Ventrac Review - "HOW NOT TO TEST A TRACTOR" because Franky is Nuts

Hey guys, I'm just going to tell you right now, Frankie is nuts. Hey Siri, what's the temple? It's 8° outside. It's not that bad out, [music] but he's out here wrenching on the vent track. Let's go see what he's up to. We got the new pole blade on the truck. 16 ft of snow removal at one shot. We got red with the Hineker in the front. This is a snow removal country. But I want to see what the heck Frankie's up to. There he is. What are you doing, Frankie? Uh, putting the jewels on the bat. Why are you doing that? [music] I'm going to see if I can make it through the swamp. You're nuts. Frankie and I have a bet. We've got a bet going. He thinks he can take that vent track through that. And I say he's insane. So before we get too far into this video, you guys tell me, can Frankie make it through that swamp on that machine, or is he going to get stuck? We'll walk away from him for a moment here. All right. Not listening. Here's [music] the Here's the truth, guys. I got to walk through that thing almost every single night with my fox. And I'll tell you right now, it's waste deep. There's no way he's making it through there. What's up? What's up with you? What you doing? Who's a good girl? Who's a good girl? You're a good girl. You're a good girl. We're not going for a walk today. All right. Well, before we go diving into the swamp, we're going to dive over to the tools and action compound and we're going to meet up with Dan because he's got a Ventrak. We're going to find out what he thinks. We're going to take this ventra through [music] that swamp. Well, we got a full show for you today. Let's get into it. Are we on? Yeah. Yeah, we're on. All right, guys. I'm with Dan from Tools in Action. And you guys know that I love the Ventrak, but I don't know if you guys know that Dan also has a Ventrak. And you've had it for how long now? Almost two years, man. Yeah, two years. He's I think this is his new girlfriend. He literally loves this thing. Don't you? I like the vent track more in the state who likes his vent track. And actually, we got different configurations on ours. Does yours have the the hitch on the back? I like my vent track. No, I'm not saying you don't. I'm just saying we have different configurations. Oh, yeah. Yeah. No, these are You got eight wheels. I got the four wheels. You think that thing will even start, Frankie? Yep. Really? Yeah. You know, it's like 8° out, right? Yeah. It'll start. It'll start. 8°. We haven't ran it all winter, Frankie. No, I shoveled it out, so it's got to start. [laughter] He shoveled it out, so it's got to start, right? I mean, that's that's Frankie logic right there. So, that damn B that damn thing better damn well start. All right. So, you're putting the delu on, right? Yeah. to to take them off. Instead of taking the [snorts] whole hubbing and everything off, you back this big one off. Okay. Spin your back tire off. It's done. And then it comes off here at the threads. And then you can unthread unthread that. And unthread this. And then your dual then your dualies off. But you leave the hub on there. Yeah. You don't have to take the hub off, right? The guys took them off last time. So it's like so instead of it being like a 10 minute per wheel, it could be 2 minutes a wheel. Well, say say three three four minutes a wheel. But I mean that's So you get all four off by the time you do one the way they did it. Huh. Did you hear that crew? You guys didn't do it right the first time. You've never had one with eight wheels? Well, I've driven one with eight wheels and on a slope or something like scary. Like you think you're going to die and you you're not. No, this it's just it's a game changer besides the build. And I think that's what everybody that we take the Ventre out to says right away is like, "Oh my god, the build quality." Cuz even when Ventre first reached out, probably when they first reached out to you, you're like, "Dude, it's like an oversized garden tractor." [music] Right now, I remember the first time I seen a Ventra, I was thinking the 1970s are going to call and want their equipment back. [music] I mean, when you start cuz I was looking at other tractors like John Deere, stuff like that. And not knocking those brands. They're great brands. But you open up the hood, man, it's all plastic. You know, on these, everything is steel. Everything is metal. And, you know, 2 years of use out of it. Now, I mean, I'm not going to say I use it like Stanley. I've got 120 hours on it. So, I'm a homeowner, residential use on it. You're going to see the vent track can pull this bucket uh truck right here, which is about 26,000 lb. Let's see. Oh, there it goes. It's doing it. It's doing it. Looks like it's with ease, too. I got to be honest with you. He's pulling it. Look at that, man. Um, but man, everything I put it through, I beat it and it's just it it survives, man. For build quality, guys, this is where I get really picky. Not I've not found better. Yeah. No, no, no. And the the way they build it, what I really like is it's so much it's so it's forward and simple. If it breaks down out in the field or you need to work with it out in the field and you don't have every single tool handy, you can still fix it right without Yeah, you did it on one of your videos I saw. Didn't you do something with a mower deck or something? Yeah, it broke down. I was I was way out in the woods cutting brush. We sunk it in a lake. Then the drop blank d fell down while we were cutting through heavy brush. Look at how powerful these blades are. Look at this thing. The blade cut right through this leg. And it didn't damage the blade. This thing is a beast. I will tell you straight up. My impression of the bent the bent unit itself is flipping amazing. I mean, we're out in rough country. There's no forgiveness to the terrain we're in right now. And this thing just hugs the ground and it goes with the contours. And the brush, I don't think was ever meant to tackle brush like this. Didn't phase it. We couldn't take a 50 horsepower tractor through the terrain we're at. We wouldn't expect it to even accomplish what this thing is doing. Absolute beast mode. That's all I can say about this Ventra. The more I use it, the more impressed I am with it. This brush cutting unit, I had zero expectations. And because I've I've I've ran big brush cutting mowers behind tractors. This thing kept up with some of the biggest tractors that I've driven with brush cutters on it. And and okay, not only did it keep up with some of the biggest tractors that I've ran with brush cutters on it, but it went places they couldn't go. It went places. It went in valleys. It climbed hills. We've got pass cut right now that we have not been able to cut in 50 years. This thing did it. I did break it. I did sink it, but it did more than I ever imagined it could. Period. Wow. Yeah. And when you're out that far, I mean, a breakdown sucks cuz you got to get the equipment back and, you know, if you fix it with my fingers. Yeah. That's crazy. The engineering on these things is phenomenal. But you guys know that I love Ventre, plain and simple. Yeah. But and live Frankie basically lives with me when he's here in the cities cuz his house is 100 miles away actually. So he comes up here and we have a lot of fun working on projects. What's the What's the project you're up here on now, Frankie? Uh Ariel's house. Your daughter's house. Yep. We're redoing a 1950s Rambler. We're redoing a 1950s We're redoing a 1950s Rambler and he's Frankie is going in. He's built a brand new staircase. He's going to tear out the old staircase. He's ripping out walls. I mean, and I'm doing a video on it. And I had to go to no uh Michigan to pick up the back drag blade that uh is on the other machine. And I was gone for 2 days, right Frankie? Yep. 2 days. And he's got everything already pulled apart and put back together. And I'm looking, I'm like, that was 3 days worth of work for three guys. And Frankie did it by himself in two days. He's a freaking beast. You just like Hulk out when you're working with carpentry work, Frankie? Well, yeah. I pulled a a long day one one of them days you were gone. You stayed over there that night, didn't you? Yeah. So, you're using is that the new Milwaukee impact? Yeah. How is that thing? That's pretty good. I mean, it's just doing it by hand. I like them. Yeah. I I'll tell you straight up. I I actually love these new impacts cuz there's no air compressor. No hose. No, you don't have to have power to power your air compressor. You just you're out in the middle of nowhere and boom, you're working. Boat out of water and I'm like, that is really cool, but I'm going to do them up. So, I towed two pickup trucks. I actually had my wife tow two pickup trucks and I still got the dent in the back of my truck. And I saw that video that you didn't see our new video where we towed a cat loader. I did. I did see that. Now I'm like, how the hell am I [music] going to top that? Pull the wheel loader. See, here we go. Yep. Pull it. Not a big deal at all. [music] There you go. 44,000 lb. Man, it's dude. It was on a flat surface, you know? I mean, it will pull it on a flat surface. Any angle and this thing just won't pull it. But All right. What are you going to do, Frankie? Yeah. All right. So, this is going to be this is going to be the cold weather start test, right? Yeah. Cuz you haven't started this thing in forever. No, not because there's snow. Will it start? Take your best guess down below. The one thing about Ventrak is it's always been a coldblooded unit. Always. Always always got to pull the choke. Oh, look. It won't even fire. That was the kill switch. Did it? Yeah. So, the safety switch. So, it has a a safety switch that will automatically trigger as soon as it feels the batteries being drawn down, it'll shut itself off, won't it? Yep. That is really a cool feature. Yeah, it is. I mean, as long as you know about it. Remember the first time we didn't know about it, Frankie? We didn't know what to do. We thought it was dead. [laughter] I mean, we tried jumping it. We had jumpers on it. Nothing. It wouldn't respond. Ah, holy crap. I can't believe it's trying. And so, one of the other things too that you mentioned before we started this video was the the the battery saver switch, which I didn't know existed. And they told me about that first time. He's like, "The only problem you're ever going to have with the Ventra is if it doesn't start is the battery saver switch." There's a computer in here, you guys. It's constantly running, right? It's checking the system over. If you leave it on for like 2 weeks, 3 weeks, it'll kill the battery. So, right down here is a battery switch that just completely disables the unit. So, now I'm getting no draw. When I come to the unit, I flip it on, I got a full charge cuz I thought I needed a battery for a while until I thought about that and I'm like, "Oh, I forgot you told me about that." Plus, it's all kind of a theft deterrent. I had no clue about it. Yeah. And it happened and it took me like a half hour to figure out. I'm sitting out like, "What? What?" And then I remembered the battery switch, you know, which is kind of ingenious. And that cool uh thing that they put on the front, the computer, that's another thing. When you're broken down in the field, if you get broken down in the field, that you can just go and it'll tell you seat switch [music] or it'll tell you this sensor. What computer? What? You never saw a computer in front of this thing? I'll give you some B-roll to throw over it, but it has a computer. That's the whole reason. Yeah, that right there. Right. So, like, see, right now it's got the red light. So, it's got all these things on it. So, like neutral switch. If it doesn't start, something's wrong with the neutral switch, the PTO switch, the seat switch, the engine starter, PTO. It'll just give you a red light of something that's wrong. Self diagnostics. And it's not and it's just right there. Yeah. That's See, that's another It's like, oh no, I don't need to go find a module, plug it in, right? And and then and then try to read it and try to figure out what code this refers to. Like it'll give you a number and then you're like, okay, what what number does this No, it's like telling you right there. See? Okay. It does not start cuz of the seat switch. Did it get It happened to me one time. I left it outside for like 2 days and it just froze and snowed and I totally forgot that it was out there and I went to get on it and it wouldn't start. I'm like, what? And it ended up I looked at that and it said seat switch. So I went and se switch was all frozen. So I just and it started right up. It up. Yeah. I don't know. You tell me. You know, it would help if we got in there because then we'd have something to grab. I tell you, we have that swamp grass to grab. But what do you want? I mean, getting there might be the job, but once we get in there, I think we'll be able to grab onto this pump grass, you know, for traction. But I try. Go ahead. Frank is bound and determined to get [music] her stuck. I think he's going to [music] get stuck before he gets there. [music] This snow is deep. It's fluffy. This does not [music] give you traction. But he thinks if he makes it to the grass, the grass will give him traction. Get that thing so stuck. I'm not going to be able to get it out. All right, guys. Well, Frankie does make it to the switchgrass where he finds out that the that the terrain is even rougher and more uneven than he ever imagined. So, you guys are going to have to subscribe because [music] part two of Frankie is Nuts is coming right down the pipeline next. Now, one of the other things I want to tell you guys is to go over to Tools in Action and check out their channel because we did a video over on their channel on this back drag blade that that I picked up from Michigan. Thanks for the job. You're welcome.