oh hey friends i'm micah and
this is the homestead bandwagon is there a title screen here? so a tractor in its essence is a utility tool and
you attach other utility tools to it. Now, when you buy a tractor- let's say it's your first one or maybe
it's your fifth one, maybe it's your 100th tractor , oftentimes you have jobs in mind for that tractor.
But let's just say you just want to get a tractor and figure out the jobs you're going to do
later and you want to figure out the three most useful things you can buy right off the bat
that'll give you the most bang for your buck. You know, maybe you're on a budget. We want to start
with a couple tools and add later. That's great So maybe you don't want to Macgyver
everything. Maybe you don't don't have a nice mullet like me, but you want to Macgyver
some stuff. These are tools that will help you in that endeavor to get more utility out of your
utility machine. So that's we're going to do here. If you just bought a tractor and you could only
get three tools, what are the three tools you should buy first? We'll go with something that goes
on the front, something that goes on the rear, and then a big super surprise tool or attachment- i'm
not gonna not going to show my hand yet- that i think everybody needs for their tractor. so let's
get with it starting with the front. Okay, so here we are on the front of the tractor. We've got our
loader. Everybody gets a bucket with their loader. We're not going to take the easy way out and say,
"Oh you should get a bucket with your loader!" Yeah, there's there's your click bait for the day. No. These are pallet forks on the front of the tractor. i think they are, bar none, the most
useful tool. If you could only buy one tool for the front of your tractor, this would be it.
I use my forks more than the bucket on the tractor because they're so useful. Sometimes i get new new tractor owners or buyers who are asking me," well why are they so useful?"
It's because once you put them on your tractor you'll start noticing that you put them on
more and more and more for more tasks. They're not just for lifting pallets, but it is
handy that you can palletize a lot of stuff. I went down to the hardware store
and I bought 31 bags of concrete. Instead of hand loading and unloading, i asked them. "can we
just palletize those put them in the back of the truck?" I got home slipped the forks under, lifted
those bags of concrete on the pallet drove them to where i was going to use them and i was done.
No backache. I can can keep being fat and happy . so that's the one thing you could do with pallet
forks but there's more things you can do with them um now these are a skid steer style pallet fork
so there is an opening here some have an enclosed back i like having an opening because i can see
what i'm doing but i feel like it gives me more attachment point options i can chain things
to here i can attach straps there's cleats on the side i've seen people use these as working
platforms don't recommend that that's dangerous but hey that's what happens when you get these
pallet forks you can start getting dumb ideas i've used my forks there's another
video you can see on the channel that i was using these as a post pounder you know
we're turning this into a multi-tool that does lots of things um when i'm moving the implements
around out in the yard guess what i use the forks lift my implements and move them so i
can mow where the implements are sitting um you know piles of of of junk we found out
in the blackberries i use use the use the the forks to extricate them you know um we use them
for for for moving brush piles when i don't feel like putting the grapple on it's a poor man's
grapple you can use them to pick up and move logs and when we do firewood we put the firewood and
ibc totes guess what dragging them around with the forks so once you get yourself your set
of forks you're going to notice man i've got so many options here now things you want to look
for on your forks make sure they're heavy-duty if you have a loader that lifts two thousand pounds
get forks rated for more than two thousand pounds okay we don't want to just go to the limit
you want to go a little a little bit beyond because you're gonna do something dumb you're just
gonna you want to make sure these are adjustable these can move side to side they're
not hydraulic it's just manual you you lift a pin and lift these and move them that's
handy you know make sure maybe you have a couple attachment points make sure the welds are strong
make sure the metal looks thick you know if you grab these things and move them does the metal
feel like it's bending i hope not um and if you get a chance get these skid steer style pallet
forks that go on the quick attach on the front of your tractor i wouldn't really recommend the
pin on or or bolt-on or whatever you call them pallet forks that just pin onto the bucket unless
you have a sub-compact tractor and in that case you don't have that much power you're probably
not going to bend your bucket with the pin on ones getting getting that rocking action on them but
yeah get stronger ones than you think you need so you never have to worry about putting them
in the ground and accidentally bending them because your tractor weighs so much and it can
push with so much force uh be careful of course you know understand the limits of your tractor
my tractor is rated at 2 600 pounds at the pin for lifting so when i was lifting the concrete
i had 1 950 pounds of concrete including the the big pallet this guy could lift them about
an inch off the back of the truck and that was it and then i could drive to where i was going and
drop them so the farther you get from your pins the less weight you can lift so yeah
when you get a big pallet out here you're gonna lose a substantial amount of lift
because you're putting that weight so far out the front so just be aware that if you're thinking of
using your tractor like a forklift maybe consider consider um going for a larger tractor because
you're going to find heavy things to move and be frustrated if you're not able to move them so
yeah that's what you can do you can use them to replace your uh your grapple if you can't afford a
grapple get a get a set of forks you can use them to move stuff around the property you can use them
to do t post pounding you can use them as a work work platform we made our chicken coop there's a
video on that made our chicken coop so we can pick them up with the forks and move the chicken coop
from place to place i just keep finding more and more useful things to do with this thing even
just you know when we're out nailing boards up or something you can lay the boards across here
and they're easy to access easier i think than putting them in the bucket which has sides on
it so it limits this the size of your boards so just as an overall utility um the forks are
probably my favorite tool my customers who buy them tell me again and again and again boy that's
my favorite tool i've ever bought so there you go forks on a tractor that's my first attachment i
think everybody should buy for their tractor let's go to the rear we'll look at the next one on the
back of your tractor there are so many different implements you can put on there but i think if
you could only buy one you should buy a box plate um you know i love a brush cutter i love a tiller
i don't really like landscape rakes but some people like them i like snow throwers you know i
love just about every implement you can put on the back of a tractor but the box blade is the one i
have on the tractor the most bar none all the time and there's a lot of reasons for that um we'll
start with these scarifiers these teeth right so these things have so many uses you can dig
furrows in the ground i've used them when i didn't feel like putting the tiller on to to break earth
right so we could till up the ground with them um i've used them to pull stuff out of the ground
there's a video that early on on the channel where we're pulling cement uh cement footings out of the
ground just using these scarifier teeth that's why they're all bent yeah they're a tool though we'll
use them like a tool so i just find that even just these scarifier teeth are extremely useful
extremely adaptable the box blade itself you can use it to cut the earth and drag the earth to
another place with you you can use it to you know spread material you know that's what people use
box blades for the back if you're gentle and going in reverse you can use as like a bulldozer i've
seen people push snow with their box blades um and then another great thing about these things is the
ballast they provide there's a lot of weight here but it doesn't stick out very far so i am
always having this on the back of the tractor because if we're using the loader i don't want
to be in danger of tipping so the more weight i have on the back the better so we keep the box
plate on the back it acts like a ballast box i don't really see a reason to buy a
ballast box if you have a box blade you know if you've got a gravel
driveway great if you don't i'm sure you're gonna go around your property
with your tractor anyway and go huh you know that that lump over there bothers me i wish it was
gone guess what box blade knocked that lump out or man i keep stepping through this deep hole i wish
i wasn't doing that you get yourself a this thing on the back you go find a high spot move it to the
low spot and you have a nice smooth transition up a hill without big potholes through it so this
really helps you shape the land the way you want it um and it can again help a lot with other
other tasks i've seen people on the back here put tow hitches so they can pull their boat around
um just a great adaptable adaptable tool um that the more you use it the more uses you will find
for it if you have welding skills boy you can weld tool holders on these all sorts of stuff
so it's just your all-around companion on the back of the tractor most of the time and you know
this box blade has saved my butt before when i was lifting concrete with with the forks you know i
was a little overweight i'm overweight but the tractor was a little over its weight capacity
you know it could barely lift those those sacks and when i went to go lay them down at their
destination the hydraulics released faster than i thought and the whole tractor tipped forward this
box blade gave me enough weight to bring me back down to earth so you know i wasn't embarrassed
with the tractor tipped over on his front and i also didn't get hurt so something to think about
um you know you're gonna use this thing on your property anyway if you've got property um you know
neighbors love it if you can come over and help them with their driveway or something you know
maybe your neighbor will make you dinner for going out there and working for two hours nothing wrong
with being friendly to the neighbors um just seems like a great overall tool if you were just gonna
have one tool on the back of the tractor i feel like this is the one that can do the most i mean
you can even go out and do brush clearing with it it takes time but using these teeth and the blade
you can go out there and and and bust blackberries salmonberries kudzu whatever you can go out there
and bust it with this it's not going to be fast but if you can only get one implement
here you go this is the one that can take the place of a lot of other tools all
right so now we're going to look at my big surprise for the third attachment i think every
tractor owner should get are you ready here we go okay so what's my big surprise for the third
attachment i think every tractor owner should buy well that's this canopy um i think a tractor
owner should have protection for the elements beyond a cap especially if you're bald like
me goodness gracious um and this provides it we want a canopy that's long enough and wide
enough to cover the tractor and operator station ideally everybody would buy a cab tractor but
they're expensive so if you can get a cab tractor it's in your budget buy it don't hesitate you
will never regret having heat and air conditioning so you can work year round and get the
jobs done when you have the time to do them but if that's not in the cards the canopy's
the way to go i recommend something waterproof okay because you want to work in the rain
something hard i've had one of these save my saved my save my save my noggin i had a branch come
down hit hit the top of this thing saved me from getting hit by a branch branch exploded everywhere
probably would have knocked me out or killed me my canopy saved me you also want something
that the sun can't get through and cook you i don't know what's worse being cold or hot but
i can say heat stroke is not something i want to die of when i'm on the back of my tractor out in
the back 40 mo in the field if you got this little canopy it makes a huge amount of difference
for a small amount of money this one cost me something like 550 bucks plus there's utility
value there's bars here holding it up um i run my lines for for some lights on these things um
i've got little magnetic mirrors hanging up here so i can pay attention to my surroundings a
little better i've you know attached ropes around here you can attach tools to these guys it just
gives you a little bit extra room to work with and put on extra convenience options as you
go they make your life a lot easier and being protected from the elements when you're out
working eight ten twelve hours even two hours is really important there's nothing
tough about sitting under the the sun for days and days and days getting skin cancer
nothing tough about that you're not john wayne and there's no reason to be miserable in
the pacific northwest getting rained on you know while you're trying to clear out a ditch
with your box blade that's backed up and flooding out your front yard i've been there so there you
have it i think that of of of the three things every every tractor owner should buy a canopy is
top of the list um if you disagree let me know i i'm right but you can still let me know if
you disagree top three tools everybody needs a good set of pallet forks a box blade one of
the most useful tools you put on the rear end of a tractor of all times and in a canopy or or
a cab if you can afford it some sort of weather shelter so feel free to tell me how wrong i am in
the comments or how right i am if somebody really impressed me with how right i am maybe i'll send
you a hat or something in the mail i like hats impress me with how much you're impressed by me you know maybe i'll send you something cool okay
well i gotta go do a dump around i gotta i gotta i gotta go do some grating i have to move uh
some chicken fence i got a lot of stuff to do so why don't you guys get out of here go do
your own work um and uh we'll do another video soon i hope you enjoyed this one um um thanks
thanks for thanks for watching we'll see ya
