Little Buck Loader

[mustash29]

I'm going to have to keep more gas in the garage now. Something tells me the tractor is going to need refilled more often, LOL.

My '94 model 425 came with a 47" blower, 54" blade, front hydraulic quick hitch for them, 54" mower, chains, weight box and six 42 lb. suitcase weights. The blower & mower are shaft drive. I already replaced the cheesy "4 bar" chains with "2 bar" chains because they have a cross chain every other link instead of every 4th link and added 50 lb. weights to each rear tire. JD used to offer a model 40 loader for the 425, 445 & 455 tractors but used ones are far and few between and still command a very healthy price.

Ordered my new toy on Monday. It shipped out Tuesday and arrived at my work Friday afternoon. Stopped at my local JD dealer on the way home to pick up some fluids & filters. The parts guy gave me a nice thumbs up.

These things have pretty good reviews. This is a home brewed design that a guy and his son came up with in their garage a few years ago. Their business has grown so they had to move into a bigger fabrication shop. http://www.littlebuckloader.com/

Shipping weight was listed as 250# with it strapped to the pallet. I thought about unloading it with the engine hoist but after "unboxing" Little Buck I was able to walk it right out of the truck myself. No assembly required. It took one hour from the time I pulled into the driveway until I had the tractor parked back in the garage.

Normal install / removal is less than 5 minutes. It hangs on the front frame extension / bumper where the mower & quick hitch attach to, clicks in with 2 spring loaded pins and plugs in to the 4 hyd ports under the left foot rest. It sticks out about 4" further than the quick hitch / blower combo and lifts to almost 6 feet high.

My 31 ton splitter does both, but I'm not too keen on hunching over to wrestle big rounds around and split in the vertical mode. Now the misses can load those big rounds right onto the splitter table for me. The diagonal opening on the bucket is a good 22" so it will easily hold and lift a big round or two.

 

[mustash29]

Day one - Scratched some of the paint off of the bucket already. I told the misses "that's bound to happen to ground engaging attachments."

When the house was built in '96 they dug a hole here and torched all of the brush from the lot clearing task in it. I've had to fill in the sinkhole a few times before with a shovel and wagon. Today I added another 4 buckets or about a half yard in 15 minutes. 5 min of that was doing the finish raking.

Mr. Patton had to inspect my work.

Mr. Kammo & Mr. Patton, our 30 and 35 lb. Shelties inspecting daddy's new toy.

Cut down a small dead oak. Mommy learned how to move a bucket of wood over to the stacks.

 

[mustash29]

After a "hard' day of yard work and playing with my new "Mud-shovel", the only thing left to do was to go out and celebrate. We only live 10 minutes away from Foxwoods Resort & Casino so.....

Grilled salmon and steak tips.

Then we were off to our seats to see Aaron Lewis and Staind at the Grand Theater. Stained is "dipping their toes" back into live performances (only doing 4 shows this fall) and may make some new music soon and go back on tour. We had decent seats.

Good show. Good acoustics. Elaborate visual effects with lights, fire and fireworks. These are NOT our videos but belong to someone else. If you aren't into this kind of music at least skip to the 2:30 mark to see the impressive pyro display.....

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[Smokepole]

That loader looks real good and it will save you a ton of work.

I live on 12 acres of dense woods . Two years ago I bought a J. D. 3032e with a loader.

It has made my life much easier and saved lots of wear and tear on my back.


Enjoy it !

 

[Jags]

Keep your expectations reasonable and that should be a very useful tool. The front ends of those tractors weren't designed overly heavy for loader use. Just respect its limitations and have fun.

 

[SpaceBus]

Sounds like a great day to me! I'm never sad to do tractor work. If you have a gravel driveway this will also save you loads of work while maintaining it. My wife was likewise worried about the scratches and scuffs on the ground engagement stuff when we first got going, but not as much now.