Here are a couple shots of some of the stuff I "got into" while I was home on leave. Sorry all, but there are going to be a few pictures!

Loaded up the Kubota so that I could dig out some creeks...





Then the rain started POURING BAD and I got her stuck...lol






My wife and mom hadn't come out in time with the camera to get a picture of the rear end of the backhoe sliding down that hillside and me flipping it over...haha, but I just pushed it back up on it's side and started slowly inching it out of there backwards with the hoe...good times! I would post a video of the mess I made trying to get that sucker out of that creek, but it's about 2 and a half times too big for photobucket!

 

And here are some pics of my wife and I up in the mountains on the cliffs and our "boys" watching me make a mess!

 

Nice,
What part of Va were you in?

Did you leave the keys in the tractor?...........I got some stumps to clear......

 

Nice pic's, especially of the dogs , I've got a 4 year old black lab. Where were you in VA? We had rain in our area (Hampton Roads), didn't look that wet though. I'm guessing you were more inland. How long did it take to drive that? That was one thing I wanted to do while in the Coast Guard...PCS to the west coast so I could see some of the country. Oh well, gonna have to wait a while.

 

kinda reminds me of frostburg

 

Were you stuck in the picture with the mud all over your front wheel?

Does that tractor have a diff lock in the rear?

 

Thanks for the compliments on the pictures guys! To answer some questions, the pictures are of southwest VA...a little place called Independence, VA (about 30-45 min southwest of Wytheville), the picture of the sunset and my wife and I are NOT in VA at all, they are at Coleman Cliffs, WV near her dad's house, and unless there is something that I am missing, the tractor does NOT have a locking rear diff...it's open and probably one of the reasons I ended up stuck. The first three pictures are of the tractor doing well...the others after that are when the weather started coming. Wish I could post the video of me getting it out...it was kind of a pain. I wish that the line pressure was a little more on that Kubota...seemed to have a little issue with the boom being able to pull the entire weight of the tractor which is a little on the negative side with me...the John Deere we replaced it with would pull it's "body" weight all day long...

 

Thats too bad it doesn't have a locking diff. My Yanmar has one and its one of those things you never think you need... until you try driving out of the pond that you are digging with the dirt scoop on the back full of dirt and its really muddy and one front wheel is barely touching the ground and the same with one of the rear wheels... 4WD does you no good with open diffs! You put your foot on that lever and it locks the rear and those rice patty tires start pullin' like all getout... and... sorry I just really enjoy working with my "toys".

I would be willing to bet a diff lock woulda got you out of there, are you POSITIVE it doesn't have one?! I never thought it would be a foot pedal until I saw it on my tractor... only thing I don't like about it being a pedal is that I use the foot throttle a lot and I don't have 3 feet . I find that kind of hard to believe on such a nice tractor like that! I'd love to have a FEL and a backhoe like yours, I bet you can get some work done with it.

Looking at the picture if that rear tire would have been able to grab it would have at least pulled the tractor to the side a little and maybe bought you a little more traction. But you've also got the FEL and backhoe to "walk" yourself out... people like me have... umm... boards and a come-a-long .

 

From San Diego to Lewisburg, WV (her dad's house), it took us 37 hours...from my house in VA back out, it took about 34 hours (plus sleep time and sight seeing, so about 42 total)...we went through Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Indiana, Missouri, West Virginia and Virginia during our trip to and from....about 7k miles total over the course of 2weeks

 

To be honest with you man, this was my first time operating the Kubota...it's pretty much new, other than my brother digging out a pretty big rock in our back yard, and if it has a locking diff, I just don't know how to lock her out. I wish that I knew more about it, might not have had to work the boom as much as I did to get it out of that mess. I also LOVE playing out there, especially in the mud and muck...if you look closely, in one of those pics, you can see my truck through the willow tree...my mom cussed me out for sinking up in the yard a bit...lol

 

What model is the tractor? Sorry if I missed it your posts. I don't understand why people hate working in the mud so much... I don't mind it in the least even if it is raining out. [EDIT] Is this your tractor? http://www.kubota.com/f/products/b26/index.cfm If it is... copied from the website:

 

Yep, that's the one man! I am gonna have to piddle with it a bunch more and learn about it. I was on short time from the time I got on that tractor till the time I parked her after getting some work done...next time I go home (it had been three and a half years since the last time) I will spend more time learning the features.

I like yourself don't mind working in the rain, and to be honest, when it comes to cleaning out creeks, I would PREFER it to be raining pretty steady...makes the creeks run harder and faster, hence helping push mud and crap on through and cleaning up easier than when the creeks are barely pushing anything....then when you're done, the end product seems to last longer.

I'd say most people don't like working in the rain and sloppy mud because they will 1.) get wet or 2.) possibly do what I did and slide down a bank and flip it because of how slick it can get when it's dumping rain....you just gotta ride it out, I say. If it's a backhoe and the engine is still running, you can ALWAYS get it back up and out of where you're stuck if you are patient and know how to use equipment...that boom is a pretty amazing thing if you think about it! lol

 

I've got some land to clear near Farmville, VA.
I looked at the B26, (nice unit, but a little too small for the work I have to do) and decided to wait awhile and try for a larger used TLB in the 40+ HP range.
Lot's and lots o stumps........

 

Our tractor has the split rear brakes you could hold the brake for the spinning wheel and it would transfer the power to the other rear wheel.

 

Yeah, they are pretty good tractors, I guess...but I think that our B26 is too small for a couple of the applications I was trying to use it for too, I guess...but our John Deere 5025 was too big