New to the group and Tire review

Hi guys, i found this site a couple days ago, and i am glad I did. My local dealership is closed today, but i am going to call them tomorrow and get a new fuel cap on the way. </P>


We've had our RTV for about a month and have put almost 70 hours on it so far. My dad and I own, operate and manage a 7,000 acre ranch in south central kansas and we have some very rough terrain. We had been using a 3/4 ton pickup to do most of our work out of, but with the rising cost of fuel, we had to do something. So we got a Worksite Utility (the one with hydraulics.)</P>


It's just abouta perfect ranch vechile. Even after a month, we are still finding new things that it can do. Two guys can go over fence about three or four times faster on it than you can in a pickup. </P>


After having it about a week or so, I spent sometime in the shop and built a neat little slide in for the bed made from 1 inch square tubing. It fits almost perfectly, the floor is rubber over wood, so the dog has a place to ride. Got to keep the dog happy, he is the one that is really in charge out here. I built in a metal box off an old flatbed truck, and it holds all of my fence mending supplies and tools, there is also space for a spare change of clothes and a towel. The slide in has rings welded on to it, and i keep a few bungee cords on hand to tie down the odd fence energizer and what ever else we might need to haul. I also built in a place to hold my fence posts. It's a pretty handy deal, but i need to make a few changes to it. </P>


Sorry for the lack of pics, i will get some of the slide-in soon. </P>


Now, for the tire review. </P>


After a month of running around, our biggest complaint was the tires. The stock tires clogged up too easy in sand and the red dirt we have around here. So today we got a set of ITP Mud Lite XL's put on. They warehouse sent the wrong tires, so instead of 25's i have 27's. bad side of that is even less power in high range. the good side however, far outweighs. there is about a ten thousand percent improvement in traction. places i had trouble with yesterday i laughed at today. The ride is much improved as well. I'd definatly reccomend the Mud Lite's, but get them in the stock size. As an extra test, it rained last night and all day today, and as much as i hate to be wet, i went out and played anyway, i love the new tires. I went places today thati wouldn't have thought about going yesterday with the stock tires, even if it was dry. </P>


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Welcome Banzai, hope you're enjoying the forum I know I am. Please do send some pics when you have them. You will find a lot of interesting things to do on this site.

Welcome to the forum guys.

I too would like to see pics of your cargo bed setup. I also took the OEM box out and made my own. One of my primary uses is hauling firewood and when I got the RTV, I wasn't sure how the OEM metal box would hold up to 100# chunks of wood being tossed in.

Yea... the HDWS tires are nice, but not in certain conditions. Have you encountered any rubbing with those 27" tires? There's a lift kit available if you encounter any rubbing issues.

Any plans for accessories? You mentioned getting wet. How about a roof and windshield?

Brian

Yeah, the OEM ATV tires on any RTV model are the way to go, especially if you plan to go offroad and need good traction.

[quote user="bczoom"]Welcome to the forum guys.

I too would like to see pics of your cargo bed setup. I also took the OEM box out and made my own. One of my primary uses is hauling firewood and when I got the RTV, I wasn't sure how the OEM metal box would hold up to 100# chunks of wood being tossed in.

Yea... the HDWS tires are nice, but not in certain conditions. Have you encountered any rubbing with those 27" tires? There's a lift kit available if you encounter any rubbing issues.

Any plans for accessories? You mentioned getting wet. How about a roof and windshield?

Brian[/quote]</P>


i'll get pics of the tires and bed insert when time allows. my reason for making it an insert and not a replacement is that i want to be able to change what i can carry pretty quickly. </P>


my next project is to build a 100 gallon or so sprayer for controlled burns and weed control. if i can find the motor and pump, i will do it all hydraulically, if not, then electrically. any ideas on where to look for small hydraulic motors? </P>


one of our neighbors also has one, his wife uses it to clean out horse stalls and the like, and he's asked me to build him pieces that raise the sides of the bed about six inches. </P>


i have not had any rubbing yet with the 27's, and i've taken it thru some extreme angles. but time will tell. I have already started drawing up plans for a homebrew lift kit. why buy when you can build?</P>


on the list of upgrades are armor for the air filter. where it gets mounted when the hydraulics are added is nice, but the B.S. rubber tubing that connects the nicely made metal tube is no where near tought enough for my taste, so i am going to build some armor for it. allof it. i am also thinking about sealing up the underside to keep water out. </P>


as far as getting wet, a roof and wind shield (acrylic) would do nicely. i'll probably just buy the O.E. kubota parts. i don't think that i am going to do the doors and back glass, that is too much money for my blood, and warm clothes are cheap. just something to keep the wind and sun off of me. </P>


i disagree with what you said about the HDWS tires. I think that they are crap. two days of the new mud lites and i can't think of any reason that i would want to put the HDWS tires back on. </P>


Brian #2 </P>

Brian #2,

For the sprayer, I'm curious as to why you would go with hyd? 12v electric sprayer pumps are cheap and work well. Let's see if Bordercollie can elaborate as he sprays probably thousands of gallons/year.

If you lived in a similar area to what I have (lots of steep hills), I wouldn't build/add a lift kit until/unless you need it. It does raise the center-of-gravity and when under load on steep hills, it does "feel" a little more tippy. On flat ground, even fully loaded I never got rubbing without the lift kit.

For the air filter, there's a kit to move it higher if that's a viable alternative to building armor around it.

I too just did the roof and windshield and concur about using clothing instead when cold. I made my own windshield but with lexan prices getting very high lately, I doubt I would make another since it's now getting close in price to the OEM windshield.

My thoughts on the tires is that they're nice for dry and hard-pack surfaces. In mud, they don't cut it.

Brian

B #1,</P>


as far as to the armor, moving the air filter higher, i had not thought of that, but....the problem is the rubber hose that Kubota used to connect the metal pipe to the filter box. that is what i want to build the armor around. remember, mine has the add-on hyd valve, so the air filter is mounted on the back of the ROPS cage, on the passenger side. </P>


going Hyd on the sprayer is just an idea. I don't think that an electric pump would deliver the GPM or PSI that i need. i only need about 3-5 gpm, but want a lot of pressure. i am sure that surflo makes a pump that would work, but will it work with out wateror a mix of exotic herbicides/diesel fuel/dye?</P>


B#2</P>

[quote user="Banzai"]


B #1,</P>


as far as to the armor, moving the air filter higher, i had not thought of that, but....the problem is the rubber hose that Kubota used to connect the metal pipe to the filter box. that is what i want to build the armor around. remember, mine has the add-on hyd valve, so the air filter is mounted on the back of the ROPS cage, on the passenger side. </P>


going Hyd on the sprayer is just an idea. I don't think that an electric pump would deliver the GPM or PSI that i need. i only need about 3-5 gpm, but want a lot of pressure. i am sure that surflo makes a pump that would work, but will it work with out wateror a mix of exotic herbicides/diesel fuel/dye?</P>


B#2</P>


[/quote]</P>


Ah, so you have a Turf Utility model. I have never heard of anything that would justify the need for armor around the high mount air cleaner, but if that's what you feel you need. Also, people have utilized the remote hydraulics for sprayers so that would be the way to go. BTW, the remote valve's flow isaround 5.3 gpm.</P>

Hi Friends, Yeah, theRTV is super for farm use. You will really appreciate it when you need to tag calves. We finally bought an electronic scale that fits in the front receiver.We use the scale head from the big scale. It plugs rightin to the power point.Very handy. I like the fimco 60g spray rig , It has a boomless 40' reach 'boom' ,it also has a handheld sprayer , I believe it is 40psi but adjustable . I like it because I can drop and go. I did spray electric fence today with my 25 g tank that I carry in back. I was afraid that there might still be a tiny amount of Grazon let in the big one and suredidn't want to buy any cotton!! I rinsed it out but it still had that smell.The sturdy plastic roof saved me today as the heat index was 107. I was told that if you don't have a back shield on the expanded metal, along with the front window that the cold air will whip around and get you????Members ,is this true? Oh, I also have a gun rack on back to hold my calf catcher. I had to flaten the brackets slightly but they work great. I keep my fence tester on the top edge of the expanded metal cage in an old cell phone case, The roof keeps it dry. Good luck!! Bordercollie

Sorry about the anonymous listing . I'm on my niece's computer[:$]Bordercollie