Need Advice

[gtobill]

Need some advice on tractor purchase. Just bought 10 acres near Oatmeal, TX for our homestead. There is nothing on it right now but trees. Lots of them. Mostly cedar but quite a few oaks and others. It is on a hill but it is not real steep. What I want to do is buy something to knock down the cedars and the develop the land for a home and shop and eventually plant a large garden. This will be my wifes dream home. As long as I get a big shop I will be happy. Dealers within 30 miles are Mahindra, Deere and Kubota. There is a NH dealer in Austin near work. What I want is something simple that will last(I like steel over fiberglass). The Mahindra dealer recommends a 4025 two wheel drive for the weight and simplicity. The injection is mechanical and the tractor is heavy.Quoted price was 16.3K with loader and $200 to deliver. The NH dealer(40 miles away) recommends the t1510 which is small, light, and 4 wheel drive and will deliver for free for 15K with loader. The JD recommended(5003) has 4 wheel drive and turbo(electronically controlled). This was 23.3K which is more than I want to pay. I have not visited the Kubota dealer yet. Most have some sort of 0% financing and I will borrow their money for free if I can. I could also buy a used tractor but I would like to mount a loader and I have little experience of what it would take to convert and which tractors would work for my situation. In other words I am more confused than before I talked to the dealers!

 

[Mark_G]

I'd look at what you want as 2 stages. The first stage will be to put in a drive (if you don't have one) and clear the lot for house, yard, septic field, garden area etc. Then the second stage will be the on going stuff on the property (call it the rest of your life). I imagine the needs of the stages will be very different as to the equipment you will want to use.

To initially clear I'd rent a bulldozer. You should be able to just push over most of the brush and trees with one. Scrape the topsoil off your drive to the site, then have course rock and topcoat put down along the drive. Return the dozer.

After that get a CUT.

Mark

 

[Willl]

JD 4005 (40 HP w/ a standard tran)

 

[flusher]

Need some advice on tractor purchase. Just bought 10 acres near Oatmeal, TX for our homestead. There is nothing on it right now but trees. Lots of them. Mostly cedar but quite a few oaks and others. It is on a hill but it is not real steep. What I want to do is buy something to knock down the cedars and the develop the land for a home and shop and eventually plant a large garden. This will be my wifes dream home. As long as I get a big shop I will be happy. Dealers within 30 miles are Mahindra, Deere and Kubota. There is a NH dealer in Austin near work. What I want is something simple that will last(I like steel over fiberglass). The Mahindra dealer recommends a 4025 two wheel drive for the weight and simplicity. The injection is mechanical and the tractor is heavy.Quoted price was 16.3K with loader and $200 to deliver. The NH dealer(40 miles away) recommends the t1510 which is small, light, and 4 wheel drive and will deliver for free for 15K with loader. The JD recommended(5003) has 4 wheel drive and turbo(electronically controlled). This was 23.3K which is more than I want to pay. I have not visited the Kubota dealer yet. Most have some sort of 0% financing and I will borrow their money for free if I can. I could also buy a used tractor but I would like to mount a loader and I have little experience of what it would take to convert and which tractors would work for my situation. In other words I am more confused than before I talked to the dealers!

I have a Mahindra 5525 (54 hp engine, 45 hp pto, 2WD, 5400 lb) for haying on my 10 acres of flat pasture land. It has the ML250 FEL (6ft bucket, 2900 lb lift). A heavy, strong brute. Cost: $19.2K last March.

The 4025 is a nice machine for 10 acres. So is the 5003.

My neighbor has a Kubota L4400 with a 6-ft wide FEL that he uses on his 10 acres. Also a nice machine.

A 40-50hp tractor won't knock down trees like a bulldozer unless these trees are more like saplings. Renting a tractor-loader-backhoe (TLB) would be my first choice to clear those trees off your jobsite.

Don't know how large a garden you're planning. I do my gardening on about 1/4 acre with a used Bolens G1453 garden tractor with rototiller ($600 off craigslist).

For a larger garden I'd look for a Farmall Cub with a cultivator attachment. You can find these for $1-2K pretty easily.

 

[jbrumberg]

gtobill:

Welcome to TBN ! I agree with Mark G. A tractor is not a dozer. Get a dozer in there first. Then go CUT. Jay