it is well worth getting all the bales into the barn without having to buck any bales in the field (I end up restacking about half of them by hand inside the barn for various reasons).  But over the years the acres of pasture I hay have grown (somewhat out of control) and two years ago outgrew a reasonable size for the 110 TLB.  I would say the 110 TLB is a good size for making up to 20 acres of first cutting hay per cutting.  Over that, and you start wishing you weren't spending so much time mowing and baling (the tedding and raking isn't a problem - they are fairly quick) when you live in a climate that will only afford 5-7 days straight without rain.  Here is a good place to look for 110 TLBs.  I don't usually limit my search to local areas and end up using UShip for economy shipping of equipment - as long as you are patient (and arrange with the seller to be patient) you can usually get a good deal on shipping by holding out for a lower bidder.

The new model equivalent of a New Holland 565 baler is the New Holland BC5050 which I'm sure would work just fine on a JD 110 TLB also.  Find new ones at your nearest New Holland dealer or used ones here.  They are designed for use with 35hp, which is about what you get out of the PTO on a 43hp JD 110 TLB.  Also, it is worth mentioning that the tractor's hydrostatic drive is really nice when baling because you can choose just the perfect ground speed to match the wind row size with infinite variability.  The big disadvantage, though, is that there is no cruise control or way to have a set speed so your throttle foot gets pretty sore after hour upon hour of hay making!