Tractor Sizing What tractor to buy?

   / What tractor to buy? #1  

joeyb

New member
Joined
Feb 27, 2010
Messages
19
Location
Maryland
Tractor
Kubota L185
I am new to country living and know nothing about tractors. I live on five acres about half woods and half grass...or should I say weeds. I need to buy something soon to cut the weeds until I can properly smooth out the cleared land and plant actual grass. I would love to get a 20K kubota with a loader and mower but can't afford it. I don't think I can afford anything with a loader so I will be moving downed trees and firewood by hand. I've been looking at the ford 8n, 9n, 2n but I think these may be too heavy for a proper lawn? Someone recommended a cub lo boy but I haven't seen too many for sale. Can anybody recommend what type of tractor I should be looking for to maintain my property. I need to mow, haul stuff, plow the occassional big snow....8-12 inches around here. I have tools and mechanical knowledge so maintenance and repair shouldn't be too much of a problem.
 
   / What tractor to buy? #2  
I am new to country living and know nothing about tractors. I live on five acres about half woods and half grass...or should I say weeds. I need to buy something soon to cut the weeds until I can properly smooth out the cleared land and plant actual grass. I would love to get a 20K kubota with a loader and mower but can't afford it. I don't think I can afford anything with a loader so I will be moving downed trees and firewood by hand. I've been looking at the ford 8n, 9n, 2n but I think these may be too heavy for a proper lawn? Someone recommended a cub lo boy but I haven't seen too many for sale. Can anybody recommend what type of tractor I should be looking for to maintain my property. I need to mow, haul stuff, plow the occassional big snow....8-12 inches around here. I have tools and mechanical knowledge so maintenance and repair shouldn't be too much of a problem.
Joey...I'd personally look into a nice, used SCUT in the 20-25 HP range with a loader and a belly mower...a lot of folks buy these tractors and find them too small for their application and soon trade them in...benefits; the original owner has already taken the hit on the depreciation and they typically have very low hours and a remaining warranty. I won't recommend one brand over the other, rather try them on and see what (if?) fits you best. Personally, I have a Massey Ferguson GC2310 TLB with a 60" belly mower and use it to mow 5 acres...it provides a better manicured cut than my wife's dedicated lawn tractor. It is very versatile...I have 25 acres (5 maintained as lawn, 13 in hay and the rest is wooded). Now, admittedly, I sell the hay. So I don't use it for that part of the acreage, but I do plow a 1,400 drive, maintain a mile and a half of riding trails and run over 2 miles of fencing with it. It has been reliable and has done everything I ask of it. You may or may not need the backhoe that comes packaged with the TLB...I seldom use mine but find it indespensible when the need does arise. All of the major manufacturers have models in this class. I believe that the Kubota's may have an issue with Cat 1 implements...I know the MF doesn't...have several Cat 1 implements that are used with it. Something to think about?
 
   / What tractor to buy?
  • Thread Starter
#3  
Joey...I'd personally look into a nice, used SCUT in the 20-25 HP range with a loader and a belly mower...a lot of folks buy these tractors and find them too small for their application and soon trade them in...benefits; the original owner has already taken the hit on the depreciation and they typically have very low hours and a remaining warranty. I won't recommend one brand over the other, rather try them on and see what (if?) fits you best. Personally, I have a Massey Ferguson GC2310 TLB with a 60" belly mower and use it to mow 5 acres...it provides a better manicured cut than my wife's dedicated lawn tractor. It is very versatile...I have 25 acres (5 maintained as lawn, 13 in hay and the rest is wooded). Now, admittedly, I sell the hay. So I don't use it for that part of the acreage, but I do plow a 1,400 drive, maintain a mile and a half of riding trails and run over 2 miles of fencing with it. It has been reliable and has done everything I ask of it. You may or may not need the backhoe that comes packaged with the TLB...I seldom use mine but find it indespensible when the need does arise. All of the major manufacturers have models in this class. I believe that the Kubota's may have an issue with Cat 1 implements...I know the MF doesn't...have several Cat 1 implements that are used with it. Something to think about?

Thanks for the response. I was debating about whether to get the all in one or a separte tractor and mower.
 
   / What tractor to buy? #4  
Kubota BX series or 7000 series
JD 4100 series
JD x55 or x50 series
JD 2000 series
Kioti CK20 or 1914
TYM T233 or T273
Small fords
small NHs
small MFs
small Mahindras
CC SCUTs
newer Yanmars

Quite a lot to choose from. I used a low-boy for a couple months. Thing never ran too well until it got good and warm. But, it wasn't mine and I'm not sure what was wrong with it. I look for something a little newer than that. Really depends on your budget too. Try to get a loader. It is indespensible, really.

The small Fords might be the best bang for the buck.
 
   / What tractor to buy? #5  
I agree with mustangsallysdad with the following qualifier. SCUTS have pretty poor ground clearance and while I don't have real problems with mine, I have to be careful where I go or get one of my other tractors out.

I like the old Fords, but you usually have to pay quite a bit for a 60 year old tractor without a live PTO that is pretty tough on yards.

If you look hard, you can find some newer design Kubotas, John Deeres, NH and so on with a lot of use left in them for a reasonable price. You can't always go by HP as some seemingly underpowered geared tractors do pretty well.

I am sure others will chime in with some good advice.

One thing, be really sure before you buy as my brother got stuck with an older model Cub Cadet that looks good, but is essentially useless.
 
   / What tractor to buy?
  • Thread Starter
#6  
Kubota BX series or 7000 series
JD 4100 series
JD x55 or x50 series
JD 2000 series
Kioti CK20 or 1914
TYM T233 or T273
Small fords
small NHs
small MFs
small Mahindras
CC SCUTs
newer Yanmars

Quite a lot to choose from. I used a low-boy for a couple months. Thing never ran too well until it got good and warm. But, it wasn't mine and I'm not sure what was wrong with it. I look for something a little newer than that. Really depends on your budget too. Try to get a loader. It is indespensible, really.

The small Fords might be the best bang for the buck.

Do you think I could get buy with a box on the three point hitch to haul stuff around instead of a loader? I know the loader is ideal it just adds so much to the cost.
 
   / What tractor to buy? #7  
I am new to country living and know nothing about tractors. I live on five acres about half woods and half grass...or should I say weeds. I need to buy something soon to cut the weeds until I can properly smooth out the cleared land and plant actual grass. I would love to get a 20K kubota with a loader and mower but can't afford it. I don't think I can afford anything with a loader so I will be moving downed trees and firewood by hand. I've been looking at the ford 8n, 9n, 2n but I think these may be too heavy for a proper lawn? Someone recommended a cub lo boy but I haven't seen too many for sale. Can anybody recommend what type of tractor I should be looking for to maintain my property. I need to mow, haul stuff, plow the occassional big snow....8-12 inches around here. I have tools and mechanical knowledge so maintenance and repair shouldn't be too much of a problem.

So you want to end up with a 2.5 acre lawn and a wooded area cleared of downed trees?

You could level the lawn area with a small tractor with a rototiller. My first tractor was a new 2005 Kubota B7510HST (21 hp engine, 17 hp pto, 4WD, power steering, hydrostatic tranny) with the LA302 FEL (4-ft wide bucket, 800 lb lift capacity). Cost: $12,600 plus tax. You can find a similar vintage used tractor for $8-9K.

The rototiller was a used $300 Yanmar RS1200 (48" wide).

DSCF0208 (Small).JPG

To maintain your lawn area, I'd get a nice ZTR mower.
 
   / What tractor to buy? #8  
You can buy a late model SCUT, like a Kubota BX, without the loader for $7000 and even less, with smart shopping. Yes, you can pull an old boxed utility trailer to use for moving dirt and such, but it requires shoveling by hand, which is fine. If that what's got to be done, well, that's what got to be done. We use that old trailer for building materials, you name it!

Last summer, my wife and I hauled 10 yards of sand and 10 yards of gravel behind our BX. We also skipped the Front End Loader because after the initial repairs to our property, we don't have the tasks to justify one on an ongoing basis either. We needed those funds for many other projects.

I need the tractor for my gardening and for snow plowing in winter and perhaps you need it for mowing. Those are often the long term tasks.
I looked at older tractors for a year and I found it difficult to pull the trigger on a unit that might need lots of repairs, cost $2500 up front, was too heavy and lacked maneuverability for many applications, and didn't have power steering, etc. I tried to go that route, because I am a pretty darn good mechanic, but in the end, I am delighted beyond words with my BX.
 
   / What tractor to buy? #9  
Do you think I could get buy with a box on the three point hitch to haul stuff around instead of a loader? I know the loader is ideal it just adds so much to the cost.
TripleR brought up a good point on ground clearance...keep that in mind...I had to fabricate a guard for my hydraulic filter after my first bush hogging excursion...I was a 1/2 mile from the house and have a bad leg...decided that wasn't going to happen again. I understand cost is an issue regarding the FEL...yes, you can get by with a carryall...If there is ANY way you can come up with the cash for the loader, you will never regret it. I've had mine for over 6 years and have never removed it...I find a new use for it almost daily...it saves so much work, you'd be amazed.
 
   / What tractor to buy? #10  
I've got 5 acres that are a bit more woods than grass, and I haven't been able to move out there yet due to the economy-but enough about me. I've been thinking about this awhile myself. So far, I've got a DR mower to keep the weeds and grass at bay. My next step, eventually, I'm thinking Kioti CK20 or something else in the under 25hp size. No loader for now, I can add that later. You can add a landscape rake to groom land that's already flat enough. Use a box blade to smooth out rough patches (and a lot of other stuff-search the files for box blade). A boom pole isn't too expensive and will lift many things. You can probably do more, faster with a loader/grapple set-up, but, like you said, it really adds to the cost. If you plant a big yard, you can check out a mid mount mower for the tractor (they don't give those away either though) or they make a finish mower attachment for the DR, for instance. But if a yard is a long term plan, I'd suggest keeping it simple. New or used depends on your location. Sometimes the used tractors cost near as much as a new one because the little beasts keep going and going, even after they've been on the job for many years. But we could get lucky-the dealer may have a trade-in because it was too small for the original owner. There aren't any hard and fast rules. There are lots of choices right now. Kioti, Mahindra, Massey-Ferguson, Kubota, Deere, Yanmar and others I'm forgetting. Each has it's strengths and weaknesses. You just have to start checking out the forum here(the search function is really your friend), and the manufacturers web sites to get a starting point, then head out and see the little machines for yourself.
 
 
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