What qualifies a tractor or machine as "flimsy"?

[sirbuildalot]

I've heard the term thrown around before. A "compact isn't as tough as a utility farm tractor". Typically, brands have several lines designed for different jobs. You'll have small lawn tractors, zero turns mowers, then true garden tractors (which used to mean capable of ground engaging implements and bolt on rear tires). These are getting to be non-existent. Next will be sub compacts like the BX, then compacts, which can range from Kubota B size to as large as a farm tractor size. Then farm tractors and finally, construction equipment. The GT's started going away when the small import diesels washed ashore. Now we have the Kubota BX and other similar size machines that kind of are a super garden tractor on steroids. (Super garden tractor was a real term BTW)

I'll put my old Case/Ingersoll 448's against any bigger machine and pound for pound I don't think anyone would call them flimsy or weak. Another example is my Case 648 hyloader which is rated to lift approx. half of its operating weight to full height. Not to shabby imo. Compared to a compact, a GT is "flimsy", compared to a farm utility tractor some compacts are "weak", compared to real construction grade equipment, farm utility tractors are "flimsy". The term compact could mean a 1500 lb Kubota B with baby tires, or a 7000 lb, 50 hp machine with a 6' front bucket BTW. Kind of a wide spectrum. Every machine can be made to look "flimsy"

Where do we draw the line, and how do you differentiate what is "flimsy" or not?

 

[Motorsen]

You have a flimsy machine when it's not strong enough or styrdy enough for the job you are putting it up to. And then some elcheapo crap machines are just flimsy what ever job you put them up to. But it seems to be the deffnition to me anyway.

Motorsen

 

[nighthunter]

A tractor you'd rather set on fire before you use it and brake it and hit it with a hammer when you fix it

 

[greenskeeper]

You have a flimsy machine when it's not strong enough or styrdy enough for the job you are putting it up to. And then some elcheapo crap machines are just flimsy what ever job you put them up to. But it seems to be the deffnition to me anyway.

Motorsen

probably applies to any piece of machinery where you are trying to do more than 70% of it's rated capacity. The equipment that lasts is "oversized" for the job and just laughs and chugs along when put under a load.

 

[philoshop]

A sarcastic and snarky friend of mine, who is truly a great friend and will always be a great friend, asked me why I thought my Kubota B2500 was a good machine.
I asked him what his lawnmower weighed and he said about 400 pounds. I told him the belly mower on my Kubota weighs almost as much as his entire lawnmower and then had him come over to help me remove it for the winter. He was surprised.
It's not a big tractor, but it's built to work.

 

[cantoo]

I very seldom but flimsy stuff. This is my small setup for branches and smaller trees.

 

[kodiak]

My BX is small compared to a farm tractor yet big compared to a GT. However, it is a very well built machine and definitely not flimsy.

 

[KiwiBro]

My supersplit firewood splitter looks flimsy. It's still going strong and will probably outlast me.
Solid where it has to be, not where it doesn't matter.

Flimsy probably means different things depending on whether 'staff' rather than 'owner' are operating the machinery. Good staff excepted.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

You have a flimsy machine when it's not strong enough or sturdy enough for the job you are putting it up to. And then some elcheapo crap machines are just flimsy what ever job you put them up to. But it seems to be the definition to me anyway.

Motorsen

Exactly.

I've been on jobs that a D8 dozer wasn't enough and others that a shovel was nearly overkill.

Right tool for the job. You wouldn't use a 994K to load a pickup truck and wouldn't use an IT28 to load a mine truck.

 

[JeffHK454]

A sarcastic and snarky friend of mine, who is truly a great friend and will always be a great friend, asked me why I thought my Kubota B2500 was a good machine.
I asked him what his lawnmower weighed and he said about 400 pounds. I told him the belly mower on my Kubota weighs almost as much as his entire lawnmower and then had him come over to help me remove it for the winter. He was surprised.
It's not a big tractor, but it's built to work.

View attachment 612048

I've got the same tractor and its been a great tool in my firewood'n and snow plow'n for the last thirteen years, It's also moved a hundred+ tons of stone/dirt and scrapped a bunch of cars. I'm betting my little tractor has spent half its life overloaded or asked to do jobs it wasn't designed to do and it just seems to come back for more!

Best part is its same color as all my saws!

 

[sirbuildalot]

I agree,

Before getting the Kioti, I did the vast majority of my yearly maintenance with garden tractors. Plowing and blowing snow, pulling laden carts, trailers and wagons of fresh cut oak, maple and hickory. Raking the gravel driveway, mowing, hauling rocks around, etc. They may not be big, but flimsy they are not.

For reference the driveway marker shown sticks out of the ground about 40"

 

[lknchoppers]

I prefer a skid steer over a tractor for my uses. I got lucky and found this Case Diesel Skid Steer for sale at a golf course a couple years back for $4500, it needed a few minor repairs. I couldn't imagine not having it for processing and loading firewood. It is not flimsy at all, the bucket capacity is 1200 lbs.

 

[Little Al]

I very seldom but flimsy stuff. This is my small setup for branches and smaller trees.
View attachment 612060 View attachment 612061 View attachment 612061 View attachment 612062

Tractor looks OK the trailer with the log load looks flimsy

 

[cantoo]

Little Al, I built them myself and I don't do flimsy even with the little toys.

 

[cantoo]

Some bigger stuff.