Best Mountain Tractor?

[wasabi]

Being a first time tractor buyer I'm taking my time to assess the options, but don't yet have a clear picture about the stability factor. Our property goes from 3800 ft elev to 3200 ft and nary an acre is even close to "flat". I know I should look for a tractor with a low center of gravity, but what about weight and wheel base...I'm also inclined toward 4X drive...any other considerations?

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Re: Best Mountain Tractor

Doug:
I assume the property you're referring to isn't at Hilton Head. I don't remember seeing many large hills there.
I recently bought a Power Trac 1845. I first heard of it about three years ago when I was searching for slope mowers on the net. I had finally gotten old enough to quit scaring hell out of myself on conventional tractors mowing fairly steep slopes.
Power Trac is decidedly unconventional. Take a look at their website. <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.power-trac.com/>Power Trac</A>
There has been a lot of discussion of Power Tracs by a few of us recently on the Board, and some good natured banter, as well. It is probably worth your while, and even entertaining to search on Power Trac and read some of the posts.
I mowed some of my hills over the weekend, towing an 8' wide chain harrow. I was more comfortable than I've ever been on any of our other tractors.
Enjoy your research. It's almost as much fun as running the machines, and generally more comfortable.

 

[wasabi]

Re: Best Mountain Tractor

Thanks Charlie...I'll look at em. Nope, there's definately no elevation here...prop is in those lovely mountains in N Carolina.

 

[Charlie_Iliff]

Re: Best Mountain Tractor

Power Trac is in Tazewell, VA, southwest corner. It's worth a visit. They'll let you play with the machines. They have some pretty impressive videos that they used to send, mowing hills that would be hard to stand on. You might want to ask them to send you copies for the 400 series and 1800 series. They're much better at responding to phone calls than e-mails.

 

[DocHeb]

Re: Best Mountain Tractor

What type of work do you need done? Any budget? Working a lot of acres may require a lot of tractor.

 

[wasabi]

Re: Best Mountain Tractor

With most of our acreage in mountainous second growth, clearing tops our priority list, but from a practical standpoint we'll likely sub that part out. We then need to prepare land for pastures, orchard, gardens and vinyards. Building site digging and prep is next. Oh, not to be forgotten is the nearly ten miles of old logging roads to be improved / maintained. Did I mention the plan to build two trout ponds and farm wasabi? Also, since our existing buildings are (quite) modest, and we'll need fencing, a good auger will be a must. Anyone know of a good PTO run sawmill? I think you get the idea...We're weekend warriors with lots of ideas and enthusiasm, but limited experience. Trust me, tho, that won't stop us. Budget?....I would like to stay under 15K including FEL and multple implements and better than 30 HPO 4X drive. Used is fine, but I don't want to tackle a rebuild.

 

[pennwalk]

If in doubt go for the 4WD. See if you can spread the wheels on the used compacts you look at. Also I might look into smaller wider tires. If you were to change tires on a 4WD you have to keep the same front to back rolling circumferance ratio. The Tire dealer should know about that. I might think about filling the tires with liquid. Maybe front weights too. I personally like the control you get with hydrostatic transmissions in tricky situations even though I have power shift on my tractor. I would want to have a ROPS if you are running on sloping ground.

Chris

 

[wasabi]

I've heard about filling the tires which makes sense to add weight, but had no clue about the relative wheel size...I guess it would also make sense because of the four wheel drive issue. Thanks for the insights, Chris!

 

[MossRoad]

Take Charlie's advice and check out the <A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.power-trac.com>Power Trac website by clicking here</A>. The slope mowers are very impressive and they offer a very wide range of implements. All of the units are hydrostatic drive and full time 4 wheel drive. Being a Power Trac owner, I am a little biased, of course /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif. I test drove several different makes and models and, to me, the Power Trac felt more comfortable on a slope than anything else that I hav ever driven. Good luck in your search and keep us posted in your decision making process.

 

[wasabi]

Thanks Moss man. I just glimpsed at the trac site briefly, but will investigate further. You guys are the best. I've learned more here in the past couple of hours than months of surfing the net sites.