• Got the Contributing Memberships stuff finally worked out and made up a thread as a sort of "How-To" to help people figure out how to participate. So if you need help figuring it out, here's the thread you need to take a look at -> http://www.corvetteflorida.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3581 Thank you, everyone! Rich Z.

Well, I guess I have caught redneckitis....

I just wanted you to know there are options as to what attachments you may need. Most dealers seem to have one choice and that just happens to be what they are trying to sell you. But I know you enough to know that you'll do research on whatever you need. The internet does open a big door to choose from. Have fun!

I'll see my brother next weekend and find out what model he bought and how much it cost.
 
Yeah, that looks like something handy. Look at where the dealers are located for any service issues on whatever brand tractor you decide to go with. Are you going to buy a trailer to tow it with?
 
85vette said:
Yeah, that looks like something handy. Look at where the dealers are located for any service issues on whatever brand tractor you decide to go with. Are you going to buy a trailer to tow it with?
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Lee's Trailers is just a mile or so inside Capitol Circle on 61, so about 20 minutes from me. They are the only TYM dealer within about 90 miles of me.

Not planning on buying a trailer. Lee's Trailers said they will pick up and return my tractor whenever I wanted service on it there. And the guy (Will) said that when I ordered additional implements he would deliver them to me too.

Not planning on taking the tractor anywhere off of my property, and if I did, my friend Rickey has a trailer and said I could use it anytime I wanted to.

So unless somethings change quite a bit, I don't see a need to buy a trailer at this time.
 
Lee's has been in business for a long time and have a good reputation. I don't know how long they've been a tractor dealer but my wife and I bought a car from them about 30 years ago when they were just a used car lot. I knew they were selling trailer after that.
 
Well, I placed the order for the tractor yesterday. Connie and I stopped by the place after our cardiologist appointments. Put a deposit down on a TYM T474HC. Options I am getting on the tractor are:

  • Front 3rd function kit
  • Double rear remote with detent

Only getting the pallet forks with it, as it comes with the front loader and bucket. Still trying to decide on which type of grapple and flail mower I want to get. And I want to get a combination root bucket/tree puller attachment for the front loader too. I want a flail mower heavy enough that I can keep it on the tractor most of the time to use as rear weight ballast when digging out stumps or pulling small trees out of the ground. The weight of the cabbed tractor itself is listed as being 3,660 pounds.

I think that will be enough to get started cleaning up around the planted pines a bit and taking out any dead ones back there, as well as putting in some decent walking paths all through it.

Guess I need to figure out a good way to store a modest amount of diesel fuel around here. At least 20 to 30 gallons. And some sort of pump to put the fuel into the tractor. The fuel tank on this thing is in the back and kind of high. High enough that I sure don't want to have to be trying to lift and hold up 5 gallon containers at chest high. 5 gallons of diesel fuel should weigh around 35 pounds, which doesn't sound like all that much to carry, but holding it steady at arms length trying to pour it into the tank will be a challenge for me I would rather avoid. The fuel tank on the tractor holds 9 gallons.

I have seen people hint that running out of diesel fuel in the tractor is a bad thing, but no one has explained why. :shrug01:

Honestly, this is all being really therapeutic for me, helping to keep my mind off of other things.
 

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Looks like you have a pretty good start with the listed equipment. See what else you may need as you go.

NO! Don't run out of diesel! It's a closed, high pressure fuel system and if you run out (or even too low) you'll get air in the lines and injectors and then you will have to bleed the system before it will start. If you've ever had to do this you likely won't repeat the mistake again.

Rich, if I were you I would get a 30 to 60 gallon toolbox style tank mounted in your pickup truck bed. You won't have to deal with cans or places to store it. You can fill it at any station that sells diesel and you can drive right up to your tractor or drive the tractor to where the truck is. Get one with an electric pump obviously. They make some that are actually a toolbox on the top and the fuel sump is built in below.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3642021866...1291&msclkid=cc5a7436f1f81df96f6b10e37dc58dcc

May I ask how much that tractor goes for?
 
85vette said:
Looks like you have a pretty good start with the listed equipment. See what else you may need as you go.

NO! Don't run out of diesel! It's a closed, high pressure fuel system and if you run out (or even too low) you'll get air in the lines and injectors and then you will have to bleed the system before it will start. If you've ever had to do this you likely won't repeat the mistake again.

Rich, if I were you I would get a 30 to 60 gallon toolbox style tank mounted in your pickup truck bed. You won't have to deal with cans or places to store it. You can fill it at any station that sells diesel and you can drive right up to your tractor or drive the tractor to where the truck is. Get one with an electric pump obviously. They make some that are actually a toolbox on the top and the fuel sump is built in below.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/3642021866...1291&msclkid=cc5a7436f1f81df96f6b10e37dc58dcc

May I ask how much that tractor goes for?
Click to expand...

Not sure Connie is going to want a big diesel tank sitting in the bed of her pickup truck. That would be a VERY hard sell for me.

As pictured above, with cab, front end loader and bucket, it is costing me $32,700. Which, from as best I can tell, for a 48 horsepower compact tractor, is a pretty good price. I talked to a guy in Ocala selling TYM tractors, and his price was substantially more. When I asked him about it, he told me that TYM has a promotion going on with new dealers where they basically get the front end loader and bucket for free to try to move inventory quicker. So I kind of figured the price I was quoted wouldn't last forever. Plus the way inflation is pushing prices higher and higher, well, I figured I shouldn't dawdle.
 
That price sounds very reasonable compared to one of my brother's John Deere diesel mowers. The 997's that he uses (3 of them) run about $30K a piece now. He plans on using his new tractor for the majority of the mowing duties.

As for diesel fuel, I can tell you, hauling it around in 5 gallon cans in the back of your truck is a lot more dangerous than transporting it in a secured, approved container that looks no more menacing than an aluminum toolbox. It's less flammable than gasoline. Heck, we carry 300 gallons of it everywhere we go! :hehehe:

And then you get to heft those 40 pound greasy cans up and spill them all over the tractor. Having a nozzle with an electric pump is a much cleaner, safer way to dispense fuel. My shoulders still ache when I think of all the times I did this when I was younger. :ack2:

Or you can buy a 250 gallon tank and have Eli Roberts deliver it to your "farm" for a nominal fee. :eek:

Either way, you should make it a point to take advantage of the off road diesel so you can save around fifty cents or more per gallon. And if you have to drive all the way to Woodville or Tallahassee to get it, you may as well buy a large enough quantity so you don't have to do it so often.
 
Trust me, spilling diesel fuel into the back of Connie's truck will be a WHOLE lot more dangerous to me. :dead:
 
Well, got the new tractor on Friday. Haven't really done much with it yet, though. Figure I'll just drive it around in the yard and get used to the controls before I actually try to do anything with it. Of course, I really don't have any implements or attachments to do much of anything yet anyway.

My friend, Rickey, says that pretty soon I will wonder how I ever got along without one. I dunno, about that. But I was out in the yard today using the handheld hedge trimmer to kind of mow the law in front of the garage, and I did find myself thinking I was getting too old to be doing it that way any longer. So maybe some labor saving devices might be just what the doctor ordered.
 

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Got one on order, but it will be a while.

Haven't been able to do much with the tractor lately, though. Connie's condition is worsening, and I have not wanted to be away from her for very long. Both of her sisters are here helping out, but still................
 
Sorry to hear that Rich. I lost my best friend from my Navy days to cancer the day after Christmas in 2020. We had stayed in touch and visited each other over the years. He was like a brother. And it being during the COVID days, they wouldn't let me into the hospital. It's tough knowing how hard it is on the family when something like this happens. I can't imagine my wife going through this. Prayers to you and the family.
 
Been spending time with it clearing around the well pump and tank.

Since last posting, I bought a tree puller and a flail mower for it that is doing great clearing the land.

As for the grapple, I ordered it mid September and was told it would be "fourish" months before delivery. The company Everything Attachments seemed to have an excellent reputation, been around for a good while, and everyone raved about their products. Only fly in that ointment is that apparently they have folded up shop and evaporated with lawsuits and tax collectors after them. Good chance I am just out that money. Sent off dispute forms via snail mail to my credit card company, but since it has been longer than 120 days since I placed the order, not sure anything will come of it.

In the meantime, I ordered another grapple from a company called Top Dog Attachments, that I already have a tracking number for, and is supposed to be delivered on Tuesday.

Oh yeah, had a big wood chipper that runs off of the tractor PTO shaft delivered this past Wednesday. That is going to come in real handy dealing with all the small trees and brush I am pulled out of the ground with the tree puller.

So.... just trying to keep my mind occupied to suppress the darker thoughts swirling around in my head.
 
It sounds like you have pretty much everything covered as far as attachments go. I'm seriously considering buying a small/medium size tractor myself. I have a guy that's been mowing my yard (3.25 acres) for the past three years and he's reliable and reasonable ($300 a month).

He has a small John Deere that I have employed him to use in clearing my fence line and removing some huge branches that fell from the hundred year old Pecan tree in the front yard (taking the power line with it :face_palm_02:).

But with the addition of another 1.2 acres and the work it's going to need, coupled with other trees on the property that I want to remove, I believe I might be money ahead getting my own equipment. I've already spent nearly $4000 with him and at $100 an hour the prospect of a monthly tractor payment looks better and better.

I have looked at a few and have since been inundated with ads as far away as Washinton state and New York. What dealer did you use? Obviously I want to stay local so that any warranty or service matters could be expedited. And then there is what brand to choose. John Deere is way overpriced in my opinion, especially if you need repairs and you are out of the warranty period. My brother has three or four JD zero turn mowers (diesels and an electric) and the repairs and parts prices are outrageous in my opinion.

So looking at options, and with the current state of the economy, those with 0% interest have the upper hand. But reliability is important too and I really don't know much about these foreign brands although I'm aware that several "American" brands are using their engines and more these days. Really, there is nothing "American Made" anymore is there? :shrug01:
 
I bought the TYM T474HC tractor from Lee's Trailers. Only problem I had with it was a minor fuel leak. Will came down here, and tightened some hoses on the fuel/water separator and that seemed to fix that problem. He also delivered a 6 ft. land plane for me too.

I really like the cab. Especially when using that flail mower as it is basically a shredder/mulcher that kicks up a LOT of dust that the cab keeps on the outside. Plus gnats are kicking up around here, and the cab proves to be a welcome barrier to them. Haven't had much of a problem driving the tractor between trees, although I did have to trim a few branches off of a few trees I didn't want to scrape against.

TYM makes a T25 tractor which is what I originally thought I would buy. But it only came with a heated cab, and that would be pretty senseless here.

The T474HC seems to be proving out to be not what I wanted, but what I really NEEDED. But I think in retrospect I should have considered harder the manual one instead of the hydrostatic version. But it is no big deal, all things considered.

If you ever want to stop down to take a look at it, let me know.
 
Did you buy that in a package deal? I see them offered with a bush hog, loader and box blade. Some even with a trailer. I didn't really want to buy new but with the interest rates being around 7-8%, getting a new one at 0% interest may be the better option.

Renovating the house was moving slowly as we ran into some unscrupulous tradesmen that we had to weed out. they were either gouging on prices or just flat out lying to us. I had the upstairs A/C unit replaced at a premium price, they did a good job, but they charged as much for that one unit as both downstairs units cost. But then later they told us we needed surge protection and I asked what that would cost and was quoted about $1100-$1200. I put it off at the time as we were driving over the road back then and were only home every 6-8 weeks. So they came to do the quarterly maintenance check and hit me with the surge protection again but this time said it was $4200! Tried to say that we needed one for each unit but I had asked the first guy point blank if all units needed it and he told me no, that only one was needed. So I invited them to leave.

Then another guy installed the new hot water heater I had bought, charged me $475, and had to come back out because one of the lines leaked. It only took him an hour and a half to remove the old one and install the new one. And I have a dumpster so he didn't have to haul the old one off.

I had an electrician come out to install a new line and he didn't bring enough wire with him. I paid him $800 and never saw him again.

Since then one of the EX-employees of that company approached me and has been very helpful in getting things moving and his prices are more in line with what we were expecting. So now I'm try to juggle stuff that needs doing inside the house along with what needs to be done on the outside.

With a tractor and equipment I can get much of it done myself. Of course once it's done I likely won't really NEED a tractor anymore but, what do you do, right?!

And I may take you up on coming down there, thanks!
 
Sure seems like the entire world is going insane.

Got a half-way hare brained idea that I might want to buy a Dodge Durango Hellcat. But damn, the worst part about buying a vehicle is dealing with the salespeople. So I probably won't.

Yeah, just let me know if you want to drop in. Nothing planned except perhaps having my grapple delivered on Tuesday.
 
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