Hi Friends, This channel will show several things. I will be showing the jobs I do using my John Deere 2025R tractor and how I approach them. I will be walking you through the extras I add to my 2025R and other equipment, plus every maintenance I perform. I will also be showing you day to day projects I do in my garage and on my property. I will try and show you as much detail as possible and explain each step as I go. Some videos will be more in depth then others with the hope you can use them to learn how to do theses things on your own equipment. I appreciate you checking out the channel.
Hi Neil. When I am lifting heavy dirt/gravel the boxblade is a great counter weight, but I still hang 4 suitcase weights on the support of the boxblade. They will be sideways. Cheers
Hello. I noticed bolt-on- hooks on your loader. Do you like them? I also have a JD 2025R. I have just finished spreading 10 loads of gravel on my driveway extension. The tractor made the job much easier.
I do like them a lot. I do use them on a regular basis. I went with that set up because it gives more strength to the center of the bucket. The John Deere buckets are known for being weak there and bending.
I do not yet have the side link. I am going to add it. I have the summit hydraulics kit which added three functions one from my third function, and then two for the rear and the hydraulic top is an aftermarket top link.
In the southeast we call that Crusher Run (or crushin’run). Pretty much every gravel road and decent driveway around here is made with it. When ordering a load if you mention you want a road base material, this is what you’ll get unless you specify you only want clean stone. Sounds like you might’ve missed a lower loader grease fitting. My grapple with squeak like that if I open it before I grease it.
Good morning Neil. Haven't seen you for awhile. I believe that you will love the crushed gravel. I'm not sure what kind of stone that is because of the color but it's limestone in our area. In the last week we've put down 6 tri-axle loads of it on our road coming into our property. Plus another one in our driveway. It will pack down like concrete. The plain stone will wash away in a hard rain, this will not. But it needs to be packed in well. We usually just drive over it several times for a day or two then normal wear and tear. After a rain or two you'll see more gravel on top and less of the fine stuff. The only thing that I use the loose gravel for is a french drain or to set a tractor attachment on so water can run under it and not sit in dirt. If you go over it several times with the box blade it will level out and look great as well as be strong. I'm not trying to tell you what to do or how to do it, I'm just letting you know what works well for me. God bless and have a wonderful day. 👍👍🙂
love gearwrench hate the foam, all those sockets should be standing in 1 drawer organized btwn metric and sae stand the pliers up and tighten up the spaces a ton on the wrenches. The 27" has way too many skinny drawers so you have to lay the sockets down which takes up way too much space and look at the first drawer with the bit set and how spaced out the sockets are that are standing. Foam looks nice but it is the worst when boxes cost as much as they do.
Good morning Neil. I'm a day late watching this video. Yesterday was an early and long day. Myself, and a friend, his son, and a friend of his son's are working on putting gravel down on our quarter mile lane coming back into where we live. We still have 2 tri-axel loads coming on Monday morning. They hauled 4 in Yesterday. We're taking today off because of the rain. Anyway, so far it's looking pretty good. Also, DIY My Way did a video about a product called "Dexpan". It's used for breaking up big rocks. I personally haven't used it yet but it may be a big help with those 2 that you dug up. So, in the meantime God bless and have a wonderful day. 👍👍🙂
That's great you are getting your road fixed up. I hope it goes great. These rocks are not a problem I was just trying the ripper. I'm about ready to spread gravel on my road now. God bless you.
@@MightyLittleGreenMachine Well, we had the remnants of Hurricane Debby blow through here this morning. It washed out a lot of the gravel that we put in yesterday. I was feeling sorry for myself for about an hour then we took a ride around the local area. It was a mess. We lost a little gravel but a lot of people lost a lot more. There was a lot of flooding. We live halfway up a mountain so we were ok. I can dress up the road in a couple of hours but I really feel bad for the people whose property was under water. I'll be up and out early again tomorrow. God bless and have a wonderful day. And please say a prayer for the people affected by this storm. 🙏🙏👍
Good video, I think a versatile tool. I use my backhoe for holding logs up to cut for firewood also. With that instead of bucket would be pretty good. You have to work around bucket sometimes to cut to size
I do cut wood by myself with the backhoe it is easier jumping on and off for some reason. But normally a friend and I do it together. I pick up log and swing in front of him and he cuts it into pieces then grab another. Works good!
I usually start with the bucket and dig as close to the stump as I can, breaking all the little stuff and removing the dirt. When I come across a fat root that the bucket won’t break I move to a different spot and dig there. Then I’ll swap to the ripper and cut the fat roots. I usually go back to the bucket to pull the stump itself out of the hole. Bucket/thumb combo seems to give a better grip IMO. I don’t think there’s any ‘right’ way to do it, just whatever works best in the moment.
Good morning Neil. To me, I wouldn't be able in my head to justify the expense. Mainly because it would be silly to buy the ripper without the quick change bracket because it would take forever to change back and forth without it. Also, I really didn't see where it actually made taking out a stump any easier or much faster. Of course I wasn't there doing it and it's hard to tell watching a video. Anyway, God bless and have a wonderful day. 👍👍🙂
Good morning Neil. I hope that I never have to do that on my tractor. Not because it's complicated but because I'm old and have arthritis pretty bad. 😁 Anyway, good job and I'm sure that this video has helped a lot of people. God bless and have a wonderful day. 👍👍🙂
DO NOT BUY JD PARTS MADE IN CHINA!!!!! After a year parts are falling off due to not tightened right at the factory. JD uses Kubota tranny now. Height limiter on the 60" belly mower will wear out due to cheap extruded aluminum. My 2005 JD 2210 was built MUCH better and lasted 18 years. This one is a little over a year old and falling apart. JD does NOT care and will not warranty anything past 1 year.
I’d go under that pallet with the backhoe seat closest to the forks when moving it long distances. Should help stabilize the weight, especially when you tilt back a little.
Alternatively, you could bring your boom back so the seat tilts forward like it would on a bxpanded dolly. That would move the weight more to the center of the pallet.
When I installed my quick change and thumb from bxpanded I couldn’t get the factory spacers to fit. I just went to Lowe’s and bought some washers that were the same diameter, just thinner. It was a tight fit and struggle to install them, but I felt better having them installed. Also, the lynch pin on the removable pin will get damaged/lost using the ripper. Buy lots of spares or swap it out for a bolt/nut.
I use to wrench for many years and then me and my wife got 3 of our grandkids and raising them now so I stay home full time but I still do side work when she is off work I do small engine and automotive work on her days off
Nice. I built me one of those metal carts to roll around the concrete pad but I’m considering storing my backhoe in an area where it’s just dirt. You gave me some pretty good ideas on how to go about it. Keep up the good work.
Good afternoon Neil. I have a lot of suggestions about your backhoe storage. But I'll give you two quick ones. The pallet may not be quite long enough for the first one bit here goes. If you curl the bucket all the way in it can't leak off and collapse. The other is to raise the outriggers and strap them together so they also can't leak off while stored. But these are just suggestions and you need to make it stable for you, not me. I store mine in my garage and built my dolly on two Harbor Freight furniture dollies and two pieces of "×4". And a couple of short pieces of 4"×4". I have a 260 backhoe. It's made a little different than the 260b. God bless and have a wonderful day. 👍👍🙂
That may have worked for the leak down. Now that I added the other boards it can't. The out riggers are all the way up and locked with their locks, so they stay put. This has made my life much easier. I am so glad I made it. God Bless you and thanks for your input keep it coming I learn things.
Good morning Neil. Sorry, I'm a day late. Due to circumstances beyond my control I couldn't finish watching the video yesterday. And I'll catch up with the new one a little later. I always liked the idea behind this product and I thought that I might like to get one even though I really don't need it for what I do around here. But after watching the video I don't know if I have enough time left on this earth to install it. 😀 I do however have the Bexpanded mechanical thumb and I love it. Just my 2 cents (or no sense for the day). God bless and have a wonderful day. 👍👍🙂
I went with the 2" they have been perfect. The tractor is so stable. It made all the difference. It's the way the tractor should have been. Just double check I know on the 1025R you can only go to 1.5" with the MMM or it hits. I hope this helps
I figured out one of my pins is not taking grease last night. Its the main pin. I changed grease fittings and that did not fix it. I need to remove the pin and clean it out. I don't want to try the ripper until I fix that. I will make a video when I do. I have a good stump picked out.
I appreciate you did not edit out the mistake cause we all know that " no one ever makes mistakes when doing RU-vid videos"....it shows we are all human thank you
i have the thumb and trench bucket on mine now i bet if did this too and sent back to dealer for first service they really gonna try and take my warranty away 😂 ... if yours works good im still gonna get one i got too many attachments ...i find it's easier to change attachments while bucket sitting level on the ground
If my tractor has to go in for warranty, it’s gonna take me a full day to take all the stuff off of it that I need to. I just fixed a little things myself instead of tying up the tractor for a week with the dealer I can’t wait to be able to try this
Hi Neal, great addition. I bought their trenching bucket but held off on the ripper and quick connect. I will be interested to see the quick connect worked hard. I’m sure the ripper is fine. My concern is if the quick connect is durable or if the geometry weakens the bucket strength. I know it can cause rubbing on the bucket curl.
I promise I will work it hard. I have a pin on the backhoe not taking grease even after I change the Zirk fitting so I’ve got to take it apart and clean it so I’m not gonna be able to try it for a couple of days.
A little strength is lost with curl with the quick attach, but worth it for super quick bucket swaps. I did the ripper, narrow bucket and hitch receiver from BX. I’ve never used the receiver, but the narrow bucket is useful a few times. Ripper is great too. I also did bigger cylinders from Hydrosplus. Backhoe is a joy to use modded 😉
@@MightyLittleGreenMachine I did the biggest pump, loader cylinders, curl cylinders, flat face couplers for loader and backhoe cylinders. I’ve done a lot of work without any of this , except for the BX stuff. I got the tractor in 2020 and the BX stuff in 2020. Different time and prices for sure. Kevin from Hydro-plus is a joy to work with , as always gotten back to me with a phone call or email and warranties his stuff. Or trade-ins if anything he has the update too. That’s saying a lot about any company. I will say everything I’ve done with the Hydro stuff is game changing. I don’t have anything lined up too heavy for the foreseeable future with my Tractor and that’s the only thing that stinks. It’s paid off and everything else so it’s not going anywhere.
That is my Plan to install the Stage three, Front and Rear Cylinders, Flat Face Couplers and the turbo. Kevin @hydrosplus is awesome and super responsive. I called him when I installed the stage II on the 1025R. He picked up the phone and gave me as much time as I needed. Top notch company and Owner. I will promote him as much as I can.
Good morning Neil. Sorry about being late. The "Hundred Mile Yard Sale" was going on here this weekend. It happens once a year and it's fun to get out and walk and drive around to see if there's any bargains. My wife bought a few little things and I bought a $2 pair of needle nosed pliers and burned $50 worth of gas doing it. 😁 But, it's good exercise. Anyway, great video and be careful on those hills. God bless and have a wonderful day. 👍👍🙂
I may try and turn it into a full-time gig. The trick would be to find someone I trust to do jobs while I'm at work and build the business over time. Right now, it supports my tractor habit it pays for the tractor and all other thigs around it. It allows me to have more toys and my wife doesn't get mad.🤣 I only have a $5 dollar craigslist ad and word of mouth and it keeps more jobs than I can do coming in. It could be much bigger. I really enjoy doing the tractor work. We will see where it takes me. Thank you for watching.
Good morning Neil. Having put up several above ground pools in the past I can tell you that you'll definitely be putting this one up again in the near future. I personally wouldn't let any grownups use it let alone my grandchildren. The poolneeds to be perfectly level before any water is put in it. It can't be put up on fill because the fill will settle and the pool will fail. The correct way is to pick the absolute lowest point on the outside perimeter as a starting point. Put a block there and level from there to the center of the pool. Then from that point measure over to where the next outside block goes and level it both ways from the firt block and the center of the pool and work your way around from there. The outside blocks should be even with the top of the ground. After you have the outside perimeter level then you can clear out and level the dirt in the middle. Then put your posts up and you can take sand inside with just a lit dip in the middle put your liner in and go from there. I hope that I'm not upsetting you but it really looks unsafe to me. You can check with people that do that for a living and not take my word dor it. But an above ground pool should never be put on any kind of fill. God bless and I hope I'm not overstepping my bounds. And have a wonderful day. There are several spelling errors in my comment but it's so long I'm not going to go back and fix them all but I figure you'll get my gist. 👍👍🙂
I've seen pools get holes from sharp blocks like those. Keep an eye on the edges. The sidewall moves a lot when people are swimming. On my second year of the similar pool. 👍
