#274 Mechanical Thumb on Subcompact Tractor, Useful or Pointless?

[Music] we are 800 dead on wet leaves answer very well it's rained all week besides questions on the BR 800 backpack blower another question that keeps getting asked is how did the grass turn out on the trail that I built the short answer is not very good it came in great for about a month it got you know maybe 2 inches high nice and green is looking pretty thick and the first problem was the deer just decimated it they walked through here like they're at the Old Country Buffet and I read on the Internet's that deer don't eat fescue well that's not true because because we watch them do it so they're after the deer you know ate everything that they could there was a little bit left and then we've got inches and inches of rain I don't know if it was too much rain not enough sunlight could be any of those things so for this winter I'm just gonna leave it like it is let the leaves pile up on it looks like it's been here for a long time now anyway and maybe we'll try something else in the spring but that is the update on the trail can't say we didn't try but anyway enough about that way to get to today's video so welcome back everyone Mike here this evening we're gonna take a look at the mechanical thumb on this little backhoe here behind me this is the arc a 24 with a six and a half foot backhoe now I have used the hydraulic thumb you know quite a bit actually on many excavators and even on bigger excavators to me a hydraulic thumb on a mini excavator is a must-have I mean if someone is going to buy a machine like that and not get a thumb on it a hydraulic thumb makes no sense to me at all kind of like buying a cordless drill and not having any driver bits you're just using it for just a little bit of what it's actually capable of as far as these little mechanical thumbs go I'm not too sure haven't used one yet so we're gonna go down to the wood pile kind of play around a little bit and maybe split a little firewood move some logs around just to try it out and see how it goes I've got a few boulders down there too we'll try it out so here's a closer look at this thumb like I said this is a mechanical thumb the difference obviously between mechanical thumb and a hydraulic one is there's no hydraulics on this one although there are several different adjustments you can move this pin up here you can do all sorts of things with it I have it set right here I think it's in the right location to go pick up some logs and some rocks and things like that so we'll try it out now having a thumb on any kind of backhoe is definitely gonna open up different possibilities and options for you think of your hand for a minute you didn't have a thumb do a whole lot with your hand when you got a thumb pretty helpful should be helpful in tobacco I did a video a while back on this steel two-in-one sharpener I'll put it up above this is by far the easiest method I have ever used to sharpen a chain works very well so check that video out I'm not gonna go over it all tonight I don't have time [Applause] [Applause] remember the old saws would always want take a bar oil one tank of gas nowadays it's more like half the tank a bar oil for take a guess throw it up too much hate that I'm not sure if you've met our daughter Hannah Hannah how are you 22 22 and this is Hannah Subaru Crosstrek and I have asked her to do a two-year review on it so you'll be seeing that in a video coming up soon give them a brief rundown on how you like it so far so far I love it so she's gonna run out right now but probably in a week or so we'll have a two-year review on the Subaru Crosstrek so if you watched yesterday's video this log right here is the one that I was picking up with the grapple on the arcade 24 anyway it measures 8 feet 6 inches long 16 inches in diameter it's red oak and according to a log weight calculator that I think is fairly accurate should weigh 714 pounds give or take so cutting this thing up for firewood in the 16 inch pieces we will get one two three four five six pieces out of this now so each one's going to weigh over 100 pounds maybe 115 hundred and nineteen pounds per piece now if you're like me I cannot stand you know running a log splitter sitting on a bucket I like standing up and leaving it horizontal a lot of people like you know it the other way not me my back can't handle it I can stand up all day pick up heavy things put on the log splitter no problem at all so I like splitting in the horizontal mode but anyway so like I said each piece of this is gonna weigh 119 pounds now there's one thing every one of us have in common and that is we're not getting any younger so I'm gonna go get to the arcade 24 bring it down we'll cut this up and maybe toss some of these logs are on with that mechanical thumb on the back and see how it goes [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so even though I didn't have a whole lot of time this evening the little time that I did spend using that thumb I'm pretty impressed it's pretty slick little unit now does it compare you know to a mini excavator with a hydraulic thumb absolutely not however you know at ten twelve thousand pound mini ho you're probably looking at eighty thousand eighty five thousand dollars I'm not even sure what they cost right now and not too many people are gonna have a mini house sitting around with the thumb you know for maintaining your property and cutting firewood but tons of people have sub compact tractors like this are k24 so if you don't have a mechanical thumb it may be something may you know want to look into I'll be using it a lot more but so far for cutting firewood things like that it's pretty handy now I have a question I know here in the comments you know that log splitter stands up vertical yes I know that I I can't stand sitting on a bucket splitting firewood I can stand all day long you know splitting the wood standing up sitting down hurts my back some people like it the other way so in the comments below let me know how you split firewood you know with your log splitter vertical or horizontal I'm guessing it's gonna be about a 50/50 mix in the comments but we'll see but anyway like always say if you enjoy these videos please hit the like button click subscribe and share them with your friends thanks [Music]

Channel: Outdoors With The Morgans

Views: 92,262

Rating: 4.8180227 out of 5

Keywords: Polaris, Kubota, Mahindra, John, Deere, TYM, RK37, RK24, RK55, Outdoors, Rural, Country, Land, Homestead, Farm, Property, DIY, Projects, 3point, attachments, loader, deer, food, plot, Hydraulic Thumb, Mechanical Thumb, Subcompact Tractor, L series Kubota, Log Splitter, Woodstack 2018, Firewood, Wicked Grapple, Modern Homestead, rural king

Id: 7sWFKmCL9ls

Length: 14min 34sec (874 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 03 2018