The other day , I was gayly labour pickle to engraft orchard apple tree andcherry treesin my plantation . My program was perfect , or so I thought : I would shovel the turf and dirt into asmall single - axle trailertowed by alawn tractor , rather than spread it untidily through the grass . This strategy would also eliminate the risk of kill pasture if I got hold up in actually planting the trees .
But those best - laid plans got more complicated as I went along . I had originally intended to dig one hole , imbed one tree , delve another hole , embed another tree , and so on . But I was into such a nice speech rhythm digging the holes , and the weather condition was so unadulterated for digging ( nice and cool , not blistering and muggy ) , that I lift up fag three holes without blockade to plant .
Watch Your Weight
Hmm . By that time , there was a lot of grunge and greensward in my trailer — more than I had expected . And for the sake of contraption I had piled more dirtbehindthe axle thanin frontof the axle , which would make it easy to shovel dirt back out of the preview … but hard for my lawn tractor to tow .
You see , when load a single - axle house trailer , the recommendation is toload 60 percent of the weight in front of the axle . This guarantee that there ’s weight pressing down on the hinderance , which in spell helps the tow vehicle derive traction with its rearward wheels . If you put more weight behind the axle than in front , the trailer exerts an upward pull on the hitch . This can contract traction for the towing fomite and even lead to dangerous “ fishtailing . ”
So when I give notice up my lawn tractor to drive back to my front yard and foot up a duo of Tree , I could tell my tractor was struggling just a little . The tractor was strong enough to tow the shipment , but it ’s a lightweight motorcar , and it was n’t suffer as much traction as idealistic .
At that point , I should have fire up my heftier garden tractor and switched towing vehicles , but I did n’t . I load a couple of trees into the wagon ( alongside the grime ) and set off back to my grove .
No Traction Action
All was ok until I stress to tug up a very soft slope to one of the planting holes . patently there was just enough of a jut in the incline to catch the mowing pack of cards , and the lawn tractor — already fighting for adhesive friction — gave up and bulge out spinning its wheels . It would go forward , and it would n’t go rearwards . It did n’t help that my farm had received 1 1/2 inches of rain the dark before , rendering the grass and topsoil too slippy for the tyre to unwaveringly fascinate .
Even once I shifted some weight from the back of the lagger to the front , I could n’t get enough traction .
So there I was , stick to on fundamentally nothing in the eye of my orchard . I had to shift the grease again ( to the rear of the poke ) so I could lift the front of the trailer off the hitch and disembarrass the lawn tractor . Without a big loading to towage , it had no trouble getting undone .
Then I convey out the garden tractor and hitched it up , expecting it to pull the trailer without egress . It turn out , though , that lawn tractor spinning its wheels had muddy the green goddess enough that I had toengage the differential lockon my garden tractor and back it down the balmy gradient before it could get enough traction to regroup and continue forward .
There are several ways I could have avoided these difficulty , which wasted quite a second of time and energy . First and foremost , I should have made sure to distribute the lode in my dawdler properly , with 60 percent of the system of weights in front of the tires . Maybe the load was just too heavy for the small lawn tractor to pull , but I did n’t give it the good chance with my casual glide slope to free weight distribution .
That ’s an important thing to keep in mind when hauling heavy materials ( dirt , compost , hay , etc . ) in two - wheeled trailer around your farm .
