Hello all,

I am a newbie to this group and have a question for you. My family and
I just moved in to a house we built on 4 acres of wooded land. The land
has never been developed. It is not flat but is not extremely hilly
either. Typical North Carolina foothills property.

I have about 40 logs down just from the footprint of building the
house, not to mention several dozen down since Hurricane Hugo. I need a
garden tractor or something similar to help with pulling the logs
around to be cut and moved etc, and with normal chores around the
property. Don't have alot of grass yet, but I have seeded about a 1/4
acre around the house.

Some have suggested getting a powerful ATV to help with the work, but I
really don't want to spend alot of money on something that will not
deal with the terrain and heavy usage. Any thoughts or ideas would be
very much appreciated.

Tim

"Tim" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello all,

I am a newbie to this group and have a question for you. My family and
I just moved in to a house we built on 4 acres of wooded land. The land
has never been developed. It is not flat but is not extremely hilly
either. Typical North Carolina foothills property.

I have about 40 logs down just from the footprint of building the
house, not to mention several dozen down since Hurricane Hugo. I need a
garden tractor or something similar to help with pulling the logs
around to be cut and moved etc, and with normal chores around the
property. Don't have alot of grass yet, but I have seeded about a 1/4
acre around the house.

Some have suggested getting a powerful ATV to help with the work, but I
really don't want to spend alot of money on something that will not
deal with the terrain and heavy usage. Any thoughts or ideas would be
very much appreciated.

Tim


Hi Tim,
I have 4 1/3 acres in NJ, half woods on a slope, half grass and a river
bisecting it. I harvest all the wood I can burn from that from the fallen
or dead timber, and mow the grass, maybe a third of the grass with a
trail-behind catcher, the rest scattered. I have a JD GT262 garden tractor
that is about 8 years old now and it does everything I want it to do. I
have trailer that I use to lug the cut wood around, I cut it wherever it
falls. The trailer is used for that wood, ferrying around mulch, the kids,
the chainsaw and its supplies, pretty much anything that needs to move
around. If I need to move really big logs I use the Jeep TJ with its locked
4WD and mass, although this is rare. I also have a 4 foot snowthrower for
the front of it (flag lot) and a 48 inch mowing deck. It does a lot of work
year round.

In all I am very happy with this setup and it serves me well.
Hope this helps and feel free to question,
Tomes

Tim wrote:

Hello all,

I am a newbie to this group and have a question for you. My family and
I just moved in to a house we built on 4 acres of wooded land. The land
has never been developed. It is not flat but is not extremely hilly
either. Typical North Carolina foothills property.

I have about 40 logs down just from the footprint of building the
house, not to mention several dozen down since Hurricane Hugo. I need a
garden tractor or something similar to help with pulling the logs
around to be cut and moved etc, and with normal chores around the
property. Don't have alot of grass yet, but I have seeded about a 1/4
acre around the house.

Some have suggested getting a powerful ATV to help with the work, but I
really don't want to spend alot of money on something that will not
deal with the terrain and heavy usage. Any thoughts or ideas would be
very much appreciated.

Tim

New fellow here also, for what it's worth, depending on how much you want to
clear trail, it does probably make more sense to get one of these riding
lawn mowers/tractors and get just as much done without having to buy two
pieces of equipment.

But I would not worry about a *work* model ATV not standing up to the
terrain and/or heavy usage. Those things are beat on in armies, oilfields,
worksites, ranches, etc. If my nephews have to work to kill one, you are
probably safe.

Just remember, the mount point on these things are usually set low, right on
the axle, which lets the wheels spin easier when the towing load is to
high, reducing the chance of braking the trans-mission/axle. If you are
biasing the trailer's tongue load or putting more than ~100# + you on the
front (of 4x4) to keep from tire-spin, you probably should reduce the load
in normal situations. For this (tire-spin is my amber warning light) I
would not fool around with lowered tire pressures for traction.

You could probably burn up an auto-clutch pulling big logs if you don't cut
them down, but at that point you would probably be on the edge with the
riding lawn mowers as well. And chances are, you want to cut them down to
at least 8' for the pickup bed anyway...
--
v/r,
C-F
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