{"id":1139,"date":"2013-09-25T13:39:54","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T13:39:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/?p=1139"},"modified":"2013-09-25T13:44:39","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T13:44:39","slug":"small-tractor-for-woodland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/2013\/small-tractor-for-woodland\/","title":{"rendered":"Small Tractor for Woodland"},"content":{"rendered":"

After two years of dragging trailers full of logs, the home made two wheeled tractor<\/a> has been superseded.\u00a0 It struggled with traction on wet grass and when it gets good grip the lashed together axle started bending.\u00a0 After considering the cost and time involved with buying wheels and bearings and a different brake, I had a look at the alternatives.<\/p>\n

I needed something low cost, small, high power and low speed.\u00a0 The solution is a old ride on mower, with the mower bits removed it becomes what they call a \u201cgarden tractor\u201d.\u00a0 I found one on ebay, close enough to collect, at the right money (\u00a3260).<\/p>\n

PMT (Poorly Maintained Tractor)<\/h3>\n

It hadn’t been well maintained but was still a runner.\u00a0 A few evenings in the garage and it was all sorted.\u00a0 New belt, oil, air filter, cleaned, greased, linkages tightened, battery charged and tow ball fitted.<\/p>\n

Notes for my future reference (as I\u2019m bound to lose my notes):<\/p>\n

Engine Model: Briggs and Stratton 11hp\u00a0 model 252707,\u00a0 type 0686-01, code 84013011<\/p>\n

Tyres: Rear 18 x 8.50, Front 15 x 6.00<\/p>\n

Transmission Belt P No. 1688<\/p>\n

Oil SAE30<\/p>\n

That done it was ready for the first trip to the woods after I added an extra 2 inches of width to the trailer.<\/p>\n

\"Small<\/a>

The Westfield tractor just fits in a 3 x 5 foot trailer<\/p><\/div>\n

A BIG GRIN as it had it had no problem pulling up the field with all the woods tools and the Son on-board.<\/p>\n

It fits over the bridge but I\u2019ll have to get used to chicane around the trees so the trailer wheels don\u2019t catch. \u00a0I think edge bits on the bridge would add to the safety factor.<\/p>\n

\"Mini<\/a>

The "garden" woodland tractor towing the trailer manages to cross the entry bridge<\/p><\/div>\n

With the trailer un-hitched it was time for drive around the woods. It copes well with ditches and hill climbs although traction is a problem on deep leaf litter so at some point it might get treated to chevron tyres.\u00a0 Manoeuvrability is excellent due to the tight turning circle but on uneven terrain it ends up on three wheels and with only one front wheel on the ground it gets unpredictable.\u00a0 The differential on the drive helps with the turning but won\u2019t help with the traction, I\u2019m thinking some kind of independent wheel braking might help when one wheel spins. Fifth Gear at top revs is scary fast on the narrow paths, as we\u2019ve never had vehicle access there are no proper rides. \u00a0The low gears should be great for pulling logs, I shall find out on another visit.<\/p>\n

It is great fun and will be worth it as a time, back and shoulder saver. The other advantage is, we noticed the tractor made very little impression on the ground, \u00a0an important factor as we don’t want to end up with rutted muddy tracks all over.<\/p>\n

We brought two trailer loads of logs out without a problem and we made it home in time for Sunday dinner.<\/p>\n

\"mini<\/a>

Fun for all the family, the tractor ready for woodland work<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After two years of dragging trailers full of logs, the home made two wheeled tractor has been superseded.\u00a0 It struggled with traction on wet grass and when it gets good grip the lashed together axle started bending.\u00a0 After considering the cost and time involved with buying wheels and bearings and a different brake, I had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136],"tags":[441,440,145,319,442,113,112],"class_list":["post-1139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-i-do-woodland-stuff","tag-garden-tractor","tag-pulling","tag-tractor","tag-trailer","tag-westfield","tag-woodland","tag-woods"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1139"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1168,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1139\/revisions\/1168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idostuff.co.uk\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}