Ventrac Tractor Review - Stuck in the Mud

Ventrac Tractor Review

The project was restoring a beach; the challenge was the ground was too soft to even support the weight of a skid loader with tracks. As soon as you try to park a loader down there, it would just sink until the Ventrac came in. First thing we were going to do is just give it a test run. We were just going to see what it could do. So, we brought up the brush hog, brought out a stump grinder and we brought out a power rake. We had to remove the old dead vegetation, grind down and get rid of all the stumps and level off the ground so that it can be converted to usable yard space. We tentatively went in not knowing if the brush hog could handle what was down there. This thing was an absolute beast. It blew our minds away. I would have never said in my wildest dreams that this tool could handle brush like this. What we found out is, this brush hog not only cuts it down, but it pulverizes it. It basically leaves very little behind which is a beautiful thing because it kind of mulches brush right into the ground. This machine was able to work where I couldn't get a piece of equipment, but it would float over the top making it deceiving how easy it was. The reason I say this is because one of my operators got a little cocky, drove too close to the lake and the shoreline gave way, sinking the Ventrac down into the mud.

Buried in the Mud

She's buried, before we got her buried, we were able to clear this entire beach out. Literally this is 15 minutes’ worth of work not even. This would have taken two guys hours to do. Of course, now that we buried the Ventrac, it's going to take us probably just as long to unbury it because we don't have access down to this beach. This ground is like a sponge down here, we can't get a truck down here so we're going to have to fabricate something up the hill and try to chain all the way down to the lake to get this thing out. It should be fun. I didn't think it could be done but it's stuck, buried half in the lake. That's like sponge ground, like when you hop off that thing the whole thing just kind of bounces. We can't get the truck even close to down here. That will get stuck. All the way down there. Even though there's snow on the ground, we were still able to power rig the area and do a finish grade because the ground wasn't actually frozen. The snow fell and insulated the ground from freezing. So we were able to come in with the Ventrac power rake and level and finish grade everything. I could have used the Harley rake on a skid loader, but it would have sunk. The Ventrac with the eight wheels literally floats over the ground. This gave me access to an area that otherwise I just plain and simply couldn't get to.

Beach Restored

After getting the beach restored, we decided to really put the brush hog to the test. So we brought it out to our woods where we wanted to cut some paths in eight-foot-tall brush that you could not walk in. I don't even think a deer could walk through this brush. This Ventrac literally cut it down like it was mowing a lawn. Seriously guys, I would have never guessed this thing could do this thing. It gets better, it's not that it's just capable of doing things that a 50 horsepower farm tractor can do in a tiny compact package. The better part is how it hugs the ground. We were able to take the Ventrac with the brush hog down in the contours and in places that there's no other piece of equipment that I can imagine, maybe there are some and you guys will put it in the comments down below, but there's no piece of equipment that I could imagine would be able to hug the ground and giving the operator a safe comfortable feel while accomplishing the job. We call it the sketch factor, hanging on by your butt cheeks. Yes you can get a lot of jobs done using a piece of equipment that it's not quite right for it but you're not comfortable. When we use this Ventrac, we were going down steep banks and climbing up steep banks and going sideways while cutting thick brush.

Brush Cutter Attachment

So you cut that with the brush cutter? That's like a 10 inch cut. Here it is, here's what you cut, grab a hold of that thing. You cut that with the brush cutters? That's nuts, here you straight cut, put your foot on top of that Frankie. You cut that with the frickin brush cutter? I would have cut that down (point to another small tree), you don't think so? Person #2: Yes but I want to leave one tree for you. Grinding out stumps, grading, and this Ventrac unit is impressive. How well-built each attachment is and how it’s got the end user in mind. There are a lot of things that aren't included in this video guys. I've pulled these attachments apart, I have serviced them out in the field with my nose-pickers literally. I had a nut or a bolt or something happen or a stick get twisted up. I've had to literally go out no tools, just what God gave me and try to repair the machine to keep it going. I was able to do it. I was thinking, holy crap; this is engineering at its finest. This is engineering by a company that must obviously use their tools. Long story short, we never gave it as much credit back then as I do now. It's a phenomenal little tractor that has the heart of a big tractor and it continues to impress me. We tested some more equipment coming up. God bless. Go get them.