Farm attachments for a 1981 450c

[north country dozer]

Gentleman, I've slowly gotten in to keeping animals and agriculture. I am looking to up my production for my personal needs. I have thought of getting attachments for my 530 clark bobcat, but sometimes I lean towards my 450c crawler instead. I'm thinking of brush hogs, tillers and stuff like that... anyone have knowledge of equipment that would be compatible??? My crawler has the 6-way blade in the front

[Willie B]

No good PTO, 3 point hitch, or easy acess hydraulics, I'd look to drawbar implements as used on large wheel tractors from the pre three point/shaft PTO days.

What comes to mind is trailer plows, harrows, a trailer hog with engine. I believe the Amish use engine powered, and wheel driven machines drawn behind horses. Likely, the cheapest solution is buying another tractor for these needs. Three of my IH farm tractors were under $1100.

[north country dozer]

Willie b thanks. I love in Amish country along the eastern shore of Lake ontario. The Amish folks out this way use all horse drawn equipment. The only engines I know of them using is for saw mills and occasionally a well pump during drought times.

As for my situation, I already have a swivel hitch with a 1-7/8" ball behind it. The tower behind implements you speak I'm assuming are all "seperate" engine powered??? I've researched tiller attachments for my 530 clark but it just seemed more practical to invest in to something for the dozer being that's it's 65hp vs. Only 23 hp with the bobcat. I'm assuming I'd have to alter and modify hydraulics if I wanted to get an implement that's hydraulically run??? Thanks for any input. It'Ll probably be worth consulting with my local mom and pop tractor place on the other side of town to see if they have anything I could benefit from. They have old tractors for sale as well.

[Frankdozer]

I fabricated on attachment to pull behind my 455D track loader , I have a picture if I can figure out how to upload it.
Frank

[north country dozer]

Frank would love to see your contraption!!! Can't help in the posting pic department though, sorry...

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

I have some ground-powered implements, converted from horse to tractor about the time the M was brand-new. I never thought to hitch the manure spreader to the 420c....that would be an oddball sight....hitched to a 450!

Or, perhaps a sickle bar or a Wisconsin powered baler??

IIRC, the early production 450 had an optional 3-pt and PTO shaft the same as the early 350.

That is what I want: an early diesel 350 with outside blade and a 3-pt hitch and PTO.

Now, there is the scarifier unit. That would be fairly easy to modify to pull the lower pins of any 3-pt attachment. Those ought to be easier to find than the 3-pt hitch units.

Still, no easy PTO option, is there? Need to add some things inside the transmission, IIRC.

Stan

[CuttingEdge]

Around here the Amish use horse pulled carts called PTO Carts that have an engine that powers PTO equipment. With auxiliary hydraulics, they can mount 3 point hitch and pto driven equipment behind the tower intermediary unit so that horses can pull 3 point hitch/pto stuff.

Why not just buy an old tractor? I have no idea.

You could purchase one of these and do everything you wish, but then you run into the problem of running aux engines, buying another piece of equipment, etc. In my case I have a lot of old homesteading sites teaming with debris that would be nice to bushog and the like, and so tracks would be great, but as others have said, if they only made the later models with pto's and 3 point hitches.

Here is the link to PTO Carts.

http://pioneerfarmequipment.com/PTO_carts.html

[north country dozer]

Thanks for the link. Those things are pretty neat!!! Definitely not my speed though. May just look in to an old tractor. Pretty disappointed there's no options for my dozer. Thanks for the input guys

[CuttingEdge]

I have the same issue, I am not sure what the Pioneer PTO carts cost, but they look expensive and I have yet to see any piece of equipment yet that looks expensive and wasn't!

That being said, I think the answer to this...and keep in mind this is coming from a VERY frugal man...is to be adaptive and to think outside the box.

Here is a case in point. I am awaiting word on whether or not I get a grant to convert some corn ground back into grass ground, but in order to do that I need to plow, harrow and smooth it. I don't have a disc harrow, but I can buy one at Tractor Supply for $1200. Is it worth it though?

Probably not. As some one pointed out on here the best way to smooth something is to drag as big and heavy a chunk of concrete behind your tractor/ dozer as you can. I could spend $1200 on a 6 foot disc to pull behind my Kubota, however for $1200 in concrete and a piece of H-beam or I beam embedded in it, I could build a far wider slab of concrete that would be better. I say better because the wider the implement is, the flatter my field will be as it fills in dips and humps.

I could never pull that much weight; $1200 worth of concrete is about 40,000 pounds of weight at $90 per cubic yard. I would have to scale it down so my dozer could tow it, but my point here is not specifics at the moment, but to make the point that by looking outside the box, it is possible to produce something that will work...and may work better, for less money.

I am cheap so I am all about innovation.

[Willie B]

I too want to try the concrete drag idea. A local company made a mistake and poured 12" thick concrete they promptly had to remove. I haven't, but others have approached him about buying them at mistake price. Perhaps I will try my negotiating skills.

The 450 is good for approximately 24000 lb drawbar pull. I'd be conservative, and tow 5 tons.

[CuttingEdge]

One thing I have found to work; and work quite well in negotiations, is the fact that something is being used for agriculture. For whatever reason; whether they just like to eat, have an affinity for farmers, or fondly remember their grandfather toiling in a field, they will give something up to a farmer more readily.

I don't think it is really shmoozing someone over, people just like to cut us a break when they can.

I have saved a pile of old implements from going to the scrap yard with this knowledge. Unfortunately it is all I can do to save my own farm implements when the price of scrap steel goes high and the iron vultures come sneaking around. "That is not junk, I actually use that stuff", I told one kid.

Antique dealers
Scrap Steelers
Used Car Salesman

That is the order I put people (and apologies to anyone on here if they fit any of those 3 categories).