I always liked my tractors and thought they were quality machines. This week I found out why. We had a Forest fire start less than 1/2 mile from our house Monday night. The high temps and winds fanned it and away it went. Yes it is in the upper 80's to 90's here in AK. My neighbor has a mid sized Kubota and we have the 3005 and 790 and knew we needed a better fire break than just our gravel road. We all jumped on tractors and started at our gravel road. It's spruce and birch maybe 3-6" diameter and brush Tony and I used the FEL's and pushed over trees and brush and widened our gravel road with about a 50 ft swath for almost a mile. My wife was on the 790 with the box blade (no FEL yet) with the rippers down all the way and ripped up the ground along the whole path. After several long hot hours we had a good fire break and the forestry guys just grinned. Winds cooperated and kept most of the fire away but it smoldered right up to the fire break where the crews and helicopters finished it off. I was so tired my legs were cramping from using the clutch and brakes (E-hydro would have been handy then) I'm sure we took about 10 years life off our machines but everything seems to be fine. My front grill has a couple good dents and the front of my hood above the headlights is cracked on the 3005 but that is minor stuff.
All I can say is my JD tractors performed flawlessly under the most stressful situation where I had to make them work harder than they were ever designed to do. obs meter says I put in 18 hrs in just over a day. I have to admit that Tony's Kubota did fine too. For all the puttering around that we do these tractors are great. Really putting them to the test has proved they are far more than meets the eye. I'm tired. Thought I'd write this down though. Love my JD's. Gotta go give them some TLC. they earned it.
All I can say is my JD tractors performed flawlessly under the most stressful situation where I had to make them work harder than they were ever designed to do. obs meter says I put in 18 hrs in just over a day. I have to admit that Tony's Kubota did fine too. For all the puttering around that we do these tractors are great. Really putting them to the test has proved they are far more than meets the eye. I'm tired. Thought I'd write this down though. Love my JD's. Gotta go give them some TLC. they earned it.