Meet "Baby Fergie"!

Great choice! (says the owner of a 1723E) ...congratulations and Best of Luck with it .....quick tip ...turn the directionals on the ROP to the inside...it is really easy to take them off on a tree...they stick out further than you think....I came pretty close the first day I had mine ..it only takes a few minutes....you will have to drill a hole on the inside for the wires to pass through

Thank you!

Mark, I'm not sure if there is room inside, as the tractor seat rotates, and is lifted up about 6" higher to be used for the backhoe (bh) ... They may be in the way of my shoulders if they are on the inside??? I will have to look at it though once I get home ...

The "M" version does have a little metal guard that goes around the light though, besides a single rear facing work light ...

Comes standard with a 12" hoe, 10" & 16" are optional, I will see how the 12" does ...

I forgot to add that I also ordered a 3pt quick hitch too ...

Ordered a thumb for it already ...

I have a lot of reading to do, I got the manuals so I can read up on my breaks on the road ... Got a free hat too!

MARK (LI) said:

Great choice! (says the owner of a 1723E) ...congratulations and Best of Luck with it .....quick tip ...turn the directionals on the ROP to the inside...it is really easy to take them off on a tree...they stick out further than you think....I came pretty close the first day I had mine ..it only takes a few minutes....you will have to drill a hole on the inside for the wires to pass through
View attachment 2542291 View attachment 2542293

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One of the first things I did too. Did you switch them from side to side so the amber is facing the right way.

c5rulz said:

One of the first things I did too. Did you switch them from side to side so the amber is facing the right way.

Click to expand...

Amber on the front, amber and red from behind

I got home a day early, and went and brought "Baby Fergie" home, the dealer washed it, and greased it, plus filled it with diesel!

Unfortunately the dig safe utility markers still haven't come out for the cable company out by the road, for my driveway project ... Not sure when they are coming, I'm not waiting around for them, so I'm back on the road again! I'll try again in two weeks



But I just had to dig that little bucket in the dirt ... I had dug a tiny ditch off from one corner of my house where the down spout dumped the water, which ran into my crawl space!



I decided to enlarge the tiny 4"x 4" ditch, as that took me half a day digging by hand, and I really wanted to bury 4" drain pipe ...



Operating the bh has quite a learning curve! I'm going to fill the tires, to give it more traction, the hoe can pull it all over, might add some dirt to the front bucket to, besides putting it on 4X4 mode to apply the parking brake to them too!

Overall it digs great, I have lots of fine tuning ME!

While the full sized seat is nice to use, it is a hassle to keep turning it around to move the tractor, then back to digging ...

I also pulled up two "T-posts that were in need to be removed for my driveway expansion, the first one came out great, the second one I bent a bit, because I forgot to tilt the bucket down, as I brought the boom up ... I just used a strap to hold it against the bucket, I need to get some hooks on it ...



I scraped up some of that gravel and put it down where I had some soggy spots in my driveway ... Much easier than using a shovel and 5 gallon buckets to haul gravel, but I still have a bit of practice to get the scrape and pick up, smooth out process right.

Wally,

Yes I used the stabilizer per the manual, so I hate to disagree with you, but I'm one of those guys who read the manual ... Here it is, read section 4.3



Bucket was on the ground, but so we're all four tires ...

And the next page over says it again slightly different wording ...



Also ... Even if I did lift all four tires off the ground with filled tires, that would increase the weight on the bucket and stabilizers, right? That would help anchor the tractor, so the backhoe doesn't pull me closer to the trench/hole ...

the instructions are true - in that the arms will be widest when the wheels are not off the ground. However if your tractor is moving around while digging, there is a problem. My comment on having the wheels off the ground was not to say that you lift "as high as possible".... because then what the manuals says would be 100% true... the arms would not as wide as they can be, and having the tractor elevated high off the ground reduces your reach.....

So my point is - when you deploy the arms, and you take the weight off the rear wheels - sink the arm "feet" into the soil, and you see your wheels lift off maybe 1" off the ground - that is perfect. The wheels are "USELESS" in stabilizing the tractor when using the BH. In fact if the wheels are doing any work at all - the forces of the BH are transmitted through the frame to the transmission and to the wheel axles and to the wheels. That is Bad-News. The transaxle is not designed to handle any of those forces. As I said before, the Stabilizers need to do anywhere between 99%-100% of the work. And to ensure this is the case, the wheels have to be unloaded... ie off the ground ever so slightly.

Just like what Newsman said - I quite often angle the FEL bucket to plant the "edge" of the bucket into the soil, and again just apply enough pressure to see that the bucket sinks in a bit, and/or the front wheels just begin to get light.

Using this method, my 2305 is "welded to the earth" when I dig... unless I am dealing with soft swampy soil, where the arms or the FEL simply plow through the soil as the BH does the heavy work.