Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices

   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices #11  
1*The Kubota are Clydesdales and the MTD are the plastic horses you get at Toys R US...
I have a Kubota BX 2230 and am amazed at what the 22 hp will do.
2*My biggest limitation often is traction.

1*Cute comparison, LOL.

To the OP: good question.
Take a riding mower and cut 5-10 acres and I don't think it will last very long. Do the same with a compact utility tractor, and it will be going strong 20 years later. Plus, if you need to do other work, hauling firewood, tilling a garden, etc., there is no comparison.

Ken
2*Traction on an over powered riding mower with the roller skate sized wheels is what i call poor traction .
 
   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices #12  
The riding mowers aren't built sturdy enough to handle the high horse power.
The engines will tear them up.

This is not the case with a real tractor.
 
   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices #13  
If you are trying to justify the cost of a compact tractor, don't bother, the truth is you might be able to keep buying $1500 lawn mowers and stay ahead money wise.

If you want to own a machine that will last many years, do more than mow your yard, then look at CUTS of SCUTS. I have about 3 acres, which really doesn't sound like much land, but when you throw in some trees, hills, and rough ground from moles, it just tears up a regular riding mower. My first one was pretty inexpensive, maybe $1200, and lasted 3 or 4 years. My next one was a Scotts, made by John Deere, and it was much better, cost maybe $3500. The problem with it was traction, I had a lot of problems on my hills.

I bought a BX2350, 60" mower, and front end loader. You get 4 wheel drive, a bigger deck, power steering, a diesel engine, water cooled, a front end loader, 3 point hitch. Like others have said, a 25hp diesel makes more power than a 25hp gas engine. That is an entire discussion in its self. If you have snow removal, driveway maintance, cut wood, do a lot of landscaping, move dirt, run a chipper, run a generator, then look at tractors. The amount of 3 point implements is only limited by your bank account.

I feel like I wasted my money on my first two mowers, after 4 years, I sold the first one for $75, the deck was shot and the steering was shot. The second one I sold for $750 after about 5 years. I'm guessing I could get about 75% of the value of my Kubota of what I paid for it. I should have bought one when I first moved to the country.
 
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   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices #14  
I'm a n00b when it comes to tractors. I'm confused as to why tractors are so expensive for the amount of horsepower you get.

For example, you can buy a 20+ horsepower riding lawn mower for $1500 or so. A 20+ HP utility tractor with mowing deck is going to cost you about $15K - 10x!

I realize the tractor is built much more ruggedly, has a PTO, diesel engine, larger wheels, and other features - but 10x the price for the same horsepower seems very expensive to me! Why so expensive?

One related question I have is - are the HP ratings really accurate? Is a 25 HP utility tractor really no more powerful than a 25HP riding lawn mower?

You're paying for lots of extra things- a mechanical fuel injected liquid cooled 3 or 4 cylinder diesel is much more expensive to maufacture than an air cooled carbureted V-twin. More torque; while that lawn tractor may make similar hp torque wise there's no comparision- there's lots more of it and it's down low where you need it. To handle that torque you need a far more capable transmission, one with two or three ranges to handle varied tasks and a PTO to drive implements. That costs money- a lot more than a v-belt driven implement running off a pulley on a lawn tractor does. Three point hitch- a rarity on a lawn garden tractor. Four wheel drive- again a rarity on lawn and garden tractors; power does you no good unless you can get it to the ground. Hydraulics- lower end lawn and garden tractors have none (lifting a 5' rotary cutter manually wouldn't be much fun :D) and while the high end ones do you'll quickly find one you start adding all these features the price quickly approaches that of a CUT. I suspect too that the manufacturing volumes on CUT's is nowhere near that of lawn and garden tractors- lower volumes will drive up unit prices. You're paying for capability- a CUT can do jobs a lawn and garden tractor owner can only dream of.
 
   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices
  • Thread Starter
#15  
Thank you very much for all of your replies. Most of you have confirmed my suspicion - comparing utility tractor horsepower to HP on a riding lawn mower, for example, doesn't work. That leads me to a follow-up question, which I have posted in this thread:

Rules Of Thumb For Tractor Size, etc? - TractorByNet.com
 
   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices #16  
Thank you very much for all of your replies. Most of you have confirmed my suspicion - comparing utility tractor horsepower to HP on a riding lawn mower, for example, doesn't work. That leads me to a follow-up question, which I have posted in this thread:

Rules Of Thumb For Tractor Size, etc? - TractorByNet.com

Adam,

if you are thinking of buying one of these?..What is your intended purpose? Moving to a new thread can't help you in that respect...We really need that answer.
 
   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices #17  
I just finished browsing this thread when a commercial came on TV for a class action lawsuit claiming that HP had been over stated for gas lawnmowers. The commercial was complete with pictures of yellow and white mowers, green and yellow mowers, and several others. Just thought it was interesting.
 
   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices #18  
You're paying for lots of extra things- a mechanical fuel injected liquid cooled 3 or 4 cylinder diesel is much more expensive to maufacture than an air cooled carbureted V-twin. More torque; while that lawn tractor may make similar hp torque wise there's no comparision- there's lots more of it and it's down low where you need it. To handle that torque you need a far more capable transmission, one with two or three ranges to handle varied tasks and a PTO to drive implements. That costs money- a lot more than a v-belt driven implement running off a pulley on a lawn tractor does. Three point hitch- a rarity on a lawn garden tractor. Four wheel drive- again a rarity on lawn and garden tractors; power does you no good unless you can get it to the ground. Hydraulics- lower end lawn and garden tractors have none (lifting a 5' rotary cutter manually wouldn't be much fun :D) and while the high end ones do you'll quickly find one you start adding all these features the price quickly approaches that of a CUT. I suspect too that the manufacturing volumes on CUT's is nowhere near that of lawn and garden tractors- lower volumes will drive up unit prices. You're paying for capability- a CUT can do jobs a lawn and garden tractor owner can only dream of.

A sub compact or compact is 20 times as much tractor as a lawn or garden tractor but only cost 10 times as much.
 
   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices #19  
It's like comparing a sports car with a pickup. They are both vehicles which will transport you to where you want to go. The sports car has a lot of horsepower and handles nicely, but put a half a ton of bricks in the trunk and see what happens!
 
   / Help Understanding Tractor HP and Prices #20  
I'm a n00b when it comes to tractors. I'm confused as to why tractors are so expensive for the amount of horsepower you get.

For example, you can buy a 20+ horsepower riding lawn mower for $1500 or so. A 20+ HP utility tractor with mowing deck is going to cost you about $15K - 10x!

I realize the tractor is built much more ruggedly, has a PTO, diesel engine, larger wheels, and other features - but 10x the price for the same horsepower seems very expensive to me! Why so expensive?

One related question I have is - are the HP ratings really accurate? Is a 25 HP utility tractor really no more powerful than a 25HP riding lawn mower?


Well, first off, Horse Power is Horse Power. If two engines are rated (assuming a standardized test) at 25 Horse Power, then both will produce 25 Horse Power, no ifs, ands or buts. So, a 25HP lawn mower engine shaft has the same HP as a 25 HP PTO shaft on a tractor.... until you put a load on it. As the load increases, the lawn mower engine will not be able to keep the shaft producing 25HP as long as the tractor will be able to keep the PTO shaft producing 25HP. That's due to the size of the pistons and length of the connecting rods in the engines driving the shafts. The longer lengths of the connecting rods in the tractor engine are just like levers.... the longer the lever, the more torque you can apply to the load. Also, the pistons are larger and heavier so there is more force behind the lever. That gives the tractor engine the better ability to keep the shaft spinning at the same RPM as the load increases.

Think of Bruce Lee as HP and Hulk Hogan as torque. You don't want either one of them to hit you. But you'd rather have Bruce Lee accidentally step on your toe.
 
 
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