Tractor Mike's video: Ten Tools to Enhance Your Tractor Owning Experience

Last week I discussed 10 tools that are essential for owning a tractor: https://youtu.be/q9tCxIWsgX8. Today I'll discuss ten optional tools that will enhance your equipment owning experience. You could live without them, but they'll make your tractor life easier. The first is a good mechanics creeper. The older I get the less that concrete and my bones get along and so if I'm doing service work I like to be able to get underneath the tractor with a minimal amount of effort. I spent the money for one that can be a creeper, a chair, or a stool (like this one on my website: https://asktractormike.com/product/42-in-triplex-3-in-1-floor-creeper-seat/) and wouldn't be without it. I keep it in the stool position more than the creeper position, which surprises me. The second tool I recommend is Radiator Genie: https://asktractormike.com/product/radiator-genie/. Radiator Genie comes with both an air and water wand and is designed for getting debris out of a tractor radiator. That can be a big problem. When you're bush hogging, the suction of the tractor's fan can pull weed seeds and dirt into your radiator and if you don't keep it clean your engine will overheat. Radiator Genie is designed to get in tight places and push compressed air or a jet of water back through the fins to clean it out. Best tool I've found for that task. My third recommended tool is a Multi-Meter, essential for diagnosing electrical issues. I'd never owned one until a year or two ago when I was trying to determine why the two-speed on my hydro wasn't working and I'm surprised by how much I use it. If you're troubleshooting an electrical problem, you can't be without one of these. The Fluke 110 Plus that I own is available here on my Amazon Influencer site: https://amzn.to/3ADRb5Z. Fourth tool is a heat gun or heat thermometer: https://amzn.to/3KNfjYs. If you hear noises coming from your equipment, a heat gun can help you pinpoint the issue. I had a bearing making noise on my zero-turn this year and was able to find the source of the sound, one bearing was 20 degrees hotter than all the others, and you don't want something like that to ignite grass clippings, so finding the source of noises can save a lot of money in repair later. Fifth tool is a level, and anyone who does a bit of carpentry work will have one of those. I keep one in my toolbox on the tractor so I can make sure the brush hog is level before I go to the pasture. I can tell you from experience, you don't want to cut several rounds with the cutter higher on one side than the other because it looks like a bad haircut, so having a level handy will help you get started right. Make sure you not only level side-to-side, but also front to back and you want a slight rake forward, so the cut material can get out the back. Number six on my list is a set of cylinder stops available here: https://asktractormike.com/product/tractor-loader-cylinder-safety-stops/. Working on a tractor with a front-end loader is so much easier with the loader raised up and out of the way. If you'll take your bucket off, lift the loader to it's highest position, and put a set of these cylinder stops in to keep it safely up in the air, tractor service is a breeze. Seventh is a suction gun. You'll need that, if draining fuel out of a tank that's mounted on the tractor, or oil out of most gear boxes on brush hogs. Get a good suction device and those jobs become much less time consuming. Eighth on my list of ten tools for the tractor owner is an impact wrench and I'll admit, I don't have one of these yet. I have a buddy with an electrical, corded impact and I want one of those. I thought I wanted a battery impact, but I hate it when batteries die, with an electric impact, it's always ready to use. It's on my birthday/Christmas list this year. Battery impacts are great for mobile work, air impacts and corded electrical impacts are critical for working in the shop. Ninth on my list is a set of roll pin punches, and I've only found one thing they're good for, but it's a biggie. Most tailwheels on brush hogs are held in place by a roll pin with a washer. To remove it, you'll need these punches. Hammer on it and the end flattens out and expands and you have a problem. Finally, tenth on my list, and while not really a tool, if you buy your first tractor, go out and get a bunch of lynch pins. I'm always losing them and am perpetually short. You'll need them anytime you hook up an implement and having spares will prevent having to make a bolt (or a nail) work and creating an unsafe situation. Those are my picks for best tractor tools, if you have others, please put them in the comments below. LINKS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT... The Tractor Fun Store: https://asktractormike.com/products-for-sale/ Support the Tractor Mike Channel: https://www.patreon.com/TractorMike Visit the Tractor Mike website: http://asktractormike.com/ Copyright 2022 Tractor Mike LLC