Tractors...

LOL. Wish I could man. I just don't want a deck over GN. We already have a low boy 28' in our offroad group.

 

The John Deere 110 is out, and this one in particular. I'm not spending another 5-6K on a deck over trailer that won't be used often, when we have two flatbeds that will fit 95% of all our other needs.

I contracted the Craigslist seller, and then he said it's his brothers machine. I emailed him, and he was so nice to drop it another 1K for me to 11500.00 (which is super low for this machine with 675 hours). Then he informed me the tractor is in Nebraska and his medical team is leaving in two weeks and the tractor needs to be sold ASAP. I informed him I could be out as soon as next week. Then he informed me the sale will only be processed on eBay.

So I ended that conversation, and totally expect a long lost Nigerian Prince brother of mine that just died has just left me 25 million in a bank....

I hate scammers.

 

I was thinking about this all night. The mind wonders for sure....

This is what I want to do:

On the side of the third bay garage, I want to bring grade up 2.5' with a retaining wall. I will use 2'x2'x4' concrete block, like this:

The ones locally are around 1100 lbs each.



On the side of the house, RV parking with hookups. I would have to bring up the grade 1' closer to the fence line, but towards the rear...2.5' at least.

As you can see, my driveway is a steep one, and is very sporty when 20" of snow (or more) and a 7% grade. I believe that with bringing up the driveway towards the road (around 1.5-2'), this can be lowered to around 5.5% grade. The driveway is crowned pretty good, and if you get off to the side, you are screwed. This was 4 days ago, and it brings on the suck:





Now in the back, this is a want. The wall will have to be 3.5' just to get the back area level. To increase the wall for fall protection, building a porch with rock features, fire pit or pizza oven (probably both).





Now to the point of this post:

Do I need a $30,000.00 investment? Now before anyone says "hell yes", consider the following:

-I can rent a Kubota Tractor from my friend for 250.00 for the month. Pretty cheap. His tractor can not lift the 1100 lbs blocks, but can do all the earth moving I need.
-Skid steer rental is 154.00 a day. I actually know the owner of a equipment rental business, and he said I can come get whatever, whenever, but I would never use a friendship like that.

So, I can rent a skid steer 194 times to break even on the tractor. Even more if I do a weekly rental. Once this work is done, a tractor will really not be needed. I already have a mower, and eliminating more grass makes it difficult to run a brush hog behind a tractor.

Now back to the snow removal. I live in a special place that just gets hammered with weather. Funny thing is, we haven't seen a really good 3-4' dumping yet. That actually has me a little concerned. We keep a fair share of reserve fuel, generator, food on site from Oct-June 1st. We would be fine being stuck inside the house for a week.

So ideas and options for snow removal? Snow blowers would work for he driveway, if attached to something. The walk behinds just wouldn't cut it.

Plow on ATV? Plow truck?

I have found a few JD 3039R tractors with a reasonable price tag....and a cab.

 

That’s a good idea.



I guess the cab would keep the snow off the seat. Lol

All jokes aside, that’s a great idea and I would have totally thought this would be enough. 22.5 hp, 44” snow blower, chains and weights. At full power, PTO engagement, the tractor will not get up my driveway in snow. Just spins.

 

Yes I have. Didn’t work either.

 

This does make me wonder once the grades are not as steep, how this would work better for snow removal. Right now though, that hope is just a fart in the wind.

 

Shit Phil, at this point...I'm open to most things. I actually have a buddy selling his old Case Skid steer....Hummmmm

 

I'm almost thinking something like this might be better. Put a blade behind it and go...and maybe some chains on the tires.





With all the scams on CL, I feel like we may end up with something like this...also on CL.

 

It was a scam, but yes it would.

 

For now, I'm pretty much going to stay off CL/OfferUp/Pornhub/eBay/LetGo...etc.

Pretty much just going to deal with a broker now.

 

Oops...how did that get in there?

 

Dammit Phil!!! So I called up my friend that's selling his 2001 CAT 226 with 2800 hours. He told me 8K, and he has airless tires on it (2800.00).

 

PM inbound.