First Tractor

[sciguy2902]

I couldn't agree more! This is the best, most efficient, most helpful web posting I've ever made. Thanks for the great info. My thinking at the moment is to get the FEL but hold off on the box. That way I can feel like I'm being prudent and saving a little money.

Are there any real differences in different loaders or are they all pretty much the same?

There wasn't much discussion on the tractor size/HP. I get the impression the 32 HP should be enough for my small place.

Can a 32 HP tractor handle a 6 ft cutter or should I stick with the 5 ft? I'm a high school teacher in my other life so I have plenty of time during the summer to cut the pastures. It doesn't seem like an extra 12 inches would make a big difference cutting 8 acres. The wooded acres don't have a lot of trees but the maneuverability would still be nice with a smaller cutter.

Thanks again for the advice, y'all have been quite helpful.

 

[VABlue]

Whatever loader comes with the machine you choose will be correctly sized for that machine. I don't believe there are many options to choose from in that regard other than bucket width. Get the biggest bucket available. For the RC size, I'll let someone with experience field that...

 

[Z-Michigan]

I think 32 PTO hp will be enough for a 6' mower in most conditions. Basically, unless you have extremely thick, tough grass, it should be enough.

Mowing 8 acres will take a while even with a 6' mower. I think the 6' will save enough time relative to a 5' to be worth it. I for one don't enjoy my mowing time very much.

As for loaders, I generally recommend whatever the manufacturer of the tractor offers. There are significant differences in lift capacity, height, and operating speed, but unless you have specific loader tasks (e.g. round bales of X weight) this probably won't affect your choice of machine much. There are also aftermarket loaders, some of which are very good (IMHO, Woods) but I would still lean towards the tractor maker's loader.

 

[DonWorrell]

When buying a mower, (rotary cutter), try to get one as wide as your rear wheels at least. Size of tractor needed? Here is a formula, 5 horsepower for each 1 foot of cutter/mower. Even in tough grass this will work. All you need to do is work in a lower gear. Don't allow engine to bog down. Keep engine RPMs at 2000 or so at all times. It helps the cutter and the tractor.

Don

 

[3RRL]

Yeah, I would go with the 6 footer cutter.
It might not seem a lot at first, but with 8 acres + to cut, it will make quite a difference in time and money. 20% to be exact ... assuming you get full cut with each. Although not directly proportional, you can apply that towards savings in fuel and wear and tear on the tractor, or other "must do" chores.

It would be great to get a quick attach fel so you can switch your bucket to other things like has been mentioned.

 

[sandman2234]

I have two tractors and went next door and borrowed a little bitty one that has a loader. Wanted to take one of mine back instead of his, but I thought he might notice the difference.
A loader has many, many uses. Definitely on my dream list...
A boxblade makes nice work out of a dirt or gravel road. The amount of hp you have pulling it matters a little, but the strength of it matters more.
I sometimes maintain the road going back to my inlaws house. The other day I was doing it and one of the wives from further down the road wanted to know if I would go to the end, and how about some gas money? I did it and two days later it rained cats and dogs, so it needs doing again. Your maintance frequency will depend on location, which should be listed in your profile. Snow bound people seem to like loaders also.
David from jax

 

[Grrrr]

Can a 32 HP tractor handle a 6 ft cutter or should I stick with the 5 ft? I'm a high school teacher in my other life so I have plenty of time during the summer to cut the pastures. It doesn't seem like an extra 12 inches would make a big difference cutting 8 acres. The wooded acres don't have a lot of trees but the maneuverability would still be nice with a smaller cutter.

Thanks again for the advice, y'all have been quite helpful.

There are two schools of thought in mower size relative to tractor size. If you went with the 5' mower i heavy going you will be able to keep going at a reasnable speed without bogging the mower down.

When the going wasn't so tough you would be able to go virtually as fast as you can sit on the seat.

When the going was easy you will wish you had the bigger cutter.

With a six foot mower in heavy going you will be crawling along pretty slowly to avoid bogging the engine down to much. You will wish you had the smaller cutter as you would be going faster and probably covering more ground than you would with the 6'.

In eaasier going you will be able to work quite quickly but not driving along as fast as you could be with a 5' cutter.

When the going was very light you would be glad you had the bigger cutter as you would be able to go pretty fast.

If you were mowing on a slope where you would want to be going slow anyway, the bigger mower would be better as you would get more ground covered.

A bigger mower is also going to put more weight behind the tractor so carrying it when transporting from one field to another is more difficult / dangerous.

Where we live in England we have a six foot cutter behind a MF135 (38 engine pto) It is a physically larger tractor that a CUT but doesnn't have a lot more power than your tractor. We are mainly cutting grass and weeds with it but also use it on heavier stuff like bracken and goarse. I find in use I can go as fast as is comfortable to sit on. There is very little that will slow this combination down. If it had a bigger cutter I would have to go slower and probably wouldn't get as much cut. It is also much easier in confined space.

We also have a bigger tractor (meant to be about 70 pto hp, doubt it puts that out now) which we sometimes put a 10ft cutter behind. This gets used a lot less than the smaller combination becuase the you have to go pretty slow not to bog the tractor down. Even with a much wider cut it is not faster than the little Massey and is a lot hard to manouver around our small fields.

As you can see, it depends on your ground conditions and what you are going to be cutting as to how big a cutter you get.

Enough of my ramblings now

Happy Tractoring

 

[PA hayseed]

I cut 8 acres all the time, if it helps, I am looking at a bigger tractor and a bigger cutter. Mine cuts 5' now. On a nice day, with the ground softened by a previous rain, I don't mind spending a couple hours on the tractor. On a hot scorcher, with the ground hard as cement, I want off that tractor fast. When I have something to do, and I have to cut grass, it really makes me curse how long I am on it.

My current tractor has a FEL and a rear blade, is 28hp, and can't do enough for me. It is HST, but no cruise control. The HST is nice when I get by the woodline and dodge in and out, as the HST allows me to go slow, fast, forward and back all on one foot pedal.

The other nice feature about the HST is that my kid likes to ride on the tractor with me (yes I know how wrong I am) and I dont have to worry about shifting with her in the way. But when I was hauling shale and gravel for my drive, and digging into the 42 tons of stuff laying there, I kinda lost alot of love for the HST.

As far as what other people said, you can't go wrong with the FEL. If your driveway is that big you will definetly use it for so many things. I don't see FEL loosing to much of their value over time either. I would like to have a bigger FEL, as hauling a triaxle worth of shale from the dump site to the designated area (700 ft) took forever with the small FEL. When I say forever, I mean I was at it for several days after work until the sun went down.

Well I wish you luck, just don't do what I did and buy too small of a tractor or you will be shopping for a new one like I am.

 

[putt_putt_green]

I would also suggest getting rear SCV with the tractor. This gives you the option to get a hydraulic top link. Makes using a boxblade about 10 times more useful.

As far as bucket width, I'd get one about the width of the tractor. Easier to manuever and takes up less spaces for parking.

 

[Erik_in_Hoyt]

I have a 6' "easy dump" bucket on my loader, a 66" wide box blade which cuts just wider than my rear wheels, and a 5' HD brush cutter - which I can pull through about anything the tractor will drive through at whatever speed the tractor feels safe at. 6' would be nice, but the price was right on this one and it works fine in the small spaces I "get" to work in doing odd bits for the neighbors here and there.
Loader uses a skid steer type QA system, so it takes less than 5 minutes to dismount the bucket and hook up my pallet forks -- this is a good thing!
Hydraulic top link is geting very tempting. (and yes, I have a set of rear remotes that were standard on the machine when I got it, which was one of the selling points)
no HST on mine, but I'm very fond of the shuttle shift as I've said before - and the column/hand throttle works like a cruise control.
betweeen the loader and the box blade it only took me 1 1/2 hours to spread out 23 tons of 3" gravel for a parking pad - and the box blade does good double duty as a counterweight.